Work IQ on
Copilot can use your allowed work information together with the web and anything you attach. Use this for questions about your projects, customers, meetings, colleagues or recent work.
Work IQ · your work knowledge
How Copilot knows your work
Work IQ helps Copilot find and connect the Microsoft 365 information you are already allowed to access—such as emails, files, chats, meetings, people and projects. It works inside Copilot; it is not another app to manage.
Work-data access requires the relevant Microsoft Copilot subscription and organizational setup.
From scattered work to a useful answer
💬Your work is spread outDecisions and updates live across messages, files and meetings.
🔎Work IQ finds what mattersIt looks across the work information you can access.
🧠Copilot connects the piecesIt brings related people, projects and changes together.
🔗You can check the sourcesCitations help you open the material behind the answer.
What changes when Work IQ is on?
Work IQ off
Copilot does not search your broader work information. It can still use public web information and the files or text you attach to the conversation.
The button changes which information Copilot may look for; it does not change your Microsoft 365 permissions or give anyone new access.
Use it when the answer is scattered across your day
Catch up on a project
Ask what changed since your last update. Copilot can bring together a meeting decision, a Teams follow-up and the latest file instead of making you open each place.
Prepare for a meeting
Bring together recent interactions with the attendees, open questions, promised actions and relevant documents before the meeting begins.
Find decisions and follow-ups
Look across conversations and meetings for decisions already made, items still open and commitments assigned to you.
Choose the source set that matches the job
Source choice
Use it when
Simple example
Work IQ
The answer may be spread across your allowed emails, chats, files and meetings.
“What changed on Project Atlas this week?”
Attach files
One or two named files should be the main source for this conversation.
“Summarize the risks in these two proposals.”
Copilot Notebook
A chosen collection of sources should remain together for repeated work.
“Use our launch notebook to draft the weekly update.”
Web only
You need public information and your organization's work is not relevant.
“Compare current public market reports.”
A question designed for Work IQ
Using my work information, tell me what changed on Project Atlas since Monday. Organize the answer into decisions made, questions still open and follow-ups assigned to me. For each item, link to the message, meeting or file where you found it.
The project name and time period help Copilot search the right slice of work. The requested links make the result easier to verify and continue from.
What Copilot can—and cannot—see
Your existing access still applies
Work IQ can reference only content you are already allowed to open. It does not grant access, remove security controls or create a separate shared copy of your work.
Missing work stays missing
If information is stored outside connected systems, not shared with you or simply not found as relevant, Copilot may give a partial or more general answer.
A citation is a checkpoint
A source link shows what Copilot used; it does not guarantee that the summary or conclusion is correct. Open the source for important dates, numbers and decisions.
Two people may receive different answers
Work IQ reflects the information available to each person. Different permissions, connected apps, subscriptions and organizational settings can change what Copilot finds—even when two people ask the same question.
Key insight
Work IQ is useful when the answer already exists somewhere in your work but is spread across several places. Turn it off when your organization is not part of the question.