Use Copilot in Word to list every number and claim in a draft investor letter

What This Does

Before a quarterly letter goes to the CCO, you want a clean inventory of every sentence that carries a number or a comparison, so each one can be checked against the source. Copilot in Word can build that list from the open document, with the heading above each sentence. It lists. It does not decide which number is right. You check each figure against the table from your performance system, never against Copilot.

Before You Start

• Word for Microsoft 365 with Copilot. Microsoft's help page says Copilot might not be included with your subscription or might be turned off by your organization's settings, and it links to "Learn which Copilot license you have". If the Copilot button is missing from the corner of the document, ask IT. Pricing is on Microsoft's own pages.
• The draft letter in a Word document, and the figures table from your performance system open beside it.
• An answer from your CCO on which AI tools the firm approved and how chats are kept. Check your organization's Copilot data settings too.

Data caution. A draft letter often holds numbers and positioning notes that are not public yet, such as holdings you have not disclosed or a trade you are describing. Material non-public information never goes into an AI tool. Holdings, trade ideas, investor names, account numbers and fee terms stay in the firm's systems unless the firm approved Copilot for that data and your CCO allows it. Figures from a licensed data source may carry licence limits, so check them first. Microsoft's page notes that Copilot can draw on the wider context of your files, emails and meetings, so tell it to use only the open document. The practice paragraph below is invented.

Steps

1. Put the draft in a Word document

Create a new document. Add a heading, "Third Quarter Review", and paste this invented draft paragraph under it. The paragraph contains planted errors, which you will find with the source table.

Strategy S returned 1.9 in the third quarter, ahead of Benchmark B at 1.5. Company C and Company F led, with Company F adding 0.5. We expect the portfolio to keep outperforming as our holdings deliver.

Keep the invented figures table nearby. It is what your performance system would give you, in percent for returns and percentage points for contributions.

2. Open Copilot and turn on chat only

Open the document. Select the Copilot Dynamic Action Button in the corner of the document. Microsoft's page says Copilot opens in the chat pane with Edit mode turned on. Select Chat only so Copilot answers in the pane and makes no changes to your letter.

3. Ask for the inventory

Type this prompt:

Using only the text of this document, list every sentence that contains a number or a comparison or a forward-looking statement. For each one, give the heading above it, the sentence as written, each number quoted exactly, and each comparison or forward-looking phrase quoted exactly. Do not judge whether any number is correct. Do not add, change or calculate anything.

4. Read the inventory

The expected inventory is:

That makes three numbers (1.9, 1.5 and 0.5) and two phrases ("ahead of Benchmark B" and "keep outperforming"). Copilot may add extras such as "third quarter" or "led". Decide yourself whether an extra matters. If Copilot misses one, ask it to check the document again, and read the paragraph yourself too.

5. Check each number against the source table

Open the figures table, never Copilot's answer, and check each number:

• 1.9: no match. The table shows a net return of 1.8, and no 1.9 appears.
• 1.5: matches the Benchmark B return.
• 0.5: no match. The table shows Company F at 0.4.

Fix the figures in the letter from the table. Whether the letter shows net or gross, and how the benchmark is described, is for your CCO.

6. Send the phrases to the CCO

"Ahead of Benchmark B" is a comparison and "keep outperforming" is a forward-looking claim. Do not rewrite them yourself and call it done. List them for the CCO, who decides on the wording through your firm's marketing review. The letter, including a corrected one, stays a draft until the CCO approves it.

Real Example

Scenario: The third quarter draft is due to the CCO on Friday. You wrote it over two weeks, and you changed a number late.

What you type: The prompt in step 3, with the invented paragraph open in Word.

What you get: A list of the three numbers and the two phrases. Checked against the table, two of the three numbers fail, 1.9 and 0.5. The third is fine, and the two phrases go to the CCO. Copilot found nothing the sentences did not already contain. Its value was in producing a complete checklist faster than a read-through, and the table is what caught the errors.

Tips

• The outside check does the real work. If the performance system and the letter disagree, the system wins.
• Go past the numbers. In Chat only mode, ask which statements a reader could take as a promise or a prediction, and quote them. Pass the list to the CCO, and make no change until the CCO has decided.
• Run the inventory again after every edit. A corrected number can sit in a sentence you did not recheck.
• Do not ask Copilot which of two numbers is right. It sees only the document, and the source system is the authority.

Tool interfaces change. If the Copilot button has moved, look for a Copilot icon near the corner of the Word document or in the ribbon.