Microsoft 365 Copilot Features & Use Cases

Microsoft 365 Copilot brings AI into the apps your team already uses every day — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. Copilot works alongside you in the Microsoft 365 suite, ready to draft, analyze, summarize, and organize whenever you need it.

To help you see where Copilot can make the biggest impact, we’ll explore its six high-level capabilities and preview how they work inside the Microsoft 365 apps your team relies on most.

Six High-Level Features of Microsoft 365 Copilot

Across the suite, Copilot delivers six consistent benefits that show up in different ways depending on the app:

1. Content generation – From proposals in Word to emails in Outlook, Copilot creates a first draft to help you get started.
2. Summarization – Whether it’s a 20-page report or a two-hour Teams meeting, Copilot condenses information into clear takeaways.
3. Data analysis – In Excel, Copilot helps you ask plain-language questions and get meaningful insights back.
4. Workflow streamlining – Copilot reduces manual tasks, like scheduling or formatting, so work moves faster.
5. Enhanced collaboration – By surfacing shared context, Copilot helps teams stay aligned and move forward together.
6. Intelligent search & discovery – Copilot connects information across Microsoft 365, helping you find what you need when you need it.

Each of these capabilities shows up in different ways depending on the app. Here’s a quick look at what Copilot can do in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Copilot Chat — with links to deeper dives if you want to explore further.

Copilot in Word

Word is where important documents take shape. Copilot helps by handling the heavy lifting of drafting, rewriting, and summarizing.

Copilot in Word Features

• Drafting with Copilot
• Rewriting and tone adjustment
• Summarization
• Referencing internal and external documents
• Generating illustrations

You can learn much more about the capabilities of Copilot in Word.

Pro tip: Treat Copilot like a junior colleague and provide clear, pointed prompts. The more direction you provide in your prompt, the closer the draft will be to your expectations.

Copilot in Excel

Excel is the backbone of analysis and planning. Copilot makes data more approachable and insights easier to uncover.

Copilot in Excel features:

• Analyze data and generate insights
• Create formulas from natural language prompts
• Format, filter, and sort data
• Create visualizations and charts

You can learn much more about the capabilities of Copilot in Excel.

Pro tip: Use Copilot for scenario planning. Ask questions like “What happens to margin if costs increase by 8%?” and let it build quick models for comparison.

Copilot in PowerPoint

Building a deck takes time. Copilot speeds things up by creating slides, generating visuals, and helping you refine your story.

Copilot in PowerPoint features:

• Create a presentation from a prompt or document
• Generate and insert images
• Organize and restructure slides
• Summarize content for shorter decks
• Add speaker notes

You can learn much more about these capabilities of Copilot in PowerPoint.

Pro tip: Create multiple versions of the same deck for different audiences. Ask Copilot to adapt a full presentation into a concise board-level briefing or a simplified frontline update.

Copilot in Outlook

Outlook is where work conversations happen. Copilot helps you stay on top of communication without drowning in email.

Copilot in Outlook features:

• Summarize long email threads into a few clear points
• Draft professional, read-to-send replies
• Provide coaching to improve tone or clarity
• Suggest quick replies
• Streamline scheduling

You can learn much more about these capabilities of Copilot in Outlook.

Pro tip: Use Copilot as your inbox triage partner. Have it flag urgent requests, summarize non-critical threads, and draft replies you can send after a quick review.

Copilot in Teams

Meetings and chats generate a lot of information. Copilot helps you stay focused during live discussions and catch up afterward.

Copilot in Teams features:

• Recap and analyze meetings
• Provide intelligent assistance during live calls
• Draft messages in Chat
• Answer questions from Teams content
• Summarize long chat threads so you don’t miss important points

You can learn much more about these capabilities of Copilot in Teams.

Pro tip: Ask Copilot to track action items during a meeting. You’ll walk away with a ready-to-share recap without assigning someone to take notes.

Copilot Chat

Copilot Chat works across the Microsoft 365 suite. It acts as a conversational assistant, pulling together information from multiple apps.

Copilot Chat features:

• Cross-platform queries
• Content creation using multiple sources
• Meeting and calendar preparation
• People and expertise discovery
• Catching up after time away

You can learn much more about these capabilities of Copilot Chat.

Pro tip: Use Copilot Chat to connect the dots across apps. For example, ask Copilot Chat to “summarize the last three client emails, pull the latest sales numbers from Excel, and highlight open tasks from Teams.” Instead of toggling between windows, you get one consolidated answer — giving you a head start on preparation and decision-making.

Maximize your Microsoft 365 Copilot experience

Microsoft 365 Copilot brings practical AI into the flow of work. It helps teams move faster, communicate more clearly, and make better use of data. But the real value comes from adoption — getting people comfortable, aligning features to workflows, and unlocking the full return on investment.

Velosio can help. As the largest US Microsoft Business Central Partner, a Business Central Global Partner of the Year runner-up, and a 27-time Inner Circle winner, we bring unmatched experience helping organizations adopt Microsoft solutions with measurable results.

We invite you to maximize your M365 Copilot experience by attending one of our free Microsoft Copilot workshops.