Getting the Most Out of Microsoft Copilot: Three Tips to Improve your AI at Work Experience

I’ve been using Microsoft Copilot for work for a while now and have seen its potential to be incredibly helpful. Like any evolving technology, there are areas where users have noticed opportunities for improvement. Let’s take a closer look at some specific scenarios where enhancements could make a big difference.

Here are three I think will make the biggest impact on your day-to-day AI at work experience with Copilot: 

• The document finding feature isn’t working as expected. 
• AI-generated emails aren’t using my voice. 
• Responses from Copilot are not in a helpful format, including meeting recaps. 

Let’s jump in! 

Issue #1: The Document Finding Feature Isn’t Working as Expected

This area for improvement is the simplest because it doesn’t involve any action on the user’s part beyond a quick toggle. The new user interface (UI) for Microsoft 365 Copilot will soon have a dedicated search experience and a new search experience. This update is rolling out to users soon and just needs a toggle to enable it.  

The landing page also has several sections to surface documents that you might want to work with: 

• Recommended documents: Generated based on your activity, including meetings. 
• Quick Access: Seems to be based on how often you’ve interacted with the files and has filters. You can even add a filter on another field like Location, Shared By or Owned By. 
• Shared: Documents shared by others with you. 
• Favorites: Documents, SharePoint lists and Copilot Notebooks you’ve favorited. Author’s note: My suggestion to Microsoft is to move this section towards the top. 

Searching will provide a Copilot answer similar to what you’d see when doing a Bing search. This isn’t rolled out yet, but will be very soon. In addition, searching for a document provides the vertical tabs you’d see in SharePoint, which now includes “Messages”. This means your Outlook and Teams messages can be found from a single search bar. 

Issue #2: AI-Generated Emails Aren’t Using My Voice

If emails drafted by Copilot don’t match your tone and style, try using the “Draft Instructions” under Settings. These draft instructions will be used when drafting emails in Outlook. How do you know what to put in the instructions? You can ask Copilot itself!   

• Analyze Recent Emails: Ask Copilot to review your last three days of emails using the following prompt:   
  • “Review my last three days of emails and provide an analysis based on the following parameters: tone, clarity, style, conciseness and engagement.” 
• Create Custom Instructions: Use the insights from Copilot’s analysis to craft personalized instructions in Outlook. You can ask Copilot to create custom instructions for a large language model (LLM) using a prompt like the one below: 
  • “Take the analysis above and create custom instructions for writing emails that I can use for Microsoft Copilot in Outlook.” 
• Test the Differences: Write a few emails with and without the custom instructions to see the effect on tone, clarity, style, conciseness and engagement. 

Customized Instructions

Below are the results from analyzing my emails and creating custom instructions: 

Let’s test these custom instructions out with two different prompts: 

1. Write a celebratory email to thank my team for their hard work on the latest release of our tool, Prompt Library Webpart. The email should show thanks and excitement. 
2. [Politely] request information from Joe about locations for their business in the United States. 

Prompt #1 With Customized Instructions:

Hi Team, 

I hope this message finds you all in great spirits! I wanted to take a moment to extend my heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to each and every one of you. We have successfully launched the latest release of our tool, the Prompt Library Webpart, and it has been nothing short of amazing. 

Your dedication, hard work, and relentless pursuit of excellence have truly paid off. Every one of you has played an integral role in making this release a tremendous success. From the long hours spent debugging to the creative solutions you all brought to the table, it has been a remarkable team effort. 

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together. This release not only showcases our technical prowess but also our ability to collaborate and support each other. The enthusiasm and commitment you have shown are truly inspiring. 

Let’s take a moment to celebrate this milestone and look forward to achieving even greater heights in the future. Once again, thank you for your exceptional contributions. I am excited to see what we will accomplish next. 

Prompt #1 Without Customized Instructions:

Hi Team, 

I hope this email finds you all in high spirits! I am absolutely thrilled to share my heartfelt gratitude and immense excitement with all of you for the fantastic job you’ve done on the latest release of our tool, the Prompt Library Webpart. 

Your hard work, dedication, and brilliant ideas have truly paid off, and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of such an amazing team. Each one of you has contributed significantly to this achievement, and it’s clear that our collective efforts have resulted in an exceptional product. 

This release marks a significant milestone for us, and it’s a testament to what we can accomplish when we work together with passion and determination. I am confident that this tool will make a huge impact and reflect the high standards we always strive to maintain. 

Thank you once again for your incredible efforts, and let’s continue to push the boundaries of what we can achieve together. Here’s to many more successes and milestones in the future! 

Prompt #2 With Customized Instructions:

Hi Joe, 

I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to gather some information about the locations for your business in the United States. It would be really helpful if you could share some details on the various sites you operate in, as well as any specific regions where you have a significant presence. 

Understanding your geographic footprint in the U.S. will provide us with valuable insights and assist us in tailoring our approach to better align with your business needs and strategies. If there are any particular locations that stand out in terms of performance or strategic importance, I would appreciate it if you could highlight those as well. 

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance. Let me know if you need any additional information from my end to facilitate this request. Looking forward to your response. 

Prompt #2 Without Customized Instructions:

Dear Joe, 

I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to kindly request some information regarding the locations for your business in the United States. It would be greatly appreciated if you could provide me with details on the various sites you operate within the country. This information is vital for our current project, and your assistance would be invaluable. 

Thank you in advance for your help, and I look forward to your response. 

Issue #3: Responses From Copilot Are Not in a Helpful Format, Including Meeting Recaps

Copilot’s default responses aren’t always in the format that you want or need for the next step in your process. While I’m lucky to have Teams Premium with the Intelligent recaps, it doesn’t always give me the meeting summary in the format that I need. For meetings with a specific focus, like going through a business process or requirements gathering, the default format doesn’t work very well as a catalyst for action.  

You can use Copilot to chat against the transcript of the meeting and ask for the format you want. For example, use a prompt like, “Act as a business analyst with expertise in business process automation. The transcript is from a recent meeting with the client describing their business process. Keep in mind that we jumped around different parts of the process during the meeting. Review the process and give me a detailed overview of the business process in a logical order. Then, identify opportunities for optimization of the process.” 

This prompt will provide a much better understanding of the business process than the standard format. Think of the different types of meetings you have. How else could Copilot organize the meeting information for you?

Lead the Charge With AI at Work

Don’t settle for default—take control of your AI at work. By following these troubleshooting tips, you can get the most out of your Microsoft Copilot at work experience and ensure it best suits your needs. Whether it’s finding the right document, sounding more like you in emails or getting actionable meeting insights, a few small tweaks can make a big difference.