Three Ways You Can Get More Accurate Responses From Microsoft Copilot

We love Microsoft Copilot but there’s also an uncomfortable truth you’ve probably seen yourself – it doesn’t always give the best results to prompts. Usually, that’s less a problem with Copilot and more a case of people not using (or refining) their prompts to get what they need. We’re going to help you with that. Here are three ways you can use to get accurate responses from Copilot.

Trick 1 – Include Plenty of Details

Let’s say you want to have Copilot create a blog post on the benefits of SEO for ecommerce sites. You might use a prompt like:

“Write a blog post about ecommerce and SEO”

You’ll get your post (and it’ll be well-written) but it won’t cover everything you want. You can see that from the screenshot. There’s nothing wrong with what Copilot produced, but it’s all a little…bland. So, try something more detailed. In this example, we might prompt Copilot as follows:

“Create a 1,500-word blog post about why SEO is essential for ecommerce websites. Focus on the benefits SEO delivers, using facts and figures where possible, and talk about specific SEO techniques an ecommerce site owner could use to boost their website’s traffic and engagement.”

From the screenshot, you can already see that the result has much more detail, along with the facts and figures we asked for. It’s simply a better blog post because you were clear about what you wanted from Copilot.

Think of it like asking a human to write the post – they’d need instructions on what to include and so does Copilot.

Trick 2 – Invest in Copilot Pro

It seems like a really basic trick, but it doesn’t change the fact that Copilot Pro is a lot more accurate than the free version of Copilot. It’s faster and – most importantly for accuracy – it has access to Microsoft’s more advanced AI models. That means you’re going to get better results even if your prompts aren’t stellar.

Here’s how to get it.

Step 1: Open Copilot and sign into your Microsoft account using the big “Sign in” button at the top-right corner.

Step 2: Click your account icon at the top-right of the page and select “Get Copilot Pro.” You may also see that Microsoft has an offer, such as a month of Pro for free, here.

Step 3: Hit the “Start Trial, Pay Later” button on the website that pops up and Microsoft will start your Copilot Pro subscription.

Trick 3 – Tell Copilot What to Do (Not What Not to Do)

Microsoft says that Copilot is “built to take action,” and that manifests as the generative AI engine running better when you use more positive instructions.

You can use “if-then” prompts if you want to ensure Copilot avoids doing something.

For instance, we’ll assume you want no bullet points in the blog post example we talked about earlier. You could simply say “Don’t use bullet points” in your prompt, but Copilot often ignores that type of instruction. Instead, try something like:

“Create a 1,500-word blog post about why SEO is essential for ecommerce websites. If there are bullet points in response then convert them into standard paragraphs.”

We can see the effects in the following screenshot – not a bullet point in sight.