People Skills: New admin setting to delete skills data

Starting July 2026, admins can permanently delete all People Skills data from their Microsoft 365 tenant via a new removal control. This affects skills data used in Copilot, profile cards, Viva, and more. Deletion is irreversible, admin-initiated, and supports compliance and offboarding needs.

[What and Why:]

Starting July 2026, we're introducing a new People Skills removal and deletion admin control. This feature enables administrators to permanently remove all People Skills data from their tenant.

This update gives organizations greater control over their Microsoft 365 data by supporting offboarding scenarios for People Skills and helping meet enterprise data governance and compliance needs. People Skills is an AI-powered service that creates and uses skills data across Microsoft 365 experiences such as Copilot, profile cards, and Viva. Learn more about People Skills.

This message is associated with Roadmap ID 565905.

[Rollout Schedule:]

General Availability (Worldwide): Rollout will begin in mid-July 2026 and is expected to complete by early August 2026.

[Impact on Your Organization:]

Who is affected: 

Tenants that have already deployed People Skills and those who will deploy it in the future can use this new feature, including those with:

• People Skills Foundation service plan
• People Skills Advanced service plan
• Microsoft 365 Copilot in Productivity Apps

Platforms/Services where skills data appears:

• Microsoft 365 profile card
• Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Viva Insights
• Viva Learning
• Org Explorer and People experiences

What will happen:

• A new People Skills removal and deletion control will be available in admin settings.
• This feature is admin-initiated only.
• When initiated:
• The organization’s skills library and all associated data will be permanently deleted.
• All user skills (confirmed, inferred, imported) will be permanently deleted.
• Skills will no longer appear on profile cards.
• Skills data will no longer be used in Copilot, Viva Insights, or other experiences. For details, refer to: Where does People Skills data appear.
• Deleted data cannot be restored.
• Deletion timing:
  • Most data deleted within 48–72 hours
  • Viva Learning data removed within up to 7 days

[Action Required / Recommendations:]

No immediate action is required.

If your organization needs to remove People Skills (for example, to meet compliance or governance requirements):

• Navigate to: Microsoft Admin Center > People Skills > Manage People Skills for your organization > Settings > People Skills removal and deletion. Refer to our documentation for detailed instructions 
• Review your organization’s data retention and compliance policies before initiating deletion.
• Communicate this change to relevant stakeholders (IT, compliance, helpdesk).
• If you plan to re-enable People Skills later:
  • Reconfiguration is required using Set up People Skills.
  • We recommend you wait at least 7 days before re-enabling to ensure previous data is fully removed.
  • Previously deleted data won’t be restored.

Learn more

• Overview of People Skills | Microsoft Learn
• Manage your skills library in People Skills | Microsoft Learn
• Set up People Skills | Microsoft Learn

[Compliance considerations:]

Consideration	Assessment
Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed?	Introduces a tenant-level capability to permanently delete People Skills data, including skills library and user skills.
Does the change modify how users can access, export, delete, or correct their personal data (GDPR)?	Enables administrators to permanently delete all user skills data at the tenant level.
Does the change include an admin control?	New admin setting in People Skills configuration allows removal and deletion.
Does the change alter how admins can monitor, report on, or demonstrate compliance activities?	Depending on audit/logging coverage for deletion events, this could impact compliance tracking.
Does the change modify retention policies, holds, or deletion workflows?	Permanent deletion of skills data may interact with organizational retention strategies.
Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML capabilities interacting with customer data?	Removing People Skills data impacts AI-driven experiences (e.g., Copilot skill-based insights).