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Kevin Stratvert - Microsoft Copilot Tutorial

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Short Summary

Main recommendation: Microsoft Copilot is worth incorporating into daily workflows because it can answer questions, generate text and images, and assist inside Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel. The video demonstrates it as a free AI companion that works across Microsoft 365 apps, with each app's Copilot tailored to its task. The presenter also highlights a Suno plugin for generating songs.

Key Points

  • Copilot can be accessed at copilot.microsoft.com, via the Copilot icon on the Windows taskbar, or with the Windows key plus C, and newer keyboards have a dedicated Copilot key.
  • It retains conversation context across follow-up questions, and it can also take a voice prompt or an uploaded image as input.
  • It can create images from text prompts and, through the plugins panel, Suno can compose custom songs from a text prompt.
  • Inside Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot drafts and summarizes emails in Outlook, generates presentations in PowerPoint, rewrites text in Word, and creates formatting rules and charts in Excel.
  • The free version is presented as the main access point, with a premium plan offering faster image and text generation and Copilot across all Microsoft 365 apps.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions:
    • Open Copilot by visiting copilot.microsoft.com, clicking the Copilot icon on the Windows taskbar, pressing Windows key + C, or pressing the dedicated Copilot key on newer keyboards.
    • To start fresh, click "New topic" in the bottom-left corner.
    • To use an image as a prompt, drop the image into the Copilot window, then ask your question by typing or using the microphone.
    • In the web version, open the plugins panel on the right side and toggle on plugins such as Instacart for recipes, Kayak for flights, or Suno for song creation.
    • In Outlook, click the Copilot logo at top right, use the "Understand" sample prompts such as "Do I have any action items in my unread emails today?", and use the forward slash (/) in a reply to draft with Copilot.
    • In Word, highlight text, press Alt+I to launch Copilot, describe the desired change, and click Keep It to insert the rewrite.
    • In Excel, use the Copilot pane to request conditional formatting in plain language, review the formula Copilot proposes, and click Apply.
  • The presenter notes that generated images can contain spelling errors, so retrying prompts may be needed to get the desired output.

Bottom Line

Copilot is positioned as a free, context-aware assistant that can handle everyday tasks across Windows and Microsoft 365, with the Microsoft training sessions and Copilot Lab offered as the next step for learning prompting skills.