Keeping up with your information can be a challenge in today’s fast-paced environment. Microsoft Teams channels help you have all your information related to a certain topic in one place. Yet sometimes the conversation progresses fast, and you need help catching up. This is especially true when you're part of multiple teams and projects. With important documents being shared, ongoing conversations, and comments being added to threads, it can feel overwhelming! However, with a few simple tips and tricks, you can stay on top of your channels and avoid missing important updates. To stay in the know across all your different channels - and the teams associated with those channels - look no further than Microsoft Copilot in Teams!
Get channel highlights with Copilot in Teams
Say it’s been a busy day. On top of all the emails you need to answer and chat threads to respond to, there are also all the unresolved projects and updates in your Teams channels. Copilot in Teams can help you get up to speed, fast! Navigate over to your “Chat” tab in Teams and click on the Copilot icon at the top of your chats. This opens Copilot for Microsoft 365 in Teams, which will be able to use data grounded in the Microsoft Graph to answer your questions. To start, use the prompt “What’s new in [channel] of [team]?” For example, I want to find out what I missed from the Go to Market channel in my Mark 8 Project team, so I would ask Copilot: “What’s new in the Go to Market channel of the Mark 8 Project team?”
Copilot quickly scans through that specific channel and tells me when the latest update was, who was involved in that change, if there were any new documents shared, and even links to that update, making it easy to navigate directly to that thread. When prompting, make sure you give Copilot the correct spelling of the team name in your prompt, otherwise it may not search for the right channel.
Dive deeper with follow-up prompts
To go one step further, Copilot provides you with auto-generated prompts that you can use to follow up on the response it provided you from your first prompt. Going back to my example, Copilot told me that one of the members of my channel, Hadar Caspit, shared a Go-to-market plan document with the team. Instead of trying to navigate through to the different channels, teams, and posts, Copilot already suggested a follow-up prompt for me, “What are the key points in the Go-to-market plan?”
By clicking that prompt, Copilot pulls up a simple yet effective overview of the document, including the target audience, product and price strategies, etc. These follow-up prompts will change depending on the context of your team and what updates have happened to that channel since the last time you checked in. What will remain the same, however, is that they are all offered by Copilot as easy ways to go more in-depth about those updates without having to leave your Copilot conversation to find that information yourself.
Leverage relevant documents with the power of Microsoft Graph
Copilot uses Microsoft Graph** to pull any relevant documents into its output. This is possible thanks to Microsoft Copilot’s Graph-grounded chat, which enables you to bring your work content and context to Microsoft Copilot's chat capabilities. With Graph-grounded chat, you can draft content, catch up on what you missed, and get answers to questions via open-ended prompts— all securely grounded in your work data.
Again, let’s go back to this Go-to-market plan that was shared in my channel. Aside from that great summary, Copilot linked the document for me directly in its answer. Now I don’t even need to leave this chat with Copilot to access the document it was summarizing for me. All it takes is one click, and I am brought directly to the Word document containing the GTM plan I had asked about.
Catch up on your channels from one place
Even when it feels like the number of Teams channels you belong to - and their constant updates - make it challenging to keep track of everything, everywhere, all at once, this prompt will help make those issues a thing of the past. Copilot allows you to check in and catch up on those Teams channels, all from one simple prompt! It can help you summarize, visualize, and access documents without having to hunt through dozens of threads and replies to access that same information, making it easier for you to stay on top of your work and be more efficient, responsive, and productive. Be sure to use the recommended follow-up prompts to double-down on specific updates and get the most out of every channel, with Copilot.
Additional resources
For more examples of prompts that Copilot can help you with, check out Copilot Lab! Filter by M365 app - Teams - to learn what prompts to use for meetings, in chats, and get tips for better optimized prompts in Teams and beyond!
What’s coming next
Stay tuned for more tips on how to work with Copilot in Microsoft Teams and before you know it you will be prompting like a pro! If you’re already using Copilot in Teams, share your favorite prompts in the comments for the chance to get featured in a future “Prompt Like a Pro” blog spotlighting some community favorites!
*Copilot in Teams is constantly evolving and improving thanks to your input and feedback. If a Copilot prompt does not work the way you expect it to, let us know how by using the thumbs-down button that appears after a response.
** Copilot's answers are grounded in the work content and context stored in Microsoft Graph.