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One user tried Copilot in Outlook for the first time and it found exactly the email they were after, which Outlook's basic and advanced search hadn't turned up.
Find the email from [PERSON OR COMPANY, IF KNOWN] about [WHAT IT WAS ABOUT], sent around [ROUGH DATE]. I think it mentioned [ANY DETAIL YOU REMEMBER]. Show me the best matches with the date and sender, and summarise what each one says.
Replace the [PLACEHOLDERS] with your own details before you send it.
How to try it
- Open Copilot in Outlook (your work or Microsoft 365 account needs to include it).
- Describe the email the way you’d describe it to a colleague: who, roughly when and what it was about.
- Open the matches it finds to confirm before you reply or forward anything.
More productivity use cases
Get a daily outfit-and-umbrella check from Gemini
An Android Police writer has a Gemini scheduled action that runs at 7am every day: it checks the local forecast and suggests a comfortable outfit based on the clothes he likes, and says whether he'll need an umbrella for his commute.
Check today's weather forecast for [YOUR TOWN]. Based on my preference for [CLOTHES YOU LIKE, E.G. SMART-CASUAL, LAYERS, TRAINERS], suggest a comfortable outfit for today's temperature, wind and rain, and tell me whether I need an umbrella or a coat for my [COMMUTE OR SCHOOL RUN].
Turn a rambling notes page into a to-do list with Copilot in OneNote
A long-time OneNote user asks Copilot to turn a messy brainstorm page into a prioritised to-do list with deadlines and checkboxes, and uses its rewrite tool to reshape blunt notes into something shareable, such as a short quick-start guide. Note it needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan and the Windows app.
Turn this page into a prioritised to-do list with deadlines. Put the most urgent items first, group related tasks together, and add a checkbox to each one. If something has no clear deadline, suggest one based on [YOUR TIMEFRAME, E.G. THE END OF THE MONTH].
Find old photos and the details in them with Ask Photos
A MakeUseOf writer with a decade of pictures uses Ask Photos, Gemini in Google Photos, to find specific shots by describing them and to pull text out of images. It found the licence plate of the writer's first car from photos taken when it was put up for sale.
Find the photos I took of [THING, E.G. MY OLD CAR / THE BOILER LABEL / THE WIFI CODE ON THE ROUTER] around [ROUGH DATE OR PLACE], and tell me the [TEXT YOU NEED, E.G. REGISTRATION NUMBER / SERIAL NUMBER] shown in them.
Reference: X @JasonBarlow