How to write effective Copilot prompts for work

A Copilot prompt is a request or set of instructions that tells Microsoft’s AI assistant what you want it to do. Good Copilot prompts include more than just the task itself. They also provide details that help Copilot understand the context, who the output is for, the format you need and the tone it should use. The more specific these details are, the more useful the result will be.

What is a Copilot prompt?

A Copilot prompt is a question, instruction or description that you enter in Microsoft Copilot. You can use a prompt to ask the AI to write a text, summarise information, analyse data or come up with ideas for a presentation.

The quality of Copilot’s response largely depends on how clearly you describe what you need (also known as prompt engineering). A prompt such as ‘Write an email’ doesn’t provide enough information: Who is the email for? What is its purpose? How detailed and formal should it be? The more relevant information you provide, the less Copilot has to guess or interpret on its own.

According to Microsoft, good Copilot prompts have four key elements: goal, context, source and expectations. For everyday use, these can be translated into a simple framework:

• Task: What should Copilot help you accomplish?
• Context: Which information does Copilot need to complete the task?
• Format: How should Copilot present the result, and how long should it be?
• Tone: What style should the output use?

A complete prompt might look like this:

Summarise this project report for senior management. Focus on costs, delays and decisions that need to be made. Present the summary in five bullet points and include a brief action recommendation. Use a factual, precise style and avoid technical jargon.

How to write effective Copilot prompts

A good Copilot prompt doesn’t have to be long. What matters is that the information you provide is relevant and clear for the task.

Be specific instead of vague

Use specific verbs like ‘analyse’, ‘compare’, ‘shorten’, ‘prioritise’, or ‘create’. Also explain what Microsoft Copilot should focus on when completing the task.

Instead of ‘Analyse the numbers’, write:

Analyse the sales performance over the past twelve months. Identify the three largest monthly deviations and list possible causes.

Provide relevant context

Copilot doesn’t automatically know the context of your task. Add details about the target audience, purpose and any relevant background information. If needed, you can use an email, document or spreadsheet as a source of information for your prompt.

Define the output format

Tell Copilot whether you need a paragraph, table, list, email or presentation outline. Details about length also help, such as ‘maximum 150 words’ or ‘five slides with three bullet points each’.

Improve the result step by step

Copilot’s first response does not have to be perfect. Microsoft recommends continuing the conversation with follow-up questions and refining the output step by step.

Weak and strong examples

How to use Copilot prompts for emails

Copilot can help you draft emails, respond to messages and summarise longer email threads in Outlook. The ‘Coaching by Copilot’ feature can also give feedback on the tone, clarity and how a draft may come across to readers. This feature is available only with certain Outlook versions and licences.

Here are some Copilot prompt templates you can use or adapt:

• For summarising an email thread:

Summarise this email thread in up to five bullet points. Include the main topic, decisions made, open questions, deadlines and the people responsible for each action item.

• For drafting a response to a customer email:

Draft a response to this customer email. Thank the customer for reaching out, answer all their questions and outline the next steps. Use a friendly, professional and solution-oriented tone. Keep it under 180 words.

• For writing a follow-up email after a conversation:

Write a follow-up email after today’s conversation. Summarise the three most important outcomes and list the agreed tasks, including the person responsible and deadline for each. End by asking the recipient for a brief confirmation.

• For rewriting a message to make it more constructive:

Rewrite the following message to make it more constructive. Keep the meaning the same but make it sound less accusatory. Use clear, neutral wording and include a specific next step at the end: [insert message]

• For shortening a long email:

Shorten this email to 120 words or fewer. Keep all important facts, dates and calls to action. Remove any unnecessary repetition and ensure the shortened version is clear and polite: [insert email]

How to use Copilot prompts for analysis and reports

When analysing data, tell Copilot which data to analyse, what comparisons to make and how to present the results. Always check whether the calculations, conclusions and sources are correct.

• For identifying trends in a table:

Analyse this table and identify key trends, outliers and seasonal patterns for the period [time period]. Summarise the five most important findings and include the relevant figures for each finding.

• For summarising key figures for a monthly report:

Create a monthly report summary from this data. Include revenue, costs, profit, new customers and churn rate. Compare these results with the previous month and the same month last year. Present the summary first as a table and then provide a brief assessment.

• For comparing planned and actual results:

Analyse the differences between planned and actual values. Sort the largest variances by financial impact. For each major variance, identify a possible cause and recommend an action to address it. Clearly label any assumptions.

• For creating an executive summary:

Create an executive summary of this report for senior management. Keep it under 250 words. Summarise the key results, risks, opportunities and decisions that need to be made. Avoid technical details and start with the most important finding.

• For creating a presentation outline from a report:

Create a six-slide presentation outline based on this report. For each slide, provide a title, three key bullet points and a suggestion for a suitable visual. The target audience is senior management, and the presentation should take about ten minutes.

• For creating a decision template:

Create a decision template using this data. Compare [Option A], [Option B] and [Option C] based on costs, benefits, risks and implementation time. Present the comparison in a table and provide a recommendation with supporting reasons.

How to use Copilot prompts for Microsoft Teams meetings

Copilot in Microsoft Teams can summarise key discussion points, identify who said what, suggest tasks and answer questions about the meeting. For recorded or transcribed meetings, the Teams recap can combine the transcript, notes, agenda and follow-up tasks.

• For summarising a meeting:

Summarise this meeting in no more than 10 bullet points. Organise the summary into discussion topics, decisions made and open questions. Leave out small talk and repeated information.

• For creating a task list from a meeting:

Create a task list from this meeting. For each task, list who is responsible, the deadline and any dependencies. Flag any tasks that were not assigned to anyone.

• For listing decisions:

List all decisions made during this meeting. For each decision, explain why it was made, note any constraints and list the next steps. Do not treat suggestions as final decisions.

• For creating a status update for stakeholders:

Create a status update based on this meeting for stakeholders who weren’t there. Organise it into progress, current issues, decisions and next steps. Use a factual tone and keep it under 200 words.

• For listing unanswered questions:

List the questions that weren’t fully answered during this meeting. Sort them by urgency and, where clear, note who can provide the information needed to answer them.

• For evaluating a meeting:

Evaluate this meeting based on how well it achieved its goals and how efficiently it was conducted. Which points were clarified, which discussions did not lead to a clear outcome and which topics should be revisited at the next meeting? Suggest three specific ways to improve future meetings.

Can you use Copilot prompts with other AI assistants?

Good prompting isn’t limited to Microsoft products. Other AI assistants can also produce better results when you clearly specify the goal, context, format and tone.

You can usually use a Copilot prompt with ChatGPT, Google Gemini or IONOS GPT too. You may just need to adjust references to specific programs or data sources. For example, an Outlook prompt might refer to an email thread you’ve pasted into the chat, while another AI assistant might use the same message as an uploaded document.

IONOS GPT can draft texts, conduct research, analyse documents and work with data. You can also upload documents and use them as context. Your data is processed on European IONOS infrastructure, is not used to train AI models and is not shared with third parties.

Once you know how to write effective prompts, you can use the same techniques with different AI tools. The best tool to use depends on the features you need, your existing IT infrastructure, budget and data protection and processing requirements.

What common mistakes should you avoid when writing Copilot prompts?

Even a detailed prompt does not guarantee an accurate result. Three mistakes are particularly common when working with AI assistants.

Giving Copilot too many tasks at once

A prompt can also get too long. If you ask Copilot to research, analyse, write, shorten and create a presentation all at once, it may not do a thorough job of each task. For more complex tasks, break the process down into steps:

• Step 1: Summarise the report and list the key findings.
• Step 2: Rank the findings by their relevance to senior management.
• Step 3: Create a presentation outline with five slides based on the findings.

Using unclear terms

Words such as ‘short’, ‘professional’, or ‘easy to follow’ can leave too much room for interpretation. Instead, give Copilot clear, specific instructions:

• instead of ‘short’: ‘no more than 100 words’
• instead of ‘easy to follow’: ‘use a four-column table’
• instead of ‘simple’: ‘avoid technical terms and write for beginners’
• instead of ‘professional’: ‘use a factual, polite and solution-focused tone’

Not telling Copilot what to change

If the first response isn’t what you expected, you don’t need to start over with a completely new prompt. Instead, tell Copilot exactly what you want it to change:

• The summary is still too general. Add specific figures from the report and say which time period each figure refers to.
• The tone is too promotional. Make it more neutral and clearly separate facts from opinions.
• The recommendation isn’t well supported. For each recommendation, explain the expected benefit and a possible risk.

Why clear Copilot prompts can improve results

Good Copilot prompts clearly define the task, context, format and tone. Be as specific as possible about what you need, who the result is for and how you want it structured. For more complex tasks, using several prompts in sequence often produces better results than giving Copilot one long set of instructions. Whether you use Microsoft Copilot or another AI assistant, always check the output for accuracy, completeness and tone before using it. This can help you speed up routine tasks without giving up control over the final result.