What is Work IQ?
Work IQ is a workplace intelligence layer that enables agents to access and reason over organizational data, context, and tools. According to Microsoft, it continuously builds a semantic understanding across Microsoft 365 and external systems with built-in, permission-aware governance.
Work IQ combines four building blocks: chat for conversational intelligence, context for agent-ready, grounded inputs, tools for fast composable actions, and workspaces for long-running agent workflows. The layer supports high-volume, multistep interactions and works across frameworks and runtimes through standard protocols.
Work IQ is addressed through A2A, a remote MCP server, and a REST API. Usage is independent of Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and available through usage-based billing. Enterprise governance and cost management controls are available in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Core Features
- Chat: A2A for agent-to-agent collaboration and REST for web application interactions, enabling agents to delegate work and maintain continuity
- Context: Work IQ assembles and grounds context internally across organizational data, so agents don’t manage retrieval pipelines
- Tools: ten generic tools with direct access to mail, calendar, files, people, chat, and sites, plus runtime discovery of how data is structured
- Workspaces: persistent SharePoint Embedded working storage inside the tenant boundary for intermediate data and outputs
- Authorization through a small set of broad permissions plus a Rego-based policy engine for detailed, context-aware rules
- User-scoped execution: every request runs in the context of a specific user
- Observability and governance built into the platform: every tool invocation is logged and evaluated
Typical Use Cases
Agents with Microsoft 365 context
An agent accesses mail, calendar, files, people, chat, and sites through a handful of generic tools, without a separate integration for each data source.
Agent-to-agent collaboration
Through A2A, agents delegate work to other agents, maintain continuity across a task, and return fully processed responses.
Long-running workflows
Workspaces give agents a persistent working area in your own tenant where intermediate results are stored, reused, and handed off between agents.
Governance and cost control
Because every tool invocation is logged and evaluated, you get auditability, usage analytics, rate limiting, and compliance enforcement. Costs can be managed in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Benefits
- A small, stable tool surface instead of hundreds of individual operations
- No orchestration or retrieval work of your own: context is assembled and grounded internally
- Permission-aware governance with user-scoped execution
- Fine-grained policy enforcement through a Rego-based engine rather than rigid OAuth scopes
- Persistent working storage inside your own tenant boundary
- Independent of Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing, billed by usage
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports connecting Work IQ to your agent landscape: choosing the right protocol (A2A, MCP, or REST), designing the permission and policy structure, setting up workspaces, and monitoring usage and cost.
We describe how we connect agents to enterprise data in our articles CompanyGPT cloud stack on Azure and CompanyGPT with Microsoft Foundry, agents, and Bedrock. Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license for Work IQ?
No. Microsoft documents: 'Work IQ API access is independent of Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and available through usage-based billing.' For users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Work IQ is available in all Copilot experiences and agents and is subject to usage-based billing for custom and third-party agents. Users without a Copilot license are billed based on usage.
Which protocols expose Work IQ?
Work IQ provides endpoints for A2A (agent to agent), a remote MCP server, and a REST API. A2A suits collaboration between agents, REST suits web application interactions.
How many tools does the Work IQ MCP provide?
The Work IQ MCP collapses hundreds of operations into just 10 generic tools that provide direct access to Microsoft 365 data such as mail, calendar, files, people, chat, and sites, and the ability to act on that data. The tools function as simple verbs such as fetch, create, and update, while resource paths define what the agent is working with.
How is access secured?
Instead of hundreds of static OAuth scopes, the Work IQ MCP uses a small set of broad permissions to establish high-level access boundaries. A Rego-based policy engine enforces detailed, context-aware rules on every request, evaluating resource paths, request methods, user identity, and data content. Actions are user scoped: every request runs in the context of a specific user and only accesses what that user is allowed to see or do.
Where do agents store intermediate results?
Workspaces use SharePoint Embedded working storage and give agents a persistent space within your Microsoft 365 tenant boundary to manage intermediate data and outputs, supporting reliable task progression, reuse of results, and handoff across agents.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Azure (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Azure.
