Org-managed Skills in Copilot Chat

Microsoft is rolling out Skills in Copilot Chat, giving users a way to teach Copilot how to handle specific tasks the way they prefer.
A skill is a set of task-specific instructions, and it can also include supporting files or scripts that Copilot needs to complete the job. Once a skill exists, Copilot can use it automatically whenever a request fits, which helps users get more accurate and consistent results from their everyday workflows.

Skills in Copilot Chat are available for Copilot Basic and Premium users. Basic users can use skills, but they cannot create or upload their own. If they try, Copilot informs them their license plan does not allow it.

Based on your license, you're using Copilot Chat (Basic), and your account does not currently have the required entitlement to create or upload your own skills.
_Copilot

There are two types of skills:

• User-managed skills
  Individual (Copilot Premium) users create their own skills, edit them, upload skills they already have, and share them with colleagues. The creator (skill owner) maintains and controls the skill. Sharing user-managed skills with other users is not yet supported for organizations that use Information Barriers.
• Org-managed skills
  An organization prepares org-wide skills or publishes third-party skills. Users can install these skills or just use them if the organization preinstalls them. The organization updates and improves them centrally. Org-managed skills and published third-party skills are supported for organizations that use Information Barriers.

A skill prepared for Copilot Chat can be used in Cowork, and skills provided by an organization are available in both.

In my demo case, Copilot created an org-managed skill to draft Viva Engage posts from a provided link. Users can always adapt the text, but don’t have to start from scratch.

I uploaded the skill to the Tools Registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center and published the skill to eligible user accounts. You need to be an AI Administrator or Global Administrator. Org-wide skill publishing can take up to 24 hours (including caching).
In my sample, remember the skill's display name: it is as expected (and defined in the skills manifest), but it’s not the same in Copilot Chat, as you will see in my demo below.

An org-managed skill is now part of the new Plugins directory, in the section “Built by your org”. Check the display name: it’s still correct.

If installed, users have two options.

1. A newly added skill is enabled by default, so it's part of every new chat conversation. Users can manage this in the Plugins directory: select all the added plugins to see the list.

2. Users who prefer more control can turn off automatic use and @mention the skill in Copilot Chat or use Context IQ to find it (select + > More > Chat with agents and skills).

Unfortunately, the org-managed skill no longer shows the expected display name (it now shows the internal short name), even though the name in the skills manifest is correctly defined and appears everywhere else as expected. I've asked Copilot several times to fix the display name, but I get the same result every time.

The skill prepares the text, which users can modify. Then you may notice the recent chats on the left now show the expected skill display name.

So I don’t understand why Copilot Chat still shows a mix of the internal skill name and the display name. And no, it’s not a caching issue. I suspect it’s a development bug, probably created by AI.