Outlook now keeps two separate sets of instructions for how Copilot should write your emails
Reviewed by Helen Jones
Microsoft has introduced Outlook Draft Instructions. These store email-specific preferences for tone, length, detail level, use of bullets, greetings, and sign-offs. The settings live only inside new Outlook and Outlook on the web. Microsoft 365 Copilot Personalization already exists as a broader memory that applies across Word, Teams, Outlook, and other apps. Draft Instructions and Copilot Personalization do not share data. When both are configured, Draft Instructions take priority for any email drafted inside Outlook. The feature is not available in classic Outlook.
Until now most users assumed one set of preferences would shape every Copilot response. That assumption no longer holds. Email drafting behaviour is now governed by whichever instruction set Outlook reads first, while everything else follows the global memory. The split adds another configuration point at the exact moment people are trying to reduce the number of places they store rules, reminders, and preferences. Anyone who wants consistent tone across email and other documents must now maintain two separate instruction stores and remember which one applies where.
Analysis
Ignore Copilot Personalization for now. Open new Outlook, set Draft Instructions for the three email types you write most, and leave it at that.
Pulse published by Collab365 Spaces, reviewed by Helen Jones on . Cite as "Outlook now keeps two separate sets of instructions for how Copilot should write your emails", Collab365 Spaces. 1 source referenced.