Short Version
The Planner Plugin connects Planner to Copilot Cowork, so you can see what to work on first, get help completing your tasks and keep your plans up to date in one conversation. Cowork can also turn spreadsheets and documents into plans, create visual status reports and automate recurring Planner work. Nothing changes in Planner until you approve it. Due late October to late November 2026.
Details
The Planner Plugin lets Cowork read and update your Planner plans, tasks, buckets and goals. You find it in Microsoft Copilot under Plugins > Cowork, once your organisation has made it available. After that, just ask Cowork about your work and it uses the plugin automatically. You might be asked to connect the first time you use it. You can:
- Prioritise your work: see the tasks assigned to you across your plans, with overdue and upcoming work highlighted and a suggested order to tackle them, e.g. “What should I work on first today?”
- Get help completing tasks: choose a task and Cowork uses its notes, checklist and attachments to research, draft, analyse or create a finished file, such as a Word document or PowerPoint deck. If part of the task needs you (a decision, a review or something physical), Cowork tells you what’s left.
- Turn files into plans: share an Excel tracker, a Word document, a PowerPoint presentation or meeting notes, and Cowork proposes a plan with buckets, tasks, owners and due dates for you to review and change before it creates anything.
- Turn goals into tasks: share a goal or idea, e.g. “Launch the new website by March”, and Cowork suggests a list of tasks. You choose the plan and Cowork creates only the tasks you approve.
- Get a visual plan report: overall progress, upcoming and overdue tasks, work by owner and bucket, progress toward goals, blockers and recommended next steps.
- Work across Microsoft 365: use your tasks as context to draft and send emails (such as reminders to owners of overdue tasks), schedule meetings, post updates in Microsoft Teams and create documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
- Automate Planner work: run requests on a schedule, e.g. “Every Monday at 9 AM, send me a list of my tasks due this week”, or when something happens, such as receiving an email or being mentioned in a Teams channel. You manage these on the Automations page in Cowork, where you can edit, pause, resume or delete them.
- Create and update tasks: create tasks, change due dates, priority or progress, add notes, checklist items or links, and mark tasks complete.
You stay in control
Cowork shows you exactly what it will create or change before it updates Planner. You can approve or cancel each change, approve several at once, or tell Cowork what to do differently. Finishing a deliverable doesn’t mark the task complete; Cowork only does that when you approve it. If you choose the option to stop asking about similar actions, it applies to the current session only, and you can review or revoke it in the Permissions section of the side panel. Changes you approve are saved to Planner, so anyone with access to the plan can see them.
Files Cowork creates appear in the Output folder section of the side panel and in your OneDrive Cowork folder. After you approve, Cowork can add a link to the file on the Planner task. To delete a task or plan, you still do that in Planner itself.
Planner Agent or Cowork?
Microsoft positions Planner in Copilot Chat and the Planner Agent for quick questions and edits to your tasks and plans, and the Planner Plugin in Cowork for multistep work: prioritising, plan reports, turning files and goals into plans, getting task work done and automation.
You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, access to Copilot Cowork and Planner, and your organisation must allow the plugin. Cowork can only see the plans and tasks you can already open in Planner. For best results, name the plan or task you mean, ask Cowork to “show me first” before it makes changes, and split large requests into smaller steps.
Availability
Due late October to late November 2026.
Source, related links and references
Roadmap ID 567315.
Learn more: What is the Planner Plugin?, What you can do with Planner in Cowork and Planner Plugin in Cowork: Frequently asked questions.
Related: Planner Agent creates status reports from your plans.
See what else is new for Planner and Copilot.
For Admins
Admin action required. Users can’t use the Planner Plugin until it is made available to them.
- Availability: you control plugin availability for the whole organisation or for selected users and groups.
- Deployment: admin-deployed plugins are automatically acquired for targeted users and show as “Managed by your organization”. Users can’t remove them, but they can turn them on or off for their own Cowork conversations.
- Permissions: the plugin acts within the signed-in user’s existing Planner permissions and does not grant additional access.
Page originally published
14th November 2026.
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