Copilot Notebooks in M365: how to use the AI notebook

You are starting a new project and the first thing you do is collect information: an email from the client, three PDFs on SharePoint, research articles from the web, your own notes in OneNote. After two days you reach the point where you are no longer sure what you have already read and which source led to which insight. You no longer know where the document with the summary lives either.

I know this from practice and I know a solution: Copilot Notebooks in Microsoft 365. The tool combines a notebook with AI assistance and your own material. You add sources, ask questions and have drafts created, all in one place, without switching back and forth between five apps.

In this post I show you what Copilot Notebooks are, what was added in 2026 and how you can get started right away.

What are Copilot Notebooks and where do you find them?

Copilot Notebooks are AI notebooks, not to be confused with classic OneNote notebooks or Microsoft Loop. You fill a notebook with your own sources and ask targeted questions about them. The answers are based on those sources.

You find Copilot Notebooks in two places:

• In the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, for example at m365.cloud.microsoft/chat, under Notebooks in the left sidebar.
• In OneNote: «Copilot Notebooks» sits at the top of your notebook list (Microsoft Support).

Licence: according to Microsoft, Notebooks are available to people with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and also to people with Copilot Chat. To create a notebook you also need a SharePoint or OneDrive licence. Some features, such as mind maps, are limited to certain licences. 📓

Step 1: Create a new notebook and add sources

Create a new notebook and give it a meaningful name, for example «Client project Mustermann Ltd» or «Market research AI tools 2026».

Now comes the decisive step: adding sources. In the Copilot app you select Add references at the top of the Content pane, in OneNote the plus button next to References. According to Microsoft, these sources work: 📎

• Files: upload, drag and drop or pick from OneDrive, such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF and text files
• Folders and sites: OneDrive folders, SharePoint libraries and folders as well as whole SharePoint sites
• Web pages: publicly accessible pages via link. Content behind a sign-in or paywall does not work
• OneNote pages, Loop and Pages files

Microsoft says the references stay current as your data changes. With a Copilot licence you can add more than 300 references. Copilot uses the first 300 for its answers. With Copilot Chat it is up to 50.

Step 2: Ask questions and have things summarised

Once your sources are loaded, you can get going in the notebook chat. Ask Copilot direct questions that relate to your sources: 💬

• «Summarise the key points from the three contract documents.»
• «Which arguments for product A appear in the sales material?»
• «What was decided in the latest meeting note?»

The difference from regular Copilot Chat: the answers are based on the sources you have assigned to the notebook. Still, check important statements in the original file.

Feel free to ask several follow-up questions. Copilot keeps the context within the notebook conversation, so you do not have to explain what it is about every time.

Step 3: Capture the results

According to Microsoft, you create summaries, action items and drafts in the notebook based on your content. Keep good answers instead of letting them disappear in the chat history, for example as a page in the notebook that you keep editing. Depending on the version, the option is named slightly differently. 📄

Several such pages add up to a structured knowledge pool for your project. Because they stay in the notebook, you can keep working on them with Copilot later.

One more way to take in content: on request, Copilot creates an audio overview of your notebook that you can listen to on the go, for example.

Step 4: Create presentations straight from the notebook

Since May 2026 you can have Copilot create an editable PowerPoint presentation directly from a Copilot Notebook, on desktop and on the web (roadmap).

Here is how: 🛠️

1. Open the notebook with your sources.
2. Choose the option for a presentation. Depending on the version you find it in the create menu or you ask Copilot for it in the chat.
3. Give Copilot a short brief, for example: «Create a presentation on the key findings from my research sources, with a summary and three main chapters.»
4. Check the slides and adjust statements, order and design in PowerPoint.

The result is not an empty AI document but a draft based on your own material. You save yourself the manual gathering and structuring. 🎯

Step 5: Mind maps to see connections at a glance

You currently create mind maps in OneNote on desktop and the web, not yet in the lightweight Notebooks view of the Copilot app (Microsoft Support). They are available to people with a Microsoft 365 Copilot or Copilot Chat licence.

1. Open your notebook in OneNote and go to the Create menu.
2. Choose Mind map. Copilot generates the map automatically.
3. Click the number on a node to expand its branches, or click a node to see a summary. With Explain you ask follow-up questions in the Copilot pane.

Copilot shows you the key topics from your sources and how they connect. 🗺️ This is especially helpful in the early phase of a project, when you have lots of sources and no clear picture yet of what belongs together.

Practical tip: the notebook as your project starting point

When I start a new project, the first thing I do is create a Copilot Notebook and attach all the relevant material: the tender, existing contracts, internal notes from the first conversation.

Then I ask Copilot a simple opening question: «What are the most important requirements and open questions in these documents?» The answer gives me a structured overview. I can see right away where the gaps are before I start the actual work. 💡

That does not replace reading all the documents critically, but it quickly gives me a usable starting point.

Conclusion & call to action

Copilot Notebooks are among the most useful and at the same time most underrated tools in Microsoft 365 Copilot. If you work a lot with projects, research or large volumes of documents, you gain structure and pace.

Give it a go right now: create a notebook for your current project, add three to five sources and ask Copilot your first question. You will notice how much faster you get an overview. 🚀