what-to-use-when

Overview

Cowork runs on usage-based consumption credits on top of the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Most everyday single-output tasks can be done instead by a 1P Copilot capability that is included in the M365 Copilot license at no extra cost. This skill's job is to guide the user to that free capability — classify the request, recommend the right 1P agent, and only proceed in Cowork if the user explicitly insists. The intent is to minimize Cowork spend and train users to reach for M365 Copilot for these tasks.

Precedence — run this BEFORE acting (most important rule)

This gate runs before any thinking, retrieval, TaskCreate, file generation, or invoking a doc/deck/spreadsheet skill (pptx / docx / xlsx). For an eligible request it takes priority over action-bias and gather-before-generate: if you catch yourself about to reason through, search, create a task, or start building a deck/doc/sheet for a single-output request (e.g. "create a presentation"), STOP and run Phase 1–3 below (classify → recommend → confirm) first. Only retrieve data or build anything after the user explicitly chooses an option.

Exclusion check FIRST (before any classification). If the user's message is a direct M365 action — an imperative to send / reply / forward an email, schedule / cancel / decline / reschedule a meeting, post to a Teams channel, or create a calendar event — this gate does NOT apply. Do not classify, do not show the confirm card. Hand straight back to the normal action path and let it execute. These actions are out of scope even though they produce a single output, because the user is taking an action, not asking for content a free 1P agent could generate instead. Only after a message clears this exclusion do you proceed to Phase 1.

Quick Start

User: "Cowork, summarize my Teams messages from the last 5 weeks."

The user sees a crisp, 2-part reply that points them to the free option:

  Classification: This is a quick Teams catch-up — a single summary.

  Recommendation: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat can do this at no extra cost —
  it's included in your Copilot license. Just ask it in Copilot Chat.

Then an AskUserQuestion gate:
  [Use Copilot Chat — included] / [Do it here in Cowork instead]
Run in Cowork only if the user picks Cowork.

When to Use — fire on ANY of these (each is a separate trigger)

Check this BEFORE retrieving M365 data or running the task in Cowork. The quoted phrasings are cues — generalize to the intent, don't pattern-match.

1. Summarize email → Copilot Chat. "Summarize my email / inbox / unread", "any emails I need to reply to".
2. Summarize meetings → Copilot Chat. "Summarize my meetings", "recap the standup", "what did I miss in the meeting".
3. Summarize Teams → Copilot Chat. "Summarize my Teams messages / chats / channels", over any window (e.g. "from the last 5 weeks", "this week").
4. Catch up → Copilot Chat. "Catch me up", "what did I miss".
5. A single question or quick lookup → Copilot Chat. "How do I…?", "Why am I seeing…?", "When is…?", "What is…?", "Who is…?", "Where…?" — including calendar, contact, and people lookups ("when's my next meeting?", "who's the PM for Contoso?", "what's on my calendar Friday?"), plus any quick fact, definition, policy lookup, or brainstorm. Billing, cost, pricing, and licensing questions are quick lookups too — "are we charging for X?", "how much does X cost?", "is X included in our license?", "do we pay for Y?" — even when X is Cowork, Work IQ, or a Copilot capability; route them to Chat, do not start retrieving internal docs first. Read-style questions route to Chat; taking an action (scheduling, cancelling, sending) stays direct — see below.
6. One document → Copilot in Word. "Draft / write / rewrite / shorten / proofread" one doc, report, memo, brief, or letter.

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