How to use
Microsoft Copilot
at work.
How to use Microsoft Copilot at work: it's inside your existing Microsoft 365 apps, it doesn't require any new software, and the first thing most people should do is ask it to summarize something they already have open. That's the honest short answer.
The longer answer is that knowing it exists and knowing how to actually use it are two very different things. I've delivered Copilot training across just about every category (insurance, banking, healthcare, startups, retail, and more), with mid-sized to enormous organizations, dozens of sessions in English over Zoom. What holds people back is almost never the technology. It's not knowing where to start. This page fixes that.
Where to find Copilot in Microsoft 365
As of June 2026, Microsoft Copilot is in two places, and understanding which one you're using matters. The first is inside your Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint). Look for the Copilot icon on the right side of the toolbar in any of those apps. If your organization has licensed Copilot for Microsoft 365, it appears there automatically. No installation required.
The second place is the standalone Copilot chat interface: copilot.microsoft.com, or the Copilot app on Windows and mobile. This is a general-purpose AI assistant. It can search the web, help you write, and answer questions. (Think of it as a capable standalone tool, useful on its own, but different from the deeply integrated Copilot inside your Microsoft 365 apps.)
The May 2026 redesign gave Copilot a cleaner interface across both surfaces, including a new prompt library you can access with three dots in the chat bar. If things look different from what you last saw, that's why.
In your Microsoft 365 apps
Open Word, Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint. Look for the Copilot button on the Home tab toolbar, or on the right-side panel that appears when you open a document. In Teams, Copilot appears inside meeting windows and inside your chat threads. This is the most powerful version because it can see and work with your actual files.
At copilot.microsoft.com
Sign in with your Microsoft account (personal or work). This is where you get a general-purpose Copilot that can browse the web, draft text, analyze uploaded files, and answer questions. The May 2026 redesign also introduced per-app agents here: specialized Copilot modes for research, data analysis, and team collaboration. They live in the left sidebar.
How to use Copilot at work: the first five things to try
These are the five starting points I recommend to everyone who is new to Copilot at work. They're not the flashiest features. They're the ones that work reliably, take under two minutes each to try, and give you a clear sense of what the tool actually does. Start here, in this order.
01Summarize a document in Word
Open a long Word document you've been putting off reading. Click the Copilot icon on the right panel. Ask it: "Summarize this document in five bullet points." That's it. Copilot reads the whole thing and gives you the key points. Try it on a report, a policy document, or a long email someone pasted into a doc. This is where most people have their first "okay, this is actually useful" moment.
02Analyze data in Excel
Open a spreadsheet with real data (sales numbers, budget, survey results, whatever you work with). Click the Copilot button. Ask it: "What trends do you see in this data?" or "Highlight the top five rows by [column name]." Copilot can read the data, spot patterns, create formulas, and build basic charts. (I've seen finance teams become completely absorbed in this session, every time. It handles things people used to spend hours doing manually.)
03Summarize an email thread in Outlook
Find a long email chain you haven't caught up on. Open it in Outlook. Click the Copilot button at the top of the thread. Click "Summarize." Copilot reads every message in the thread and tells you what was discussed, what was decided, and what still needs a response. For people who deal with long threads from stakeholders or clients, this is the feature that changes daily email behavior fastest.
04Recap a Teams meeting you missed
If Copilot was enabled in a Teams meeting (the organizer has to turn it on), it creates a full transcript and summary automatically. Open the meeting in your Teams calendar or chat. Look for the "Recap" tab. Copilot will have a summary, a list of action items, and the ability to answer questions like "what did [person] say about the deadline?" This works for meetings you attended and ones you missed. It's the feature that gets enabled permanently after people try it once.
05Build a presentation from a Word document in PowerPoint
Open PowerPoint. Click the Copilot icon. Choose "Create presentation from file." Select a Word document (a report, a brief, a strategy doc). Copilot drafts a full slide deck based on the content. The slides need editing (they always do), but going from a 20-page document to a rough deck in 30 seconds changes how much time you spend on the first draft of any presentation. The same feature works if you just describe what you want: "Create a 10-slide presentation on [topic]."
All five tasks share the same logic
You're taking something that already exists (a document, a spreadsheet, an email, a meeting, a brief) and asking Copilot to do something useful with it. The starting point is always your own content, not a blank slate. That's where Copilot is strongest. Keep that in mind as you explore further. For a deeper look at what this unlocks across different departments and workflows, see the Microsoft Copilot use cases page.
Prompting basics: how to ask Copilot well
The biggest skill gap I see in every training session isn't knowing Copilot exists. It's knowing how to ask it for something and get back something useful. A weak prompt produces a generic result. A good prompt produces something you can actually use. Here's what makes the difference.
The core structure of a good Copilot prompt has three parts: what you want (the task), context (who is this for, what does it need to accomplish), and the format (how should the output look). You don't need all three every time. But including at least two of them, instead of just one, dramatically improves results.
Weak prompt vs. better prompt
Weak: "Summarize this." Better: "Summarize this for a department head who wasn't in the meeting. Focus on decisions made and any open questions. Three paragraphs maximum." The difference isn't technical. It's specificity. You're telling Copilot who the reader is, what to focus on, and how long to be. Those three constraints do most of the work.
Iterate, don't restart
If the first response isn't right, don't start over. Reply to it. "Make this shorter." "Change the tone to be less formal." "Add a section on risks." Copilot keeps the conversation context and refines what it already produced. This iterative back-and-forth is much faster than rewriting the prompt from scratch, and it's how experienced users work.
Use the prompt library
In the May 2026 redesign, Microsoft added a prompt library accessible from the three-dot menu in the Copilot chat bar. It contains ready-made prompts organized by task type. If you're not sure what to ask, browse it. You'll find starting points for writing, data analysis, meeting prep, and more. It's a useful shortcut while you're still building the habit of prompting from scratch.
The May 2026 Copilot redesign: what changed
In May 2026, Microsoft rolled out a significant redesign of the Copilot interface and introduced per-app agents as a built-in feature. If you haven't used Copilot in a few months (or if you learned on an older version), here's what looks different and why it matters for how you use it at work.
The most visible change is the cleaner chat interface. The main Copilot chat at copilot.microsoft.com now has a streamlined layout with a left sidebar for navigation between agents and a prompt library built into the chat bar (the three dots). The sidebar agents are new: specialized Copilot modes each designed for a specific kind of work.
The new per-app agents
The Researcher agent handles in-depth research tasks, pulling from web sources and your Microsoft 365 files. The Analyst agent works specifically with data: upload a spreadsheet or CSV and ask it questions in plain English. The new collaborative features in Teams have also been expanded, with Copilot able to participate more actively in team workflows. (Think of the agents as specialized modes: you switch to the right one for the task, rather than asking a general assistant to do everything.)
Inside the Microsoft 365 apps: what updated
Inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint, the core Copilot features work the same way. The main updates in this cycle were to the interface: the Copilot side panel was reorganized for faster access to suggestions and drafts, and the integration between Copilot chat and your Microsoft 365 files became tighter. If you reference a file by name in the chat, Copilot can now open and work with it more reliably than before.
From trying it once to using Copilot every day
The pattern I see in organizations that successfully adopt Copilot is always the same. People try it, find one thing it does really well for their specific job, and start using that one thing every day. Then the second use case follows naturally, then a third. The mistake is trying to learn everything at once.
Pick one of the five things above that fits your actual job. Try it on real work this week. Notice what it gets right and what needs editing. That editing is not a failure, it's how you learn what to ask better next time. Within two or three weeks of regular use, the habit forms and the time savings become obvious…
If your organization is rolling out Copilot and wants people to go from dabbling to daily use across whole teams, that's exactly what I help with (I'm admittedly biased here, but the difference between self-guided adoption and structured training is measurable in the adoption numbers I see). See the training page for what that looks like, or read the complete Microsoft Copilot guide for a broader look at the tool.
Common questions about how to use Microsoft Copilot
How do I know if I have access to Microsoft Copilot at work?
Open any Microsoft 365 app (Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams) and look for the Copilot icon in the toolbar. If it's there and clickable, you have access. If it shows a prompt to upgrade or get a license, your organization hasn't enabled it yet. You can also go to copilot.microsoft.com and sign in with your work Microsoft account. If you get a full chat interface, you have at least the web version. If you're not sure which version you have (Copilot for Microsoft 365 vs. the standalone), ask your IT department. The distinction matters because the version inside Microsoft 365 apps can see and work with your actual files, while the standalone web version requires you to upload them manually.
What are the first things to try with Microsoft Copilot?
Start with one of these five: summarize a Word document using the Copilot panel on the right, analyze data in an Excel spreadsheet by opening the Copilot chat inside Excel, summarize an email thread in Outlook by clicking the Copilot button at the top of the thread, recap a Teams meeting using the Recap tab after the meeting, or create a PowerPoint deck from an existing Word document using Copilot in PowerPoint. Try whichever one fits your actual job first. The point is to use it on something real, not a test file.
How do you write a good prompt for Microsoft Copilot?
Include at least two of these three elements: the task (what you want done), context (who is this for, what's the situation), and format (how long, what structure). "Summarize this" is a weak prompt. "Summarize this report for a manager who needs the key risks and decisions, in three paragraphs" is a strong prompt. The other important habit is to iterate: if the first response isn't right, reply to it with a refinement rather than starting over. Copilot keeps the conversation context and adjusts. Most good results come from two or three rounds, not the first try.
What did Microsoft change in the May 2026 Copilot redesign?
The main changes were a cleaner interface at copilot.microsoft.com (including a new prompt library in the chat bar), and the introduction of per-app agents: the Researcher agent for in-depth research tasks, the Analyst agent for working with data files, and expanded collaborative features in Teams. Inside the Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), the core features work the same way, but the side panel was reorganized and the integration with your files became tighter. If Copilot looks different from what you last saw, the May 2026 update is almost certainly why.
Can Microsoft Copilot read my company's files?
Yes, with an important clarification. Copilot for Microsoft 365 (the version integrated into your Microsoft 365 apps) can access files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive that you have permission to access. It respects your existing permissions, so it cannot see files other people in your organization haven't shared with you. The standalone web version at copilot.microsoft.com requires you to upload or attach files manually in the conversation. Microsoft's data handling policies for enterprise Copilot customers generally mean your organizational data is not used to train Microsoft's AI models, but verify this with your IT or legal team for your specific contract terms.
Why isn't Copilot being used much in my organization even though we have the licenses?
This is the most common situation. The short answer is that access and adoption are not the same thing. Giving someone a license does not tell them where to start, what to try, or how to fit Copilot into their actual work. Most self-guided adoption stalls at 15-20% of employees using it regularly. What moves the number is structured training that starts with the specific tasks the team actually does, rather than a generic overview. If your organization is in this situation, the Copilot training page explains what that structure looks like.
Ready to actually use Copilot at work?
An intro call takes 30-45 minutes. By the end you'll know exactly what I'd recommend for your team and what structured Copilot adoption looks like in practice.