Exercise: Synthesize your communication insights using Microsoft Copilot
In today's dynamic business landscape, effective communication is key to staying ahead. As executives navigate the vast ocean of information, Microsoft Teams emerges as a powerful tool they can use to streamline their communication experience. Within Teams, Microsoft Copilot empowers you with a quick and efficient overview of key discussions, ensuring that you stay informed without being overwhelmed.
When you think of Microsoft Teams, you typically think of Teams' chat. However, when you use Copilot for Microsoft 365, the Copilot experience in Teams can focus not only on your chat experience, but also on your email and meeting data from Outlook. It does so through two Copilot features that are available in Teams:
- Copilot in Teams. This Copilot feature accesses the specific chat thread that you have open. However, it doesn't access organizational data outside of Teams. When you open a chat thread, select the Copilot icon in the upper-right corner of your chat page to open the Copilot pane for that thread. Copilot in Teams helps you quickly get up-to-speed and synthesize key information across all your Teams chat threads. When you open a chat thread in Teams, Copilot retrieves information from the chat thread that is up to 30 days old.
- Copilot app in Teams. This Copilot feature accesses all your Teams' Chat experiences AND your email and meetings from Outlook. It uses the Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat to access your Teams and Outlook data. To use this feature, select the Copilot option that appears at the top of the Chat pane. Doing so opens a Copilot page within Teams.
The focus of this exercise is on Copilot app in Teams, and specifically, the Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat functionality that can access your Teams and Outlook data. It's designed to streamline various aspects of your work in Microsoft Teams by working alongside users and provide suggestions and recommendations based on the context of their work. For example, it can help you:
- Quickly recap past communications (for example, "What's new from Emily?").
- Summarize long threads in a chat window into key points.
- Answer queries to help you stay updated (for example, "Who am I meeting with tomorrow?").
In this training exercise, you plan to use Copilot app in Teams to summarize the emails, meetings, and chats regarding an actual topic in your work environment. When Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat synthesizes your data in this manner, it reaches across your Microsoft 365 tenant to gather this information.
Exercise
As an executive for your organization, think of an actual project that you participated in over the past 30 days. Amidst countless emails, meetings, and virtual discussions, you find yourself in need of a comprehensive summary of all communications related to this critical initiative. Copilot app in Teams is the perfect tool to synthesize all your communication history and provide a concise recap of all activity.
With a simple command, you instruct the platform to collate and distill the essence of your emails and chats pertaining to the project over the past month. In doing so, note how the tool effortlessly sifts through the information clutter. It then presents you with a concise summary that not only captures the progress made but also highlights any key decisions, challenges, and emerging trends. This exercise exemplifies how using Copilot app in Teams can save you valuable time while ensuring you stay well-informed and in control of the crucial aspects of your business endeavors.
Perform the following steps to direct Copilot app in Teams to synthesize your communications for a specific topic:
In Microsoft Teams, select Copilot at the top of the Chat pane. Doing so opens a Copilot window.
In the Copilot window, enter the following text in the prompt at the bottom of the page (replace "topic of your choice" with an actual project name or topic that you participated in at your organization):
Summarize all my emails, meetings, and chats over the past 30 days related to {topic of your choice}.
Note the options that appear above the prompt field that are related to the summarized list of emails, meetings, and chats. Select one of the options to see how Microsoft Copilot responds.
If more options appear above the prompt that are related to the option you previously selected, select one of those options now.
Note how each response generates a new set of follow-up options. This design enables you to dig deeper and deeper into the details of the items that Copilot previously summarized.