Outlook Add-in – Quick Tour
A walkthrough of the Outlook Add-in: meeting briefs, reply drafting with tone check, thread summaries, calendar and mailbox actions, model picker and chat history.
Overview
The Blockbrain Outlook Add-in brings your AI workspace into Microsoft Outlook. With a message or meeting open you can ask for a brief before a meeting, summarise a long thread, draft a reply straight into the Outlook draft, check the tone before you send, reply in another language, and let the assistant act on your calendar and mailbox — all without leaving Outlook.
This guide covers the features visible in the current release: meeting briefs, summarising and drafting, tone check and language, calendar and mailbox actions behind an approval card, selecting AI models and bots, and browsing your chat history.
What the add-in can do
Stay on top of your inbox
Reply and act with confidence
At a glance, these are the things you can do with the Outlook Add-in today:
Meeting briefs – who is attending, who has actually accepted, the thread history behind the meeting, and what was decided last time.
Drafting a reply into the Outlook draft – the assistant writes the reply straight into an Outlook draft for you to review and send; the most reliable way to get text into Outlook.
Tone check before sending – flags curt, unclear or accusatory phrasing and offers a usable alternative.
Replying in another language with the correct formal register – Sie/du, usted/tú, with product terminology left in English.
Summarising the open message or thread – key points, open questions and who is waiting on whom.
Cross-language summarisation – mixed German/English or Spanish/English threads summarised in your language, with terminology preserved.
Rebuilding a week around a deadline – protects your focus blocks, proposes what to move, and makes the changes rather than only advising.
Calendar actions – read events, check free/busy, create, update and delete events, and create Teams meetings.
Mailbox actions – create folders, apply categories, set flags and change message status, all behind an approval card.
Bot and model selection – switch LLMs and assistants directly from the pane.
Chat history – prior conversations are reachable from the add-in.
Deployment – installed centrally by IT via a manifest link in the Microsoft 365 admin center → Integrated Apps.
What you'll need
Microsoft Outlook for Microsoft 365 (new Outlook, classic desktop or web) signed in with your work account.
The Blockbrain for Microsoft 365 Add-in installed and the user signed in.
A message or calendar item open in Outlook that you want to work on with the AI.
1. Opening the add-in
Once the add-in is installed, open any message in Outlook. In the message header, open the More actions (…) menu and select Blockbrain — or choose Apps → Blockbrain from the ribbon. The Blockbrain pane opens on the right-hand side of the Outlook window and stays in sync with the message or meeting you currently have open.
The pane can stay open while you move between messages, folders and your calendar. Use the pin icon in the pane header if you want it to stay open as you switch from one message to the next.
2. Initiate all actions from the add-in side panel
The right-hand pane is your home base for everything the add-in does. From here you can chat about the open message, ask for a summary or a meeting brief, request a draft reply, attach knowledge sources with the + menu, switch bots and models, and open your chat history. Actions that change your calendar or mailbox are shown as an approval card in the same pane before anything happens.
3. Summarising a message or thread
Open a message and ask the assistant to summarise it (e.g. "Summarise this thread" or "What is still open here?"). The assistant reads the open message together with its conversation history and returns the key points, the open questions and who is waiting on whom — so you can catch up on a long thread in seconds.
3.1 Cross-language summaries
Threads that mix languages (for example German and English, or Spanish and English) are summarised in the language you write your prompt in. Product names and technical terminology are preserved as written, so nothing gets lost in translation.
4. Drafting a reply
4.1 Ask for a draft
With a message open, tell the assistant what you want to say (e.g. "Reply that we can deliver by Friday, but we need the signed order first"). The assistant drafts the reply in the pane, based on the content and tone of the message you are answering.
4.2 Insert into the Outlook draft
Ask the assistant to draft the reply into Outlook and the text is written straight into an Outlook reply draft addressed to the sender. You then finish and send it as usual. Nothing is sent automatically — you always review the draft in Outlook first.
4.3 Tone check before sending
Before you send, ask the assistant to check the tone of your draft. It flags phrasing that comes across as curt, unclear or accusatory and offers a usable alternative you can take over as it is.
4.4 Replying in another language
Ask for the reply in the recipient's language. The assistant picks the correct formal register (Sie/du, usted/tú) for the relationship and leaves product terminology in English.
5. Meeting briefs
Open a meeting invitation, or simply ask about an upcoming meeting (e.g. "Brief me for tomorrow's steering call"). The assistant pulls together who is attending and who has actually accepted, the email thread history behind the meeting, and what was decided last time — as a short brief you can read in the pane before you join.
6. Calendar actions
The assistant can read your events, check free/busy times, and create, update and delete events — including Teams meetings with a meeting link. Ask in plain language, for example "Move my 1:1 with Anna to Thursday afternoon and make it a Teams meeting" or "Find 45 minutes for the three of us next week".
6.1 Rebuilding a week around a deadline
Tell the assistant about a deadline (e.g. "I need Thursday and Friday free to finish the proposal"). It looks at your week, protects your focus blocks, proposes what to move and where — and once you approve, it makes the changes rather than only advising.
6.2 The approval card
Every action that changes something — a calendar or mailbox change, and also a reply the assistant writes into an Outlook draft — is shown as an approval card first: a summary of what will be done and who is affected. Nothing happens until you choose Allow. Deny stops that step, and Allow all in this chat stops the asking for the rest of the conversation. If you leave the card unanswered, it is treated as declined.
7. Mailbox actions
Beyond reading your mail, the assistant can create folders, apply categories, set flags and change the read/unread status of messages. For example: "Create a folder 'Tender 2026' and move this thread there" or "Flag everything from the customer that is still unanswered". As with calendar actions, each change is presented on an approval card before it is applied.
8. Choosing an AI model and bot
Different tasks suit different models. The selector at the top of the pane lists all models that have been approved for use with the selected bot, and you can switch to any of the approved bots on your system from the same place.
Tip: pick a fast, lightweight model (Haiku, Flash) for quick summaries and short replies and a more capable model (Opus, Sonnet, GPT 5) for meeting briefs, long threads or calendar planning. Smart Routing is a good default if you are unsure.
Open the selector to see all approved LLMs (the LLM tab) or switch to an agent (the Agent tab). Auto Router picks a suitable model for each request automatically.
9. Chat history
Open the chat history from the pane to see your previous conversations with Blockbrain — both the ones started from a message and general chats. Selecting an entry reopens that conversation alongside the message you currently have open. Use New Chat to start a fresh thread, and the search box to find a past chat by keyword.
10. Recommended working patterns
Before a meeting
Ask for a brief ten minutes before you join. You get the attendee picture, the history and the last decisions in one place, instead of scrolling back through the thread.
Working through the inbox
Summarise long threads first, then ask for a draft reply and let the assistant put it into the Outlook draft. Run a tone check on anything sensitive before you send it.
Planning the week
Tell the assistant about your deadlines and let it propose a rebuilt week. Review the approval card, adjust what you disagree with, and confirm the rest in one go.
Troubleshooting and tips
Pane not visible: Open a message and select Apps in the toolbar → Blockbrain for Microsoft 365. If the add-in is not listed, it has not been deployed to your account yet — ask IT to install it via the Microsoft 365 admin center → Integrated Apps.
Draft did not appear in Outlook: Make sure a message (not a calendar item) is open in the reading pane, then ask again. In classic Outlook the draft opens in a separate window.
Calendar or mailbox change not applied: Check the approval card in the pane — changes are only made after you confirm. If the card was declined or timed out, ask for the action again.
No model response: Check the model selector — if a model is rate-limited, switch to another one or select Smart Routing.
Lost a chat: Use the search box in the chat history to look up a previous chat by keyword from its title or contents.
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