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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
Break overwhelming tasks into steps with Goblin Tools
One user recommends Goblin Tools, which uses AI to help people with ADHD make decisions and break tasks down into manageable steps.
[TASK, E.G. CLEAN THE KITCHEN / DO MY TAX RETURN]
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.
Run your household admin from one place with Notion AI
One family keeps everything from grocery lists to holiday plans and car maintenance records in Notion. Notion AI helped refine a household admin template and turns a messy inbox into task lists: bills with due dates and amounts, appointments to book, and a 'waiting for' list of things to chase.
Here's a messy list of household things I need to deal with: [PASTE NOTES OR EMAIL SNIPPETS]. Turn it into three tables: bills (what, amount, due date), appointments to book (what, who, preferred times) and a 'waiting for' list (what I'm waiting on and when to chase). Flag anything urgent this week.
Reference: X @JasonBarlow