Microsoft 365 People Skills: Build a Searchable Employee Directory with OneDirectory

Your company runs on skills. They determine who ships projects, solves problems, and unblocks teams.

The problem? Most organizations can't answer basic questions: Who knows Python? Which designer has Figma expertise? Where's our Salesforce admin?

Microsoft 365 People Skills changes that. It uses AI to map employee expertise across your org, building a living skills graph from everyday work signals. No manual surveys. No stale spreadsheets.

Here's how it works, what you need to set it up, where it falls short, and two ways to turn skills data into an actual directory people will use.

What Microsoft 365 People Skills Actually Does

Microsoft 365 People Skills is an AI engine that builds a skill profile for every user based on their Microsoft 365 activity. It maps those skills to a customizable taxonomy and surfaces them across Microsoft apps.

Where you'll see it:

• Profile card in Outlook, Office.com, and SharePoint: users can confirm AI-suggested skills and browse coworkers' expertise
• Org Explorer and People Companion: search for colleagues by skill
• Viva Learning: get skill-based course recommendations
• Copilot Analytics (Viva Insights): view organization-wide skills landscape reports

How the AI Inference Works

The system scans Microsoft Graph data (emails, chats, meetings, documents) and matches patterns to Microsoft's skills taxonomy (built on LinkedIn's Microsoft Skills Graph). It suggests skills. Users confirm or reject them.

Three things to know:

• Data stays in Microsoft 365. No third-party app signals.
• First inferences appear in 48 hours to 5 days. After that, the system refreshes every ~30 days and ignores activity older than 90 days.
• You control AI guardrails. Mark certain skills as AI-restricted to keep them out of auto-suggestions.

Licensing: Which Plan Gets What

There's no standalone People Skills license. Features unlock based on your existing Microsoft 365 subscriptions:

People Skills Setup Checklist

Who can configure it?
AI administrator or Knowledge administrator.

Where to find it:
Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Copilot page → People Skills in Microsoft 365 Copilot (or Settings > Viva > Data Management).

Two setup paths:

1. Quick setup – Use Microsoft's 16,000+ out-of-the-box skills library
2. Advanced setup – Import custom skills and map them to job roles

Expect first AI inferences within 48 hours (up to 5 days).

Import/export options:

• Import skills from HR systems via Organization Data Ingestion templates
• Export confirmed skills via Microsoft Graph Profile API (AI-generated skills aren't exportable yet)

Privacy and Access Controls

Microsoft 365 People Skills offers granular governance, pilot groups, opt-outs, Works Council-friendly rollouts.

Access policies (via PowerShell Feature Access Management):

• Turn AI inferencing on/off at tenant, group, or user level
• Control visibility of AI-generated vs. imported skills separately
• Choose whether to share skills data with Viva Insights

Six Limitations You Need to Plan For

1. Inference only works on Microsoft 365 signals. If your team lives in Slack, Asana, or Salesforce, you'll get shallow or generic skill suggestions.
2. Slow refresh cycle. First inferences take up to 5 days. Updates happen every ~30 days. Anything older than 90 days is ignored.
3. AI-generated skills can't be exported. Only confirmed skills are available via Graph API. If you need to sync to other systems, users must manually confirm AI suggestions first.
4. Some admin tasks require PowerShell. No GUI for all sharing and inference controls yet.
5. Legacy User Profile Application (UPA) skills disappear. Once you enable People Skills, old UPA "skills" fields vanish from profile cards. Check downstream app dependencies before flipping the switch.
6. Education tenants are excluded. People Skills isn't available for EDU licenses.

Two Ways to Turn Skills into a Directory with OneDirectory

Microsoft 365 People Skills gives you the data. OneDirectory makes it discoverable.

Option 1: Sync Microsoft 365 People Skills into OneDirectory

Use Microsoft 365 as your skills system of record. Let OneDirectory handle the front end.

What you get:

• Visual skill tags on every employee profile with descriptions
• Search and filter by skill, department, location, job level
• Dedicated skill pages – click any skill to see everyone who has it

Data flow notes:
OneDirectory syncs confirmed and admin-imported skills via Microsoft Graph. AI-generated skills aren't exportable today, so they won't appear in OneDirectory until Microsoft enables Graph export. (Employees still see AI suggestions inside Microsoft 365 apps.)

When to choose this:

• You want Copilot and Viva as the primary skills interface
• You've already mapped HR data or custom skills into People Skills
• You're fine with confirmed skills being the cross-system source of truth for now

Option 2: Use the OneDirectory® Skills Dataset

If you need a richer taxonomy or can't wait for Microsoft AI inference to mature, OneDirectory offers 37,000+ built-in skills.

What you get:

• Comprehensive skill library – technical, functional, soft, and domain skills out of the box
• Instant skill pages – click any skill tag to see everyone with that expertise
• Flexible adoption – seed profiles now, merge with People Skills later

When to choose this:

• You need deep coverage beyond Microsoft's 16,000-skill library
• Your team does significant work outside Microsoft 365 (so AI inference isn't representative)
• You're in a pilot phase or EDU environment where People Skills features are limited

Make Skills Data Work for You

Microsoft 365 People Skills builds the foundation, AI-assisted skill profiles that live where your team already works.

OneDirectory turns that foundation into a real directory. Clean profiles. Fast search. Dedicated pages for every skill.

Sync Microsoft 365 data or bootstrap with the OneDirectory Skills Dataset. Either way, you'll help employees find experts faster, build better teams, and connect through shared expertise, all while respecting Microsoft's governance and privacy controls.

FAQs: OneDirectory and Microsoft People Skills