2.2.3. Work IQ: The Work Context Layer
💡 First Principle: A colleague who has worked beside you for a year gives better advice than a brilliant stranger, because they know your projects, your people and your priorities. Work IQ gives Copilot that kind of working knowledge, and a single switch decides whether Copilot uses it. So when a response "doesn't know anything about my work," the first question is whether Work IQ was on.
Microsoft describes Work IQ as a workplace intelligence layer that lets Copilot and agents access and reason over organizational and business data, context and tools. In practice it is what helps Copilot understand your priorities, projects, collaborators, preferences and work patterns. Its context covers Microsoft 365 productivity data (emails, files, meetings, calendars, chats, teams and organizational relationships) and can also include business and workflow data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Work IQ is included with the Microsoft Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) license (the Premium tier).
The Work IQ button. In August 2026 the separate Web and Work tabs in Copilot Chat were merged into one chat interface with a dedicated Work IQ button at the top left of the chat screen. It is on by default for licensed users, and users can turn it off.
| Work IQ is… | Copilot grounds responses in… | Still applies |
|---|---|---|
| On (default for licensed users) | The web, Microsoft Graph and Work IQ: your emails, files, meetings, calendar, teams and relationships | Personalization |
| Off | Only content you attach, the public web and your profile preferences, with no work data | Personalization: your work profile, saved preferences and writing style can still be used |
Not every Copilot experience sees the same context:
| Experience | Grounding available |
|---|---|
| Copilot Chat (web or app, no add-on license) | The web, content you provide, and supported app context |
| Copilot Chat in Outlook (no add-on license) | Your inbox, calendar, meetings, chats and limited related content |
| Microsoft Copilot (licensed) | Microsoft Graph, Work IQ and semantic indexing across Microsoft 365 |
⚠️ Exam Trap: Turning Work IQ off is not the same as turning personalization off. With Work IQ off, Copilot stops grounding on your work data, but your profile, saved memories and preferred writing style can still shape the response. A distractor that says "turn off Work IQ so Copilot forgets your preferences" confuses two different controls (memory is covered in 4.5).
Reflection Question: A licensed user asks Copilot to "summarize where my projects stand this week" and gets a generic answer about project management. Which control should she check first, and why would turning it on change the result?
