Imagine if Copilot gave you a guide on how you could improve at your job. And every output it gave you got you closer to that ideal.
Luckily, if your company has given you access to Microsoft 365 Copilot, your Copilot knows your job title, how you work, and how you could better use AI.
But you just can't see what it knows about you — it's not surfaced anywhere in the interface by default.
That's a problem, because the more specific Copilot's understanding of you is, the more useful its answers get.
There is an easy, two-step solution: Use a prompt to get Copilot to admit what it understands about you, and instructions to give Copilot to give better examples.
So here's how to get Copilot to show you what it knows about you, then use that output to configure it properly.
Step 1: Get Copilot to profile you
Open Copilot chat and run this prompt:
Prompt: Act as my Microsoft 365 Copilot profile analyst.
Analyze my last 90 days of work activity and create an executive briefing about me.
Include in at most 5 bullet points:
My key projects, Stakeholders, Meeting patterns, Communication themes, Areas where I spend most of my time, Potential productivity bottlenecks, Automation opportunities, Information I repeatedly search for, Knowledge areas I should strengthen, Recommendations for how Copilot can save me the most time over the next month.
Be specific and evidence-based.
Based on our interactions, suggest Custom Instructions for Copilot for:
Custom Instructions, Memory updates, Preferred formats, Communication preferences
Prompt: Act as my Microsoft 365 Copilot profile analyst.
Analyze my last 90 days of work activity and create an executive briefing about me.
Include in at most 5 bullet points:
My key projects, Stakeholders, Meeting patterns, Communication themes, Areas where I spend most of my time, Potential productivity bottlenecks, Automation opportunities, Information I repeatedly search for, Knowledge areas I should strengthen, Recommendations for how Copilot can save me the most time over the next month.
Be specific and evidence-based.
Based on our interactions, suggest Custom Instructions for Copilot for:
Custom Instructions, Memory updates, Preferred formats, Communication preferences
What this looks like in a real workday:
The briefing names the three projects you've actually spent meeting time on.
It surfaces bottlenecks, like a status update you're re-writing by hand every week.
It flags a specific search pattern, like looking up the same policy or process document repeatedly, which suggests something to automate.
Caution: This is only as good as the activity Copilot has visibility into. If your team works heavily outside Microsoft 365 — in a separate project tool, in Slack, in a CRM Copilot isn't connected to — the picture will be incomplete on those fronts, and the briefing will read confidently even where it's guessing.
Step 2: Turn the briefing into Custom Instructions
Take what it gives you to Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions, paste it in, and save.
Why this works: Instead of Copilot defaulting to a generic format for status updates, I've tailored my Copilot to only respond in a bullet-point structure. Customizing your Copilot to preferred outputs saves you time refining your responses.
Caution: Read the suggested instructions before pasting them in. Copilot will sometimes suggest a communication preference or format based on a single instance rather than a real pattern.
Step 3: Check what's already saved in memory
Go to Settings → Saved Memories and see what's there.
Sometimes it's empty.
If you want Copilot to retain something going forward without re-stating it every session, say it directly in chat — for example, "Remember I prefer concise responses" or "Remember I report to [name] on the [project] workstream."