Microsoft Copilot is evolving fast. New features roll out every month, and with so much capability already, it can be tricky to know where to start or how to get the most from Copilot. The art of prompting is a key skill and knowing even just a few useful ways Copilot can help is a big step towards unlocking its value.
The team at Rodin have been exploring Copilot across different roles in our business, testing what works, what doesn’t, and what genuinely saves time. Through this process, we’ve identified a set of practical use cases that consistently deliver value, whether you’re just getting started or looking to expand how your team utilises AI within Microsoft 365.
In the Australian Government’s Microsoft 365 Copilot trial, 69% of participants reported faster task completion, and 61% said Copilot improved the quality of their work. In our experience, these results are achievable when people understand how to use Copilot in real situations and have examples they can rely on to guide them.
This blog shares some of our favourite tasks that Copilot assists with; the ones our own team keeps going back to. They’re simple, useful and we hope they can help you on your own Copilot journey.
1. Extracting and Analysing Data Automatically
Have you ever needed to extract data from a web page or cloud application, like a SaSS CRM or Accounting app? Typically, you would need to export the data, clean it in Excel, and format it for reporting, a tedious and unnecessary process.
This is what our tech team has shared regarding the resolution of this issue using Microsoft Copilot. Using the Copilot widget inside Microsoft Edge, we were able to extract tabular data from our phone system dashboard and immediately import it into Excel for analysis. It also works equally as well across many different browser based services we have tested.
Using Copilot in Microsoft Edge, we were able to extract tabular data from our phone system dashboard and immediately import it into Excel for analysis.
Benefits:
- Reduces the chance of mistakes.
- Automates tedious data handling tasks.
- Handled securely inside of your Microsoft 365 environment.
Microsoft has a guide for further details on using Copilot in Edge.
Here’s how it works:
- Open Microsoft Edge and navigate to the website of the cloud application from which to extract the data.
- Activate Copilot in Microsoft Edge.
- Use a prompt such as: ‘Extract the table data from this page and add it to a new Excel spreadsheet.’
- Copilot converts the visible table into a clean, editable Excel format.
- You can continue using Copilot in Excel to clean, reformat, or analyse the data.
The result provides a structured, accurate response that is ready for analysis and reporting, without the need for copying or formatting.
2. Smarter Search and Source Validation with Copilot
At Rodin, we use Copilot to accelerate our online research by summarising long articles or comparing the viewpoints of several sources. We’ve found that the key is to prompt Copilot to include source links.
For example: ‘Summarise recent Microsoft security updates and include the original source links.’
This prompt helps to validate the accuracy of results, by allowing users to easily verify and check against the source information. It works well for any scenario that requires some research or information gathering that you want to be able to easily validate and make sure there is no ‘AI Hallucination’ in your results.
Benefits:
- Saves time by gathering and condensing detailed information with references.
- Provides verifiable insights by including official links.
- Confidently share verified information with clients and stakeholders, knowing the sources are trustworthy.
3. Building Custom Copilot Agents for Teams and Marketing
We’ve also been exploring the creation of custom Copilot agents that are trained on internal datasets to serve specific business purposes.
An Information Retrieval Agent, for example, assists sales teams in finding and comparing product specifications or pricing information that could be across multiple product guides, spec sheets or other sales collateral. A Content Agent will also review existing marketing content, upholding our brand tone and voice while suggesting new ideas or updates. Both of these agents can be configured with specific parameters and guardrails, striking a balance between automation and control.
Benefits:
- Enhances content consistency and accuracy.
- Saves time for marketing and sales teams.
- Accelerates employee training and boarding.
Microsoft provides extensive resources on this functionality through Copilot Studio, which allows you to build tailored AI assistants for your organisation or it can also be achieved through Copilot Agents.
Our team also helps clients create domain-specific Copilot agents that make internal data accessible while maintaining a strict standard of governance and information security.
4. Automating Daily Briefings with Copilot
One of the most practical usages of Copilot is the automated daily briefing. You could ask Copilot to ‘Summarise e-mails from the last three days, highlighting items marked urgent. Match today’s calendar against my to-do list and identify upcoming deadlines for the next two days’ and set the prompt to run on a recurring schedule.
This Copilot prompt summarises key information every morning, including:
- Emails with urgent or unaddressed items.
- An overview of the days’ upcoming meetings, including times, locations, and participants.
- List the day’s tasks, deadlines, or travel plans.
- Meeting RSVPs or scheduling gaps for planning.
- Integrates with Outlook, To-Do, and Teams.
Learn how to schedule Copilot prompts with this easy to follow guide from Microsoft.
5. Easily Manage and Schedule Internal Meetings with Copilot
With Copilot now built into Outlook or through the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, you can quickly manage and schedule meetings using simple natural language prompts. Simply describe the meeting, and Copilot handles it for you.
Example prompt: ‘Schedule a meeting with Elvia, Chris, David, and Lydia next week.’
Copilot automatically finds available times in participant calendars, suggests available slots and sent the invite.
Conclusion
Through our own experience using Copilot, we’ve learned that the real value comes from a mix of innovation and practicality, assisting with day-to-day tasks and giving people back time in their day.
A really effective way to accelerate productivity with Copilot is by exchanging tips, use cases, and prompt ideas, enabling staff to discover new ways to solve problems and unlock more value from the technology. This culture of sharing accelerates learning and multiplies the benefits across the business.
Want to Get Started With Microsoft Copilot?
The future of work is about empowering people to move from repetitive tasks to meaningful, high-impact work, and that shift is already underway and our Microsoft Copilot Readiness Checklist is a valuable resource, covering essential preparation areas like security, governance, user training, and change management. It’s a practical guide to ensure your Copilot rollout delivers real, lasting value.
We run instructor-led enablement sessions that demonstrate the real-life application of Copilot, guiding users to the safe and confident adoption of generative AI as its features evolve.
To implement Microsoft Copilot in a well-organised and efficient manner, contact the team to establish a readiness review and user enablement framework.
