James Carr
Technical Engineer
M365 Copilot is built into the tools your team already uses, helping them get more done with less effort.
Day-to-day business work often involves the same tasks repeated over and over — writing documents, replying to emails, attending meetings, and working through spreadsheets. While these tasks are essential, they can take up a large part of the working day.
Copilot is designed to help with exactly this. Built directly into Microsoft 365, it supports users by handling routine tasks, making information easier to understand, and saving valuable time.
What Is Copilot?
Copilot is an AI assistant built into Microsoft 365 applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
It allows users to ask simple questions or give short instructions in plain language. Copilot then helps create, summarise, or organise content within the app being used.
Where Copilot Is Used in Microsoft 365
Copilot supports everyday tasks across common business applications.
Word: Drafts documents, rewrites content to sound clearer, and summarises long reports.
Excel: Explains figures, builds formulas, and creates charts without needing advanced spreadsheet knowledge.
Outlook: Summarises long email conversations, drafts replies, and helps prioritise important messages.
PowerPoint: Turns written content into presentations and suggests layouts and speaker notes.
Teams: Provides meeting summaries and highlights clear action points.
OneNote: Organises notes and turns rough ideas into structured content.
How Copilot Saves Time
One of the main benefits of Copilot is time saving. Tasks that previously took hours, such as writing reports or preparing presentations, can often be completed much faster.
Rather than starting from scratch, users receive a first draft that they can review and adjust. This helps keep work moving and reduces frustration during busy periods.
Common Copilot Prompts Used at Work
Copilot is easy to use because it understands everyday language. Common prompts include:
“Summarise this document.”
“Write a professional reply to this email.”
“Create a PowerPoint from this Word file.”
“Explain this spreadsheet in simple terms.”
“What were the key actions from this meeting?”
“Draft a short update for management.”
“Turn these notes into a task list.”
These prompts make Copilot accessible for non-technical users across the business.
Improving Communication and Team Alignment
In Microsoft Teams, Copilot helps teams stay aligned by summarising meetings and clearly listing next steps. This reduces follow-up emails and avoids missed actions.
This is particularly useful for remote and hybrid teams where not everyone can attend every meeting.
Reducing Information Overload
Copilot helps users quickly find what matters most. Instead of searching through emails, chats, or files, users can ask Copilot to summarise or explain information.
Presume you are trying to find a date in a email sent to you last week, but you've forgotten what the subject was; Copilot can help you find this by giving it a few details. A prompt I would find myself using is "Help me find the specified date for x from an email sent to me last week."
Security and Compliance Considerations
Copilot only accesses data that users already have permission to see. All data remains within the Microsoft 365 environment and follows Microsoft’s security standards.
This ensures businesses can benefit from AI while maintaining strong IT security, data protection, and GDPR compliance.
Why Copilot Makes Sense for Businesses
For organisations already using Microsoft 365, Copilot fits naturally into existing workflows. There are no extra tools to manage and no major changes to how systems work.
Copilot Agents and Task Automation
Other than assisting individual users, Copilot can also work through Copilot agents. Agents can be designed to focus on specific processes, roles, or business scenarios and can be set up to handle common, repeatable questions that users ask every day. A simple example is opening times.
Instead of users searching the web for answers, a user could ask a Copilot agent a question such as:
“What time does x open on Fridays?”
“Is y open on bank holidays?”
“Does z open on the weekend?”
Creating a basic Copilot agent is straightforward and does not require deep technical skills. For example, a business could create an Opening Times Agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio.
An administrator would define:
What the agent is for: Answering questions about opening hours.
Where it gets information from: An approved SharePoint page or internal document that lists opening times.
How it should respond: Clear, short answers written in a professional tone.
Copilot then retrieves the correct information from the linked source and responds instantly. If opening times change, updating the source document automatically updates the agent’s answers, ensuring consistency without extra effort.
Because Copilot agents operate within Microsoft 365, all data is kept within the Microsoft Tenant, and is not used to train Copilot, which helps keep information secure.
