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Guided AB-730 Domain 3
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AB-730 Study Guide

Domain 1: Understand Generative AI Fundamentals

  • Welcome to Copilot: AI at Work Free
  • Copilot Across Your M365 Apps Free
  • How Context Shapes Copilot's Answers Free
  • Chat vs Agents: Two Ways to Work Free
  • Data Safety, Privacy & AI Risks Free
  • Verifying AI Outputs: Your Quality Check Free

Domain 2: Manage Prompts and Conversations by Using AI

  • Crafting Effective Prompts Free
  • Referencing the Right Resources Free
  • Saving and Sharing Prompts
  • Scheduling Prompts That Run Themselves
  • Managing Your Copilot Conversations
  • Agent Store vs Building Your Own
  • Building Your First Agent
  • Configuring and Sharing Agents

Domain 3: Draft and Analyze Business Content by Using AI

  • Creating Documents and Communications
  • Working with Existing Documents
  • Moving Insights Between M365 Apps
  • Copilot in Meetings: Before, During & After
  • Copilot Pages: Your Collaboration Canvas
  • Copilot Memory and Instructions
  • Exam Prep: Scenario Capstone

AB-730 Study Guide

Domain 1: Understand Generative AI Fundamentals

  • Welcome to Copilot: AI at Work Free
  • Copilot Across Your M365 Apps Free
  • How Context Shapes Copilot's Answers Free
  • Chat vs Agents: Two Ways to Work Free
  • Data Safety, Privacy & AI Risks Free
  • Verifying AI Outputs: Your Quality Check Free

Domain 2: Manage Prompts and Conversations by Using AI

  • Crafting Effective Prompts Free
  • Referencing the Right Resources Free
  • Saving and Sharing Prompts
  • Scheduling Prompts That Run Themselves
  • Managing Your Copilot Conversations
  • Agent Store vs Building Your Own
  • Building Your First Agent
  • Configuring and Sharing Agents

Domain 3: Draft and Analyze Business Content by Using AI

  • Creating Documents and Communications
  • Working with Existing Documents
  • Moving Insights Between M365 Apps
  • Copilot in Meetings: Before, During & After
  • Copilot Pages: Your Collaboration Canvas
  • Copilot Memory and Instructions
  • Exam Prep: Scenario Capstone
Domain 3: Draft and Analyze Business Content by Using AI Premium ⏱ ~10 min read

Copilot Memory and Instructions

Copilot can remember your preferences, role, and working style. Learn how memory, custom instructions, and chat history work together to personalise your AI experience.

Copilot that knows YOU

☕ Simple explanation

Imagine your assistant remembering that you prefer bullet points over paragraphs, that you work in healthcare, and that you always want British English spelling.

That’s Copilot Memory. Instead of repeating your preferences in every conversation, Copilot remembers them and applies them automatically.

There are three ways Copilot personalises:

  1. Saved memories — facts Copilot explicitly remembers (you asked it to remember, or it learned from conversations)
  2. Custom instructions — rules YOU set in Settings (“Always use British English”, “I work in HR”)
  3. Chat history — context Copilot picks up from your past conversations

You control all of it. You can view, edit, and delete any memory at any time.

Copilot Memory is a personalisation system that stores user preferences, context, and instructions to provide tailored responses across sessions. It has three components:

  • Saved memories: Explicit facts stored from conversations — either user-requested (“Remember that I manage the Auckland office”) or inferred by Copilot from conversation patterns. Stored in the user’s Exchange mailbox in a hidden folder.
  • Custom instructions: User-defined rules set in Settings that govern Copilot’s behaviour (“Respond in British English”, “I’m an HR director”, “Always include citations”). These are set once and applied across all conversations.
  • Chat history: Dynamic context inferred from recent conversations. Copilot may retain details it finds useful but can update or discard them over time.

All memory data is stored in the user’s Exchange mailbox, subject to standard security and compliance policies. Users have full control through Settings and can disable memory entirely. Admins control the “Enhanced personalization” setting at the tenant level.

Note: Copilot Memory may still carry a preview or Frontier designation in some tenants. Check your organisation’s rollout status.

Three types of memory

Copilot's three memory types
TypeHow It WorksYou Control It By
Saved memoriesFacts Copilot remembers from conversations — explicitly saved or inferredView and delete in Settings > Personalization
Custom instructionsRules you set: role, language, format preferences, working styleEdit in Settings > Personalization > Custom instructions
Chat historyContext Copilot picks up from recent conversations — dynamic, may be updated/discardedManaged through chat deletion; all traces deleted within 7 days of chat removal

Custom instructions — your personalisation lever

Custom instructions are the most powerful way to shape Copilot’s behaviour. Set them once, and they apply to every conversation:

Instruction ExampleWhat It Does
”I’m an HR director at a healthcare company”Copilot adjusts answers for your role and industry
”Always respond in British English”Spelling and language preferences
”I prefer bullet points over paragraphs”Output format
”Always include sources when citing data”Citation behaviour
”Keep responses under 200 words unless I ask for more”Response length
💡 Real-world: Dana's custom instructions

Dana at Oakfield Healthcare set these custom instructions:

  1. “I’m the HR Director at Oakfield Healthcare, a private hospital group with 500 staff in New Zealand”
  2. “Use British English spelling (organisation, programme, centre)”
  3. “When I ask about policies, reference our HR SharePoint site first”
  4. “Keep responses professional but warm — I work with employees at all levels”
  5. “Always flag if something might have privacy implications for employee data”

Now every Copilot conversation automatically adjusts for Dana’s role, location, language preference, and data sensitivity concerns — without her repeating any of it.

Managing your memories

Viewing and deleting

  • Go to Settings > Personalization
  • View all saved memories and custom instructions
  • Delete individual memories or clear all
  • Turn memory features on or off

Important privacy facts

  • Memories are stored in your Exchange mailbox (hidden folder)
  • They follow the same security and compliance policies as your email
  • Deleting a chat does NOT delete saved memories — you manage those separately
  • Your admin can disable memory for the whole organisation via the “Enhanced personalization” control
  • Memory data is not used to train AI models

🎬 Video walkthrough

🎬 Video coming soon

Copilot Memory and Instructions — AB-730 Module 20

Copilot Memory and Instructions — AB-730 Module 20

~8 min

Flashcards

Question

What are the three components of Copilot Memory?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

1. Saved memories (explicit facts from conversations) 2. Custom instructions (user-set rules for behaviour, language, format) 3. Chat history (dynamic context inferred from recent conversations)

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Question

Where are Copilot memories stored?

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Answer

In the user's Exchange mailbox, in a hidden folder. They follow the same security and compliance policies as other mailbox data (Customer Lockbox, encryption at rest).

Click to flip back
Question

Does deleting a Copilot chat also delete saved memories from that chat?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

No. Deleting a chat removes the conversation from history, but saved memories persist separately. To delete memories, go to Settings > Personalization and manage them individually.

Click to flip back
Question

Can an admin disable Copilot Memory for the organisation?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

Yes. Admins control the 'Enhanced personalization' setting at the tenant level. When disabled, Copilot stops applying memories and custom instructions, but doesn't delete existing ones.

Click to flip back

Knowledge Check

Knowledge Check

Jordan at Peak Solutions notices that Copilot always responds in American English, but his team uses British English for client communications. What's the BEST long-term fix?
Knowledge Check

Dana wants to ensure Copilot doesn't retain any information from a sensitive HR conversation she had about employee performance reviews. What should she do?

Next up: You’ve learned all three domains. Let’s bring it all together with exam scenarios that test your knowledge across prompting, agents, documents, meetings, and responsible AI.

← Previous

Copilot Pages: Your Collaboration Canvas

Next →

Exam Prep: Scenario Capstone

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