Use Outlook's AI to Draft Internal and Customer Emails

What This Does

Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook drafts full email responses from your bullet notes or a short description, so instead of writing internal reports, shift handoffs, or professional emails from scratch, you review and send in minutes.

Before You Start

• You use Microsoft Outlook at work (not Gmail)
• Check if your organization has Microsoft 365 Copilot enabled by looking for a Copilot icon (purple sparkle) in your Outlook compose toolbar
• If no Copilot icon: you may still have Smart Reply suggestions (shorter, automatic suggestions below emails)

Steps

1. Open a new email or reply

Click New Email or Reply to an existing message. The compose window opens.

2. Find the Copilot button

Look for a purple sparkle icon labeled "Copilot" in the toolbar at the top of the compose window, above the message body.

What you should see: A Copilot icon that opens a small prompt box when clicked. Troubleshooting: If no Copilot icon, type a few words in the email body and look for Smart Compose suggestions in gray text, these auto-complete sentences as you type.

3. Describe what you want to write

Click the Copilot icon and choose Draft (in classic Outlook and Outlook for Mac the menu item reads Draft with Copilot). In the box that appears, type a brief description: "Write a professional summary of a difficult customer interaction for my supervisor. Customer called about 3 billing errors, I processed a refund, case is closed."

Press Generate.

4. Review and edit the draft

Copilot generates a complete email in seconds. Review for:

• Accuracy (did it include the right details?)
• Tone (appropriate for internal vs. external?)
• Any missing specifics (case numbers, dates, names)

Click "Regenerate" if you want a different version, or use the dropdown after the draft appears to change length or tone (classic Outlook puts this behind an "Adjust" button). Tone and length are always adjusted after generating, not before.

5. Send

Make any edits directly in the compose window and click Send.

Real Example

Scenario: Your supervisor asked you to write up what happened on a complex call where you had to make an exception to policy. You have notes but not time to write a formal account.

What you type in Copilot: "Write an internal email to my supervisor summarizing this interaction: customer Jennifer called 3x about a $47 double charge. Previous agents gave wrong info. I confirmed error, issued refund ref RFD-8841, apologized for prior confusion. Case closed."

What you get: A structured 5-sentence professional summary, subject line included, ready to send in 90 seconds.

Tips

• Copilot works best with specific bullet notes, not vague descriptions: "billing issue resolved" gives a worse result than "$47 charge reversed, ref# included."
• For customer-facing emails, always add a personal touch before sending. Copilot drafts professional but sometimes generic responses.
• If your company hasn't enabled Copilot, use Smart Reply for shorter one-sentence suggestions that appear automatically below incoming emails.

Tool interfaces change, if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.