Microsoft has confirmed that People Skills a new intelligent data layer inside Microsoft 365 Copilot and Viva will reach general availability at Build 2025, with a dedicated Skills agent rolling out in June. The feature automatically infers employees’ skills from day-to-day work signals (meetings, documents, chats and more) and turns that insight into actionable recommendations across Copilot Chat and Viva apps.
What Exactly Is People Skills?
Think of People Skills as a dynamic “skills graph” for your organisation. It maps user activity to a built-in, customisable skills taxonomy (aligned to LinkedIn’s framework) and creates personalised skill profiles for every employee. The forthcoming Skills agent lets anyone search for experts, assemble project teams, or build targeted development plans, all without leaving the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Why HR Should Care?
For HR leaders, People Skills means instant, data-driven visibility into the real capabilities hiding inside your workforce. Instead of rummaging through outdated spreadsheets or relying on self-reported résumés, you can surface internal experts in seconds, pinpoint organisation-wide skills gaps, and launch precisely targeted upskilling programmes via Viva Learning. You strengthen engagement and retention while shrinking recruitment timelines by showing employees clear growth paths and matching them to stretch projects that fit their proven abilities.
Why IT Should Care
From an IT perspective, People Skills delivers unified data governance and rapid deployment without extra infrastructure. The service honours Microsoft Graph permissions, so sensitive profile information stays inside your compliance boundaries; you enable it through the Microsoft 365 admin centre with just a few clicks. Because the capability is bundled with existing Microsoft 365 Copilot and Viva licences, it drives additional value at no extra cost while reducing dependence on third-party skills databases that require ongoing maintenance.
Business Impact for Australian SMBs
Australian businesses battling talent shortages can tap hidden expertise, shorten hiring cycles, and allocate staff faster, all while keeping data within local Azure regions for sovereignty and low-latency peace of mind.
How to Prepare Now
Clean up Azure AD profile fields (titles, departments, locations) to give the system quality ground truth, review the built-in skills taxonomy and map any industry-specific competencies, align HR-IT governance on who can edit profiles, and plan change-management sessions so managers know how to use the new Skills agent for staffing and career conversations.
Next Steps with Kloudify
Kloudify’s Microsoft specialists can audit your Microsoft 365 environment for People Skills readiness, customise your skills taxonomy, and roll out the Skills agent with adoption training for both HR and IT teams.
Ready to unlock talent intelligence inside Microsoft 365 Copilot? Book a free readiness call to get started before the Build 2025 launch window closes.