Plan and create pages with AI

Overview

Plan and create pages with AI is an AI-powered authoring capability in SharePoint that helps you create a new page or update an existing page by describing what you want in a chat pane. Instead of only returning suggestions, AI can apply changes directly to your page—adding, rewriting, reorganizing, and styling content on your behalf—while keeping you in control through visual change indicators and undo.

What AI Authoring can do

Create pages from a prompt alone. Start from a blank page, tell the AI chat what you would like the page to be about, and it will pull resources from across your SharePoint site and personal documents to fulfill your requests.
Fill in a template. Start from a template, and AI can change the content from placeholder to subject relevant.
Transform existing content into a page. Ask it to pull key points from documents and turn them into scannable page sections.
Edit an existing page. Request updates like rewriting, changing tone, adding a summary, reorganizing sections, or adjusting layout.
Add and configure supported web parts. Ask for common web parts (for example, People, Quick Links, editorial-style cards) and for simple configuration changes.
Refine iteratively. Continue the conversation to adjust what was generated (shorter/longer, more formal, restructure, add a section, swap visuals, etc.).
Show work on the canvas. Changes made by AI will appear highlighted on the page so you can review in context.

Current limitations

Edit unsupported web parts or certain complex configurations. If a requested web part or property isn’t supported, AI Authoring may skip that part of the request and ask you to finish manually.
Generate flexible sections. AI can edit content in existing flexible sections, it just can’t move it.
Guarantee brand compliance. AI can follow your instructions and will stay within the color scheme of your site,  but it does not yet automatically know your organization’s brand rules unless they are present on the page/site or explicitly provided.
Guarantee perfect accuracy without review. AI-generated content can be incomplete or incorrect; always review and validate before publishing.

How to Enter AI Authoring

When you click Edit on an page or create a new one, the AI chat pane will open automatically if you have a Copilot license.

To return to AI Authoring later, click the sparkle tab in the content pane to re-open the chat.

How to Exit AI Authoring

Close or collapse the pane: Close (X) or collapse the side pane to return to full-width canvas editing.
Switch tools: Switch from the agent view to other editor tools (for example, the toolbox/property pane) to make manual changes.
Leave edit mode: Select Save as draft, Publish, or Discard to exit editing.

How to use AI Authoring

Writing a good prompt

Good prompts are specific, grounded, and scoped. The more clearly you describe the outcome you want (and what AI Authoring should base it on), the better the first draft—and the fewer refine turns you’ll need.

Start with the goal: What is this page for (inform, announce, onboard, recap, persuade)?
Define the audience and tone: “All employees”, “new hires”, “exec-ready”, “friendly and concise”, etc.
Provide grounding: Reference the document(s) or content it should use. If accuracy matters, explicitly say “use only the attached doc / these bullets.” However, its important to note that attached sources are not required to generate content. If sources aren’t specified, AI Authoring will find relevant sources on its own and cite them in the chat.
Ask for a structure: Name the sections you want (or ask for a recommended outline) and the format (bullets, table, FAQ, timeline).
Add constraints: Include length limits, reading level, and callouts like “include 3 key takeaways” or “keep it under 200 words.”
Scope the change (for edits): Be specific about the section or webpart you would like to change in your follow-up prompts. You can do this by using section names, background colors, or locations on the page.
Call out citations when needed: Ask for citations and specify whether they should stay in the chat only or be added onto the page.

Examples of good prompts

Create a new page (from Blank): “Create a SharePoint news post announcing our FY26 planning kickoff for all employees. Use a confident, upbeat tone. Include: (1) What’s happening, (2) Key dates, (3) Who’s involved, (4) How to participate, (5) FAQ. Keep each section under 5 bullets and add a short 2-sentence summary at the top.”
Fill a template: “Replace all placeholder text in this template with content for a ‘Team Onboarding Hub’ page for new hires. Add sections for: Getting access, First-week checklist, Key tools, Who to contact, and Helpful links. Keep the tone friendly and scannable.”
Rewrite a specific section: “Rewrite the ‘Overview’ section to be more concise and more executive-friendly. Keep the meaning the same, remove jargon, and limit it to ~90 words.”
Restructure content already on the page: “Turn the ‘Project Status’ section into: a 3-bullet summary, then a table with columns (Workstream, Current status, Risks, Next milestone). Use the existing content only—don’t invent new dates.”
Add a web part (and describe content): “Add a Quick Links web part under the ‘Resources’ heading with these links: Support, Roadmap, Team OneNote, Release notes. Use short labels and order them by how frequently people will use them.”
Summarize a doc with citations: “Using only the attached document, create a ‘Decision Summary’ section with (1) Decision, (2) Background, (3) Options considered, (4) Rationale, (5) Next steps. Include citations for any claims, numbers, or dates.”
Refine (follow-up prompt): “Good start—now make the page shorter by 30%, convert long paragraphs into bullets, and add a ‘What changed since last update’ callout near the top.”

Webparts AI can edit and generate

Hero
Text
Image
Quick Links
Image Gallery
People
Infographics
Button
Divider

Refine: how iterative updates work

Refine is the multi-turn “keep going” loop after an initial generation. Instead of starting over, you can give follow-up instructions that adjust what’s already on the page.

Be specific about scope: Call out which section/web part to change (for example, “In the Benefits section…”, “Update the People web part…”, “Rewrite the call-to-action text…”).
Use constraints: Length (“3 bullets max”), tone (“more formal”), and structure (“convert to a table”) help the model converge.
Use incremental steps: For large changes, iterate: first restructure, then rewrite, then polish visuals.
Expect one prompt → one applied update cycle: After you send a refine prompt, wait until the canvas finishes updating before sending the next one.

How canvas changes are shown (review and control)

When AI Authoring applies updates, you can see them directly on the page. The editor may visually highlight changed areas so you can quickly spot what was modified.

What you’ll see

In-canvas highlights: Updated text or updated web parts may be highlighted to indicate what changed.
Scroll-to-change behavior: For larger updates, the editor may bring you to the first changed area.
Status messaging in the pane: The chat pane shows when it is generating versus when it is actively applying updates to the page.

Undo and recovery

Undo: Use the page editor’s Undo command to revert the most recent applied update from AI Authoring. (Depending on configuration, the experience is designed around one prompt → one undo.)
Redo: If you undo by mistake, use Redo to re-apply.
Version history: If you need to recover from larger mistakes, use page version history to restore a prior version.

Citations and transparency

When AI Authoring uses grounded content (for example, documents or other sources) to produce text, it will provide citations in the chat pane to let you know where it got the information from. It is the responsibility of the author to ensure these sources and the resulting information is appropriate. You can always ask AI Authoring to add the citations it used to the page for better transparency.

How to use citations

Validate key facts: For important claims (numbers, dates, commitments), open the cited source and verify.
Check for missing sources: If content looks surprising or too generic, ask AI Authoring to “show sources” or “base this only on the attached document.”
Fix issues quickly: If something is unsupported by sources, either rewrite manually or ask AI Authoring to remove/replace it.

Important notes

Citations may not appear for every sentence or every request, especially for purely layout/formatting actions.
Even with citations, you are responsible for reviewing content before publishing.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

The pane says it’s done, but the page didn’t change

Wait a bit longer—some actions (especially images and layout) may apply after the response appears.
Scroll the canvas and look for highlighted changes or the first changed section.
If nothing changes, try a smaller request, or re-open the pane and re-submit.

AI Authoring can’t do what I asked

Try rephrasing with a simpler goal and explicit scope (which section/web part).
If the request involves an unsupported web part or a complex configuration, do that part manually and use AI Authoring for the rest.

I’m worried about accuracy

Ask for citations and verify them.
Provide grounding content (documents, key bullets, or existing page content) and ask AI Authoring to use only those sources.
For high-stakes content, treat AI output as a draft and perform a final human edit pass.