There are an increasing number of smart email assistants on the market. In fact, the market growth for AI email assistants is experiencing a CAGR of 10.80%. With more tools on the market, choosing the best AI email management tools is increasingly challenging.
“AI email assistants increase convenience for personal email accounts, but they can do so much more for business accounts!” – Mario Arjona, Chief of Staff, Outsource Solutions Group
Microsoft Copilot offers a reliable, stable option. Its AI-powered email tool is ideal for businesses that use Outlook as their email hosting service. Microsoft Copilot is designed to seamlessly integrate with all Microsoft 365 tools, including Outlook.
If you’re still learning about these features, this article can help. We’ll explore what Microsoft Copilot brings to Outlook and how you can use it for more efficient emailing across your entire organization.
8 Key AI Outlook Features
1. Email Summarization
Copilot can scan lengthy email threads and provide concise summaries that highlight key points and action items. This helps you quickly understand the main points without reading through entire conversations.
2. AI-Driven Scheduling
Copilot assists in scheduling meetings by finding suitable times, drafting agendas, and inviting relevant attendees. This helps you save time on the scheduling process and ensure all the necessary details are covered.
3. Document Retrieval
You can ask Copilot to find specific attachments or files from your emails. Copilot will then provide direct links to these documents so you don’t have to search your email inbox to find them.
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4. Suggested Actions
Based on the content of your emails, Copilot suggests potential follow-up actions, such as scheduling a meeting or replying to a specific query. This helps you stay organized and proactive.
5. Email Coaching
Copilot provides feedback while you write emails. It may suggest improvements in tone, clarity, and overall effectiveness based on context. As a result, you can enhance communication across your workplace.
6. Intelligent Email Sorting
Copilot can sort your emails by importance. It highlights important emails and organizes less important ones efficiently. This helps you focus on the most critical messages and reduces the clutter in your inbox.
7. Drafting Assistance
Copilot can draft automated email replies based on the context and information provided in the email. You can prompt Copilot to generate responses, which you can then review and edit before sending.
8. Mobile Integration
Copilot is fully compatible with the Microsoft Outlook app. Users who check their emails on a mobile device can still take advantage of Copilot’s AI assistant. Since 35% of professionals regularly check business emails on a mobile device, this is an important feature to leverage.
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How to Use Microsoft Copilot in Outlook
After your business has installed the AI tool, you need to know how to get the most out of its features. Here is how you can use some of Microsoft Copilot’s AI outlook features.
How to Draft Emails With Copilot
| 1 | Open a new email message in Outlook. |
| 2 | Click the forward slash key to open the submenu. |
| 3 | Select “Draft with Copilot.” |
| 4 | Provide Copilot with information about why you need to generate the email. |
| 5 | Consider the sentiment of the email and use filter or slider buttons to select the tone (direct, neutral, casual, or formal). |
| 6 | Choose the length of the email (short, medium, or long). |
| 7 | Click “Generate” to draft the email. |
| 8 | Review the draft. Make changes if necessary, or insert it into the email if satisfied. |
How to Use Copilot to Reply to Emails
| 1 | Open the email thread you want to reply to. |
| 2 | Click “Reply.” |
| 3 | Review the suggested replies at the bottom of the reply window. |
| 4 | Choose a suggested reply that fits the context. |
| 5 | Make any necessary alterations to the draft. |
| 6 | Insert the reply into the email and send it. |
How to Summarize Email Threads
| 1 | Open an email thread in Outlook. |
| 2 | Select the option to summarize by Copilot. |
| 3 | Review the instant summary provided by Copilot. |
| 4 | Decide on actions based on the summarized content. |
How to Search For Specific Emails in Your Inbox
| 1 | Open Copilot chat in Teams or on the web. |
| 2 | Ask Copilot to find a specific email (e.g. “Find an email with a contract attachment”). |
| 3 | Copilot searches based on the provided information and returns relevant results. |
| 4 | Select the result to open the email and attachment in Outlook. |
How to Use Copilot to Check Upcoming Meetings
| 1 | Ask Copilot to show your upcoming meetings. |
| 2 | Copilot provides a summary of your calendar events. |
| 3 | Ask Copilot for insights on what to cover in a meeting. |
| 4 | Review the insights provided by Copilot. |
How to Use Copilot’s Email Coaching Feature
| 1 | Draft an email reply yourself. |
| 2 | Ask Copilot to check the drafted email. |
| 3 | Copilot analyzes the email and provides feedback. |
| 4 | Review the feedback for suggestions on improving politeness and empathy. |
| 5 | Copy and paste the suggestions into your email with any necessary adjustments. |
Top AI Outlook Copilot Benefits
Real-Time Team Collaboration
Copilot integrates with Microsoft Teams to summarize key points during meetings in real time. These points can be fed into Outlook to support immediate updates during projects.
Cross-Platform Availability
Microsoft Copilot for Outlook is available on any platform that Outlook is on. That includes Windows, Mac, web, and mobile.
Security
In general, AI email assistants have been found to improve email threat detection by 96%. Copilot is built with Microsoft’s security and compliance standards, which means that its security abilities may be even higher than others.
User-Friendliness
Users can interact with Copilot using natural language. There is no need for a user to understand coding to use the tool to its full potential.
Get Additional Advice on How to Leverage Copilot for Outlook Productivity
It’s not always easy to stay on top of the latest advancements in AI and using these tools for inbox management is not nearly as well-known as AI generation or large language models.
If you’re still exploring Copilot’s Outlook enhancements, talk to Outsource Solutions Group for advice. Our expert IT consultants are ahead of the curve when it comes to AI. They can help you tailor the perfect solution for your needs.
Reach out today to learn more.
