Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Looking to get started using “Microsoft 365 Copilot” or “Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat” but don’t know where to begin?

Cheat Sheet: “Microsoft 365 Copilot”
Here’s a cheat sheet of prompts that are designed to work in Microsoft 365 Copilot with your work data: (Microsoft 365 Copilot is AI that natively provides responses within Microsoft 365 Apps like Word, Outlook, Teams, etc. & is based on work data you have access to such as your Exchange Online inbox, OneDrive account, Teams & SharePoint Online)

1. “What’s the latest on this issue…”
2. “What’s the latest from this person…”
3. “Recap this meeting…” 
4. “What’s hot in my inbox?”
5. “Help me prepare for this meeting…”
6. “Create an FAQ based on…”
7. “Create a presentation from this doc…”
8. “Analyze this data…”
9. “Summarize the Teams messages where I mentioned”
10. “Summarize messages from my boss this week.”
11. “Rewrite this …”
12. “Draft a marketing brief based on this document…”
13. “What’s on my calendar tomorrow?”
14. “What are my next three customer meetings?”
15. “Give me a summary of the recent news from…”
16. “Draft an update to my team based on this document…”
17. “Draft a proposal using this document as a template and this doc for the details…”
18. “Summarize this email thread…”
19. “What action items do I have from this meeting?”
20. “Summarize this presentation…”
21. “Analyze the sentiment of this data…”
22. “Add a column to this spreadsheet…”
23. “Create a line chart using this data…”
24. “What does this document say about…”
25. “How much time have I spent on this over the last week…”
26. “Find a time when I can meet with…”

Cheat Sheet: “Copilot Chat”
What if you don’t yet have a subscription license for “Microsoft 365 Copilot” but do you have “Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat“? (Copilot Chat is a no-cost Copilot for Microsoft 365/Entra ID licensed users that provides responses based on web-based information & files directly submitted to it but does not directly access, index or distill work data in Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams)

Here’s a cheat sheet of prompts for Copilot Chat to get you started:

1. “Summarize this document for me…” with uploaded document
2. “What does this document say about…” with uploaded document
3. “What can you tell me about…”
4. “Help me write…”
5. “Help me rewrite…”
6. “Help me brainstorm…”
7. “Help me diagnose what’s happening with…”
8. “Help me think through the pros and cons of…”
9. “How would you approach…”
10. “Create a graph…” with uploaded spreadsheet.
11. “Give me step-by-step instructions for…”
12. “Explain…”
13. “Get me up to speed on…”
14. “Compare this to that…”
15. “Compare this file to that file…”
16. “Create an image…”
17. “Translate…”
18. “Write the code to…”
19. “Convert this to that…”
20. “Give me some tips for…”
21. “Help me express this differently…”
22. “Remind me how this works…” for mathematical concepts
23. “Remind me how this works…” for scientific concepts
24. “Remind me how this works…” for business concepts
25. “How do I…” for technology tasks

References:

• Overview of Microsoft 365 Copilot
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/microsoft-365-copilot-overview
• Overview of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/overview
• Microsoft Support: “Learn about Copilot prompts”
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/topic/learn-about-copilot-prompts-f6c3b467-f07c-4db1-ae54-ffac96184dd5
• Microsoft IT (Inside Track): “Five tips for prompting AI: How we’re communicating better at Microsoft with Microsoft 365 Copilot”
  https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/five-tips-for-prompting-ai-how-were-communicating-better-at-microsoft-with-microsoft-copilot/