The five features below are already inside the Copilot your company is paying for. None of them require a different license tier to try, though a few depend on where your files live or which Microsoft 365 plan your org is on.

1. Schedule Prompts

Copilot can save a prompt and run it again later on its own, including on a recurring schedule.

The clearest use case is a report you write on autopilot every week.

If you send an executive summary every Monday, you can have Copilot draft it over the weekend so it's already sitting in your inbox when you log in.

This prompt is an example of a recurring executive summary you can have Copilot create and have waiting for you in Outlook's Drafts. That way, you have something ready to review and edit when you first log on, rather than something you start from a blank page

Example prompt to schedule (illustrative — swap in your own report format and source):

2. Use Agents Inside the Apps You Already Have Open

Every major Microsoft app — Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook — has its own Copilot icon built in.

Clicking that, instead of opening a separate Copilot chat window, means the edit happens directly inside the file you're already working on.

What this looks like in a real workday:

• Highlighting a paragraph in Word and asking Copilot to tighten it, in place

• Asking PowerPoint's Copilot to restructure a slide's layout without you rebuilding it by hand

• Asking Excel's Copilot to explain or rebuild a formula inside the sheet it lives in

Caution: because the edit lands directly in the file, it's easy to accept a change and move on without noticing what got altered.

Use track changes or version history for anything you'd regret losing, the same way you would track a human editor's changes.

3. Edit and Generate Images Inside PowerPoint

Copilot can now create or adjust images without you leaving PowerPoint for a separate image generator.

This is most useful for two specific moments: building a placeholder image for a deck that's still in progress, so you're not blocked waiting on final assets, or adjusting an existing image — recoloring it, cropping it, restyling it — to match your brand guidelines.

What this looks like in a real workday:

• An illustrative graphic for your introductory slide that isn't dependent on your creative team to whip up

• Recoloring a stock image so it matches your deck's palette instead of looking visibly off-brand

• A quick icon or illustration for a concept slide that doesn't need a designer yet

Caution: generated images still need a human check before they go in front of a client or leadership — for accuracy, for brand compliance, and because image generation inside PowerPoint isn't enabled on every tenant yet.

4. Stop Searching for Files

Instead of remembering which folder a file lives in, you can reference it directly inside a Copilot prompt by typing "/" followed by the filename.

Caution: this only works for files that live in SharePoint or OneDrive. A file saved only to your local drive or a non-Microsoft tool won't show up, no matter how you spell the filename.

5. Switch Modes to Match the Task

There's a mode switcher that determines both the speed and the depth of the answer.

Select "Quick response" for an light-weight task, like writing an executive summary from a compilation of documents.

Select "Think deeper" for a thorough answer, like reformatting of a multi-tab Excel document.

Caution: "think deeper" takes longer by design. Reaching for it on a one-line question just means you wait for an answer you didn't need to wait for.