Microsoft Work IQ Goes GA: The 5-Step Builder Plan for the First Week
Microsoft Work IQ went generally available on June 16, 2026 — wiring programmable AI access into every Microsoft 365 customer on Earth. Three protocols at launch: REST, MCP, and A2A. Copilot Credits billing built in. New governance model. This is not a minor API release — it is the moment that the Microsoft 365 data graph becomes accessible to external agents and applications in a standardised, governed way. Here is the concrete plan for the first week.
What Work IQ Actually Is
Work IQ is best understood as the Microsoft 365 brain exposed as governed APIs. It gives authorised applications programmatic access to the organisational intelligence inside M365 — emails, calendar, documents, meetings, Teams conversations, and the relationship graph between people and content — through three standardised protocols.
This is different from the Microsoft Graph API, which has existed for years. Graph gives you raw data access. Work IQ gives you reasoned, contextualised signals — not just "here are the emails in this thread" but "here is what this thread is about, who the key participants are, and what the outstanding action items are." The intelligence layer is built in.
The Three Protocols at GA
- REST: Standard HTTP API calls. Easiest entry point for any application that can make web requests. Access M365 signals synchronously — suitable for apps that need specific data points on demand.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol): Anthropic's open protocol for AI model context. Work IQ's MCP endpoint lets AI agents access M365 context natively — a Claude Code agent or any MCP-compatible model can pull Work IQ signals as tool outputs without custom integration code.
- A2A (Agent-to-Agent): Microsoft's protocol for agents communicating with other agents. Work IQ's A2A endpoint lets your external agents invoke Copilot agents inside M365 and receive structured responses — enabling hybrid agent architectures where your agent orchestrates Microsoft's agents.
The Pricing Reality: Copilot Credits
Work IQ does not require a separate subscription. Access is included for organisations with M365 Copilot licences, consumed through Copilot Credits. The credit model is important to understand: credits are consumed per API call, with heavier reasoning tasks consuming more credits than lighter data retrieval calls. There is no separate Work IQ billing line — it appears in your existing Copilot Credits consumption reporting.
For finance teams: if your organisation has M365 Copilot at scale, Work IQ usage will show up in your existing Copilot Credits burn rate. Build a usage estimate before production deployment.
The 5-Step Builder Plan
- Step 1 — Tenant admin enables Work IQ: Nothing works until your M365 tenant admin enables Work IQ in the admin centre under Copilot settings. This is a governance decision, not a technical one — your admin needs to review the data access policy before enabling. Do this first.
- Step 2 — Choose your protocol: REST for standard web apps, MCP for AI agent integration, A2A if you need your agent to invoke Copilot agents inside M365. You can use all three — they are not mutually exclusive.
- Step 3 — Register your application: Work IQ uses Azure AD application registration for authentication. Register your app, configure the required scopes (organisational data access requires explicit admin consent), and test token acquisition before writing any Work IQ API calls.
- Step 4 — Start with read-only use cases: Your first Work IQ integration should be read-only — pulling context, not triggering actions. Meeting preparation agents, document search, or relationship graph queries are low-risk starting points that let you validate the integration without write permission risks.
- Step 5 — Implement credit consumption monitoring before scale: Add Copilot Credits consumption logging to your application from day one. You want to see credit burn rates before you scale to production — not after your first monthly billing report.
Three Honest Catches
- M365 Copilot licence required: Work IQ is not available on standard M365 licences. Your organisation must have M365 Copilot — which is a significant additional per-seat cost — before Work IQ APIs are accessible.
- Documentation is still maturing: GA does not mean the documentation is complete. Expect some gaps between what the docs say and what the API does in edge cases, particularly for A2A protocol scenarios. Budget time for experimentation.
- Rate limits are not yet published for all endpoints: Microsoft has published general rate limit guidance but not endpoint-specific limits. Test rate limit behaviour in a staging environment before building production retry logic.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft Work IQ is now GA — programmatic access to M365 organisational intelligence through REST, MCP, and A2A protocols
- MCP support means any MCP-compatible AI agent can access Work IQ context natively, without custom integration code
- Copilot Credits billing is built in — no separate subscription required, but usage adds to your existing Copilot Credits consumption
- Tenant admin must enable Work IQ first — this is a governance decision that requires data access policy review before technical work begins
- Start with read-only use cases and implement credit consumption monitoring before scaling to production
