Wow, this session was incredible! The Team Copilot crew pulled back the curtain on the subtle, often-missed ways to maximise productivity.

The event, led by the brilliant Jemma Hirst, was titled “Copilot Tips Everyone Can Use (Hidden in Plain Sight!)” and it absolutely delivered!

An Experimental Approach to Copilot: Finding the Power Beneath the Surface

After mastering the basics, this session encouraged participants to adopt an experimental mindset with Copilot. We went beyond straightforward summaries and drafts and explored the subtle yet powerful commands that reveal themselves through trial, iteration, and curiosity. Jemma emphasized that the real impact from Copilot comes from experimenting with how you instruct it to work across your environment, uncovering capabilities that fundamentally change how work gets done.

The Hidden Copilot Tricks We Learned from Jemma

Here are some of Jemma’s valuable “hidden tricks” that we will immediately integrate into our workflows:

1. Writing That Sounds Like You: Personalization in Copilot for Outlook

A standout moment in the session was the emphasis on configuring Copilot before relying on it. Jemma highlighted how users can access Copilot settings in Outlook to define personalization preferences that shape how emails are written. Rather than accepting generic drafts, users can instruct Copilot to mirror their personal writing style—and even ground its output in previously sent emails.

Configure Before You Compose: By setting clear personalization commands, users ensure Copilot understands tone, formality, and communication patterns before drafting begins. This allows Copilot to produce responses that feel authentic and consistent, not templated or robotic.

The Philosophy: Copilot is most effective when it adapts to the user, not the other way around. Taking time to experiment with personalization settings transforms Copilot from a drafting shortcut into a true extension of the user’s voice.

2. Copilot in Excel as an Analyst: Clean Data and Decode Formulas

Spreadsheets often slow teams down, not because the insights aren’t there, but because the data isn’t ready to work with. Jemma demonstrated how Copilot in Excel can clean messy datasets and explain complex formulas in plain language, removing friction for both technical and non-technical users.

Clarify Before You Calculate: Instead of manually fixing inconsistencies or reverse-engineering formulas, users can ask Copilot to clean data, describe what a formula is doing, and suggest improvements.

The Philosophy: Copilot transforms Excel from a tool you wrestle with into one you collaborate with. By experimenting with Copilot’s data-cleaning and formula-explanation capabilities, users can focus less on mechanics and more on insights.

3. The ‘Rewrite’ and ‘Adjust’ Tools: Iteration Made Easy

A common pitfall is abandoning a prompt if the first result isn’t exactly right. Jemma taught the art of Refining rather than restarting. She highlighted the “Rewrite” and “Adjust” icons that appear directly within the document flow in Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Refine, Don’t Restart: Instead of starting over, Jemma showed how to highlight specific text and use the “Visualize as a Table” option or the “Rewrite” options.

The Philosophy: Copilot is a partner in the drafting process, not just a one-and-done generator. By using these built-in editing tools, users can mold the AI’s output until it perfectly matches their unique voice and professional intent.

Our Takeaway

This session was all about improving Copilot skills through experimentation. A huge thanks to Jemma Hirst for the expert guidance! We feel like we leveled up from casual users to people who truly know how to push Copilot’s capabilities.