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Reply Outlook emails with Copilot

Learning Pathway:

AI 201: Copilot in Everyday Tasks

30 July 2026

Use Copilot in Outlook to summarise long email conversations, draft replies and refine them before sending.

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Why this matters

Long email conversations can be difficult to follow, especially when there are many replies and changing decisions.

Microsoft Copilot helps you quickly understand the discussion, draft a response and improve your email before sending, reducing the time spent managing your inbox.

Todays Exercise: Summarise and reply to an email thread

Imagine you have returned from leave and opened an email conversation with dozens of replies. Before responding, you want to quickly understand what has happened, prepare a suitable reply, and ensure your email is clear and professional.

Here's what you need for this exercise

Tools and inputs required:

🛠️ Tool 

Outlook Email

🔗 Feature 

Copilot Chat in Outlook

📂 Your input 

Your email thread

Step 1: Summarise the email with Copilot

☑️ Open the email thread, and click the Copilot icon in the top right corner.

click copilot icon

☑️ Ask Copilot to "summarise this email thread".

prompt

☑️ Read the summary that Copilot generated. You should still scan through the email to validate the information.

Summary generated

Step 2: Draft a reply with Copilot

☑️ Provide a few pointers for Copilot to draft your reply.
E.g. "draft a reply to 1) confirm the agenda, and 2) i can send out the workshop instructions to participants."

prompt for draft reply

☑️ Copilot will generate a few options to choose from. Copy your chosen text into your email draft.

Draft reply

Step 3: Improve the email with Copilot

☑️ Select 'Coaching by Copilot' at the top of your email window.

Coaching with ChatGPT

☑️ Review the suggestions. If they improve your message, click 'Apply All Suggestions'.

suggestions

☑️ Copilot will then rewrite the email. Edit manually if necessary, and click 'Keep it'.

Keep it button

☑️ Your email is now ready to send!

Email complete

Now it's your turn to try

Open one of your longer email conversations in Outlook and use Copilot to help you respond more efficiently. Ask Copilot to

  1. Summarise the email

  2. Draft a reply

  3. Improve on the draft

While Copilot can significantly reduce the time spent reading and composing emails, you remain responsible for checking the accuracy of the summary and ensuring the final message is appropriate before sending.

⏭️Next Guide (3 of 7): Schedule meetings with Copilot

↩️Return to: AI 201 Learning Pathway

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