Microsoft 365 Copilot: Ground Chat in SharePoint Lists using Context IQ

Originally posted by Microsoft Feb 23, 2026 Uncategorized 0 Comments

Microsoft 365 Copilot will allow users to search for and insert SharePoint Lists into chat prompts via Context IQ, enhancing response accuracy. This feature, enabled by default, rolls out worldwide from late March to early April 2026 and requires a Copilot license with no admin action needed.

Microsoft 365 Copilot will allow users to search for and insert SharePoint Lists into chat prompts via Context IQ, enhancing response accuracy. This feature, enabled by default, rolls out worldwide from late March to early April 2026 and requires a Copilot license with no admin action needed.

Introduction

Microsoft is enhancing Microsoft 365 Copilot by allowing users to search for, select, and insert SharePoint Lists directly into their prompts in Copilot Chat to ground their conversations. When writing Copilot prompts in the chat box, users will be able to search for and select SharePoint Lists from Context IQ by either typing forward slash “/” or selecting Add work content from the Plus menu (+). This helps ground prompts in contextually relevant data, improving the accuracy and usefulness of Copilot responses.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 422308.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide): We will begin rolling out late March 2026 and expect to complete by early April 2026.

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected:

• All users of Microsoft 365 Copilot with access to SharePoint Lists.
• A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use this feature.

What will happen:

What you can do to prepare:

No admin action is required before or after rollout.

However, you may want to:

• Notify users about this change.
• Update internal documentation if you reference Copilot or Context IQ capabilities

Learn more: Using Context IQ to refer to specific files, people, and more in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat | Microsoft Support

Compliance considerations

• Users will begin seeing their recent SharePoint Lists in Context IQ under the Sites tab by either typing forward slash “/” or selecting Add work content from the Plus menu (+) when writing prompts in chat.

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• Only Lists the user has access to will be surfaced.
• This feature is enabled by default.
• No impact to tenant admins or existing configurations.

Question	Answer
Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with or provide access to customer data?	Context IQ extends Microsoft Copilot’s AI-assisted prompt creation by allowing users to search for and reference SharePoint Lists they already have access to. The AI uses user-selected lists to ground responses and does not expand data access beyond existing permissions.
Does the change provide end users any new way of interacting with generative AI?	Users can directly search for and insert SharePoint Lists into Copilot prompts through Context IQ, enabling a new, more structured way to guide generative AI using enterprise data.

Message ID: MC1235746