10 Practical Ways to Start Using Microsoft Copilot Today

When you’re on a site like YouTube in Microsoft Edge, you’ll see a Copilot icon in the top-right corner of the browser. Clicking it opens a Copilot pane that’s context-aware.

If you have a video playing, Copilot can:

• Generate a short video summary
• List the key points or topics covered
• Link you to specific timestamps in the video

So instead of scrubbing through a 40-minute tutorial, you can:

1. Open Copilot in Edge
2. Click the option to Generate video highlights or summary
3. Scan the key points and jump straight to the segment you actually care about

Even better, you can ask natural-language questions about the video, like:

• “What is the plugin mentioned that generates songs?”
• “What are the main steps to set up this tool?”
• “What does the speaker recommend for beginners?”

Copilot reads the transcript and context of the video and then answers in plain language, often linking you exactly where that topic appears. For learning, training, or research, this is a huge time-saver.

This contextual magic doesn’t only work for videos. On any text-based webpage—articles, documentation, long blog posts—Copilot can:

• Summarize the page
• Extract key takeaways
• Help you understand jargon or complex explanations
• Let you ask follow-up questions like “Explain this more simply” or “What are the pros and cons?”

In my experience, this turns long, dense pages into something much more manageable. You can get a quick overview, decide if it’s worth a deeper read, and then dig into just the bits you need.

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You can download the Microsoft Copilot app for free from:

• The App Store (for iPhone/iOS)
• The Google Play Store (for Android)

Once installed, you can:

• Chat with Copilot using text or voice
• Use images as input (this is more powerful than people expect)
• Access many of the same capabilities you get on desktop

It’s essentially like having an AI assistant in your pocket that understands text, images, and context.

One of the best mobile use cases is combining Copilot with your camera.

For example, say you see a flower in your yard and you have no idea what it is. You can:

1. Open the Copilot app
2. Take a picture of the flower
3. Ask: “What type of flower is this?”

Copilot will analyze the image and try to identify it (e.g., “It looks like a rose with a yellow to peach color”).

You can use this image understanding for:

• Plants and flowers
• Products or devices you don’t recognize
• Signs, menus, or documents (and then ask for translations or summaries)
• Handwritten notes you want digitized or clarified

To be honest, this is the kind of quick, everyday AI help that starts to feel genuinely useful—not just a tech demo.

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Here’s the basic workflow:

1. Open PowerPoint with your branded theme or template
2. Go to the Home tab
3. Click the Copilot icon on the right
4. Use (or tweak) the prompt that says something like “Create a presentation from…”
5. Type a forward slash `/` to reference a file
6. Choose your Word document from your OneDrive (for example, a business plan or proposal)
7. Confirm that Copilot can replace the existing placeholder slides

Copilot will then pull content from your Word document and build a multi-slide presentation:

• A title slide
• An agenda or overview slide
• Themed content slides based on document sections (e.g., target audience, competitive landscape, market analysis)

All of it uses your chosen PowerPoint theme, so it stays visually on-brand.

Copilot doesn’t just throw bullet points onto slides. It also:

• Adds speaker notes at the bottom of each slide, summarizing the related section of your document
• Inserts relevant imagery that matches the slide content (where possible)

So instead of staring at a blank slide and wondering how to condense a section of your document, you:

• Let Copilot generate the first draft
• Skim through and adjust wording
• Tweak or swap out any imagery that doesn’t quite fit

Is it always perfect? No. But it’s a strong 70–80% head start, especially when you’re on a tight deadline.

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When you open Copilot (for example by clicking the Copilot icon on the taskbar in Windows), you can use the text box at the bottom as usual. But there’s a helpful trick:

Type a forward slash `/` and Copilot will let you reference:

• People in your organization
• Files (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint stored in OneDrive or SharePoint)
• Meetings on your calendar
• Recent emails

You can then ask questions tied to those items.

Examples:

• `/file Opening a new cookie store in India – What is the target audience for this plan?`
• `/meeting Cookie brainstorming session – Who is attending this meeting?`

Copilot will open the relevant item in the background, analyze it, and answer based on that specific context.

This ability to reference internal content means you can:

• Get a quick summary of a document without opening it
• Check who’s invited to a meeting and who the presenter is
• Ask questions about proposals, reports, or specs straight from Copilot

In practice, it feels a bit like having a smart assistant who already knows where your files live and what’s in them.

It’s especially useful when you:

• Want to avoid digging through folders
• Are pressed for time before a meeting
• Just need one piece of information from a long document

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Suppose you frequently overlook emails from your manager and you want them to really stand out.

In Outlook on the web or desktop (where Copilot is available):

1. Open an email from the person you want to create a rule for
2. Click the Copilot icon in the top-right corner
3. In the Copilot text field, type something like:

> “Create an inbox rule to highlight in red and pin to the top for emails from [Name], my manager.”

Copilot will then:

• Open the Rules dialog for you
• Fill in the condition (e.g., “From: Henrietta [email address]”)
• Add actions such as:
• Pin to top
• Categorize with a red category (as a way of highlighting)

You can review what it set up and adjust anything that doesn’t quite match what you intended.

After Copilot has built the rule draft:

• You can confirm everything looks right
• Click Save
• Then choose to run the rule immediately on your inbox

You’ll see emails that meet the conditions get pinned and categorized automatically.

For people who have always found Outlook rules confusing, this is a much easier way to:

• Prioritize important senders
• Organize newsletters
• Flag specific types of alerts or notifications

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In OneDrive, when you hover over a file (for example, a Word document), you may see a Copilot icon.

Clicking it typically gives you options like:

• Summarize the file
• Create an FAQ (frequently asked questions) based on its content
• Ask a specific question about the file

For example, if you have a business plan for opening a store in a new country, you might ask:

• “Where should we open a location in India?”
• “What are the main risks mentioned in this plan?”
• “Summarize the key recommendations.”

Copilot will read the file and respond directly in a side pane, saving you the time of scanning through multiple pages.

One of the more powerful features in OneDrive is file comparison with Copilot.

Imagine you have a set of invoice files you need to summarize or compare. Here’s how that might work:

1. In OneDrive > My Files, select up to five files (e.g., five invoices)
2. Click the Copilot button at the top
3. Choose Compare instead of just Summarize

Copilot will then extract key information and present it in a table, showing fields like:

• Invoice number
• Invoice date
• Bill-to recipient
• Grand total

You instantly see patterns and differences without opening each file individually.

This comparison approach can be used for things like:

• Comparing resumes for a shortlist of candidates
• Reviewing multiple retail logs or reports
• Analyzing a small set of proposals or contracts

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Let’s say you’ve drafted a sensitive email—something like announcing an unpopular policy change (for example, ending remote work and requiring people to return to the office).

You’re not sure if your message sounds too harsh or too casual. In supported apps (like Outlook), you can:

1. Draft your email as usual
2. Click the Copilot icon
3. Choose Coaching by Copilot instead of “Draft with Copilot”

Copilot will analyze your text and give you feedback such as:

• Whether the tone is professional, aggressive, or overly informal
• If the message might come across as disrespectful or demotivating
• Suggestions for rephrasing certain sentences
• Tips like “Show appreciation, not frustration”

It also offers specific rewrite suggestions you can adopt or adapt, while still keeping your own basic structure and intent.

For a lot of people, it feels more authentic to:

• Write the first draft themselves
• Use AI strictly as a coach or reviewer

This approach keeps your voice intact but helps ensure you’re not unintentionally:

• Sounding rude
• Undermining your own message
• Making people feel attacked or unappreciated

In my experience, this is particularly helpful for:

• Difficult internal announcements
• Messages going to large groups or leadership
• Emails about performance, policy, or conflict

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Before Copilot can help in Excel, there are two important prerequisites:

1. Your data needs to be in a table.
- Select any cell in your data range
- Go to Insert > Table, or press Ctrl+T
- Make sure “My table has headers” is checked if that’s true

2. The workbook must be saved in the cloud.
- Save the file to OneDrive (or another supported cloud location)

Once those are in place, you’ll see and can use the Copilot button on the Home tab.

Imagine you have a list of cities where your company has stores, but you’re missing the corresponding countries.

With Copilot in Excel, you can:

1. Click the Copilot icon
2. In the prompt box, type something like:

> “Add a new column with the country for these cities.”

Copilot will:

• Propose a new column
• Show a preview of the values it intends to fill in
• Explain (roughly) how it’s doing it

If it looks right, you accept it, and the column gets inserted with the country names populated.

You can then go further, for example:

> “Add another column with the count of countries.”

Copilot can generate formulas to count how many times each country appears. You can inspect the function it uses in the formula bar—great for learning as you go.

Will it always fill 100% of entries perfectly? Probably not; you may need to correct a few. But it can save you a lot of manual lookups and formula wrangling.

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In a Teams meeting where Copilot is enabled, you’ll typically see a Copilot icon at the top.

Click it, and a Copilot pane opens. From there, you can use prompts such as:

• “Give me a summary of what’s been covered so far.”
• “What have we decided already?”
• “What are the main discussion points so far?”

If you join late, this is incredibly helpful. Instead of asking someone to repeat themselves (which can feel awkward), you quietly ask Copilot to recap. Often you’ll realize you only missed introductions or minor chatter, not the core content.

Another very practical use is asking Copilot about action items for you.

You can type something like:

• “Do I have any action items from this meeting so far?”

Copilot will scan the discussion and note whether anything has been assigned to you personally.

This helps you:

• Avoid missing tasks
• Confirm your responsibilities before the meeting ends
• Leave with a clear understanding of what you need to do

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In many Microsoft 365 apps—like PowerPoint, Word, Excel—you’ll see the Copilot icon in the ribbon.

When you click it, you don’t have to start from a blank prompt. The panel usually shows:

• Sample prompts tailored to that app (e.g., “Summarize this presentation,” “Create an outline,” “Improve this slide deck”).

At the bottom, there’s often a “View more prompts” or similar option. In PowerPoint, for example, you can:

• Hover over categories like Create, Understand, or Edit
• Click each to view more specific prompt ideas

Each Microsoft 365 app has its own set of suggestions—PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.—so it’s worth exploring them to see what’s possible in the tools you use most.

For deeper inspiration, you can open Copilot Lab, which is essentially a library of curated prompts.

From there, you can:

• Filter prompts by app (e.g., Word, Excel, Teams)
• Filter by task (like writing, summarizing, analyzing data)
• Filter by job role (HR, finance, sales, IT, marketing, executives, operations, etc.)

You’ll see lots of example prompts you can copy, adapt, or just use as starting points to shape your own requests.

It’s a very practical way to learn what Copilot is good at, especially if you’re the kind of person who prefers real examples instead of abstract documentation.

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