New Possibilities Through Individual Copilot Agents
Intelligent AI assistants with Copilot Studio
Unleash the Full Potential of Your Digital Transformation with Intelligent Agents
Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly and offers companies countless opportunities to optimize their business processes. With Copilot Studio, Microsoft has developed an innovative solution that helps companies optimize their workflows and increase productivity. A central element of Copilot Studio is the new Copilot Agents. In this article, we look at these Agents' functions and differences and highlight their benefits. Discover how this solution can drive your business forward and optimize your business processes.
What Are Copilot Agents?
Copilot Agents are intelligent assistants from Microsoft that are integrated into Copilot Studio, or Copilot Business Chat (BizChat) can be created. They support users in various tasks using advanced AI technologies to retrieve information, perform actions, and automate tasks. Agents can be used to extend M365 Copilot or as a standalone Agents can be used. In contrast to the previous extensions in Copilot Studio, Agents can be addressed directly and will soon be able to act autonomously. This solves the problem of some users not using the previous extensions.
Copilot Agents or Copilot extension: An agent is created via M365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat) or created with Copilot Studio and extends the capabilities of the M365 Copilot service. They are intended for personal use only by default, but can be shared with a security group or the organization if required.
Copilot Agents in SharePoint: With this function you can quickly and easily create an agent based on selected documents in a SharePoint document library. The authorizations and data sources are taken from the same library. Please note: The Copilot Agent creator must also be the creator of the SharePoint library.
User-defined Agents: These standalone Agents are created with Copilot Studio and used via various services such as Teams or websites to provide information and trigger automated processes.
- Autonome Agents: These standalone Agents work independently and autonomously, they start automatically by a defined trigger, then carry out defined steps based on your instructions and, if necessary, assign tasks to human contact persons.
With the exception of the copilot Agents in SharePoint all powerful AI-Agents in Copilot Studio - without any in-depth programming knowledge. You can create your Agents add different types of actions to extend your M365 Copilot and customize Agents. Connect your copilot to external data sources, generate texts and react individually to inputs to provide end users with the right information in the chatbot.
Worth Knowing
Copilot Studio is part of the Microsoft Power Platform and integrates into a comprehensive environment that Governance and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies require. The Power Platform gives your employees quick and direct access to their solutions. This can lead to numerous smart, digitalized processes. However, risks to sensitive data can arise without strategic planning and suitable data security measures. Appropriate security and data policies are crucial to facilitate the creation and use of Agents security and efficiency. Train your IT staff to manage the power Platform and use the Center of Excellence Starter Kit to enable the compliant use of the Agents in your company. More information about the power Platform and Governance can be found in our blog article Microsoft Power Platform with Arvato Systems or on the Power Platform Foundation page.
Examples of the Use of Copilot Agents
From automated ticket management to intelligent document management, Copilot Agents optimize workflows and increase productivity through customized AI support. Below are four application examples for the effective use of Copilot Agents.
You can extend the M365 Copilot with a Copilot Agent that uses Power Automate to retrieve information from the ticket system and return it in natural language. This Copilot Agent can be explicitly addressed in BizChat with "@Copilot Agent Name". This allows you to receive answers to ticket information at lightning speed, process priority tickets immediately, or quickly obtain the number of active tickets.
A marketing team member who created a SharePoint library can make an agent by clicking the "Create copilot agent" button in the ribbon. This agent automatically collects and organizes all relevant marketing documents from the SharePoint library. This intelligent digital assistant makes everyday work much easier, as employees no longer have to search for documents manually. Instead, they can ask the agent for the information they need. This way, the agent ensures that all critical information is centralized and easily accessible. In addition, new files and SharePoint sites can be added as knowledge sources so that the agent is continuously updated and improved.
Imagine an agent that greets interested parties on your company website and proactively offers them information about your services or answers questions about current orders by equipping them with the relevant knowledge. With the support of Generative AI, the co-pilot can create answers independently, such as questions about opening hours on public holidays. In this way, customer inquiries are processed efficiently and quickly.
An autonomous co-pilot agent acts independently within defined framework conditions. An example is an agent that is activated as soon as an email arrives in a specific mailbox. It analyzes the content of the email and performs automated actions based on defined workflows to forward the message to the company's responsible contact person. If the agent cannot identify this person, a fallback instruction takes effect, which forwards the process to the manager to ensure swift and successful processing.
Licensing Options for Copilot Studio at a Glance
To use the services of Copilot Studio, the following options are possible:
License type: M365 Copilot license per user
This license is required to use M365 Copilot services within Microsoft 365 applications, create Copilot Agents as extensions of M365 Copilot in Copilot Studio or BizChat, and create Copilot Agents in SharePoint.
License type: Copilot Studio license per tenant
This license is required to create and manage custom agents used via services such as Teams or external websites. Copilot Studio features are licensed via capacity packs (1 capacity pack = 25,000 messages/month). To add additional capacity, add more capacity packs.
Additional information on the Copilot Studio license per tenant
For Copilot Studio, billing is based on "billed messages" - the common currency for all Copilot Studio functions. Each billed message counts as a request or message to Copilot that triggers an action and response. The following consumption rates apply for messages:
Regular (non-generative AI) = 1 message:
If a user asks for a store's opening hours and the Copilot provides this information or proactively welcomes a visitor to the website, this is counted as a billed message.
Generative AI (Gen AI) responds via your data = 2 messages
Two billed messages will be charged if a user requests the opening hours for the upcoming holiday and the Copilot responds with GenAnswers.
Licenses are purchased at the tenant level and cannot be assigned directly to an individual agent. They are only transferred to the Power Platform environment where the agent is located. Therefore, it is important to consider effective governance strategies for the Power Platform.
We offer just such a package with our Power Platform Foundation. Please feel free to contact us!
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