The guidance emails for company Copilot usually mention these three things: "You can ask questions in chat," "You can summarize meetings," and "You can create text."
But what it can really do lies beyond that. In this article, I will publish a catalog of 10 ways to use it that rarely appear in internal guides, along with example prompts.
First, for the sake of the IT department's reputation: they aren't hiding this out of spite. Their job is to "distribute it safely," not to "master every function and distribute business tips."
I've seen this pattern many times in consulting. The implementation guide is perfect, but the information that reaches the front lines is just three lines of the lowest common denominator. As a result, employees stop at the entry-level usage.
It's like the manual you get when you buy a smartphone. It tells you how to make a call, but it doesn't tell you how to use apps that change your life. The manual isn't at fault; that's just not its role.
Therefore, you have to go and get what lies beyond the guide yourself. This article is that "page not found in the manual."
All these methods just involve asking Copilot in Japanese on your usual screen. No programming is required. You don't need to memorize all 10. Start with the one that helps with the work you're struggling with most right now. Let's begin.
Chapter 1: Why We Stop at the "3 Lines of Guidance"
Before the catalog, let's look at the structure for one minute.
Internal IT guidance prioritizes reaching all employees safely. Therefore, the content is limited to entry-level functions that apply to everyone. If they started writing business tips for every department, the guide would become a dictionary instead of a manual.
On the other hand, Copilot's features are increasing almost every month. This means the gap between "guidance at the time of introduction" and "what it can do now" widens over time.
There is no one to fill this gap. That is the true reason why Copilot stops at the entry level in many companies. Conversely, those who fill the gap themselves can extract a different dimension of time-saving from the same license.
I spent 10 years as an executive at a venture company on the side that distributed internal systems. So I can say for sure: the distributors have their hands full just making sure everyone can use the bare minimum. The realm of "mastery" is left to the front lines from the start. No one will come to teach you if you just wait.
Chapter 2: 10 Things You Can Actually Do
Here is the catalog. Each item is unified with a set of three: "What you can do," "Example prompt," and "When it's effective."
You can use the example prompts as they are or adapt them to your own words. The important thing isn't polite phrasing, but conveying "what, for whom, and in what format." Ask it the same way you would ask a colleague.
① Extracting only "Background and Homework" from long email threads
What it can do: Summarize the entire thread and organize who is asking for what.
Example prompt: "Tell me the background of this thread and any requests I haven't replied to yet."
When it's effective: Your inbox after a business trip. You can catch up on a 20-turn thread in 1 minute.
② Drafting replies with tone specifications
What it can do: Generate reply drafts based on the context of the thread, specifying tones like polite or concise.
Example prompt: "Draft a polite reply accepting the schedule but taking the price back for internal review."
When it's effective: It's especially effective for replies that are hard to say. The 15 minutes spent agonizing over the wording disappears.
③ "Attending" a meeting you missed after the fact
What it can do: Organize decisions, homework, and pending items from a meeting with transcription turned on.
Example prompt: "Tell me the decisions from yesterday's regular meeting and any tasks for me with deadlines."
When it's effective: Days with double bookings. An hour spent watching a recording at normal speed becomes 3 minutes.
④ Listening only to "parts relevant to you" in a meeting
What it can do: Extract only specific topics or parts where your name was mentioned, rather than the whole meeting.
Example prompt: "Tell me only the parts of this meeting that touched on the budget for XX and the conclusion."
When it's effective: Long all-hands meetings. You can avoid spending 60 minutes for the 5 minutes that concern you.
⑤ Judging content "before reading" a document
What it can do: Get the main points of a long document and the parts you should read first.
Example prompt: "Tell me the 3 main points of this document and which chapters a sales representative should read carefully."
When it's effective: A 50-page PDF suddenly shared with you. You can decide whether to read it or not in dozens of seconds.
⑥ Creating document drafts based on existing files
What it can do: In Word, have it refer to past materials to create a draft for a new document.
Example prompt: "Based on this proposal, draft a notice for clients."
When it's effective: The 30 minutes spent starting from scratch turns into 10 minutes of just editing.
⑦ Generating presentation drafts from existing materials
What it can do: In PowerPoint, generate a slide draft by referring to a file on hand.
Example prompt: "Based on this report, create a draft for presentation slides."
When it's effective: The first step for "Just make this into a presentation by next week."
⑧ Analyzing Excel tables in plain English
What it can do: Ask for trend analysis or aggregation of a table in plain English without writing formulas.
Example prompt: "From this table, tell me the items that have dropped compared to the previous month, in descending order."
When it's effective: It's more effective for people who aren't confident with formulas. The waiting time for an Excel expert disappears.
⑨ Checking internal rules "with evidence"
What it can do: Have it answer based on regulations in shared folders, including the source.
Example prompt: "What is the rule for the expense reimbursement deadline? Include the source file name."
When it's effective: Small checks that aren't worth asking General Affairs. It makes it easier for both the asker and the person being asked.
⑩ Solving "Who should I ask about that?"
What it can do: Trace project stakeholders and history from past emails, meetings, and files.
Example prompt: "Tell me the materials that show the history of Project XX and who is knowledgeable about it."
When it's effective: Immediately after a transfer or handover. It becomes a lifeline when you don't have a map of human relationships.
What all 10 have in common is that none of them are "new work." Only the way you do the work you already do every day changes. Therefore, the cost of learning is almost zero, and only the effect remains.
Chapter 3: Narrowing Down the 10 to "Your Top 3"
If you just look at the catalog, you'll forget it by tomorrow. To finish, narrow it down to your own top 3.
The method is simple. Recall your work today and list the "Top 3 tasks that ate up your time." Apply which of the 10 is effective for each. That's it.
This narrowing down itself can be left to Copilot. Here is the copy-paste prompt:
My job is (e.g., Sales Admin). This week, the tasks I spent a lot of time on were (e.g., ① Email correspondence ② Meeting minutes ③ Monthly report creation).
For each of these three, please tell me how much time I can save with Copilot and Microsoft 365, and one example prompt I should try first.
Just fill in the ( ) and paste it, and your own "First 3" will be returned. It's fastest to leave the work of translating the catalog into your own job to the AI.
If it's a day drowned in emails, ①②. If it's full of meetings, ③④. If it's document work, ⑤⑥⑦. If you use these three consciously for just one week, the way to ask will become second nature.
A tool catalog isn't for using everything. It's for finding the few pages that work for your job.
And once those 3 become second nature, come back to this article and add the next one. A catalog isn't something to consume all at once; it's something to keep on the shelf and come back to many times. It's easier if you bookmark it.
Summary: A feature that hasn't been introduced is the same as one that doesn't exist. Therefore—
Finally, the core of this article once more.
The true power of your company's Copilot cannot be measured by the three lines in the guidance email. Guidance tells you the "safe entrance," and "usage that changes your work" is something you go and get yourself. Only those who go and get it are working in a different way with the same license.
Looking back, I've rarely seen anyone in any workplace read the internal tool guidance thoroughly. That's why the difference was always made outside the guidance. Whether you know it or not. That simple difference accumulates into a difference of dozens of minutes every day.
That said, you don't need to try 10 things at once. There is only one thing to do.
Choose one from these 10 that works for the task that ate up the most time today, and try it tomorrow.
If it works once, you'll naturally want to try a second one. Once you see the view outside the guidance, there's no going back. And six months from now, the person being called "the Copilot expert" by those around them is the one who tried one thing without waiting for the guidance email.
Copilot och other AI are evolving very fast. It's overwhelmingly faster to learn from someone who is practicing it than to keep chasing the latest on your own.
Thank you for watching until the end.
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