What is Microsoft IQ?

At Microsoft Build 2026 (June 4, 2026), Microsoft announced Microsoft IQ — a context layer now generally available across GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and Copilot Studio. IQ is designed to ground AI agents in both public and enterprise information [citation:8].

The Four IQ Components

Work IQ

Draws on Microsoft 365 data and other organizational systems including emails, documents, meetings, and external sources. Work IQ APIs provide programmatic access to this data layer [citation:8].

Fabric IQ

Adds a semantic layer over structured business data, enabling agents to understand and query enterprise databases intelligently [citation:8].

Foundry IQ

Designed to connect enterprise knowledge with live web information, grounding agents in both internal and external sources [citation:8].

Web IQ

A model-agnostic web search stack for AI agents designed to return relevant passages quickly for systems that need live information from the web [citation:8].

Why This Matters

AI agents are only as good as the information they can access. Microsoft IQ provides a unified, governed layer for grounding agents in both internal enterprise data and external web information — without managing multiple separate data connections.

Pricing

Included with GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and Copilot Studio subscriptions.

Pros

  • Unified context across enterprise and web sources
  • Deep Microsoft 365 integration
  • Programmatic APIs for custom agent development
  • Model-agnostic Web IQ for any agent
  • GA available immediately

Cons

  • Requires Microsoft ecosystem subscriptions
  • Work IQ limited to Microsoft 365 data
  • Web IQ may require additional configuration
  • Enterprise-focused — not for individual developers

Who Should Use It?

Perfect for: Enterprises building AI agents, Microsoft 365 customers, and developers using GitHub Copilot or Foundry.

Verdict

Microsoft IQ addresses a critical challenge for enterprise AI agents: grounded, governed access to both internal and external information. The four-layer approach (Work, Fabric, Foundry, Web) is comprehensive [citation:8].

Rating: 4.4/5 - The context layer enterprise agents need.