Microsoft 365 Copilot: Skills in Copilot Chat

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now supports customizable skills for task-specific instructions, usable by end users and deployable by admins. Skills integrate with plugins, are discoverable in the Agent Store, and work across Copilot Chat and Cowork. Rollout begins October 2026, with Information Barriers support in November. What and why: We are introducing skills in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Skills let you customize Copilot Chat with task-specific instructions to improve workflow accuracy. A skill includes specific instructions and, optionally, supporting files or scripts needed to complete a task. Copilot automatically uses these instructions when a request is relevant to the skill, although end users can disable this automatic invocation. Here is a summary of the features in this release: Skills for end users: Users can create and edit skills, upload existing skills, and share skills with others. They can use skills deployed by their admin or public skills published by Independent Software Vendors. Users can choose whether Copilot can automatically invoke skills or explicitly select one from the new “Agents and Skills” section in Context IQ. For more information about the Context IQ experience, see the related Message Center post MC1479519. Skill deployment by admins: From the Microsoft 365 admin center, admins can deploy, install, or block skills and plugins that contain skills and connectors. With this release, these plugins will be available in both Copilot Chat and Copilot Cowork. For more information about centralized plugin controls, see our recent announcement on plugins. Admins can also use the Tools view to review all skills created by users in Copilot Chat. Agent Store to include plugins: The “Agent store” in Copilot Chat is evolving to include plugins; see our recent announcement on plugins for context. With this release, users can discover agents, skills, and plugins containing skills in the Store. Discoverability of connector-only plugins in Store is not part of this release and will be added as a follow up, making all plugins available there. Until then, connectors will remain available through the Data Sources menu in Chat. Use across Cowork and Chat: Skills created in Copilot Chat can also be used […]

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