Microsoft Planner and Copilot: What You Can Actually Do Today

TL;DR: Copilot Chat can now look at your Planner tasks, create simple ones, and mark things complete. The built in Planner agent goes further and can create a whole plan for you, including turning a meeting into a full Planner board with buckets, tasks, and dates. Here is what each one does and when to reach for which.

Where does Copilot fit into your Planner workflow?

You already know your way around Planner. The boards are set up, the buckets make sense, and the tasks are where they belong. The friction is not the tool, it is the upkeep: checking what is due today, closing out what is finished, and building a fresh plan by hand every time a new project kicks off.

That is where Copilot earns its keep. Instead of clicking through a board, you can ask questions and give instructions in plain English, and Copilot does the board work for you. There are two ways to do this, and knowing the difference will save you a lot of frustration: the Planner connection inside regular Copilot Chat, and the separate Planner agent.

In this post you will learn what each one can do, what neither one can do yet, and the one that saves the most time: turning a meeting into a fully built Planner board.

If you would rather watch the full walkthrough, check out the video here: Microsoft Copilot + Planner: What Actually Works?

What do you need before you start?

You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. That is the one that gives you Work IQ, which is the part that lets Copilot see your Microsoft 365 content, including your Planner tasks. You do not need a special Planner license or any extra add on beyond that. If you can already ask Copilot about your email and files, you can ask it about your tasks.

What can Copilot Chat do with Planner today?

Think of the Planner connection in Copilot Chat as your quick daily check in. It is built for the small stuff you would otherwise click through a board to handle. Three things work really well:

• Ask what is on your plate. A prompt like "Look at my Planner board, anything I have to get done today?" pulls back the tasks assigned to you, what is due today, what is coming up, and what has quietly slipped past its due date.

• Mark tasks complete. "Mark the lunch and dinner tasks from last week as completed" cleans both of them up in one go. Copilot is forgiving about wording, so you do not have to phrase it perfectly.

• Create a simple task. "Add a task for me on Friday for meeting Chewy and Buddy for happy hour" creates the task and sets the due date to Friday for you.

That combination covers a surprising amount of daily task management. You get a clear read on your day, you close out what is done, and you capture the new thing before you forget it, all without leaving the chat window.

What can Copilot Chat not do with Planner?

This is where a few people get tripped up, because the Planner connection in Copilot Chat is deliberately narrow. It is built around create task, update task, and search task. Anything bigger than that gets a polite "sorry, I cannot do that." Right now that includes:

• Deleting tasks

• Creating a brand new plan or board

• Assigning or reassigning a task to another person

Microsoft has signaled that more of this is on the way, so it is worth trying again every few weeks. In the meantime, this is not a dead end, because there is a second option that already handles the bigger jobs.

What is the Planner agent, and how is it different?

The Planner agent is a built-in agent inside Copilot Chat, and it has been available for a while. Plenty of project management teams have never heard of it, which is a shame, because it does the next level work that the basic connection turns down.

To find it, click the plus button in Copilot Chat, choose to chat with an agent, and start typing Planner. Pick the Planner agent and you are in. Same chat window, same plain English prompts, more capability.

Give the agent a prompt like "Create a new plan named Copilot Training Class in Planner" and instead of declining, it proposes the plan, waits for you to save it, and then gives you a link straight into Planner. That one difference, being able to create the plan itself, opens the door to the good stuff.

Can Copilot turn a meeting into a Planner board?

Yes, and this is the part worth telling your team about. You have the meeting, you talk through who is doing what, and then somebody has to sit down afterward and turn all of that into a plan. The Planner agent can do that step for you.

In the agent chat, type your prompt and use a forward slash to point at the meeting you want, then ask for what you need. For example: "Review my meeting /Webinar Planning and create a Planner board from that meeting. Create the tasks and assign them to the proper person."

From there the agent reads the meeting, pulls out what was discussed and decided, and proposes a board. In the webinar planning example from the video, one conversation between two people turned into a plan with four buckets, three goals, and seven tasks, organized into delivery, content, promotion, and setup, with workback dates already filled in. You hit save, and the agent creates the board and hands you a link to open it.

The value here is not that it saves clicks. It is that all the rich context from the conversation, the things people casually agreed to do, makes it onto the board instead of evaporating the moment the meeting ends.

To see the whole thing happen start to finish, watch the walkthrough in the video.

What still needs a human touch?

Two things, and both are easy to plan around.

First, the Planner connection cannot assign people. The agent works around it nicely by writing the recommended owner into the notes field of each task, so you still have to open each task and set the real assignment. Annoying, but it is a couple of minutes of clicking rather than an hour of planning.

Second, the dates are assumptions. The agent builds a sensible workback schedule, but it is guessing at your timeline. Trust but verify is the rule here. Copilot is a very fast assistant, not the person in charge, so have someone walk the board once and confirm the dates and the scope line up with reality.

Which one should you use?

Use regular Copilot Chat for the quick one hitters during your day: what is due, mark it done, add a task. Use the Planner agent when you are actually building something: a new plan, a project board, or anything that starts from a meeting. Most people will end up using both, and it costs nothing to try the agent since it is already sitting in your Copilot Chat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a special license to use Planner with Copilot?

You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, which includes Work IQ and gives Copilot access to your Planner tasks. No extra Planner license or add on is required.

Can Copilot Chat create a new Planner plan?

Not in regular Copilot Chat, which is limited to creating, updating, and searching tasks. The built in Planner agent can create a new plan, propose its structure, and give you a link to open it in Planner.

Can Copilot assign Planner tasks to other people?

No. Neither Copilot Chat nor the Planner agent can set or change assignments today. The Planner agent puts the recommended owner in each task's notes field so you can apply the assignments yourself in a few clicks.

How do I find the Planner agent in Copilot Chat?

Click the plus button in Copilot Chat, choose to chat with an agent, type Planner, and select the Planner agent. It is a built in agent, so there is nothing to install.

Can Copilot build a Planner board from a meeting?

Yes, using the Planner agent. Point it at a meeting with a forward slash and ask it to create a Planner board from that meeting. It reviews the meeting, proposes buckets, goals, tasks, and workback dates, and creates the board once you approve it.

Can Copilot delete Planner tasks?

No. Deleting is not supported today, so you will need to remove tasks in Planner yourself. Copilot can mark them complete, which handles most cleanup situations.

Key Takeaways

• A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is all you need to use Planner with Copilot, because it includes the Work IQ access that connects Copilot to your tasks.

• Regular Copilot Chat handles day to day Planner work: reading your tasks, creating simple ones, and marking things complete.

• Copilot Chat cannot delete tasks, create new plans, or assign work to other people, and Microsoft has said more capability is coming.

• The built in Planner agent, found under the plus button in Copilot Chat, can create full plans and boards that regular chat cannot.

• The Planner agent can turn a meeting into a complete board, with buckets, goals, tasks, and workback dates pulled from what was actually discussed.

• Assignments still have to be applied by a person, and the agent helps by writing the recommended owner into each task's notes field.

• Always review the dates and scope a Copilot generated board proposes, because the timeline is an educated guess, not a decision.

Need a Hand?

If all the Copilot news feels like a lot to keep up with, you are not alone, and you do not have to figure it out by yourself. The team at PowerApps911 does training, consulting, and mentoring, including private sessions built to get an entire internal team excited and productive with tools like this. Reach out at by clicking the Contact Us button and let's build something awesome together.