Claude skills and Microsoft 365 Copilot agents both package up instructions for a repeatable job, with optional knowledge and a defined scope. They’re built the same way, even though Microsoft now uses the word skills for something else as well. To see how close they really are, I gave both the same description, built a meeting notes assistant in each and ran the same meeting through them. The notes came out very similar. What would decide it for me is where the meeting lives.
I use both every day, so knowing how they map onto each other means I’m not building the same thing twice.
The test
One description for both platforms: build a meeting notes assistant that takes raw transcripts, messy notes or unstructured bullet points and turns them into a clean, structured summary, with a short overview, decisions, action items, anything unclear flagged, and people’s names used as they appear in the notes.
The same two inputs went into each: the full transcript of a 15-minute meeting and the bullet points I’d taken during it.
How each one gets built
Claude has a skill for creating skills. Given the description, it followed its own skill-creator guidance, wrote a SKILL.md file holding the instructions, tested and packaged it. One click copied it into my skills, and from then on any conversation could use it, in a project or a normal chat.
Copilot used the agent builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot, the lighter option rather than full Copilot Studio. Pasting the same description into the Describe tab produced a name, a description, detailed markdown instructions on the Configure tab, and conversation starters. I added no knowledge sources.
The generated instructions on both sides looked much the same: a structure for the notes and rules for handling unclear items.
How the notes compared
Both followed the structure in their instructions: summary, key decisions, action items, discussion topics and a parking lot for open questions.
- Action items: seven in each.
- Key decisions and open questions: Copilot picked up more of both. Claude listed four key decisions.
- Format: Claude produced a markdown document with date, attendees and the next meeting. Copilot answered in the chat.
On this job, with this description, I’d call it close to even, with Copilot slightly more thorough on the loose ends. One meeting doesn’t prove either is better in general.
Where they differ
Getting the meeting in. In the Copilot agent I can type a forward slash, pick a meeting and use its Teams transcript directly. With Claude, I had to get the transcript and paste it in. For a Microsoft 365 organisation, this one difference outweighs everything else on the list.
Prompting. The Copilot agent comes with conversation starters for people who aren’t sure what to ask. A Claude skill has no equivalent; Claude picks the skill up automatically when the request matches, so asking for meeting notes is enough.
Where they live. Copilot agents sit in Microsoft 365, where you @mention them in a chat. Claude skills are files you can keep, share and reuse across conversations.
Use Copilot for Microsoft 365 inputs, Claude for method
When the inputs are in Microsoft 365, I’d build a Copilot agent. Meetings, email, SharePoint libraries. The agent can reach them inside the user’s existing permissions, and nobody has to copy anything out of the tenant to get a result.
When the job is about the method more than the data, I’d build a Claude skill: a way of reviewing contracts, a house writing style, a checklist for a report. The instructions are the valuable part, and a skill keeps them in one portable file.
Either way, get good at describing a repeatable job: what goes in, what comes out, what to flag. The same description carried straight across in this test.
Since I recorded this, the two have moved closer. Copilot in SharePoint now has skills of its own, saved in a site’s Agent Assets library, and I show turning a good prompt into a site skill in a later walkthrough.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Copilot agent use a Teams meeting transcript without copying it? Yes. In my demo, typing a forward slash in the agent let me pick a meeting and use its transcript directly.
What is a SKILL.md file? It’s a markdown file holding a skill’s instructions, plus any supporting files. Claude reads it when a request matches the skill.
Do I need Copilot Studio to build a Copilot agent? No. I built this one with the agent builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot by describing it in plain English. Copilot Studio is for agents that need more, like custom actions and connectors.
Does Microsoft 365 Copilot have skills as well as agents? Yes. Copilot in SharePoint now supports skills, which are saved as site skills in the Agent Assets library or as personal skills in your OneDrive.
