Use Outlook's AI to Draft Bid-Period Communications

What This Does

Outlook Copilot drafts emails from a few bullet points — useful for the constant stream of subcontractor solicitations, follow-ups, clarification requests, and owner correspondence that fills an estimator's inbox during a bid cycle.

Before You Start

• You have Microsoft 365 with Copilot enabled (business or personal subscription)
• You're using Outlook on Windows, Mac, or the web
• The Copilot icon appears when you compose a new email (looks like a sparkle/star icon)

Steps

1. Open a new email compose window

Click New Email in Outlook. Don't fill in the To field yet.

What you should see: A blank compose window with your usual formatting toolbar.

2. Click the Copilot icon in the compose toolbar

Look for the Copilot button (sparkle icon) in the compose window toolbar or in the draft email body. Click it.

What you should see: A small Copilot panel appears asking what you'd like to write.

3. Describe the email you need in 2-3 sentences

Type a brief description of what you want. You don't need to write the full email — just the key points.

What you should see: Copilot generates a full draft email based on your description.

4. Review, adjust, and customize

Read the draft. If the tone isn't right, click Regenerate or type a follow-up instruction like "Make it shorter" or "Add urgency about the deadline."

5. Insert the draft and finish

Click Insert (or similar) to move the draft into your compose window. Edit the specifics (names, project details) and send.

Real Example

Scenario: It's 8am on bid day and you're missing quotes from 6 subs. You need to send urgent follow-ups to all of them before 11am.

What you type in Copilot: "Write an urgent follow-up email to a mechanical sub who hasn't sent a quote. Our bid deadline is today at 2pm EST. Project is the Riverside Office Building, 3-story office, [your company name]. Make it professional but make clear this is the last chance to be included in our bid."

What you get: A complete, professionally worded email with subject line, greeting, the urgency message, your deadline, and a polite close. Adjust the sub's name and project details, then send.

Tips

• Use Copilot to generate a "solicitation blast" email to send to your full sub list at the start of a bid cycle — describe the project in a sentence and ask for a professional invitation to bid
• Ask Copilot to "summarize this email thread" when you need to catch up on a long subcontractor back-and-forth before calling them
• If you receive a scope clarification from an owner, paste it into Copilot and ask "Draft a reply confirming we've received this and will incorporate it into our estimate"

Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.