Use Copilot Chat in Outlook

Transcript

One of the newer features in Copilot for Outlook 365 is Copilot Chat, an AI powered assistant designed to enhance productivity within the Microsoft 365 applications. You can use Chat to interact with AI to perform a multitude of tasks in Outlook. So let's click on the Home Ribbon, the Copilot icon and then Chat to get started. You can click on view prompts to see the ways that you can interact with Copilot. For example, we can find the next available time slot to schedule a meeting with a colleague and then get copilot to schedule the meeting for us. We can catch up on emails from the past day or week from a specific person.

That's great. If you're about to head into a meeting and want a quick summary of the most recent conversation, we can even use Copilot chat to set an out of office. So how does Copilot do all of this? Well, Copilot chat leverages data accessible through Microsoft Graph ensuring the responses are grounded in your work context.

So check to see if your license includes Chat in Outlook by clicking on the Copilot icon and start interacting with AI in a more meaningful way.

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Accessible alternatives

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Copilot Chat is an AI assistant built into Outlook (and other Microsoft 365 apps). It’s powered by Microsoft Graph, meaning it uses your emails, calendar, and tasks (where permission allows) to provide accurate responses.

1. Here are a few examples of tasks Copilot Chat can handle:

Find your next available time slot and schedule a meeting
Summarise recent emails from a specific person or timeframe
Catch up quickly before a meeting with recent message summaries
Set your out-of-office reply

2. Steps to Access and Use Copilot Chat

Go to the Home tab in Outlook
Click the Copilot icon, then choose Chat
Optional: Click View Prompts to explore built-in suggestions
Start typing a task, question, or request — e.g., “Summarise emails from Sarah in the last 2 days”
Review the response and take action, like confirming a meeting or setting your OOO message

Which Microsoft technology powers the context-aware responses in Copilot Chat?

Azure AI Studio

Power Automate

Windows Defender

Microsoft Graph

Which of the following actions cannot be performed by Copilot Chat in Outlook?

Set an out-of-office reply

Summarise emails from the past week

Delete emails from your inbox

Find a free time to meet with a colleague