How Copilot in Word helps you take more strategic action

The banner of the blog series, Work Smarter: Copilot Productivity Tips

I was catching up with a small business owner who said the one thing that keeps him up at night is competition they don’t see coming. For this reason, they say they spend a lot of extra time staying updated on macro trends that may impact their business, including the latest news happening in their industry, as well as the latest tools and technologies they can potentially utilize to keep them going. I mentioned it. It’s cutting edge and, more importantly, ahead of the competition. A lot of the work involved late nights reading reports, journals, and documents in addition to running the business.

Fortunately, Copilot in Word simplifies the time you spend reading, so you have more time to think about how to act instead. Not only that, but using Copilot instead of writing a report can help you overcome writer’s block or simply the inertia of getting started! Let’s take a look at the different ways this can be achieved using Copilot in Word.

Tip 1: Copilot in Word automatically summarizes your documents.

The first thing to note is that Copilot in Word automatically summarizes new documents you open. Include a document summary and key content from the document.

Screenshot of Copilot in Word, which provides a document summary.

If the 30 seconds it takes to read the summary doesn’t interest you, you’ve already saved time. If this piques your interest, click Open in Chat and Copilot will provide a more detailed summary in the Copilot window.

Tip 2: Chat with Copilot using the Copilot window

Copilot not only provides a more detailed summary, but also cites the sources of the article and allows you to click on them to go to that specific section to learn more or check accuracy.

Screenshot of Copilot providing a more detailed summary in the Copilot window with links to citations in the document.

You can also chat with Copilot about the content of the article. For example, you may want to ask a question about a specific section. For example, I typed the following at the prompt: “Please tell us more about the labor market changes discussed in this document. As a small business owner, how should you think about these changes and what can you do to stay on top of the latest trends?”

Copilot first provides detailed information about labor market changes, and then also provides ideas on what you can do to get ahead.

A screenshot from Copilot that provides insight and suggestions for next steps.

Tip 3: Use the in-canvas Copilot experience to help draft your content

Finally, let’s say you’re writing your own report. Copilot also allows you to draft content in any section of your document using its drafting feature.

Screenshot of the draft using the Copilot prompt window.

For example, you might ask Copilot to “draft a two-paragraph executive summary as an introduction to this article.” Alternatively, you can edit by highlighting specific sections of the written content and asking Copilot to change or rewrite them.

Has Copilot in Word helped you save time? We’d love to hear about it!