At Microsoft Ignite 2025, a quiet revolution was announced, one that could fundamentally change how we work with AI. It’s called Work IQ, and while it might sound like another buzzword in the ever-expanding AI lexicon, it’s anything but. Work IQ is the intelligence layer that gives Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI agents the ability to understand your organisation, not just what you do, but how you do it.
In this post, we’ll unpack what Work IQ is, when it’s arriving, how it works, and why it matters—especially for those of us in government and public sector roles or working with the Power Platform. Whether you’re a user, an admin, or a low-code builder, Work IQ is about to make your digital tools a whole lot smarter.
What Is Work IQ?
Think of Work IQ as the “brain” behind Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s not a standalone app or dashboard you open; it’s a behind-the-scenes intelligence layer that connects your organisation’s data, memory, and workflows to deliver context-aware AI experiences.
Here’s how it works:
- 🧠 Data: Work IQ connects to your Microsoft 365 data; emails, Teams chats, SharePoint files, meetings—and understands how they relate. It doesn’t just index them; it builds a semantic map of your organisation’s knowledge.
- 🧠 Memory: It learns your preferences, habits, and relationships. Who do you collaborate with most? What’s your writing style? What projects are you involved in? Work IQ builds a “work chart” that reflects how things actually get done.
- 🧠 Inference: This is where the magic happens. Work IQ connects the dots between data and memory to surface insights, suggest next steps, and help AI agents act like helpful colleagues rather than robotic assistants.
In short, Work IQ gives AI the kind of situational awareness that only a seasoned team member would have. It’s the difference between an assistant that fetches documents and one that knows which document you need, who wrote it, and what’s changed since you last looked.
When Will You Get It?
The good news? You might already have it.
Work IQ is being rolled out as part of Microsoft 365 Copilot. If your organisation has licensed Copilot, Work IQ is included—no extra cost, no separate installation. It’s already powering features like conversational memory in Copilot, which allows it to remember context across sessions and tailor responses to your work.
Microsoft is currently offering early access through its Frontier programme, with broader availability expected throughout 2026. For government and regulated industries, Work IQ is already FedRAMP High certified and available in Microsoft’s Government Community Cloud (GCC High), meaning it’s cleared for use with sensitive data in public sector environments.
What Does It Mean for Users?
For everyday users, Work IQ means Copilot just got a lot smarter.
- ✨ Personalised AI: Copilot can remember your past interactions, understand your role, and tailor its responses accordingly. Ask it to “summarise the latest on the budget review,” and it’ll know which project you mean, who’s involved, and where the relevant files are.
- ✨ Smarter Search: Work IQ enhances enterprise search by going beyond keywords. You can ask natural questions like “Find the slide deck about the renewable energy policy from last March,” and it’ll surface the right file—even if the title doesn’t match exactly.
- ✨ Proactive Help: Copilot can now anticipate your needs. If you’re working on a document, it might suggest relevant files or updates from recent meetings. It’s like having a colleague who’s always one step ahead.
- ✨ Security First: All of this happens within your existing Microsoft 365 security and compliance framework. Work IQ respects permissions, sensitivity labels, and data retention policies. You stay in control of what it knows and remembers.
What Does It Mean for Admins?
For IT leaders and administrators, Work IQ is a dream come true. It brings powerful AI capabilities without compromising governance or security.
- 🔐 Built-In Compliance: Work IQ operates within your existing Microsoft 365 environment. It doesn’t expose data users can’t already access, and it’s fully auditable. In government clouds, it even disables external web grounding by default.
- 🛠️ Agent Management: Microsoft’s new Agent 365 control plane lets you manage AI agents like directory objects—assign identities, apply access controls, monitor behaviour, and enforce policies.
- ⚙️ Faster Development: Work IQ removes the need to manually stitch together data sources or write complex logic. It provides a ready-made context layer that developers and citizen creators can tap into, accelerating solution delivery.
Real-World Example: Government Use Case
Let’s say you’re a policy analyst at a government agency. You ask Copilot, “What’s the latest on pandemic preparedness?” Instead of returning a generic web search, Copilot—powered by Work IQ—pulls together internal reports, Teams meeting notes, and emails from the past year. It identifies key contributors, summarises recent updates, and even suggests who to contact for more information.
All of this happens securely, within your agency’s compliance boundaries. If a document is classified or restricted, Copilot won’t surface it unless you have access. And in GCC High environments, Work IQ ensures that no data is sent to the public internet, maintaining strict data sovereignty.
Power Platform: Smarter Low-Code Apps
For Power Platform users, Work IQ is a game-changer.
- 🧩 Copilot App Builder: Announced at Ignite, this new tool uses Work IQ to inject organisational context into the apps you build. Create a budget approval app, and the built-in AI can automatically surface related files, identify approvers, and suggest next steps—without any extra configuration.
- 🤖 Power Virtual Agents: Build chatbots that understand your organisation. A helpdesk bot can recognise that a user’s question relates to a known issue discussed in Teams and route it to the right engineer.
- 🔄 Power Automate: Use Work IQ to trigger flows based on work patterns. For example, flag projects that haven’t had activity in 30 days, or alert managers when key documents are updated.
In all these cases, Work IQ provides the intelligence that makes your apps and bots feel like they “get” your organisation. It’s a huge leap forward for citizen development and enterprise automation.
Final Thoughts
Work IQ is more than a feature—it’s a foundation. It’s Microsoft’s answer to the biggest challenge in enterprise AI: context. By understanding how your organisation works, Work IQ enables AI to deliver insights, automate tasks, and support decisions in a way that feels natural, secure, and genuinely helpful.
Whether you’re a frontline worker, a Power Platform builder, or a government IT leader, Work IQ is set to transform how you interact with technology. It’s AI that doesn’t just work; it works with you.
So, if you’re already using Microsoft 365 Copilot, congratulations: your AI just got a whole lot smarter. And if you’re not on board yet, now might be the perfect time to explore what Work IQ can do for your organisation.
