Managing a busy calendar can be overwhelming, especially when incoming new events conflict with existing ones. To help you stay organized, Copilot can reschedule personal appointments and 1:1s (meetings with you and another person) when conflicts arise, reducing the manual effort you need to put in to keep your schedule running smoothly.Â
You're in control
You decide the dates and times that are acceptable if Copilot needs to reschedule for you, and you can check what Copilot has rescheduled in the Outlook notifications pane at any time. Email notifications are coming soon, too, to keep you in the loop. And as always, you can change the date and time for your events from your calendar whenever you want.
Turn on the Automatically reschedule with Copilot option
You can have Copilot automatically reschedule events or series when using the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web or the Microsoft 365 Calendar in Microsoft Teams.
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Create a new event or series, or open an existing event or series.
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Turn on If conflicts arise, let Copilot reschedule this event.Â
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Select your acceptable days and times to find the best alternatives if Copilot needs to reschedule for you (this step is optional, but you'll get better results if you choose days and times).
A few things to know about automatic rescheduling and series
If you create a new series and Automatic rescheduling with Copilot is off, you can't turn it on for a single instance of the series later.
If you create a new series and turn on Automatic rescheduling with Copilot, the option can be turned off for a single instance later, but you can't change your acceptable day(s) and time(s) for a single instance.
Copilot will only reschedule if conflicts come up later
Copilot will automatically reschedule your event based on your acceptable days and times only if:
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You accept a new event that occurs at the same time.
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Schedule or reschedule a new event to occur at the same time.
Otherwise, your event will stay on the original day(s) and time(s).
Note:Â Only events with status of Busy or Out of office will be considered when evaluating conflicts. This means that if there's a conflict on your calendar with an event that has Automatic rescheduling with Copilot turned on, but your status for the conflicting meeting is set to Tentative, Copilot won't reschedule.
To see what Copilot has rescheduled, check the Outlook notifications pane
Notifications about changes to your events will appear in the Outlook notifications pane, and will include:Â
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The event has been successfully rescheduled.
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The event could not be rescheduled within your preferences.
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The event has changed and can no longer be automatically rescheduled (for example, if more people are added to an event later).
In the future, Copilot will also send emails for important notifications.
You can manage your notification preferences from Outlook settings.
Scenarios that affect automatic rescheduling
Tip:Â In all these scenarios, you'll know what's happening with information in the Outlook notifications pane.
If any of these things happen, Copilot won't be able to reschedule for you. If automatic rescheduling was already enabled, then Copilot will notify you that it is no longer managing the meeting for you.
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More than one attendee is added, or the meeting is forwarded to additional attendees. Conference rooms do not count as attendees.
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An event is longer than 5 hours, including all-day events.
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A series is scheduled with a recurrence less frequently than monthly (for example, every 2 months).
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A series is scheduled on a specific date of the month (for example, the 3rd of every month).
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An event or series is scheduled on a secondary or shared calendar.
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An event or series is set to show as Out of Office
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The attendee declines your 1:1 meeting. Copilot does not know whether the attendee's decline indicates the meeting should be cancelled or rescheduled. In the future, Copilot will automatically accept new time proposals from attendees.
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The event or series isn't a good fit because:
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No times are available (Copilot tried 5 times to find a time and couldn't).
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Rescheduling limit is reached (the event has been automatically rescheduled 5 times already, indicating it's probably not a priority and continuing to reschedule might not be the right solution).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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Frequently asked questions
What do attendees see when Copilot automatically reschedules?
Currently, attendees will not be aware that Copilot rescheduled the meeting. They receive a regular meeting update message as if you had changed the meeting time. We are actively thinking about how to improve this, so please send in suggestions via Help > Feedback.
How does Copilot choose when to reschedule to, if there are multiple free times?
Copilot will choose the available time that is nearest to the original time of the meeting within the day(s) and time(s) that you indicated as acceptable alternatives.
If I enable this for a meeting but do not change anything else, will the attendee receive an update?
If you enable Automatic rescheduling with Copilot for an existing meeting and do not make any other changes, the attendee will not receive a meeting update message. We will be updating the experience so that the event form's button is labeled "Save" in this scenario, rather than the current "Send" label.
