Cheatsheet

Work IQexplained

Work IQ isn't a product you open. It's the layer between your prompt and Copilot's answer: it knows your files, mail, meetings and business systems, remembers how they connect, and brings its own skills along. That's why Copilot answers questions a generic model can't — not because the model is better, but because it knows where to look.

Diagram of Work IQ. At the top, your prompt and your business files flow into a funnel together with icons for Microsoft 365 apps. The funnel is labelled Work IQ, the intelligence layer, and produces Copilot's answer at the bottom. To the right, Work IQ is opened up into three stacked layers: Data, containing Microsoft 365, Dataverse and connectors. Context, containing memory, activity and semantic understanding. Skills and tools, containing skills and tools. — Everything you ask passes through Work IQ before Copilot answers.

The three layers

Data

What it knows

Unifies the signals: files, mail, meetings, chats and business systems across Microsoft 365, plus Dataverse and connected external sources. Not a copy — a view of what you already have access to.

Context

How it connects

Memory, activity and semantic understanding. This is where a file stops being a file and becomes something that belonged to a decision, in a project, with these people.

Skills and tools

What it can do

Specialised instructions for recurring jobs — scheduling a meeting, retrieving data from an external system, pulling meeting details and transcripts. Microsoft keeps adding to the set.

What that means in practice

It isn't a product

There's no tile in the launcher and nothing to open. Work IQ is a shared layer that keeps interpreting work across the tenant — infrastructure, not an add-on. If you're looking for it, you won't find it.

Permissions still hold

Work IQ exposes no new data. It reasons over what you can already reach. Copilot may know a document mattered to a decision without being able to reveal what's inside it — discoverable is not the same as extractable.

What it costs

With a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, Work IQ is there across all Copilot experiences. For your own and third-party agents it's billed by usage through Copilot Credits, and API access doesn't depend on Copilot licensing.

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FAQ

Do I have to buy or switch on Work IQ?

Not for Copilot itself — with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence it's there in every Copilot experience. Custom and third-party agents are billed by usage through Copilot Credits, and the APIs are available independently of Copilot licensing.

Can Work IQ see data I'm not allowed to see?

No. It reasons over what your permissions already allow. If something unexpected shows up, the cause is usually a missing sensitivity label — the layer honours what your governance permits, it doesn't override it.

Some docs say Data, Memory and Inference. Is that something else?

Same thing, different naming. The Copilot Studio documentation uses Data, Memory and Inference; the Copilot blog uses Data, Context and Skills & Tools. The layers map onto each other.

How is this different from a connector?

A connector brings data within reach. Work IQ works out what the data means in your organisation — which project it belongs to, who was involved, what came of it. Connectors deliver material, Work IQ delivers context.

Why doesn't Copilot find things a generic tool finds?

Usually the opposite is the interesting question. A generic tool answers from public knowledge and whatever you paste in — and it's locked to one vendor. Copilot answers from how your business actually runs — which is narrower, and far more useful at work.

Last updated: 6 August 2026