Use Outlook's AI to Draft Borrower Emails

What This Does

Copilot in Outlook drafts professional borrower and referral partner emails based on a brief description, and can summarize long email threads so you can get caught up in seconds instead of scrolling.

Before You Start

• You have Outlook desktop app or Outlook on the web open
• You're signed into a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or higher account
• You know what you want to say (borrower name, loan stage, key message)

Steps

1. Find the AI feature

Open Outlook. To draft a new email, click New Mail. In the compose window, look for the Copilot button in the toolbar above the message body, it shows as a small sparkle icon. Choose Draft from the dropdown (classic Outlook and Outlook for Mac call it Draft with Copilot). Outlook kept its Copilot entry points through Microsoft's 2026 redesign, so there is no corner button to hunt for here.

2. Tell it what you need

In the Copilot draft panel, describe the email in plain language. You don't need to write the email, just describe the situation:

"Write a follow-up email to Tom Rivera at Pacific Coast Bakery. He applied for a $500K SBA 7(a) loan 2 weeks ago. We still need his 2024 business tax return and current year P&L. Tone: professional but friendly, not pushy."

Click Generate.

3. Review and use the result

Copilot generates a complete draft in the message body. Read it, make any edits (especially borrower-specific details), and use the dropdown above the draft to adjust length or tone. Tone is picked after the draft is generated, not before. For summarizing existing threads, open the conversation and select the Summary by Copilot box at the top of the thread (classic Outlook shows a Summarize button instead).

Real Example

Scenario: A borrower's CRE loan has been approved by the loan committee, subject to satisfactory appraisal. You need to notify them and explain next steps.

What you type: "Write an email to Maria Chen at Sunrise Properties LLC telling her that her $1.2M commercial real estate loan was approved by our loan committee, subject to a satisfactory appraisal. Explain the appraisal will be ordered this week and takes 2-3 weeks. Ask her to confirm the property access schedule."

What you get: A complete, professional conditional approval notification email with all the key details, formatted and ready to send.

Tips

• Use the Summary by Copilot box on long email threads before joining a conversation, it saves 5-10 minutes of scrolling for complex deals with multiple stakeholders.
• For document chase follow-ups, add "Tone: firm but professional, third request" so Copilot escalates the urgency appropriately.
• You can also use it in the Reading pane to ask "What action items are in this email?" when processing a long borrower response.

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