How do you use Copilot in Outlook to summarize emails?

You open the email conversation and select Summary by Copilot, or Summarize, at the top of the thread, and Copilot puts a short summary right above the email. Microsoft's page on summarizing a thread with Copilot in Outlook says it works that way in classic Outlook, new Outlook and Outlook on the web, and the summary can carry numbered citations that take you to the exact email it came from. On your phone you open the conversation and tap the Copilot icon in the toolbar.

I like this for the long back and forth with a customer, where you're like, wait, what did I actually tell them? Read the summary, then click the citation and read the real email before you reply, because the summary is Copilot's read of it, not the record. In new Outlook and on the web it can also summarize a PDF, Word or PowerPoint attachment. And if you want Copilot to find the threads where you promised something and never followed up, my guide to the Outlook follow-up prompt covers that and puts it on a Monday schedule.