Microsoft People Skills
Microsoft People Skills reads work people do in Microsoft 365. It writes a skills list onto each person's profile. Each person can confirm each skill, or say no to it. Microsoft bundles the feature into a Copilot or Viva licence, so it costs $0 extra, so far. Only skills a person confirms can be sent to other systems, such as an HR system.
It is a first look at skills for companies already paying for Copilot or Viva.
Your people work mainly inside Microsoft 365. Your company already holds a Copilot or Viva licence. You want first results within five days, with no new purchase.
Your work happens mainly in Jira, Salesforce or ServiceNow, not Microsoft 365. Your workforce is frontline staff who spend little time in Microsoft's tools. You need the AI's suggestions inside another system right away. Confirming skills takes real effort from your people. Microsoft says People Skills is not designed for promotion or pay decisions. Education and government licences are excluded from two of its three plans. A school, college or public body should talk to Microsoft about which plan fits its work.
$0 extra, so far. There is no separate licence to buy.
Comparing it with TechWolf? Read them side by side. The choice turns on whether those skills must reach your HR system, as TechWolf’s do and Microsoft’s do not.
It reads files, emails, chats and meetings to suggest skills
People Skills reads the documents, emails, chats and meetings people create in Microsoft 365. It runs AI over that work to guess their skills. It writes those skills onto each person's profile card in Microsoft 365. Each person can confirm a skill, or say no to it.
Your IT team switches People Skills on in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Most people get their first skills within about 48 hours. Microsoft puts the longest wait at five days. After that, it updates the list every 30 days. A profile follows what someone is doing now, not what they did when they joined.
Staff on standard business licences, called E3 or E5, wait longer for their first results. Your IT team can turn the AI on for them too. That needs the company to also hold Copilot licences. Even then, it can take up to 15 days for the first skills, then a refresh typically every 180 days. That last figure works out to about six months between updates.
You can add your own list of skills alongside Microsoft's. That list must hold between 20 and 5,000 skills, with each file under 100 MB. You can also add a file that matches skills to job roles. This lets you use your own names, not only the ones in Microsoft's built-in list.
You can also mark sensitive skills as restricted. The AI will never add a restricted skill to anyone's profile. That matters in regulated work. There, you may not want software deciding on its own that someone holds a skill.
Microsoft tracks how often people confirm or reject its suggested skills. It says it aims "for the system to be accurate in aggregate." That means it does not promise to be right for any one person. Microsoft cites an accuracy figure of around 80%+, reported by early adopters.
It costs nothing extra and fills profiles in on its own
Trying it needs no new contract
If your company already holds a Copilot or Viva licence, trying People Skills costs nothing extra. It only takes some time from your IT team. It shows how much Microsoft 365 already knows about your people. You can see that before you spend money on anything else.
The skills list is already there
The built-in list holds more than 16,000 skills. Microsoft says LinkedIn powers it. You do not need to build or buy your own skills list first. That alone saves your team real set-up time.
Nobody has to fill in a form
Many companies keep skills today in a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet only works if people remember to update it. People Skills builds a profile on its own. Employees only confirm or reject what it finds.
It can be switched off completely
Your IT team can remove People Skills from Microsoft 365 completely. That removes every skill it holds, too. Microsoft says most data deleted within 48 to 72 hours. This removal is permanent. Deleted data does not return if you set up People Skills again later.
It keeps unconfirmed skills inside Microsoft and reads only Microsoft 365
Only confirmed skills can leave Microsoft
The skills the AI works out are the main thing you get. Microsoft’s own rule is that only confirmed skills can be exported. Export runs through a test, or beta, version of Microsoft Graph. Graph is the system that connects Microsoft 365 to other software. Microsoft says its beta versions may change. It does not support them for everyday use. Your IT team’s work could need redoing.
The AI sees only Microsoft 365 work
If your engineers work mainly in Jira, the AI never sees that work. The same is true if your sellers work mainly in Salesforce. In Microsoft’s words, "we only infer skills from Microsoft 365 sources." You can still import skills already recorded elsewhere.
It is not built for pay or promotion calls
Microsoft says People Skills is not designed for promotion or pay decisions. The AI gives each person a list of skill names, not a skill rating. Microsoft calls that rating a "proficiency level." Proficiency levels are not described in Microsoft’s People Skills documentation. Base a pay or promotion call on something else.
The AI looks back only 90 days
The AI reads only recent Microsoft 365 work. In Microsoft’s words, "The AI inferencing engine does not consider user activity older than 90 days." Work older than 90 days, such as a finished project, drops out of sight. People can always add older skills themselves.
It works best for desk-based Microsoft 365 users
Microsoft warns the tool "may be limited" for people who spend little time in Microsoft 365 apps. A similar tool, TechWolf, saw the same gap at T-Mobile. Back-office staff confirmed their skills at about 70%. Only 32% confirmed skills company-wide. Most of that gap was in frontline retail and care.
A missing job title can lower its accuracy
Where a job title is missing, the system works one out before it works out skills. Microsoft warns the accuracy "could be lower" then. A missing title in Entra, your staff directory, can mean worse suggestions. You can upload your own titles instead.
Two of its three plans exclude education and government
People Skills comes in three Microsoft plans. One is a basic plan with standard Microsoft 365. The other two come with Copilot and with Viva. Only the Copilot and Viva plans include the AI that works out skills. Education and government licences are excluded from the plans that come with standard Microsoft 365 and with Copilot. The Viva plan carries no such exclusion.
Imported skills carry no label on the profile card
Skills you import get a label in the profile editor. That label reads "Imported by your organization." On the card itself, imported and inferred skills "aren’t visually differentiated." Nobody can tell which skills came from you and which the AI suggested.
The export limit matters most of these. It decides whether what the AI finds can reach your other systems.
The real cost is getting your people to confirm their skills
People Skills comes bundled with a Microsoft Copilot or Viva licence. There is no separate purchase order for the AI itself. Once you hold one of those licences, the tool adds $0 extra, so far. Without a Copilot or Viva licence, you must buy one first.
For companies that hold the licence, the bigger cost is time. Only confirmed skills can be exported. Someone in HR or IT has to run a campaign for this. Every employee needs to review their profile and confirm what is right. Only then can the skills be used in other systems. Budget time for it, not money.
You could also build this on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. See it as an agent
What should you ask before you switch it on?
- Will the skills export move off the beta Microsoft Graph endpoint before we rely on it? Good answer: A committed release date, given to us in writing.
- Which of your three plans includes People Skills for our organisation? Good answer: A plan name, in writing, that includes People Skills.
- What should we do for staff who spend little time in Microsoft 365 apps? Good answer: A named alternative, or a clear admission there is not one yet.
- Will imported skills ever get their own label on the profile card, not just in the editor? Good answer: A date for that change, or a straight no.
- Will you put the five-day maximum wait for first results into our contract? Good answer: The five-day figure, written into the service terms.
Start with TechWolf, your HR suite’s skills tool, or nothing more
The main alternative to Microsoft People Skills is TechWolf, which sends the skills it finds into Workday or SAP. The large HR systems also have their own skills features. They are Workday Skills Cloud, SAP Talent Intelligence Hub, Oracle Dynamic Skills and Cornerstone.
People Skills will not put skills into Workday, SAP or a workforce plan on its own. Workday and SAP can both take in skills from other systems. Connecting People Skills to either one means real project work for your IT team. Our skills intelligence guide shows which paid tools read real work. It also shows which ones only copy your HR records.
If you run one of these large HR or learning systems, look at its own skills tool first. Workday Skills Cloud suggests skills from job profiles, projects, courses and other Workday records. It can also work out a skill level from assessments and ratings. Some Workday contracts switch this on automatically. Others need a separate order form. Your own contract determines which applies. SAP's own skills tool needs no extra licence. It keeps a list of skills for each person. Most entries are self-rated, and topped up from job roles, review forms and courses. But the AI that suggests skills needs a separately purchased AI units licence.
Oracle's 2023 guide puts Dynamic Skills at no additional cost for Oracle Global HR customers, so far. Oracle's current contract terms list it alongside Global HR in the core subscription, but only "where applicable." Your own contract determines whether it covers this. Dynamic Skills records what each job needs, what people claim, and who backs that claim. It can also suggest a rating the employee is free to overrule. Cornerstone includes a ready-made skills library with its learning and talent tools. A skill Cornerstone suggests does not change a person's level. It counts only when the employee declares it, or marks it as one they are learning. Its Skills Architect and People Graph add-ons cost extra.
The third option is to buy nothing more. Switch on People Skills and see what it finds. Then decide whether to buy anything else. If your company's work happens mainly inside Microsoft 365, what it finds may be enough to settle the question.