Until now Copilot in Outlook was useful but narrow: it helped with the open thread. Now Copilot Chat draws on the entire mailbox, the calendar and meetings for its answers and does so without a paid add-on.
That makes questions possible which previously meant manual work: what was decided on a case over the past few weeks? Where was an appointment agreed that never made it into the calendar? Which attachments came in on a topic?
The real point
What is interesting is not the function but its availability. A large part of the value that previously required an add-on licence has arrived in the basic package. For companies that have held off on Copilot for cost reasons, this changes the calculation.
What to consider
- Findability is a form of access. What becomes findable was there before too, but practically forgotten. Old mailboxes often contain more than their owners realise.
- Retention periods become tangible. A search across years reveals what should long since have been deleted.
- Expectations rise. Once someone has queried an entire mailbox, they no longer accept searching a single thread.
Our assessment
This is the change with the most immediate everyday value and a good entry point for companies still hesitating. It requires no rollout projects and no training series; it answers questions employees already have.
Our recommendation: before rolling it out, look into one large, old mailbox and ask whether its contents should be that findable. Usually the answer is yes and where it is no, that is a clean-up task, not an argument against the function.