What are Copilot skills in PowerPoint? Save a repeat task and check the result.

What Microsoft says a skill is

Microsoft’s support page describes a skill as a reusable, instruction-based capability that gives Copilot domain expertise, workflows and task-specific guidance for completing repeatable tasks. Copilot in PowerPoint includes built-in skills, and you can add your own.

Microsoft also says that if you do not see Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or OneNote, it might not be included in your Microsoft 365 subscription or available under your organisation’s settings. If skills are missing, ask whoever manages your account before looking for a fault in the app.

How to use one

• Open Copilot in PowerPoint and select the + menu in the prompt field.
• Select Choose skills. The list shows built-in skills and any custom skills you have uploaded.
• Pick a skill, or type its name as an @mention in your prompt, for example @copyedit-this-presentation (Microsoft’s own example).
• To control which skills Copilot uses by default, open the Settings menu and select Manage skills. Microsoft says turning a skill off there stops Copilot from using it automatically.

Two ways to make your own

Recording: in Manage plugins & skills, choose Add skill and then Record Skill, do the task in your presentation, select Stop, then review and edit the generated name, description and instructions before you select Upload. Microsoft says custom skills are stored in your personal Skills folder in OneDrive.

Writing: a skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file with a name and description at the top and instructions below. Microsoft lists Add skill in Manage skills, a form-based Add skill option and copying the folder to your OneDrive skills folder as upload routes. It says image files such as PNG and PDF, and nested ZIP folders, are not currently supported.

Choose a task worth saving

Microsoft says a recorded skill should capture one clear, repeatable outcome at a time, and lists formatting, table cleanup, chart styling and logo placement as good candidates. A recording must be shorter than 10 minutes, and you should wait for Copilot to finish and for the changes to appear in the presentation before you stop. Voice narration, actions in other applications and Copilot actions still in progress are not captured.

A fictional example: a team lead puts the same three steps on every weekly status deck: shorten each slide title to one line, align the tables and move the logo to the bottom right. That is one repeatable outcome with a visible result, so it suits a skill. “Make the deck persuasive” does not.

Check what it changed

• Run a new skill on a copy of a deck first, not the only version.
• Compare before and after slide by slide. Look for shortened titles that changed meaning, numbers that moved and text that was deleted.
• Read the skill’s saved instructions after recording. A recording can include steps you did only once.
• Check anything sourced from elsewhere, such as figures or claims, against the original rather than against Copilot’s wording.
• If a skill misfires, turn it off in Manage skills and note what went wrong in the instructions before using it again.

Limits of this guide

This guide covers PowerPoint only and reports what the two Microsoft pages say on 12 October 2026; menu names, limits and rollout can change, and we did not test the feature ourselves. Skills may also exist in other Microsoft 365 apps, but we have not confirmed how they work there. Before sharing a skill with colleagues, check your organisation’s policy on shared instructions and stored files.

Use this next

• Run an AI experiment you can explain afterwards
• Write a brief before you write a prompt
• Check an AI summary against its source