Use your work data to get better results with Copilot Chat
When Copilot can access your work data, it can pull from your emails, files, meetings, and chats to support your request. Instead of jumping between apps to piece information together, you describe what you need in plain language, and Copilot brings the relevant content to you.
The difference is practical: you're not just getting general answers, you're getting responses based on your actual work.
Common work-related scenarios
To get better results, be specific about what Copilot should focus on—such as people, projects, timeframes, or types of content. Here are common scenarios with example prompts:
| Scenario | Prompt |
|---|---|
| Catch up on yesterday's emails and chats, highlighting open items. | Summarize all the emails and Teams chats from the past day, highlighting the primary asks and open items. |
| Summarize email threads on a topic. | Summarize the recent email threads about the new product launch and list action items. |
| Prepare for a meeting. | Find information on [product launch for x] across emails, meetings, files, and internal articles. |
| Prepare for a 1:1 with your manager. | Help me prepare for my meeting by summarizing emails and chats with /[your manager's name]. |
| Draft a status update. | Draft a message to my team with the current status [items opened/items outstanding/items closed] of [the project name] based on emails and Teams messages received in the last 24 hours. |
| Review project timeline and surface risks. | What is the next milestone on [a project]? Are there any risks? Help me brainstorm potential mitigations. |
| Combine content across sources. | Write a planning overview in the style of [a file] that contains the timeline from [a different file] and incorporates the project list in the email from [a person]. |
| Turn a Copilot response into document. | After receiving a response, select Edit in Pages to open it as a Copilot Page, an editable and shareable canvas where you can collaborate in real time. |
After Copilot responds, review any cited sources to understand how the answer was built. Always validate AI-generated content before sharing or acting on it.
Tip
If your results are too broad or off target, add more context to your prompt. Be specific about scope, timeframe, or sources. Alternatively, use Prompt Coach to diagnose what's missing. Open Prompt Coach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, paste your original prompt, and ask: What context or scope would make this prompt more specific? Then rerun the improved version in Chat.
Save and build on your work with Copilot Pages
If a response is worth keeping, don't recreate it later. Turn it into a Copilot Page.
Select Edit in Pages on any Copilot response to open it as an interactive canvas. From there you can:
- Edit and refine the content directly.
- Share the page with colleagues for real-time collaboration.
- Add to it across multiple chat sessions without losing prior output.
Copilot Pages persist beyond the chat session, making them the right place to build on AI-generated content over time rather than regenerating it from scratch. You can access any Copilot Page you've created by selecting Library from the left navigation pane.
Bring your own content into a conversation
You don't need full access to your work data to ground a conversation. You can bring in specific content when you need it.
Upload a file
- Select the (+) Add content button in the prompt bar, or drag and drop a file directly into the chat box. Copilot can reason over Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations by summarizing, analyzing, answering questions, and extracting key information from what you provide.
Reference a file with /
- Type a forward slash in the prompt bar to search and attach a file from your organization.
Open-content awareness in Outlook and Teams
- When you use Copilot Chat alongside an email or meeting, it can work directly with what you have open. For example, with an email thread open in Outlook, you can ask Copilot to summarize the thread, list the action items, or draft a reply, without copying anything into the prompt.
Tip
These options focus Copilot on specific content you provide in the moment. For broader questions across your emails, files, and meetings, use Copilot with access to your work data.