SharePoint tools in Work IQ let Copilot Chat and the agents you build work directly in SharePoint: reading content, building lists and pages, organising files and sharing them. They’re the same tools behind Copilot in SharePoint, more than 60 operations in all, and they’re in public preview.
I spent a session handing SharePoint work to Copilot Chat and a Copilot Studio agent. Each job started as a sentence in chat, and everything I asked for got built.
What are SharePoint tools in Work IQ?
Work IQ is the intelligence layer behind Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents. The SharePoint tools add purpose-built SharePoint operations to it, so an agent doesn’t have to work out each action from scratch. They reach any agent that connects to Work IQ, they’re rolling out to Copilot Studio agents, and developers can point GitHub Copilot CLI, VS Code or their own agent at the same Work IQ MCP server.
Microsoft’s documentation lists what’s covered:
| Area | What an agent can do |
|---|---|
| Find and understand | Search site content, discover lists and libraries, inspect columns and views |
| Files and folders | Create folders, copy, move, rename and recycle, archive library content |
| Lists and libraries | Create and update lists, columns and views, change items in batches |
| Approvals and signatures | Create approval requests, track eSignature requests |
| Sharing and access | Share files through links and email, check access, remove direct access |
| History and recovery | Restore earlier versions, restore deleted items from the recycle bin |
| Quick Steps, knowledge bases, skills | Configure quick steps, manage knowledge bases, use site skills |
Microsoft’s own testing is the best number available so far: in its internal evals, adding SharePoint tools lifted Work IQ’s task pass rate from 70.1% to 84.6% while using 16% fewer tokens. Those are Microsoft’s figures on Microsoft’s tasks, so measure your own scenarios before you rely on them.
What I built from Copilot Chat
I worked in Copilot Chat with Work IQ turned on, in a demo site. Ordinarily I’d have gone to SharePoint and used Copilot in SharePoint for all of this.
| What I asked for | What came back |
|---|---|
| List the libraries and lists on a site | Both lists returned in chat |
| An HTML dashboard page built from a sessions list, with card and calendar views and filters | A page in the Pages library, with the toggle and filters working, ready to publish |
| A project folder structure, planned first | A proposed structure, then created in the library once I approved it |
| A list schema for tracking projects | A suggested schema, then a list with all the agreed columns |
| Find the Code of Conduct and share it | Found in the policies library and shared view-only, with the email in the other person’s inbox |
The dashboard came from one prompt in chat, and the page landed in the site with its calendar toggle working. I’d normally start one of these HTML pages from SharePoint.
The share also survived a slightly wrong site name: it still found the right site and the document.
What a Copilot Studio agent can do
Then I connected Work IQ to a Copilot Studio agent with no instructions. I asked it to create a list called Test from Agent, then add ten items with random titles. It did both, and refreshing the list showed the items landing.
A blank agent changed content in a site, so check the defaults. Microsoft’s Copilot Studio documentation says all available workloads are selected by default and write operations are on by default. Selection works on whole workloads, so you can’t use it to pick individual sites.
Decide what should exist before you ask for it
When building takes a sentence, your time moves to the decisions. Which columns does this list actually need? How deep should the folders go? Who should get this file, and with what access? Those were always the real decisions, and now they’re most of the job.
Ask for the plan first. I had Copilot propose the folder structure and the list schema, and approved them before anything was created.
Read the approvals. The project list stopped for my sign-off on creating the list, updating it and adding columns, even after I told Copilot not to bother. Don’t count on seeing one every time.
Notice what it draws on. When I asked for a project list schema, it filled the examples with real projects from my own work data. Copilot sees what you can see, so anything you can reach can turn up in an answer or a draft.
Give agents Read before Act where you can. If you control the app or MCP client, request WorkIQ.Read and add WorkIQ.Act when a job needs it. In Copilot Studio, write operations are on by default, so narrow the workloads and use tenant policy.
Your structure, metadata and permissions now shape what agents can do in SharePoint, so I’d read why Copilot can’t find your SharePoint documents before pointing agents at a site.
How are permissions and cost handled?
Every call runs as the signed-in user, with delegated permissions, so an agent can only see and do what that person can already see and do in SharePoint. Two scopes separate reading from changing:
- WorkIQ.Read covers searching, reading and summarising. A read-only token doesn’t even expose the paths for actions that change data.
- WorkIQ.Act covers creating, updating and deleting, and includes the read access.
An admin enables Work IQ for the tenant, consents to the app and uses Work IQ tenant policy to allow specific SharePoint paths and actions. Agents with only the existing WorkIQAgent.Ask scope won’t see the SharePoint paths at all.
SharePoint tools are billed through Work IQ on a consumption basis using Copilot Credits, independent of Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing. Microsoft’s pricing note doesn’t separate Copilot Chat from agents, and I haven’t seen a per-operation price, so confirm what applies to you, run a pilot and watch your usage in the Microsoft 365 admin center before you estimate a monthly cost.
My verdict
SharePoint tools in Work IQ did everything I asked, from chat and from an agent, and I’d start testing them now if you’re responsible for SharePoint. It’s a preview, so try them in a test site first, then give write access to one job you can name.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from Copilot in SharePoint? The tools are the same, and Microsoft’s documentation says they offer the same capabilities. Copilot in SharePoint runs inside SharePoint, and SharePoint tools in Work IQ bring those abilities to Copilot Chat and to agents. For the original experience, see what Copilot in SharePoint can do.
Can an agent see more than the user can? No. Scopes don’t grant access beyond the signed-in user’s existing SharePoint permissions, and tenant governance policies still apply. An agent working for someone with overly broad access inherits that access, so permission clean-up still counts.
Should developers build on these instead of Microsoft Graph? It depends on the job. Microsoft says the exact paths and parameters evolve over time, and tells you to discover them at runtime instead of hard-coding them. They suit agents working out a task. For deterministic code that needs a stable contract, stick with a versioned API.
Can I limit an agent to one SharePoint site? Not through the workload selection in Copilot Studio, which only works on whole workloads. Permissions still apply, because the agent acts as the signed-in user, and Work IQ tenant policy lets admins allow specific SharePoint paths and actions. Microsoft notes the admin center controls for tools and MCP servers might not be available in your region yet, so check that first.
When will SharePoint tools in Work IQ be generally available? I haven’t seen a date. They’re in public preview, so expect paths and behaviour to change. Work IQ itself is generally available in Copilot Studio, but the SharePoint tools inside it are still preview.
