Ask five people on a team to use Copilot to produce the same thing, such as a proposal from a template, and you'll get five different results. Then someone probably has to spend the afternoon aligning the different versions of the proposal, and the time that Copilot originally saved has been lost, or maybe try and get Copilot to do that part as well.
A process that lives in people's heads, runs slightly differently every time.
Which Copilot Should You Use?
But before trying to fix the process, check that you are using the right tool to start with. There are a lot of Copilots, make sure you're using the right one for the right task. Ask yourself some basic question first.
First: am I changing the content of a file, or the SharePoint around it?
- The content of a Word or Excel file: use the Copilot in that app. It's built for what's inside the file.
- The SharePoint around it: use Copilot in SharePoint. In my testing it's the one for building pages and dashboards, setting up structure and filling in metadata.
Then three questions to narrow it down:
- Is the information in other files I can point to? Use Copilot Chat and reference them.
- Do I need the same process to run the same way, for other people? Use a skill, started from a template prompt. This is where most teams get stuck.
- Does it need to call tools or run without a person starting it? That's an agent.
The rule I use: a skill tells Copilot how to do the work. An agent lets it do things outside the conversation, such as send an email, update a list or trigger a flow.
Copilot in SharePoint
In my eyes, Copilot in SharePoint is more about SharePoint than the content. Though obviously you can use it to update metadata and create pages. It's easy to assume that Copilot in SharePoint is just another way to edit your documents. In practice it's more about the things around them. Recently when I asked it to edit a document's content, the replace was declined, so it made a copy of the document instead, and made the changes in the new version.
If the job is changing what's inside a Word or Excel file, the Copilot in that app is the better fit. If the job is organising, describing or presenting what's stored in SharePoint, that's where Copilot in SharePoint earns its place.
Why Wording Matters More Than You'd Think
In my testing I ran the same skill with exactly the same wording twice. The second run reviewed about three times as much content and produced a different layout. Nobody had changed a thing. If identical wording gives different results, different people phrasing it their own way will make it worse.
The fix has two halves:
- The skill sets out what happens. The steps, the inputs it needs, the order of the sections, and what to do when something is missing. The more you name exactly, the less Copilot decides for itself. When I replaced open phrasing with fixed answers, the results came back almost word for word identical.
- The template prompt sets out how it starts. A standard prompt that names the skill and gives the inputs in a fixed shape, so nobody has to invent their own.
Where to Keep the Template Prompts
Copilot has a Prompt Gallery, where prompts can be saved and shared with a team. They appear under a Teams section, so a team can keep one agreed prompt for each process, and everyone starts from the same place.
A short note at the top of the template document works too, if your team doesn't use the gallery.
Standing context helps as well. A SHAREPOINT.md file in the site's Agent Assets library is read before every prompt. It's the right place for things like brand colours, naming conventions and what the site is for, so they apply to every skill without anyone retyping them.
A Worked Example: The Proposal Template
For a proposal that combines user input with existing material, I'd pin down:
- The inputs someone must provide: client, scope, budget, deadline.
- The source documents to use, named exactly.
- The sections, in a fixed order.
- What to do when an input is missing: say so, don't guess.
- A fixed prompt that starts it:
Use the proposal skill. Client: ... Scope: ... Budget: ...
If the finished proposal then needs to be filed, sent for approval or logged somewhere, that's the point where it becomes an agent.
Common Questions
Do I need an agent for this?
Only if the process has to take actions or run on its own. A skill plus a template prompt covers many "same steps every time" work.
Why do results differ even with the same prompt?
Because anything the instructions leave open gets worked out fresh each time. Name it exactly and it reduces the amount of change that occurs.
Should I use Copilot in SharePoint to edit my Word documents?
For the content, the Copilot in Word is the better fit. Copilot in SharePoint is more about the SharePoint side: pages, dashboards, structure and metadata.
Can the whole team share the prompts?
In Prompt Gallery, yes, across a team. Or, just add it somewhere the team all has access to.