Copilot Notebooks: What They Are and How UK Firms Can Use Them

Most Copilot conversations are disposable. You ask a question, get an answer and move on, and next week you start again from nothing. Copilot Notebooks is Microsoft's answer to that. It gives a project its own workspace, where the documents, notes and conversations stay together and Copilot works from the same context every time you come back.

It has also quietly become available to far more people. Notebooks started as a paid Copilot feature, but since June it has been rolling out to Copilot Chat users as well, and from late September it can pull in Power BI reports alongside your files. For professional services firms, that makes it one of the more practical Copilot features to get right.

Key takeaways

• A Copilot Notebook is a persistent workspace where Copilot answers questions and creates content grounded in the references you add.
• It is available to Microsoft 365 Copilot users and, since June 2026, is rolling out to Copilot Chat users at no extra cost. Licensed users get premium sources and capabilities.
• References can include Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, PDFs, OneNote pages, Outlook emails, meeting content, SharePoint and OneDrive folders, Loop and Copilot Pages content and web links.
• Power BI reports can be added as references from late September 2026 in public preview, with general availability from late October.
• Notebooks live in the Copilot app and in OneNote, and stay in sync between the two.

What a notebook actually is

Think of it as a project folder that Copilot has read. You create a notebook for a piece of work, such as a client engagement, a tender or a year-end, and add the material that matters. From then on, when you ask Copilot a question inside that notebook, it answers from those references rather than from whatever it can find.

That is the difference from normal Copilot Chat. In Chat, Copilot decides what is relevant each time. In a notebook, you have decided, and the context persists. Come back in three weeks and the sources, the earlier conversations and the drafts are all still there.

You can also give a notebook its own instructions, such as the tone to write in or the audience to keep in mind, so you are not repeating yourself in every prompt.

What you can put in it

The list of reference types has grown quickly through 2026:

• Word documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint decks and PDFs
• OneNote pages and entire OneNote notebooks
• Outlook emails
• Meeting content, including transcripts and notes
• SharePoint and OneDrive folders, which stay in sync so Copilot reasons over the latest versions
• Loop components and Copilot Pages
• Web links

Folder references are the underrated feature here. Point a notebook at a project folder and it keeps up as documents are added, rather than working from a snapshot. It also rewards a sensible file structure, which is one more reason to get SharePoint and OneDrive used properly and Teams channels organised so project files live in predictable places.

As with everything in Copilot, a notebook respects permissions. It can only use content the person asking already has access to.

Power BI reports: what changes

From late September 2026, Copilot Notebooks can take Power BI reports as references alongside files. Public preview rolls out from late September to mid-October, with general availability from late October to mid-November.

The practical effect is that Copilot's summaries, briefs and presentations in a notebook can be grounded in your firm's actual numbers, not just the documents about them. A partner preparing for a quarterly review could build a notebook with the management pack, the relevant client correspondence and the Power BI report behind the figures, and ask for a briefing that draws on all three.

There is no setup. If your firm already uses Power BI and Copilot, the option appears automatically. If you do not use Power BI, nothing changes. As always with numbers, check what Copilot tells you against the report itself before it goes anywhere important.

What you can do with a notebook

• Ask questions across everything. "What did we agree on fees, and where is that written down?" across emails, notes and the engagement letter.
• Get an overview. The overview page summarises the references and surfaces key themes, and refreshes as the notebook grows.
• Create deliverables. Ask for a Word draft, a PowerPoint deck or an Excel summary based on the notebook's content. Copilot also suggests documents it thinks would be useful.
• Make sense of complex material. Mind maps and study guides help a new joiner get up to speed on a client or a topic, and audio overviews give you a spoken summary to listen to on the move.
• Capture on the go. In the OneNote iPhone app you can record audio, photograph a whiteboard and type notes in one session, and Copilot turns it into a structured notebook page.

Where it lives

Notebooks has two connected experiences. The Copilot app gives you a lighter view for quick questions and creations. OneNote gives you the fuller workspace for deeper project work and collaboration. They stay in sync, and Open in OneNote takes you straight from one to the other.

Who gets what

Copilot Chat users can create notebooks, add files and emails, ask questions across them and use mind maps and study guides. Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users get premium sources and capabilities on top, including richer content creation and grounding in wider organisational context through Work IQ. In mixed teams, everyone can work in the same shared notebook. Accounts need a SharePoint or OneDrive licence to create notebooks. If you are unsure which tier your people are on, our Basic vs Premium breakdown explains the split.

Good first notebooks for a firm

• One per major client engagement, with the engagement letter, correspondence and working papers folder.
• A tender or proposal notebook, with the brief, previous proposals and case studies, to draft from.
• A new joiner notebook, with policies and key guides, so questions get answered from your own material.
• A regulatory change notebook, with the published guidance and your internal response, to track what needs to change.

Notebooks also pair well with Researcher. Run a Researcher report on a question, save it into the notebook and use it as a reference for the work that follows. Keeping everything for a piece of work in one place is also a simple fix for the hidden cost of context switching.

The honest summary

Notebooks is the Copilot feature that best matches how professional services work is actually done: over weeks, across many documents, with the same context needed again and again. It is now available well beyond licensed users, and the Power BI addition makes it more useful for anyone who works with numbers. Most firms have not set up a single notebook yet, which makes it an easy early win.

At IQIT we help UK firms get real value from Copilot, including hands-on training that sets up real notebooks for your own clients and projects. If you want your team working this way, get in touch.