Short answer
Good Copilot prompts have four parts, the ones Microsoft teaches: a goal, context, the source Copilot should use, and your expectations for the answer. Start with prompts for work you do every week, like summarizing a long thread, pulling action items from a meeting, or drafting from your own files, then save the ones that work.
The four parts of a prompt
- Goal. What you want: summarize, draft, compare, list.
- Context. Why you need it and who will read it.
- Source. Which file, thread, or meeting to use. In Word and Copilot Chat, type a slash to point at a file.
- Expectations. Length, format, tone, and order.
A prompt that says only "summarize this" gets a generic summary. Add who it is for and what to lead with, and the answer is usually ready to send.
Twelve prompts to start with
Outlook
- Summarize this thread. List every decision, every open question, and who owes a reply, in that order.
- Draft a reply that accepts the new date, asks for the revised budget by Friday, and keeps a friendly, brief tone.
- From my unread mail since Monday, list the messages that need a response from me this week, most urgent first.
Teams meetings
- What were the decisions and action items from this meeting? Put each action item with its owner and due date in a table.
- I joined late. What did I miss before I arrived, and was anything asked of me?
- Which points did people disagree on, and what was each side's main argument?
Word
- Using /Q3 program report, draft a one-page summary for the director. Lead with results, then risks, in plain language.
- Rewrite this section for a reader outside our department. Remove acronyms and keep it under 200 words.
Excel
- Which five vendors had the largest increase in spend from last quarter to this one? Show the change in dollars and percent.
- Add a column that flags any row where the due date has passed and the status is not Complete.
PowerPoint
- Create a six-slide briefing from /Training proposal. One idea per slide, with speaker notes.
Copilot Chat
- I am preparing for a budget meeting with finance. Using my recent mail and files about the training program, list the three questions I am most likely to be asked and draft a short answer to each.
Cloud differences, as of October 2026: Copilot in Teams is available in commercial, GCC, and DoD tenants but not yet in GCC High, so GCC High users can skip the meeting prompts. Microsoft also notes that Copilot's analysis of structured Excel data is limited in GCC, GCC High, and DoD until Edit with Copilot reaches those clouds, so the Excel prompts work best in commercial tenants. The Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint prompts work in every cloud with a Copilot license.
Make them yours
These are starting points. The prompts people keep using are the ones written for their own job: a weekly report, a recurring approval, the questions their manager always asks. Save them in Copilot Prompt Gallery and share the best ones with your team.
What to keep out
Copilot respects the permissions and sensitivity labels already on your content, and it only reaches what you can open. Still, follow your organization's acceptable-use policy, and check every answer before you send it, especially numbers and names.
Based on Microsoft's published documentation as of October 2026. Microsoft changes names, features, and billing often; confirm details in your own tenant.