What and why
We're introducing two new Brand Kit template settings in Microsoft 365 that help organizations create more consistent, on-brand presentations with Copilot in PowerPoint.
Strict brand adherence (Strict Mode) allows Brand Managers to control whether Copilot can create new layouts or must use only approved template and slide master layouts. When enabled, Copilot follows the template exactly and does not add or remove placeholders or create new layouts.
Allow note instructions (Notes Steering) enables Brand Managers to add instructions directly in template speaker notes to guide how Copilot generates presentations. For example, organizations can instruct Copilot to always include a specific slide, preserve branded content, maintain slide order, control text density, or tailor content for a specific audience
These settings can be used independently or together to help organizations generate more predictable, consistent, and brand-aligned presentations.
Rollout schedule
Available now.
Impact on your organization
These capabilities give organizations greater control over how Copilot creates presentations from branded templates.
With Notes Steering, organizations can embed reusable guidance directly into templates, helping ensure presentations consistently follow branding, messaging, and content requirements without requiring users to repeat instructions in every prompt. With Strict Mode enabled, Copilot uses only approved template layouts and slide masters, helping organizations maintain presentation standards and reduce deviations from approved brand designs. This is especially valuable for customer-facing, executive, regulatory, or other business-critical presentations where brand consistency is important.
Together, these settings help deliver more predictable, on-brand PowerPoint presentations while reducing manual editing and review effort.
Action required / Recommendations
No action is required to use these capabilities.
However, organizations that want greater control over presentation generation should designate Brand Managers and ensure they have permissions to manage Brand Kits. Only Brand Kit owners and Brand Managers can configure template settings such as Strict Brand Adherence and Allow Note Instructions.
To take advantage of these capabilities, Brand Managers can update existing Brand Kit templates or upload new templates configured with Notes Steering and Strict Mode settings.