Use Outlook's AI to Write Better Project Emails Faster

What This Does

Outlook Copilot helps you draft professional project emails from brief prompts, summarize long email threads you're catching up on, and improve the clarity and tone of emails before you send them.

Before You Start

• You have Microsoft Outlook (desktop or web version)
• You're signed into Microsoft 365 with Copilot enabled (Business or higher plan)
• Time needed: 10 minutes to find features; immediate time savings after
• Cost: Included in Microsoft 365 Business plans with Copilot

Steps

1. Find Copilot in Outlook

Open Outlook. Look for the Copilot button (a sparkle/star icon) in the toolbar when you're composing a new email, or in the reading pane when viewing an email. There are two main Copilot features in Outlook:

• Draft with Copilot: generates an email from a description
• Coaching by Copilot: reviews your draft and suggests improvements
• Summarize: condenses a long email thread into key points

Troubleshooting: If you don't see Copilot, check that your Microsoft 365 plan includes it. In Outlook web (outlook.office.com), Copilot often appears more reliably than in the desktop app.

2. Draft a new email with Copilot

Click New Email. In the compose window, click the Copilot icon (or look for "Draft with Copilot" above the message body). A prompt box appears. Type what the email should accomplish in plain language.

What you type: "Email to the masonry subcontractor formally documenting that they are currently 2 weeks behind schedule on Level 3 brickwork, requesting a written recovery plan by next Friday, and noting this is impacting our overall project schedule."

What you get: A professionally worded email with a formal tone, clear description of the issue, and a specific requested action, ready to review and send.

3. Use Coaching by Copilot to improve a draft

Write your email draft normally. Before sending, click the Copilot icon in the compose window and select Coaching by Copilot. Copilot will analyze your email and suggest improvements in tone (too casual? too confrontational?), clarity, and length.

What you see: A panel showing specific suggestions like "Consider softening this sentence" or "The action requested isn't clear. Be more specific about the deadline."

4. Summarize a long email thread

When you open a long email thread that's accumulated 20+ messages over several days, click the Summary button (Copilot icon in the reading pane). Copilot generates a 3-5 sentence summary of the thread so you don't have to read every message.

Useful for: Returning from vacation and catching up on project threads; understanding a dispute thread before jumping in.

Real Example

Scenario: The owner is asking why the project is 2 weeks behind and you need to respond professionally to their concerned email. You're tired after a long day on site and don't want to write something that sounds defensive.

What you type in Copilot: "Reply to the owner's concern about the schedule delay. Explain the 2-week delay was caused by the structural steel delivery being 10 days late (beyond our control), we are currently working overtime to recover, and we project to be back on schedule within 3 weeks. Tone: professional, proactive, and reassuring."

What you get: A well-structured owner response that acknowledges the concern, explains the cause factually, and outlines the recovery. Takes about 30 seconds.

Tips

• Use Copilot to soften emails that you wrote while frustrated. Paste your draft and ask "Make this more professional and less confrontational while keeping the key points."
• For any email that will become a project record (change order disputes, delay claims), use "Coaching by Copilot" to confirm the tone is factual and professional
• Save frequently used email formats as Copilot prompts in your Notepad app so you can reuse them

Tool interfaces change. If Copilot has moved in Outlook, look for the sparkle icon in the compose window toolbar or in the reading pane.