By David Rounds, CEO
Preview Text: I was already using Copilot across Outlook, Teams, and Word — but Cowork changed how my entire day flows. Instead of bouncing between apps, I now start with one conversation that briefs me, prioritizes my work, and removes the friction that used to eat up my mornings.
I’ll be upfront: I wasn’t an early adopter on this one. I’ve sat through enough “this will change everything” demos to approach new tools with a fair amount of skepticism. But about three months into Microsoft Copilot, I noticed I was leaving the office earlier. Not because my workload shrank — it didn’t — but because a substantial portion of the administrative drag that used to spill into my evenings had quietly been handled during the day.
That chunk was Copilot and now Cowork makes it even better.
My Morning Used to Cost Me an Hour
Before I started using the daily briefing, my morning looked like this: open Outlook, triage email, check Teams, look at my calendar, figure out what was urgent, repeat. By the time I actually started working, it was 9:30.
Now I ask for a briefing and I get a single, prioritized view — calendar, flagged emails, anything relevant from Teams I missed overnight. It’s not perfect. Sometimes it surfaces something I wouldn’t have prioritized. But it’s right more often than not, and the whole thing takes about five minutes instead of an hour.
Email Is Where I’ve Noticed It Most
I get a lot of email. Some of it matters, a lot of it doesn’t, and the hard part is figuring out which is which without reading all of it.
Last week I had a 22-message thread about an ops issue between three people on my team. I asked Cowork to summarize it. Thirty seconds later I had the key points, the sticking issue, and what decision still needed to be made. I replied in two minutes. Previously I would have read the whole thing, probably asked a follow-up question, and burned twenty minutes I didn’t have.
Drafting replies has also changed. I describe what I want to say, Cowork writes a draft, I tweak the tone and send it. I’m not using it as a ghostwriter — I’m still editing and approving everything. But the blank-page problem is gone.
Scheduling: Genuinely Not a Hassle Anymore
I used to treat scheduling as a minor but persistent annoyance. Checking three people’s calendars, finding a slot, booking a room, sending the invite — it’s not hard, it’s just friction that adds up.
I’ll say something like
“find a time next week for me and two of my directors, about an hour”
and Cowork handles it. It checks availability, picks the slot, finds a room if I need one, and sends the invite. I’ve done this probably 30 times in the last two months manually. Now Cowork does it for me. The time savings aren’t dramatic on any single meeting. Collectively, they’re real.
I’ve Had It Write Actual Documents
This one surprised me. I used Cowork to draft this article. I used it last month to put together a summary for senior leadership before a quarterly review. I’ve had it produce PDFs and Word documents that I actually sent — not “AI-generated drafts I had to completely rewrite,” but things that were close enough that a few edits got them across the finish line.
The key is being specific about what you want. Vague prompts get vague output. When I say
“write a two-page summary of our Q1 ops performance for senior leadership, focus on any staffing updates and what we’re doing about the ticket service improvements,”
it produces something useful.
Teams Without the Noise
Teams is great for staying connected and terrible for staying focused. I get messages across multiple channels and if I step away for a few hours, catching up feels like a part-time job.
I can now ask Cowork to catch me up on a channel or thread without reading every message. It’s not summarizing War and Peace — these are usually 10–20 message threads — but having the key points handed to me instead of hunting for them makes a real difference across a busy week.
Five Minutes of Prep Beats Fifteen Minutes of Winging It
I started asking Cowork to brief me before calls I’m not fully prepped for. Not as a substitute for doing the work — but when I’ve got five minutes before a check-in with a new client or a catch-up after time away, it can pull relevant emails, past meeting notes, and context in a way that would take me twenty minutes manually.
I went into a vendor call last month knowing exactly where we’d left off six weeks earlier, what they’d committed to, and what I wanted to walk away with. The vendor mentioned it seemed like I’d done my homework. I had — it just took me four minutes.
The Newest Addition: Claude
Microsoft has integrated Claude — Anthropic’s AI model — into the Copilot platform, and it’s noticeable on tasks that require more nuanced thinking.
The day-to-day stuff — summarizing emails, scheduling meetings, drafting quick messages — works the same as before. Where I’ve seen the difference is in more complex work. Writing a stakeholder update that needs to land a certain way. Synthesizing information from multiple sources into something coherent. Thinking through a problem where the answer isn’t obvious.
It’s less like a feature update and more like the reasoning behind the responses got sharper. I can’t always point to exactly why a response is better — it just requires fewer rounds of editing to get where I need it.
What I’d Tell Someone Who Hasn’t Tried It
Don’t start with the flashy stuff. Start with the morning briefing for a week. See if it changes how you feel at 9am. If it does, add one more thing. That’s how it happened for me — gradually, then all at once.
The hours I’ve gotten back aren’t going into anything glamorous. They’re going into actual work, actual conversations with my team, and occasionally leaving at a reasonable time. That’s enough.
Want to run Copilot Cowork at your company? I’m easy to reach — don’t be a stranger.
