Top 5 Copilot Features I Wish I Knew Sooner

If you’re paying for Microsoft 365 and using Copilot as a fancy email summarizer, you’re leaving a lot on the table. Over the last year Microsoft has shipped a handful of features that almost nobody is using — and you probably haven’t even turned them on. These are the ones I wish I’d known about sooner.

1. Notebooks

This is the big one. Copilot Notebooks let you group files, notes, and chats into one persistent workspace, and Copilot treats everything in the notebook as context — so you’re not re-uploading the same files every time. Create a notebook, drop in your presentations or Excel sheets, and ask questions or generate new material against all of it at once. You can also add custom instructions; for my YouTube work, I keep all my script guidance in a notebook so it’s applied every time I draft. It’s the closest thing to an enterprise “Work IQ” feature you can use as an individual.

2. Audio Overviews

Upload any file you’ve been working with — a PowerPoint, a Word doc, a notebook, a long email thread — and Copilot summarizes it. Hit the three dots and choose Read Aloud, and it reads the whole thing back to you like an audiobook. If you’ve got a PDF or a workbook you need to get through for work or school, this turns reading into listening.

3. Deeper Thinking Models

In the last six months Microsoft quietly gave Copilot access to different models, including a “Think Deeper” option. The auto model is middle of the road, but you now also get a faster mode and a deeper-reasoning mode. Think of it like Claude’s Haiku-to-Opus range — it gives you control over how much horsepower (and how many AI credits) you spend on a given request.

4. Word-to-PowerPoint in One Click

In PowerPoint, open Copilot, hit Add Content, point it at a Word document, and ask it to “turn this into designed slides.” It builds a first draft of the deck — slides, speaker notes, and a narrative flow — in not much time. Honest caveat: the design quality isn’t great out of the box, and I find the Claude add-in for PowerPoint more powerful here. But if you’re already paying for Copilot, there’s no reason not to use it to rough out a deck and then apply your own theme or brand template.

5. Voice Chat With Memory

The voice chat in the Copilot app now references memory. So if you mentioned last week that you’re planning a move, training for a race, or that your kid’s name is Sam, the voice chat remembers and you don’t have to re-explain yourself. It rolled out in January, supports a lot of languages, and you can talk to it like a person — most people still treat voice Copilot like a stranger.

If you’re on Microsoft 365, odds are you’re using one of these at most. Start simple — try an audio overview or a notebook — and get your money’s worth. Let me know in the comments which feature is your favorite, and if you want more, check out my Copilot in Excel video above.