Overview of Copilot Studio

Copilot Studio is a graphical tool that requires minimal coding to build agents and agent flows.

One of Copilot Studio's standout features is its ability to connect to other data sources using built-in or custom connectors. This flexibility allows you to create and manage complex logic, ensuring a robust and intuitive agent experience.

The platform's minimal coding experience puts the power of AI at your fingertips, making it accessible even if you don't have extensive technical knowledge.

What is an agent?

Agent is a powerful AI companion capable of handling a wide range of interactions and tasks. It can solve problems requiring complex conversations and automatically determine the best course of action based on its guidance and context. It coordinates language models, along with guidance, context, knowledge sources, topics, tools, inputs, and triggers to accomplish your goals.

Agents can interact with customers and employees in multiple languages ​​across websites, mobile apps, Facebook, Microsoft Teams, or any channel supported by Azure Bot Service. They can also improve productivity by performing tasks as part of a conversation or responding to a triggered agent to support users and organizations.

You can easily create agents in Copilot Studio without needing data scientists or developers. Some ways you can use agents include:

1. Sales support and support issues
2. Opening hours and store information
3. Employee health and leave benefits
4. Public health monitoring information
5. Frequently Asked Questions from Employees to Businesses

Use a standalone agent or extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with your business data and scenarios.

What is flow?

Flow provides a way to automate repetitive tasks and integrate your applications and services. You can trigger flows manually, through events or other automated agents, or based on a schedule.

With Copilot Studio, you can create flows using natural language or a visual designer. There are two approaches to creating flows:

1. Agent flow : The flow format available in Copilot Studio. Agent flow provides an editing experience similar to the Power Automate workflow, which is built into Copilot Studio.
2. Workflow : A new process format, currently in public preview, with an improved visual designer and enhanced testing functionality.

You can run processes as standalone automations, or configure a process to be triggered by an agent as a tool, and return results to that same agent. Processes can run prompts, call agents, and include human review steps.

How does the agent conversation unfold?

Copilot Studio agents use custom NLU models and AI capabilities to understand what users type or say, then respond with the most relevant topic. The topic is part of the conversation sequence between the user and the agent.

For example, you could create a customer agent to ask frequently asked questions about your business. This agent helps reduce support costs by redirecting support calls. Within the agent, you could create a topic about store opening hours and name the topic Store Hours .

When a customer asks a question like "When does the store open?" or "What are the store's opening hours?", the agent uses natural language understanding (NLU) to understand the intent behind the question. The system then matches that intent to the most appropriate topic, which is " Store hours" .

The system will follow the conversation flow—a group of connected nodes—that you define in the Store Hours topic. Some nodes may ask questions, while others use conditions (if/if not) to determine which store the customer wants. The final result of the topic displays the opening hours and contact information for that specific store.

However, you can't anticipate all the types of questions your clients will ask. To help mitigate this, Copilot Studio integrates powerful AI-powered capabilities using the latest advancements in natural language processing (NLU) models. Once the agent is linked to knowledge sources, it can automatically generate responses. These responses are conversational, use simple language, and you don't need to create a topic for every instance.

You can also choose to allow the agent to access information outside of its knowledge sources.

Copilot Studio can use AI powered by the Azure OpenAI GPT model, also used in Bing, to generate themes from a simple description of your needs. Similarly, you can modify and update any theme in the system by describing the changes you want to make.

Access Copilot Studio

Access Copilot Studio as a standalone web application at https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com .

Note : After June 2026, it will no longer be possible to use the Copilot Studio for Teams application to create classic chatbots. The application will redirect chatbot creators to the Copilot Studio web application.

What can you do with a standalone Copilot Studio subscription?

If you have a standalone Copilot Studio subscription, you can create agents with Generative AI capabilities .

Use cases:

1. You are an IT administrator who wants to create agents to perform tasks or interact with customers.
2. You are familiar with agent services and want to try or test Copilot Studio.
3. You want to explore advanced agent concepts, such as entities and variables, and create complex agents.

What can you do with the Teams package?

If you have a Teams plan, available in certain Microsoft 365 subscriptions, you can use the Copilot Studio web application to create agents using classic orchestration and publish them exclusively to Microsoft Teams.

Use cases:

1. You are an employee or member of an organization who wants to use an agent to answer frequently asked questions from employees.
2. You want to use advanced concepts, such as entities and variables, and have an agent built into Teams.
3. You want to create and distribute agents quickly.

Plan for your agent.

Consider the following points when planning for your agent.

Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with agents.

Consider extending Microsoft 365 Copilot with agents if:

1. You want to create your own agent by specifying instructions, tools, and knowledge to customize Microsoft 365 Copilot for specific tasks and expertise.
2. You want to use the existing Copilot dispatcher.
3. You want a customized, standalone version of the Microsoft 365 Copilot chat experience.

Create an agent

Copilot Studio makes creating agents easy. Simply describe the agent you want in simple language. Tell Copilot Studio the specific instructions, triggers, knowledge sources, and tools you want for your agent. Then, test your agent before deploying. Publish your agent on multiple channels when you're ready.

Consider creating an agent if:

1. You want an agent who can:
   1. Integrate company data and documents.
   2. Retrieve real-time data from external APIs.
   3. Take actions in response to external events.
   4. Embedded into the company's applications.
2. You need a customized end-to-end solution for your web or mobile application or automation process, tailored to your specific business needs and allowing complete control over product branding.
3. You want to expose your agent to other agents as an extension of their supported agent.
4. You are a skilled developer looking to create a custom end-to-end solution to meet your business needs and want:
   1. Complete control over product branding.
   2. Language and coordination model selection
5. Or, if you are building products such as:
   1. A customer service chatbot for your e-commerce site.
   2. A virtual assistant to help you schedule appointments for your healthcare services.
   3. Experience a game that combines Generative AI.

Accessibility

The agent editor interface is built to be easily accessible in accordance with Microsoft's accessibility guidelines and supports standard navigation patterns.

Important information :

Microsoft Copilot Studio:

(1) is not designed or offered as a medical device for diagnosing disease or other conditions, or for curing, alleviating, treating, or preventing disease, or for use as a component of any clinical product or service, and no license or right has been granted to use Microsoft Copilot Studio for such purposes.

(2) is not designed or intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or judgment.

(3) should not be used in emergencies and does not support emergency calls. Any agent you create with Microsoft Copilot Studio is your own product or service, separate and independent from Microsoft Copilot Studio. You are solely responsible for the design, development, and deployment of your agent (including its integration into any product or service for medical or clinical purposes) and must clearly provide end users with appropriate warnings and disclaimers relating to the use of your agent.

You are solely responsible for any personal injury or death that may result from your agent or your use of Microsoft Copilot Studio in connection with that agent, including (but not limited to) any injury to end users.

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