Add an assistant on your profile in Microsoft 365

The Assistant field in Microsoft 365 allows a profile owner to specify the person who supports them in day-to-day coordination. For example, executives can indicate who their assistant is. The Assistant designation is informational only. It does not override the person’s existing role or assign new organizational responsibilities.

Assistant information appears in the Contact section on profile cards. To add or update the Assistant information on your profile, follow the steps in Edit your profile in Microsoft 365.

Once added, the Assistant information appears on the executive’s profile, helping colleagues quickly identify the right point of contact for scheduling or coordination needs, reducing unnecessary back-and-forth and interruptions. 

What does being listed as an Assistant mean?

The Assistant designation is purely a visible profile attribute. 
It does not depend on the organization’s reporting hierarchy, nor does it grant any special permissions, access, or capabilities. Adding someone as an Assistant does not trigger notifications, change access levels, or assign any responsibilities to that person. It simply helps others understand who the profile owner delegates as Assistant. 

Who can be added as an Assistant? 

The Assistant field allows adding either an internal tenant user or a guest user with an Azure AD profile. It does not require the person to hold a specific job role or be part of the profile owner’s reporting hierarchy. 

Assistant behavior in cross-tenant scenario: 

A user from an external tenant can be assigned as an Assistant; however, the assigned Assistant will not see this relationship on the profile of the person they support.  

Example: 
John is assigned as Assistant to Dave. They belong to different tenants. 

• Users in Dave’s tenant can see John listed as Dave’s Assistant.

• John cannot view this Assistant value on Dave’s profile, despite being the assigned Assistant.

This behavior is by design, as Assistant information is not surfaced across tenants. 

Will the designated Assistant receive any notification? 

Setting or updating the Assistant field does not send any notification to the person listed as the assistant. This is intentional, because: 

• Assistant designation is informational only, not a workflow action.

• The designation is informational and does not modify roles, tasks, or access, so no system alert is required.

• Users may update this field for cross-organizational awareness without triggering notification.

The Assistant field: 

• Represents an active tenant user having an Azure AD profile.

• Is owned and managed by the Profile owner.

• Is shown consistently to tenant users across Microsoft 365 experiences such as profile card, Organization section of the profile card, and Copilot (where available). When an Assistant exits the organization, the stored Assistant value is cleared from the profile, and the field is not displayed on the profile anymore.

• At any time, you can have only one Assistant at a time.

Where does the Assistant information appear? 

When added, the Assistant is visible on the profile card (Contact section) helping colleagues identify the right point of contact when viewing a person’s profile. 

Managing privacy and visibility by Users 

On clicking of the ‘i’ icon, the Profile editor directs you to the appropriate settings page to manage visibility. 

By default, the Assistant is visible to Everyone in your organization. Depending on tenant policies, you may be able to: 

• Change visibility to Only me

• Override default privacy settings set by your organization

How Assistant information is used 

Once saved, this Assistant information appears on the profile card of the person the Assistant was added to. 

Admin Settings for Assistant in SharePoint Admin Center 

In SP admin center, tenant admins can –  

1. Disable the Assistant feature by marking it ‘disabled’ or set it as ‘optional’ or as a ‘required’ property. Default is ‘optional’.

2. Set the default privacy of Assistant property (to ‘Everyone’ or ‘Only Me’ and specify if user can override this value. Default is ‘Everyone’.

3. Set if the ‘Default Privacy Setting’ can be overridden/changed by the user. Default is to not provide the override capability.

Frequently asked questions 

1. Can I add more than one Assistant? 
   No. Only one Assistant can be added and displayed on a profile at a time.

2. Can someone else manage my Assistant for me? 
   ​​​​​​​No. Only profile owner can manage Assistant.

3. Why don’t I see the Assistant field in Profile Editor? 

   Your tenant administrator may have: 

   1. Disabled the Assistant field 

   2. Restricted user editability 

   3. Hidden the field from the Profile Editor 
      
      ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Contact your admin if you believe you should have access. 

4. Can I temporarily remove my Assistant? 
   Yes. If editing is allowed, you can delete the Assistant value. This removes it from your profile until you add it again.

5. How long does it take for changes to appear? 
   Changes may take up to 24 hours to take effect automatically and do not require IT or HR intervention.