For the past several months, I have been working on six separate AI initiatives. The meetings, training, planning, specifications, decisions, changes, and sheer amount of information are astonishing. Every so often, I need to provide the executive sponsor with a clean status update. Recently, I was in a Teams meeting updating an internal customer on one of those projects. Since the meeting was transcribed, I already had most of the information I needed. Teams created a summary, and it was good, but some of the conversation was not relevant to the status report. No problem. I gave the transcript to Copilot. Asked it to pull out the important points. It did a surprisingly good job. Okay, useful. But still pretty straightforward. Then came the real test. 🧾The Quarterly Update🧾 After several months of work, I needed to create a quarterly executive update covering all six AI initiatives. My first thought was, OMG. This is going to take forever. I was going to have to go back through months of meeting notes, transcripts, emails, attachments, specifications, project changes, decisions, accomplishments, and probably a bunch of things I had forgotten about. This was not an hour of work. I could already see several evenings disappearing. And then it hit me. I almost never delete an email. Normally, that probably sounds like a bad habit. But suddenly I realized what was sitting inside Outlook: months of conversations, dates, decisions, attachments, questions, answers, changes in direction, accomplishments, and project history. In other words, the knowledge was already there. So on my brand-new Copilot license, I clicked the Copilot icon and asked it to create an executive summary of my AI initiatives - for the past 6 months. I expected a decent starting point. What I got back surprised me. The first pass was really good. Actually, better than good. Did it need refinement? Sure. Did I need to review it? Absolutely. But did it save me what could easily have been days and evenings of effort as I squeezed the report between projects and meetings?

Your calendar tells you where you need to be. But what actually needs your attention? For this example, I am using Plan My Day, an agent set up in my Copilot account. Think of an agent as Copilot configured for a particular job, with its own instructions and information sources. (Microsoft Learn) Microsoft provides a Plan My Day template designed to help identify priorities, prepare for meetings, and surface decisions waiting on you. (Microsoft Learn) The goal is simple: Spend less time figuring out where to start and more time doing the work. 🔁 Practice This - Open Microsoft 365 Copilot. - Select Plan My Day under Agents - Click Top Priorities. - Submit 🔍 What You Are Looking For Focus on three things: - Relevance: Are these genuinely important, or simply the meetings on your calendar? - Preparation: Does it identify something you should review, follow up on, or decide? - Evidence: Can you check the source behind the recommendation? Those are useful starting points. I still decide whether they belong at the top of my list. 📌 Notice What Is Missing There is an important detail in my results screenshot: “No email/chat data returned.” That does not mean there are no emails, unanswered questions, or pending decisions needing attention. It means this particular review did not return that information. A useful briefing should tell you what it found—and what it could not check. 🔑 The Takeaway - The value is not another list of meetings. - It is a short review that helps you decide what deserves attention. - Let Copilot suggest the priorities. You make the final call. - Did it surface something you might have missed—or put something in the wrong order?

When I started learning Calude Code, I had installed n8n MCP server through VS code in the project root folder. Currently I am working on AIOS through claude desktop app in a different folder location. The claude desktop app again wants to install n8n MCP server. Now, do I require to install the n8n MCP server again? If I install it again, then there will be two n8n MCP servers installed on one PC. What will be the implication? I am curious to know how you are dealing and also from the experts.

In the last lesson, used Copilot to improve an email we had already written. Now let’s make it even easier. This time, instead of starting with your own draft, you can open an email in Outlook, click Copilot, and ask it to draft a reply for you. That is a great next step because it shows how Copilot can work directly from the message in front of you. 🔁 Practice This Open a real email in Outlook that needs a reply. Then: - Click Copilot in the upper-right area - Open the Copilot side panel - Type a simple instruction like: Draft a reply That is it. You can also give it a little more direction if you want. 💬 Sample Prompt Use this as a starting point: Draft a reply to this email. - Keep it professional, clear, and concise. - Acknowledge the sender’s message, respond to the main point, and make the next step clear. - Do not add facts, promises, or commitments I did not provide. - Show me the draft for review before anything is sent. 🔍 What You Are Looking For Focus on three things: - Did it understand the email correctly? - Is the reply clear and easy to act on? - Does it sound like something you would actually send? If the tone is off, refine it. For example: Make this warmer and more conversational. Or: Shorten this and make it more direct. 📌 Note This is where Copilot starts to feel useful fast. You are not copying and pasting an email into another tool. You are working right inside Outlook, from the actual message thread. That makes it much easier to review, adjust, and move on. Remember - review before sending. Copilot can give you a strong starting point, but you are still responsible for the final message. 🔑 The Takeaway A very practical use of Microsoft Copilot is this: Open the email. Click Copilot. Ask it to draft the reply. Then review and refine. Simple. Fast. Useful.

In Part 2, we used Copilot Chat to help organize the workday. Now let’s move into something most of us do every day: Email. This is one of the easiest places to get immediate value from Copilot. The goal is not to have AI replace your voice, it is to take something you already wrote and make it clearer, tighter, and easier for the reader to act on. 🔁 Practice This (Refer to several screen shots attached) Open Outlook and start an email you actually need to send. Write the first draft yourself. Or you can use this: "I spent some time over the weekend review ChatGPT Astra. And it did not dissappoint. Here are a few things is does well. 1) image editing, 2) video editing, 3) project that require deep thinking." Yes, there is a typo (dissappoint). Ask Copilot to improve it: - Select the text you want to adjust - Click the AI icon 💬 - Select what you would like copilot to do with the text I chose "Auto Rewrite" and this is what it created. Good. Now click, "Replace". "Over the weekend, I spent some time exploring ChatGPT Astra and was impressed by its capabilities. It excels at image editing, video editing, and handling projects that require deep analysis and critical thinking." Done. Send. 🔑 Keep in Mind You do not have to ask Copilot to write the whole email. A very practical starting point is: You write it. Copilot sharpens it. You make the final call. For this practice, take one real email and see whether Copilot can make the message better without making it sound less like you.