Microsoft Copilot · Practical walkthrough

Check whether Copilot answered from your work file or the web

You ask Copilot what your weekly report must include and get a confident list of five sections, a traffic-light score and a Friday deadline. Your team's template has three sections and no deadline.

Task by Task11 min read + practice

What you'll make

an answer about one of your team’s documents, with the passage that supports it and the version it came from.

What you'll need

the Microsoft Copilot app with a Microsoft Copilot add-on licence for Work IQ (without one, you can attach the file instead), the name and version of the document you mean, access to that document, and about ten minutes.

Example result.

Answer: The weekly update needs three sections: Completed work, Next week and Decisions needed. Mark unconfirmed dates clearly.
Source: Reporting note v3, "Weekly updates" section.
Not in the source: where the template is stored.

Work IQ is what lets Copilot read your work: your emails, files, chats, meetings and connected apps, limited to what you can already open. With it off, Copilot answers from anything you attach, the public web and your profile, but not your Microsoft 365 work data.

1. Decide where the right answer lives

Before you type, ask which source can actually answer the question.

“Which sections does our weekly template require?” needs your team’s current template.
“What is Copilot’s work-data control called?” needs Microsoft’s documentation.

If several similar files exist, find the current one and its version or date. Copilot can only use files you have permission to open.

Why this works: a general web answer about “good weekly reports” can be sensible and still not be your team’s rule.

What you should see: one named document and version for a work question, or “public docs” for a product question.

2. Set Work IQ for the question

In the Microsoft Copilot app, the Work IQ button sits at the top left of the Chat screen. It replaced the separate Work and Web tabs. With the add-on licence it’s on by default.

On: Copilot can use your work data alongside attachments and the web.
Off: Copilot ignores your Microsoft 365 work data but still uses attachments and the web.

For a question about your team’s document, keep Work IQ on, or attach the document directly. Attaching works with Work IQ on or off and makes the source unambiguous.

Why this works: the button decides whether your work files are even in reach, so check it before blaming the answer.

What you should see: Work IQ on, or the file attached to your message.

3. Ask with the exact source named

Answer this using only [document and version]: [question]. Name the source you actually used and quote the short passage that supports the answer. Keep any conditions in the source. If you can't access it, or it doesn't answer the question, say so. Don't fill the gap with general web advice or an older version.

[document and version] is the file’s name and version, such as “Reporting note v3”; [question] is what you need to know.

Why this works: naming the version narrows the search, the quote gives you something to compare, and the fallback rule stops a plausible general answer standing in for your organisation’s.

What you should see: an answer, a short quoted passage and a reference you can open.

4. Open the reference and compare

Click the reference. Check it’s the right file and version, then read the passage. Does “required” in the answer match the source? Has a condition, such as “mark unconfirmed dates”, survived? Is anything the source doesn’t say, like a location or deadline, still marked unknown?

Why this works: Work IQ being on doesn’t prove a particular file was found or read. The reference does.

What you should see: the passage in the file matching the answer, with nothing added.

Check the result

The reference opens the document and version you named.
Every requirement in the answer appears in the quoted passage.
Conditions from the source are still there.
Anything the source doesn’t cover is marked unknown, not filled in.

The usual failure: source substitution. Copilot can’t find or can’t open the current file, so it answers from the web or an older version. The answer still sounds like your organisation’s. Spot it by checking the reference: no reference, a web page, or a file with an older version number.

That answer uses [wrong source] instead of [current source]. Use only this passage from [current source]: [passage]. Answer the question again, keep its conditions, and say what the passage doesn't cover. Don't claim you read a file you couldn't open.

[wrong source] is what it used, such as “Reporting note v2”; [current source] is the document you meant; [passage] is the relevant text, copied from the file.

Worked example: the version that dropped a section

Fictional example. The team’s current note, and an older one still in the same folder:

Reporting note v3 (current): Every weekly update must include Completed work, Next week and Decisions needed. Mark unconfirmed dates clearly. The template folder location isn't specified here.
Reporting note v2 (older): Weekly updates include Completed work and Next week.

With Work IQ on and the question “What must our weekly update include?”, Copilot answered “Completed work and Next week”, citing Reporting note v2.

The failure. A real work file, but the old one. It agrees with part of v3, which makes it easy to accept. “Decisions needed” is missing.
The repair. The repair prompt with “Reporting note v2”, “Reporting note v3” and the v3 passage gave all three sections, kept “mark unconfirmed dates clearly” and said the folder location isn’t specified.
What stays separate. If you want suggestions to improve the template, ask afterwards and label them as proposals. A traffic-light score from the web is an idea, not a requirement.

Task kit for this job: Download (ZIP) · Reusable instructions

Go deeper

Optional training: Split a mixed question by source

A briefing often needs both kinds of source: your team’s facts and public product or market information. Split it into questions and note the source each one needs before asking. Keep the source beside each important claim in the result. A public page can explain what a feature does; it can’t tell you whether your organisation has switched it on. Choose where an AI answer should come from covers the planning in more detail.

Optional training: Without the add-on licence

Copilot Chat without the add-on is mainly web-grounded. You can still give it your work content by pasting text, uploading files or referencing supported files, and in Outlook it can draw on your mail, calendar and meetings. For a team document, attaching the current file is the most reliable route, and the source-check prompt in step 3 works the same way.

Optional training: When colleagues get different answers

Different licences, permissions or settings mean colleagues can get different answers to the same question. Compare which source each answer cited before anyone widens access to make them match. Work out why Copilot gives two people different answers has the full check.