What exactly are Copilot Agents in Microsoft 365?

Matthew explains  how AI-powered agents could be transforming your workplace productivity and collaboration

Reading time: 10 minutes

‘Agent’ is the buzzword of the moment, think less Mulder and Scully or the Bourne Identity and more about someone who acts or provides a service on your behalf. Think, travel agent, estate agent, etc.

It might seem a simplistic explanation but like you’d go to the travel agents to plan your holiday of a lifetime because they have access to all the flight details, hotel information, knowledge of pervious travellers experience and contacts on the ground, in reality that is what an AI agent aims to achieve using information on any subject they are provided.

Introduction to Copilot Agents

Enter Copilot agents, one of the latest innovation from Microsoft designed to enhance productivity and streamline collaboration within Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform.

But what exactly is a Copilot agent? Simply put, it’s an AI-powered assistant that can interact with users through natural language (the words you’d use asking for help from a colleague) questions and prompts, powered by a core set of credible organisational information it had been told to reference, to provide accurate and helpful responses.

The Evolution of AI Agents in Microsoft 365

Microsoft has a long history of integrating intelligent agents into its software suite. Initially, these agents were basic, offering simple task automation and assistance. Over time, with advancements in AI and machine learning, these agents have become more sophisticated. The introduction of Copilot marked a significant leap forward, embedding AI directly into the fabric of Microsoft 365 tools like Word, Excel, and Teams, making them not just reactive but proactive in helping users.

Creating and Sharing Copilot Agents

One of the most exciting recent developments is the ability to create and share Copilot agents within SharePoint and Teams. This empowers anyone with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence to build custom agents tailored to their specific needs, share them across the organisation without the need for any coding knowledge.

Creating a Copilot agent is a straightforward process. Within SharePoint or Teams, users can define the scope of the agent’s knowledge base by selecting relevant documents and data sources. These agents can then be shared with team members, providing a consistent and reliable source of information that everyone can access.

Interacting with agents is straightforward, they can be called up in either the SharePoint site they are working with, or in Teams and interacted with just like you'd converse with Copilot. Soon you'll be able to add agents to Teams chat conversations to ask questions, just like a human colleague. 

A Hypothetical Example: Policy Assistant Agent

Imagine you’re part of a transformation project team in a large organisation. The team needs to frequently refer to company policies and guidelines stored in Word documents and PDFs within a SharePoint library. By creating a Copilot agent dubbed “Policy Assistant” team members can simply ask questions and receive instant, accurate responses based on the latest policy documents. This not only saves time but also supplements the knowledge of Subject Matter Experts, helping in richer discussions and more educated decision-making.

Enhancing Collaboration and Decision-Making

The Policy Assistant agent can filter through policies to find specific clauses, summarise lengthy documents, and even provide comparisons between different policies. This level of detail ensures that all team members have access to the same high-quality information, reducing misunderstandings and enhancing collaboration.

Benefits of Using Copilot Agents

The primary advantage of using Copilot agents is their ability to make complex information easily accessible. By understanding and processing natural language, these agents eliminate the need for users to manually search through documents, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks. Moreover, as these agents are built within Microsoft 365, you can use your existing content stores, they also seamlessly integrate with existing workflows and tools.

Getting Started with Copilot Agents

So, what would you need to consider before deploying an agent to help your team?

Licences is an important one, you’d certainly need a Copilot Microsoft 365 licence to create your own agents, and potentially licences to use them too. Although Microsoft are introducing ways for the wider team without licences to use agents through a ‘pay as you use’ model. It would certainly be worth an exploration with your IT team.

Just of an equal importance is your information, Copilot can only use knowledge held in the cloud on your Microsoft 365 tenant. If your corporate information is fragmented and scattered in varying file share and SharePoint locations a consolidation effort will be needed to bring some order to your content first.

Conclusion

Copilot agents, particularly in their easy to create way bring an exciting now power to knowledge and project workers. By combining the power of AI with the robust capabilities of Microsoft 365 and the relevance of your own knowledge, these agents could revolutionise productivity and decision making.

I hope this introduction has been useful and potentially piqued your interest in ways Copilot could transform the ways you work. Is 2025 the year that your organisation will open the door on AI supported processes?

Here are three ways Your 365 Coach can help you find out more about Copilot and agents.

1. Watch Scott’s Tutorial: 'Mastering the NEW SharePoint Agents with Microsoft Copilot'

2. Read our free eBook ‘Master Microsoft 365 Copilot with Our Top 5 Prompts!'

Get our expertly curated guide to the top 5 Copilot prompts and unlock powerful automation capabilities in Outlook, Teams, and more. Enhance your workflow, save time, and make the most of Microsoft Copilot today. Download the eBook now.

3. Invest in our Microsoft Copilot Masterclass

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft Copilot to automate tasks, simplify workflows, and achieve peak productivity. Take control of your time and gain your competitive edge. Learn more about our Masterclass.

Matthew

Matthew Burrell is a Consultant at Your365Coach