“Copilot Does Nothing.” Or Are You Asking the Wrong Questions?

“We tried Copilot, but it doesn’t work.” It’s a phrase we hear surprisingly often, usually spoken with a hint of disappointment. Copilot was supposed to be the AI assistant that lightens our workload, right? Yet many users struggle with it. The system doesn’t “get” them. The output feels vague or useless. “It’s faster to just do it myself.” But is that really Copilot’s fault? Or is the problem elsewhere?

Prompting: the New Digital Skill

What many people underestimate is this: Copilot isn’t a magical butler. It’s a system you need to direct. It won’t understand half-baked intentions, unspoken context, or vague instructions like “write something about…”

Even more: Copilot behaves differently in every application. The way you ask for something in Word is completely different from how you approach it in Excel or Teams. You need to know where you are, what you want to achieve, and how to phrase your request accordingly.

Prompting is a new digital skill. And like any skill, you need to learn it before you can really experience the benefits.

Every Copilot Requires a Different Prompting Approach

Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t a standalone chatbot. It’s a collection of AI features integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and even the Edge browser. And in each environment, Copilot works differently—meaning the way you frame your prompts has to adapt.

Here’s an overview:

Copilot in Word

• Use it either through a popup window or inline in your document.

• Ask Copilot to rewrite, format, or structure text.

• Reference other documents, e.g. “Use the file ‘proposal2025.docx’ as the basis for a quote for client X.”

Copilot in Excel

• Great for building formulas, pivot tables, and charts.

• Useful for quick analysis: “Show me the quarterly trends for revenue and margin.”

• Keep in mind: your data needs to be well-structured, logical, and consistent.

Copilot in Teams

• Always enable transcription during meetings—otherwise, Copilot has nothing to work with.

• Afterward, you can ask: “Summarize this meeting by topic” or “Who took on which actions?”

• In chats, Copilot can also pick up context and suggest responses.

Copilot in Outlook

• Helps draft smarter emails, better replies, or meeting summaries.

• Rewrite emails in a different tone or auto-generate follow-ups.

Copilot in PowerPoint

• Build a presentation from a Word or PDF file.

• Add slides with visuals from online sources.

• Specific prompts work best: “Create 5 slides based on this report, with 1 chart per slide and a clear conclusion.”

Copilot in Edge (without a license)

• Log in with your M365 work account to keep company data secure.

• Drag a PDF into your browser and query it with Copilot.

• Perfect for extracting insights from long documents without reading everything yourself.

Copilot in SharePoint

• Create specialized chatbots around specific documents or libraries.

• Let Copilot answer questions based on internal knowledge—no more digging through files manually.

Small Tips, Big Impact

Some handy extras often get overlooked:

• Use the Prompt Coach (when available) to learn how to ask better questions. It’s a built-in assistant that can give feedback on your prompt or show examples of effective ones.

• Save prompts that worked well and adapt them for reuse.

• Experiment with the Visual Creator to quickly generate diagrams, images, or infographics from text input.