Triage a Full Account Inbox and Draft Replies with Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook

What This Does

Summarizes a long email thread so you can see what actually needs a reply, and drafts routine responses for you to edit before sending. A full inbox after a pitch-heavy week takes minutes to clear instead of an hour of scrolling.

Before You Start

• You sign into Outlook with a work or school Microsoft 365 account
• Your organization has purchased the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on license. Ask IT or your office admin if you are not sure, and check current pricing at microsoft.com/microsoft-365/copilot
• A Copilot icon visible in Outlook's toolbar. No icon usually means the license has not been assigned to your account yet

Steps

1. Find the AI feature

Open a long conversation in your inbox and look for Summary by Copilot (it may just read Summarize) near the top of the thread. For drafting, open a new message or a reply and select the Copilot icon in the toolbar above the compose window.

2. Tell it what you need

For a thread summary, select Summarize and let it scan the conversation. No prompt needed. For a draft, choose Draft (Draft with Copilot in classic Outlook) from the dropdown under the Copilot icon. Then type what the reply should say: who it is for, what you are confirming or answering, and the tone you want.

3. Review and use the result

Read the summary against the thread itself before acting on it. A summary can compress out a detail that matters, a specific date or a number the client mentioned. For a draft, check it for accuracy, adjust tone or length with the options Copilot offers, or type a follow-up instruction and regenerate. Select Keep It (Insert on some versions) once it reads right. Then fill in anything client-specific Copilot could not have known, and send.

Real Example

Scenario: You come back from two days of pitch meetings to forty unread emails across a dozen accounts, and the sales meeting starts in an hour.

What you type/do: Open the longest thread, a back-and-forth with an agency buyer about an avail request, and select Summarize. For a client who just confirmed a meeting time, open the thread, select the Copilot icon, choose Draft, and type: "Confirm the Thursday 2pm meeting and ask them to send their current logo files ahead of time."

What you get: A short summary flagging that the agency is still waiting on a rate for one daypart, plus a ready-to-edit confirmation reply for the meeting. Neither took opening every message in the thread by hand.

Tips

• Save Summarize for the threads you have been avoiding, not every thread. A three-message exchange does not need it.
• Never let a Copilot draft go out with a client's budget, an internal rate, or an unconfirmed schedule detail still sitting in it. Read every draft in full before sending, since Copilot drafts and can act directly inside your inbox.
• Keep a strong draft's wording somewhere you can reuse it. Copilot does not remember your preferred phrasing between separate emails the way a saved template would.

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