Microsoft shares Copilot prompt to surface praise from Outlook emails and Teams chats
The prompt is designed to help users mine Microsoft 365 Copilot for positive feedback buried in Outlook email and Microsoft Teams conversations, turning scattered compliments into a polished paragraph that can be reused for performance reviews, project updates and internal comms.
Microsoft has posted a brief prompt that helps users extract positive feedback from their work communications using Microsoft 365 Copilot (Copilot), positioning it as a simple way to pull recognition from Outlook and Microsoft Teams (Teams) without trawling through threads manually.
The guidance appeared on Microsoft Signal, the company’s editorial channel that publishes short, practical suggestions for using artificial intelligence (AI) tools at work. The post instructs users to paste a concise summary into Copilot, including the project or topic, the recognition given, and who provided it, so that Copilot can compile a polished paragraph highlighting key themes of contribution and impact.
A prompt designed to “hype you up”
The Signal post, published on 16 January 2026, is explicitly framed as a morale boost, with Microsoft saying Copilot can help find “praise hiding in your inbox or Teams chats”. It then provides a ready-to-use prompt for Outlook folders.
Using the emails in my Outlook folder [Folder Name], summarize the recognition I have received. For each email, provide a brief summary including the project or topic, the recognition given, and who provided it. Then, compile a polished paragraph highlighting key themes of my contributions and impact.
Microsoft adds that users can tweak the wording to dig up “the glowing things” people have said in Teams, suggesting the same approach can be applied to chat-based feedback rather than email.
Why Microsoft is pushing prompts
The post is part of a broader pattern in which Microsoft is trying to normalise prompt-led workflows in Office, turning “what should I ask the AI?” into reusable recipes. Microsoft’s own guidance on Copilot prompts encourages users to be specific about the goal, context, expectations and data sources, which is effectively what the Signal prompt does by telling Copilot where to look and what to produce.
The practical value is obvious. Many organisations still run on informal recognition, a manager praising a delivery in Teams, a stakeholder sending a thank you email after a late-night fix, a client noting responsiveness. That feedback is meaningful, but it is often hard to retrieve at appraisal time. Microsoft is pitching Copilot as a bridge between the daily drip of comments and the formal language people need for performance reviews and promotion packs.
Copilot’s “work graph” advantage
Microsoft 365 Copilot sits on top of Microsoft 365 apps and services, which means it can work across the documents and communications employees already use, subject to the permissions and data boundaries in place in a given tenant. In Teams, Microsoft describes Copilot Chat as a way to bring together information from files, messages and other work sources, and to help find information that is “buried in documents or lost in conversations”.
The Signal prompt leans into that promise by anchoring the query in a specific Outlook folder. It is a reminder that, for all the talk of AI, the most effective enterprise use cases are often unglamorous, like searching, summarising and drafting, but done faster and with less friction.
A small tip with a clear use case
Related reading
- Google releases TranslateGemma open models supporting 55 languages
- Traffic data point to stronger finish for Amazon, Booking and Uber
- Windows ecosystem rolls out new wave of Copilot+ AI PCs with next-generation silicon
Microsoft’s post is not offering a new product feature so much as a behavioural nudge, encouraging users to treat Copilot as a private assistant for routine synthesis. For employees, the immediate use case is a tighter self-assessment narrative, based on evidence rather than memory. For managers, it hints at a future where recognition is easier to document and easier to translate into consistent language across teams.
Microsoft describes “The Prompt” as a regular Signal feature offering quick ways to use AI to solve problems and boost productivity. In this case, the problem is not a lack of feedback, it is that praise tends to be scattered, fleeting, and easy to forget.
The Recap
- Microsoft published a Copilot prompt to find praise.
- It searches users' inboxes and Teams chats for recognition.
- Users paste a brief summary into Copilot chat to compile.
