How to Use Microsoft Copilot in Teams to Save Time and Stay Organized

Key Takeaways

• Catch Up Fast With Summaries: Copilot highlights key points, decisions, and tasks from long chats in seconds.
• Streamline Your Meetings: Use Copilot to create agendas, take notes, and summarize meetings automatically.
• Stay on Track With Follow-Ups: Turn decisions into actions with Copilot’s follow-up drafts and task tracking.
• Get Better Results With Better Prompts: Clear prompts help Copilot give faster, more accurate responses.
• Support Asynchronous Collaboration: Copilot keeps teams aligned with summaries and updates, even across time zones.

Too Many Teams Messages? Copilot Helps You Catch Up Fast

You step away for 45 minutes. Now Teams is buzzing—unread chats, missed meetings, and a document buried somewhere. You’re supposed to follow up and prep for another meeting, but instead of feeling productive, you’re trying to catch up.

That’s a typical day for many Microsoft Teams users. Communication is constant. Meetings pile up. Chats veer off-topic. Follow-ups fall through the cracks. People become overwhelmed by the noise.

That’s where Microsoft Copilot in Teams comes in. It doesn’t just tidy things up—it helps you work smarter without adding more to your plate. Buried in messages? Prepping for a meeting? Trying to recall a decision? Copilot provides summaries, suggestions, and intelligent prompts to save time and maintain focus.

In this blog, we'll demonstrate how Copilot helps you stay organized, cut through clutter, and accomplish more. Whether you're just getting started or looking to level up, there's something here for you.

Using Copilot in Microsoft Teams to Summarize Conversations

One of the biggest challenges in Microsoft Teams is keeping track of conversations. With chat threads, group channels, and side discussions, it’s easy to lose track of what was said, what needs a decision, or whether it’s your turn to follow up. That’s where Microsoft Copilot for Teams helps—by automatically summarizing conversations to save you time.

Instead of scrolling through a 30-message thread to remember who agreed to what, click the Copilot icon in the top-right corner of a chat or channel. Copilot highlights key points, open questions, and action items. So, even if you missed a conversation, you can catch up fast.

You can use simple prompts like:

• “Summarize this chat in three bullet points.”
• “What decisions were made in this conversation?”
• “List the open questions from this thread.”

This isn’t just about saving time—Copilot helps everyone stay on the same page, even when they’re not in the same chat.

By turning long conversations into something you can review in seconds, Copilot helps you stay informed and avoid the “wait, did someone already answer this?” loop. And that means you can move on to the next thing faster—with less second-guessing.

Run Better Meetings with Microsoft Copilot in Teams

Meetings in Microsoft Teams are meant to drive decisions—but often, they lead to even more follow-up. Someone joins late, no one takes notes, and the recording ends up being two hours long. By the time a recap is ready, most people have already moved on.

With Copilot in Microsoft Teams, you can run smarter meetings from start to finish. It can generate a draft agenda from chat history, take live notes based on the meeting transcript, capture decisions, and flag action items as the meeting progresses. Afterward, it summarizes the discussion and outlines the next steps.

Try prompts like:

• “Create a meeting agenda from this week’s chat.”
• “Summarize this meeting.”
• “List follow-up actions.”

Even if you missed the meeting, you don't have to rewatch the recording—scan the recap. It's a big time-saver, especially for global teams or anyone on different schedules.

By helping you prep, track, and follow up with less hassle, Copilot turns meetings into something useful—not just another thing on your calendar.

How Copilot in Teams Helps You Follow Up and Stay on Track

One of the biggest gaps in team communication isn’t what gets said—it’s what happens afterward. You agree on something in a meeting or chat, and then... nothing. No task gets created. No one follows up. A week later, someone circles back and asks, ‘Did we send that to the client yet?’

That’s where Microsoft Copilot in Teams makes a difference. It helps you stay on track by turning ideas into action—making sure decisions are captured and next steps don’t fall through the cracks.

After a meeting, it can draft the follow-up message. Not sure what’s still open? Ask Copilot to list any unresolved questions or decisions.

Some handy prompts:

• “Create a follow-up email for the client based on this meeting.”
• “What’s still open from the Q3 launch thread?”

With Copilot handling the reminders, you’re free to focus on the important work. It’s a small shift that adds up—especially if you’re juggling multiple projects.

The result? Less forgotten work. Fewer dropped balls. And a whole lot less time spent chasing people down.

But to get these results, it helps to know how to ask for them. That’s where good prompts come in.

Getting Better Results Starts With Better Prompts

Copilot is helpful—but only when your prompts are clear. Vague requests lead to unclear results, while specific ones give you exactly what you need.

To get the best results from Microsoft Copilot in Teams, be clear and specific with your prompts. It’s like asking a teammate for help—if you just say “Handle this,” they’re left guessing. But if you explain what needs to be done, when it’s due, and who it’s for, everything runs more smoothly. Copilot works the same way.

Here’s how better wording makes prompts more effective:

Vague Prompt	Improved Prompt
“Summarize this.”	“Summarize this chat in 3 bullet points and include any open questions.”
“Follow up.”	“Write a follow-up message confirming approval of the new vendor and outlining the next steps based on this conversation.”
“Prepare me.”	“Draft a meeting agenda for the design sync on Thursday using this week’s updates.”
“What happened here?”	“Summarize the key decisions and updates from this conversation.”

Tips to get better responses from Copilot:

• Be clear about the task (summarize, write, list, etc.).
• Include details like names, dates, tone, or format.
• Include the necessary context to complete the task.

If the response isn’t quite right, try rewording your prompt. Even a small change can make a big difference—and the more you use it, the easier it gets.

When your prompts are clear, Copilot becomes more than a helper—it becomes a real time-saver. Now, let's examine how that plays out in the way you locate and utilize information within Teams.

Quickly Find Key Info in Microsoft Teams Using Copilot

You know the information you need is somewhere in Microsoft Teams. But which channel? Which week? Which thread? Instead of digging manually, you can use Copilot in Microsoft Teams to instantly pull up relevant content.

Copilot eliminates the digital scavenger hunt by pulling information from chats, files, and meetings you already have access to—never from private threads or channels you don’t belong to. Whether you're drafting a status update or prepping for a presentation, Copilot finds the key details from across your Teams workspace.

Here’s how you might use it:

• “Summarize the feedback from the client in this channel.”
• “Pull out all the updates from the past week.”
• “Highlight any blockers mentioned in the project team chat.”

You get what you need in one place—from messages and files you already have access to, all within your Microsoft 365 environment, so security and permissions stay intact.

Quick access to the right details helps you make faster decisions and stay informed—no matter when or where your team is working.

How Copilot Supports Asynchronous Collaboration in Teams

With teams spread across time zones and juggling different schedules, not everyone is online at the same time. Copilot in Microsoft Teams keeps communication clear and consistent, even when collaboration happens asynchronously.

Here’s how Copilot can help when people aren’t working at the same time:

• Did you miss a conversation? Get a quick summary without having to read the entire thread.
• Need to prep for a meeting? Pull highlights from chats or documents to get up to speed.
• Trying to capture a decision? Draft a recap or follow-up message in seconds.

Copilot makes it easier to stay in sync—even when your team isn’t online at the same time. It’s a simple way to keep work moving without waiting for everyone to catch up.

Ready to Work Smarter in Teams? Let New Horizons Help You Learn the Ropes

Microsoft Copilot in Teams doesn’t just make your workday easier—it helps you focus on the work that matters. It handles the recap, prep, follow-up, and the search for what someone said and when.

Whether you’re new to Teams or a daily user, learning to use Copilot effectively can save hours and reduce frustration.

New Horizons offers hands-on training that shows you how to use Copilot in Teams—and across Microsoft 365—to get better results without adding more to your to-do list.

Want to stop chasing threads and start getting things done faster? Reach out to New Horizons today and learn how to make Copilot your new favorite teammate.