I love speaking with accountants about AI, how it’s shaping our profession and where it can have the greatest impact. But what I love even more is helping them put AI to work in practical ways that drive real, measurable results, whether that’s increasing productivity, enhancing client experience, or improving quality of life.
This is especially timely given that with the April 15th deadline fast approaching, many accountants are deep in triaging client communications, coordinating with teammates, and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
This is where generative AI can be a game-changer. If you have Microsoft Copilot enabled, you already have powerful tools at your fingertips. Below are concrete, actionable tips for using Copilot in Outlook to move faster, stay organized, and cut down on manual work—right now, when you need it most.
(And if you don’t have Copilot yet, you should. Contact me :) I’m happy to walk you through how it can help.)
Note: Tip #1's "The Schedule with Copilot" feature is only available in the new Outlook and Outlook.com. It is not available in the classic Outlook for Windows. However, the other two tips apply to all Outlook versions.
Tip #1: Streamline scheduling directly from your inbox
How many times have you had a back-and-forth with a client to get to a point where the issue needs to be discussed with a broader team or a partner? Instead of manually switching to your calendar and drafting a separate meeting request, you can now schedule a meeting directly from an email thread using Copilot.
How it works:
- “Schedule with Copilot” feature from the Outlook top will auto-generate a calendar invite with an agenda and a summary of the email thread, helping your team quickly get up to speed on the client’s question or issue.
This makes the pre-meeting prep more efficient, ensuring everyone is aligned before the call even happens. Use this feature to streamline conversations that need escalation, ensuring that meetings are used effectively and that everyone walks in fully informed.
Tip #2: Get email coaching & personalization
Drafting emails is second nature for accountants, but many accountants using Copilot have found that its’ auto-generated email drafts can sometimes feel robotic or sterile, often reflecting Microsoft’s general tone of voice rather than a firm or individual’s unique communication style.
How to improve Copilot’s email drafting:
- Try prompt engineering: When generating a draft, ask it specifically to match your tone:
- “Write this to match the tone and style of my last five emails.”
- Use coaching mode: Instead of relying on Copilot to draft emails entirely, try the “Coaching with Copilot” feature to improve the writing. Many accountants prefer this feature to the drafting function itself and this is a great tool for junior staff learning best practices in client communication.
Tip #3: Hop over to Copilot chat to make the most of your email data
I think we can all agree that Outlook’s built-in search has never been great, and with the volume of client emails accountants manage, manually searching for important messages can be frustrating. In addition to the existing search and filtering capabilities within Outlook, Copilot Chat allows you to interact with your email data in a more dynamic and robust way and in my opinion is one of the more underutilized Copilot features for accountants today.
How copilot chat can help:
- Search smarter: Instead of using Outlook’s standard search, ask Copilot Chat to find emails more efficiently:
- “Show me all outstanding client requests from John Smith.”
- “Summarize the emails related to ABC Tax Engagement from the past 7 days.”
- Aggregate by work streams: Copilot Chat allows you to segment emails based on partners, clients, or engagements, making it easier to track action items across different accounts.
Use Copilot Chat as your email command center—instead of manually sorting, searching, and compiling, let AI do the heavy lifting so you can focus on high-value work.
Use AI to work smarter, not harder
With just a few tweaks to how you use Copilot in Outlook, you can cut down on manual scheduling, repetitive email drafting, and inefficient inbox management—all of which add up to valuable time saved during tax season.
As we push through this stretch before April 15th, take advantage of these AI tools to stay organized, reduce stress, and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
