A Defra team leader with dyslexia, given a Copilot licence as a reasonable adjustment, uses it every day in Outlook, Teams and Word to improve written work, summarise long emails and documents, check spelling and grammar, and organise information. The ideas are still their own, they say, but Copilot helps turn them into clear writing at the pace their brain works.
Here are my rough notes for [EMAIL / REPORT / UPDATE]: [PASTE NOTES OR DICTATION]. Turn them into a clear, well-structured draft for [AUDIENCE], keeping my wording and points wherever possible. Use short paragraphs and headings, fix spelling and grammar, and list anything that seems to be missing or unclear rather than inventing it.
Replace the [PLACEHOLDERS] with your own details before you send it.
How to try it
- Get your thoughts down quickly in any form, typed or dictated.
- Ask Copilot in Word or Outlook to structure and tidy them while keeping your voice.
- Read the draft through, put back anything that doesn’t sound like you, then send. If you need it as a workplace adjustment, ask your manager or HR.
More work use cases
Turn long work papers into an audio overview with Copilot
Faced with a pile of board papers, one user put them into a Copilot Notebook and created an audio overview to listen to while driving home, joking that it made them sound much more interesting than they really are.
(In a Copilot Notebook, with the documents added) Create an audio overview of these [BOARD PAPERS / REPORTS] for someone who has [TIME, E.G. 15 MINUTES] on the drive home. Focus on the decisions we're being asked to make, the key numbers and anything that has changed since [LAST MEETING]. End with three questions I might want to raise.
Turn a week of rough notes into a weekly update with ChatGPT
On Hacker News, one worker said his company's weekly update format is a pain, so he keeps notes through the week and sends them to a custom GPT that writes the update in the required template. He spends about ten minutes tidying it, saving a couple of hours.
Turn these rough notes from my week into a weekly update using exactly this template: [PASTE TEMPLATE]. Notes: [PASTE NOTES]. Keep it factual, don't add anything that isn't in my notes, and flag any section where I haven't given you enough information.
Turn client calls into filed notes and action items with Notion AI
A Notion consultant uses Notion AI meeting notes on client calls. It transcribes the call and produces a summary of what was discussed and decided, with action items and owners, filed straight into the consultant's own meetings database, with no outside bot joining the call.
From this meeting's transcript, write: a three-line summary, the decisions we made, and a table of action items with owner and due date. Then draft a short, friendly follow-up email to [CLIENT NAME] confirming the next steps.
Reference: Defra Digital blog (GOV.UK)