Using ActivityInfo in Microsoft Copilot

Once your IT department has added ActivityInfo to Microsoft 365 Copilot, you connect your own ActivityInfo account once and then ask Copilot about the data in your databases. Copilot reads the data live each time you ask, and sees only what your own role in ActivityInfo allows.

Before you begin

Four things have to be in place before ActivityInfo appears in Copilot.

• Your IT department has set up the connector. ActivityInfo is a custom connector that an administrator adds once for the whole organization, and then rolls out to users. See Connecting Microsoft Copilot to ActivityInfo. If ActivityInfo is not in your list of sources, this step is the one to ask about.
• You have a Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on license. Microsoft requires this license for every user who queries a federated connector. A Microsoft 365 plan on its own is not enough, and neither a Copilot Studio license nor Microsoft 365 Copilot pay-as-you-go covers it. Microsoft 365 E7 includes the license.
• You have an ActivityInfo account. You connect with your own account, not a shared one. Copilot acts as you: it reads and changes exactly what your role lets you read and change, and nothing else. See Understanding permissions for AI assistants.
• The MCP server is enabled for the databases you want to use. The setting is off until a database owner turns it on, and it is set for each database separately. See Enabling the MCP server for a database.

Read Using AI assistants with sensitive data before you work with a database that holds personal data. Asking Copilot about a database sends that data to Microsoft.

Step 1: Connect ActivityInfo

1. Open Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
2. Select the ellipsis (“…”) menu, then select “Settings”.
3. Select “Sources” in the left pane.
4. Find “ActivityInfo” in the list and select “Connect”.

Step 2: Sign in and authorize

1. Sign in to ActivityInfo in the window that opens, if you are not already signed in.
2. Select to authorize on the “Authorize application” screen.

You do this once. The authorization then appears on the “Authorized Applications” page of your ActivityInfo account settings, where you can review it or withdraw it later.

Confirm the connection

Ask Copilot:

List my ActivityInfo databases.

Copilot answers with the databases you can reach. Ask a follow-up question to check that reading works:

Which forms are in the <name> database?

Where you can use ActivityInfo

Microsoft supports federated connectors in these experiences:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
• Copilot in Excel
• The Researcher agent
• Cowork

In the Researcher agent, select ActivityInfo under “Sources” so the research run may use it.

What you can ask

Copilot works through your question by calling ActivityInfo one step at a time: it finds the database, lists the forms and fields, then retrieves records or runs an analysis. You can ask about your data in your own words rather than naming forms and fields exactly.

Some questions that suit it well:

How many households did we reach in the Mali Livelihoods database last quarter?

Break down the training attendance in the Education database by district and by month.

Which forms in the Protection database collect a date of birth?

Summarise the open referrals recorded this month.

What Copilot cannot do

Copilot reads and analyses your ActivityInfo data. It cannot change it.

Microsoft federated connectors are read-only, and Copilot offers only the ActivityInfo tools that read data: listing databases, listing forms and reports, listing fields, retrieving records, running a pivot analysis, and reading a report. Copilot answers a request to add a record by saying it has no tool for it.

Use ActivityInfo itself to add records, correct data, design forms or build reports. An assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, which offers the full set of tools, is the alternative where you want to do that work in a conversation. See Understanding the ActivityInfo MCP server for the complete list of tools.

This limit comes from Copilot, not from your role in ActivityInfo. A user who may edit every record in a database still cannot edit one through Copilot.

Check the answers

Copilot chooses which form, which field and which aggregation to use. It sometimes chooses wrongly, and it reports the result with the same confidence either way. This matters most for a figure you are going to pass on to someone else.

Ask it to show its working:

Which forms and fields did you use for that figure?

Then check that the forms and fields it names are the ones you expected. For a total that has to be right, confirm it against a report in ActivityInfo.

If Copilot starts retrieving every record of a large form to answer a question about totals, ask it to run a pivot analysis instead. ActivityInfo calculates the aggregation and returns only the result, which is both faster and more reliable.

Disconnect ActivityInfo

You can stop the connection from either side:

• In Copilot, open “Settings” > “Sources” and turn off the ActivityInfo source.
• In ActivityInfo, revoke the authorization on the “Authorized Applications” page of your account settings. This withdraws the access itself, so Copilot can no longer read anything. See Reviewing and revoking connected assistants.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• Connecting Microsoft Copilot to ActivityInfo
• Understanding the ActivityInfo MCP server
• Understanding permissions for AI assistants
• Using AI assistants with sensitive data
• Reviewing and revoking connected assistants