Licence required before you start
Scheduled prompts require the Microsoft 365 Copilot paid add-on. They are not available on standard M365 plans. The scheduling option only appears after Copilot generates a response — you will not see it if unlicensed. Verify under Settings → Subscriptions or contact your Microsoft admin or check your organisation's licence portal.
What's new — June/July 2026
The June 16 GA wave doesn't change scheduled prompts directly, but it changes the bill around them. Copilot Cowork is now generally available and billed on usage — Copilot Credits at $0.01/credit pay-as-you-go — and the Work IQ APIs reached GA. Scheduled prompts run inside your existing Copilot licence and are not separately metered, but if your organisation builds custom agents that ground in M365 data via Work IQ, that usage is metered in Copilot Credits. See the licensing / comparison guide for the full cost picture.
July 2026, scheduling extends to declarative agents. Recurring prompts can now target declarative agents such as Analyst and Idea Coach, replacing manual initiation for ongoing tasks or insights. The setup is the same as for a regular scheduled prompt: run the prompt once against the agent, then schedule it. Data scope is set by the agent's own grounding, not by the Outlook / Calendar / Teams scope described below.
At a glance
What it does
Runs a Copilot Chat prompt on a recurring schedule.
Results save to your chat history automatically.
Data access
Outlook email · Calendar · Teams messages only.
SharePoint files, OneDrive, and external project systems are not accessible.
How to activate
Run a prompt once → hover → Schedule this prompt.
Takes under 2 minutes per prompt.
Limits
10 scheduled prompts per user maximum.
Prompts do not run if your M365 session has lapsed. The schedule pauses — missed runs are not executed retroactively. Sign back in to m365.cloud.microsoft to resume. The schedule does not need to be recreated.
| Prompt |
Schedule |
For |
| Chief of Staff Daily Brief |
Weekdays 06:30 |
All roles with high email and calendar volume |
| Executive Monday Brief |
Mon 06:30 |
CDIO · VP · Senior Manager |
| Morning Email Briefing |
Weekdays 07:00 |
All roles (high email volume) |
| Weekly Project Status Brief |
Mon 08:00 |
PM · Programme Manager · Delivery Lead |
| Monday Blocker Check |
Mon 09:00 |
Delivery Manager · Stream Lead |
| End-of-Day Commitment Tracker |
Weekdays 17:30 |
Manager · Project Lead |
| Weekly Stakeholder Check |
Fri 16:00 |
Director · VP · Programme Sponsor |
| Weekly Pipeline Pulse |
Mon 07:00 |
Sales · Account Manager · BD |
| Competitive Intelligence Digest |
Fri 16:00 |
Sales · BD · Product |
What this is — and when it's worth using
What it does
A prompt you write once runs automatically at the day and time you choose. Results save to your Copilot conversation history. You can receive an optional email notification when each run completes. The prompt runs against your live data at execution time — so a Monday briefing always reflects the previous week.
Useful for
- Managers with high email and Teams volume
- Programme and delivery leads monitoring multiple workstreams
- Executives who need a structured start to Monday
- Anyone who runs the same briefing prompt more than twice a week
Less useful for
- Individual contributors with low email or chat volume
- Teams where primary communication happens outside Teams and Outlook
Setup — 4 steps
Data scope — hard limit
Scheduled prompts can only access Outlook email, Calendar, and Teams messages. They cannot reach SharePoint files, OneDrive, or any external system. Use Copilot Notebooks for document-grounded recurring queries.
1
Run the prompt once
Go to
m365.cloud.microsoft/chat or open Copilot in Teams. Paste any prompt and send it. Wait for it to complete.
2
Open the schedule option
Hover over the prompt in your chat history. Select Schedule this prompt.
3
Configure
Set the time (your local timezone), frequency (Daily or Weekdays only), and whether you want an email notification when results are ready.
4
Save and manage
Click Save. To view, edit, or delete active schedules: Copilot Chat → profile or settings icon → Scheduled prompts.
Rules for writing prompts that run unattended
- 01
Use relative time windows. Write "last 7 days" or "last 24 hours" — not "this week's report" or "the email you sent me." The prompt runs without context you provide at the time.
- 02
Specify what to exclude. Add a line at the end of each prompt stating what not to include — for example "Do not repeat email bodies verbatim. Do not restate context already known." This prevents long explanatory outputs.
- 03
Ask for a structured output format. Priority lists and tables are more useful than paragraphs when reading results retrospectively. Name the structure explicitly in the prompt.
- 04
Handle empty results explicitly. Include a line like "If nothing matches, confirm that directly." Without this, the output may be vague or absent rather than a clean confirmation.
- 05
Start with one prompt, not ten. Run one prompt for two weeks before adding more. Adjust the wording based on what the output misses before building the full set.
Prompt library — 6 prompts, ready to copy
Paste into Copilot Chat · send once · hover to schedule
Prompts for leadership and management roles
Summarise the most important communications I received in the last 72 hours. Organise into four sections:
1. Decisions I need to make this week (with deadline if stated)
2. Escalations or issues raised by my team or stakeholders
3. Key external communications requiring a response
4. Upcoming commitments this week
Maximum 300 words. Do not include routine status updates. Do not restate context I already know. If a section has no items, state that directly.
Covers the Friday–Sunday gap. Arrives before your calendar fills on Monday morning.
Summarise the emails I received in the last 18 hours. Group into three categories:
1. Requires response today — list sender, subject, and one sentence on what they need
2. Requires action but no reply — list what the action is
3. FYI only — one line each
Flag anything marked urgent or with a deadline. Keep the whole summary under 200 words. Do not repeat email subjects verbatim. Do not include emails I sent.
Less useful if you receive fewer than 15 emails per day — not enough signal to group.
Review my Teams messages and emails from the last 7 days. For each active project I am involved in:
- Project name
- What moved forward this week
- Open blockers or risks mentioned
- Decisions still pending
Group by project. Flag any project with no recorded activity this week. Do not infer status from a single message. If a project has no activity, state that directly rather than summarising old information.
Draws from actual communication threads, not system entries. Flags silent workstreams before they require escalation.
Search my Teams messages and emails from the last 5 days for anything flagged as blocked, waiting on someone, or at risk of delay. For each item:
- What is blocked
- Who owns it
- Who is needed to unblock it
- How many days it has been waiting
If nothing is blocked, confirm that directly. Do not invent blockers from vague language. Do not include items that were already resolved.
Blockers appear in communication threads before they reach formal escalation. This prompt surfaces them at the start of the week.
Review my emails and Teams messages from today. Extract every commitment I made — things I said I would do, send, or follow up on. For each one:
- What I committed to
- Who I committed to
- Deadline if mentioned (or "no deadline stated")
List in priority order. Flag anything due tomorrow or sooner at the top. Do not include commitments others made. Only include items where I am the one who needs to act.
Commitments made in chat threads and meetings are easy to lose. This runs at end of day and produces a follow-up list before context is gone.
Review my outbound emails and Teams messages from this week. List key stakeholders — direct reports, executive peers, major external contacts — that I communicated with this week. Then list key stakeholders I have not communicated with in the last 14 days.
For anyone in the "not communicated with" list where a 14-day gap is unusual based on recent frequency, suggest a one-line reason to reach out. Do not list every contact — only those where the gap is relevant. If all key relationships are current, confirm that directly.
Runs Friday before the weekend extends any gap to three weeks. The "confirm if current" instruction prevents false alerts on quiet weeks.
Data scope
Scheduled prompts run against Outlook, Teams, and Calendar content at execution time. They do not query files, SharePoint libraries, or external systems. Results reflect what is in your personal M365 communication record — not shared drives, project registers, or ERP data.
Outlook email — sent and received
SharePoint / OneDrive files
Calendar events — meetings and invites
Teams messages — chats and channel posts
SAP · Primavera · project systems
Failure modes to expect
No matching results. If no emails or messages match the prompt criteria, Copilot returns a confirmation statement. This is expected on quiet days or after a bank holiday. It does not indicate a fault with the schedule.
Vague or generic output. This usually means the prompt is missing a negative instruction. Add "Do not summarise without specific examples" or "Do not include items with no named owner" and the output tightens significantly.
Ownership ambiguity. When a blocker or commitment is mentioned but not attributed to a named person, Copilot may omit it or assign it loosely. Add "If ownership is unclear, note that explicitly rather than guessing" to handle this.