SharePoint Skills in action

It was a privilege to be able to attend the M365 Conference in Orlando from 21st to 23rd April 2026. At the conference, one announcement that stood out was Skills in SharePoint, now in preview.

Why this matters

AI in SharePoint is already amazing but skills take it further by letting you shape how answers are produced for specific scenarios and get answers which otherwise would not have been possible.

For site owners and members, this can mean more reliable, task-focused responses.

Prerequisites

Before testing, I checked the following:

  • M365 Copilot license
  • AI in SharePoint enabled (previously known as Knowledge Agent)
  • Agent feature enabled

Agent Assets Feature

Baseline test without a skill

I started with the out-of-the-box AI experience using AI in SharePoint > Ask a question.

Question used: “list folders in this site”

The answer was incomplete. It returned only one folder, even though the site had multiple folders.

AI in SharePoint test result

Creating a custom skill

I then asked AI in SharePoint to generate a skill. This created a skill.md file in the Agent Assets library using the prompt below:

Create a skill to highlight folders created in the site and list the folders with who created them. Exclude Document Sets from the list.

skills

What impressed me most was the generated logic and references (including CAML-style thinking), similar to how I would approach this programmatically.

Result with the skill

After testing the generated skill, the output was accurate: it listed the correct folders and excluded Document Sets. Behind the scenes it is hooked up to engines which could run CAML query against sites which is impressive.

skills test result

---
name: "list-site-folders"
description: "Lists all folders across document libraries in the current SharePoint site, showing who created each folder and when. Excludes Document Sets from the results. Use when the user asks to see folders, find folders, or list folder creators."
---
# List Site Folders

## Purpose
When the user asks to see folders in the site, find folders, or list folder creators, this skill retrieves all folders across document libraries on the current SharePoint site and presents them with their creator. Document Sets are excluded.

## Steps
1. Discover all document libraries on the current site using `discover_sharepoint_lists` with `filterType` set to `userCreatedDocumentLibraries`.
2. For each library, retrieve folder items using `get_list_item_metadata` with a CAML query that filters for folders (`FSObjType = 1`) and excludes Document Sets (`ContentType` not equal to `Document Set`):
   
   <Query><Where><And><Eq><FieldRef Name='FSObjType'/><Value Type='Integer'>1</Value></Eq><Neq><FieldRef Name='ContentType'/><Value Type='Computed'>Document Set</Value></Neq></And></Where></Query>
   
   Set `rowLimit` to 100 and `fetchAll` to true.
3. For each folder found, retrieve the creator by calling `list_item_versions` with `top: 1` to get the earliest version. The editor of version 1.0 is the folder creator. Batch all items per library into a single `list_item_versions` call using the `items` array.
4. Present the results as a table with columns: **Folder Name**, **Library**, **Created By**, **Created Date**.
5. If no folders are found, inform the user.

## Example

**User:** "Show me all folders and who created them"

**Response:** A table listing each folder, which library it's in, who created it, and when.

| Folder Name | Library | Created By | Created Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 Reports | Documents | Jane Smith | Jan 15, 2025 |
| Marketing Assets | Brand Assets | Alex Lee | Mar 3, 2025 |

## Constraints
- Only scan user-created document libraries (skip system libraries).
- Always exclude Document Sets using the ContentType filter in the CAML query.
- Use `FSObjType = 1` to identify folders.
- If a library has many folders, note the count and display up to 100 per library.
- Use `list_item_versions` (not qna_on_list) to reliably get the Created By information.

Conclusion

Skills in SharePoint unlock a more powerful layer than standard out-of-the-box AI prompts for targeted business scenarios.

This is still early, and questions around governance and guardrails are valid. But based on this test, the capability is promising and practical for real site-level use cases.

References

Extend AI in SharePoint with skills