What are Skills?
Skills are specialised capabilities that help Copilot give you better, more targeted responses. Think of them as different expertise areas – like having specialists on your team who excel at specific tasks.
Each skill packages together related functions and specific instructions that help Copilot focus on particular types of work. For example, the Web Search Skill enables Copilot to find current information online, whilst the Evo Docs Skill helps you search through your uploaded Collaborate documents.
When you use a skill, Copilot focuses its response on that particular type of output, whether that's searching the web for current information, analysing documents, or helping with product-specific tasks.
Getting started with Skills
Auto Skill Selection (recommended)
The easiest way to use Skills is to let Copilot choose for you – and it does this automatically by default.
Simply ask your question naturally, and Copilot will:
Understand what you're trying to achieve
Select the most appropriate skill from those available
Use that skill to give you the best possible answer
You don't need to do anything – just ask your question and Copilot handles the rest.
Understanding why a skill was chosen
Curious about why Copilot picked a particular skill? Look for the skill indicator in Copilot's response and click the arrow next to it. This shows you Copilot's reasoning for choosing that specific skill.
This transparency helps you understand how Copilot is working and can help you phrase future questions even more effectively.
Choosing a skill manually
Sometimes you might want to target a specific skill yourself. You can select a skill in several ways:
Starting a new conversation
When you open Copilot for a new topic, you'll be prompted to pick a skill before you begin.
During a conversation
You can switch skills mid-conversation or target a specific skill for your next question using the skill selector in the text input area.
Managing Auto Skill Selection
Open the skill selector from the text input, and you'll find the option to enable or disable Auto Skill Selection. Most users find leaving it enabled gives the best experience, but you have full control if you prefer to choose manually.
Which approach should I use?
For most day-to-day work, we recommend leaving Auto Skill Selection enabled. It's designed to understand your intent and pick the right skill automatically, saving you time and effort.
Manual selection is useful when you know exactly which skill you need, or when you want to ensure a specific type of response.