A day in the life of a Microsoft employee using Copilot

Meet Opeoluwa Burnett, a lead product manager in Microsoft Digital, the company’s IT organization.

Opeoluwa uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to turn her typically packed schedule into productive and rewarding workdays. Here are some of her favorite prompts and practical tips for getting the most out of the AI assistant.

Start strong: Using Copilot Chat to start your day

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now opens automatically when Opeoluwa opens a new tab in her browser, and it also works in any Microsoft 365 app like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. 

To start her day, she tells Copilot:

“Using my Teams chats, calendar, and email, summarize my activities for today. Provide me the information in a table, organized by priority, with clear and concise information.“

If she’s been away for a while, she’ll use a more specific prompt, like this one:

“I’ve been on vacation. Summarize what I’ve missed from the last 7 days into bullet points of actions where I’ve been mentioned. Then, look through my email “Inbox” folder, Teams chats, and meeting recaps and transcripts. Create a table that includes: action item, deadline, who assigned it. Order all items in the table by the suggested priority in which they should be completed.“

“Don’t forget to use the summarize feature to tackle those long threads. It makes it much, much easier to catch up with what everyone is talking about, and it helps make sure I don’t miss something.” 

Opeoluwa Burnett, senior product manager, Microsoft Digital

Inbox Zen: Using Copilot Chat to tidy your inbox

When Opeoluwa needs to get organized, she uses Copilot Chat to help her. She’ll write a prompt like:

“Give me a recap of the meeting series ‘Engineering team stand-up.’”

“Provide a comprehensive summary of my emails about (the FY26 AI adoption strategy).”

She suggests using the same technique for unpacking long, drawn-out conversations, the kind where it’s hard to know what’s up, what’s down, and what her action items might be.

“Don’t forget to use the summarize feature to tackle those long threads,” she says. “It makes it much, much easier to catch up with what everyone is talking about, and it helps make sure I don’t miss something.”

Focus on strategy: Using Copilot Chat to draft documents

When it’s time to do deep thinking and get core work done, Opeoluwa asks Copilot Chat for help getting started with prompts like this:

“Create a detailed product plan for a new feature. It’s a small, AI-powered desktop companion that helps workers manage distractions, track focus time, and suggest breaks.”

When she wants to start interacting with the text, she simply heads over to Word and opens up Copilot Chat to resume the conversation.

She is also able to do similar things in the desktop version with Action Mode in Word. Once she has a document open, she selects the Tools icon to enable Agent Mode. From there, she can ask prompt Copilot in the same way and watch it draft her document right before her eyes.

Lunch break: Use Copilot Search to see what’s happening near you 

If Opeoluwa visits the office, she can check in with chat to see what’s happening around her. In addition to discovering what’s for lunch at the café, she can explore fun things to do with prompts like:

“What’s happening on the Microsoft Commons campus today?”

“Are there any special events going on today?”

And while she’s at it, she can use the Employee Self-Service Agent to not only find out what’s on the menu at a café where she’s going, she can also use it to order lunch.

“Is anyone serving a taco salad at The Commons today, and if so, help me order one to pick up at 12:50 p.m.?”

Teamwork: Creating an agent to keep everyone aligned and up to date

When she needs to, Opeoluwa spins up an agent that she and her team can use to get their work done. For example, she might create an agent to automate processes that previously everyone had to slog through manually.

“Anyone can create an agent and share it, but remember that—for now—only the person who creates it can edit it,” she says. “Keep that policy in mind if you’re going to want to make changes and have the agent grow with you.”

End of the day: Wrapping up with Copilot Chat

Opeoluwa uses Copilot Chat to help her tidy up her day, making sure she didn’t miss anything important and that she’s ready for what tomorrow will bring. To wrap up, she uses a prompt like this:

“Using my Teams calendar, email, and recent chats, summarize my activities for today in a plain-text bulleted list.”

“More often than not, thanks to help from Copilot, I’m in a good position to pause, reflect, and get ready for the next day,” she says. “Copilot has really helped me get organized, focus on the right things, and be more effective.”