Copilot Agents are specialised AI assistants that you can create and customise to handle specific tasks within your organisation. Think of them as focused versions of Copilot, trained on your company's data and designed to answer questions, automate workflows, and provide expertise in particular areas of your business.
Fortunately, you don't need to be a developer to create them. If you have a Copilot for Microsoft 365 licence, you already have access to build Agents that can transform how your team works.
At their core, Copilot Agents are AI assistants that you can configure to serve specific purposes. Unlike the general Copilot that helps with a broad range of tasks, an Agent is purpose-built for a particular role or function.
For example, you might create:
The key difference between standard Copilot and an Agent is specificity. Whilst Copilot draws from general knowledge and your immediate context, an Agent is grounded in specific sources you define, such as particular SharePoint sites, documents, or data repositories. This makes Agents far more accurate and reliable for specialised tasks.
You might be wondering whether Agents are just another tech feature or something that can genuinely impact your operations. The answer is firmly the latter, and here's why.
First, Agents democratise expertise across your organisation. Not everyone can know everything, but an Agent connected to your company's knowledge base can provide instant, accurate answers to questions that would otherwise require hunting through documents or waiting for a colleague to respond. This is particularly valuable for businesses experiencing rapid growth, where new team members need to get up to speed quickly.
Second, Agents reduce the burden on your subject matter experts. Rather than answering the same questions repeatedly, your HR team, IT department, or senior leadership can create Agents that handle routine enquiries, freeing them to focus on more complex, strategic work.
Third, Agents improve consistency. When information comes from a centralised source, you reduce the risk of outdated information or conflicting advice circulating through your organisation. Everyone gets the same, up-to-date answer.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Agents can be created and deployed quickly. You're not looking at months of development time. You can have a functional Agent up and running in minutes. This means you can experiment, iterate, and refine based on real-world feedback from your team.
The beauty of Copilot Agents lies in their flexibility. Regardless of your sector, there are practical applications that can streamline operations and improve efficiency.
Property Development
In the property sector, Agents can be invaluable for managing project documentation, planning regulations, and contractor information. Imagine an Agent that can instantly answer questions about specific building regulations, pull up contract terms with suppliers, or provide status updates on multiple developments simultaneously. For a sector where information needs to be accurate and accessible, Agents can be game-changing.
Legal Firms
Law firms deal with vast amounts of documentation and precedent. An Agent connected to your case management system or document repository can help fee earners quickly find relevant case law, retrieve specific clauses from previous contracts, or answer procedural questions—all without having to search through hundreds of files manually.
Accountancy Practices
For accountants, an Agent could serve as a first line of support for common client questions about tax deadlines, filing requirements, or documentation needed for different services. It could also help internal teams access firm policies, procedure guides, and compliance information quickly.
Financial Services
In FSI, where regulatory compliance and accuracy are paramount, Agents can help teams navigate complex procedures, access up-to-date compliance guidance, and ensure everyone is working from the latest approved templates and processes.
Creative Agencies
Creative agencies juggle multiple clients, each with their own brand guidelines, preferences, and requirements. An Agent built around client documentation can help account managers and creatives quickly reference brand guidelines, past project details, or client preferences without digging through shared drives.
Manufacturing
Whether you're in fashion, cosmetics, or other manufacturing sectors, Agents can help with supply chain information, production specifications, quality control procedures, and inventory management—providing instant access to critical operational information.
These are just examples. The real question is: where does your team waste time searching for information or answering repetitive questions? That's where an Agent can add immediate value.
Before you dive in, it's worth understanding the basics of how Agents work and what you'll need to create them effectively.
The foundation of any good Agent is quality data. Agents work by accessing and interpreting information from sources you specify – typically SharePoint sites, specific document libraries, or other repositories within your Microsoft 365 environment. The better organised and more comprehensive your source material, the more effective your Agent will be.
This doesn't mean you need perfect documentation to start. In fact, creating an Agent can be a brilliant way to identify gaps in your knowledge base. As you test and refine your Agent, you'll quickly see where information is missing or unclear, giving you the opportunity to improve your documentation in the process.
You'll also want to think about scope. The most successful Agents are focused on specific domains rather than trying to do everything. A well-built HR Agent that knows your employee handbook inside-out will be far more useful than a general 'company information' Agent that tries to cover everything from HR to IT to finance.
When you're ready to create your first Agent, start small and specific. Choose a use case where:
A good first Agent might be something like a "New Starter Guide" that answers common questions new employees have during their first few weeks, or a "Product Knowledge" Agent that helps your sales team access technical specifications and pricing information.
The process itself is straightforward. You'll define what knowledge sources your Agent should use, give it a name and description that clearly communicates its purpose, and configure any specific instructions about how it should respond. Microsoft provides templates to help you get started, including pre-configured Agents like Researcher and Analyst that you can use immediately or adapt for your needs.
Once your Agent is created, the real work begins: testing and refinement. Have team members ask it questions and see how it responds. You'll likely find areas where it needs more information or where your source documents could be clearer. This iterative process is where Agents become genuinely useful rather than just interesting.
As you start working with Agents, a few principles will help ensure success:
The Agents you can create with your standard Copilot licence are powerful, but they're just the beginning. For organisations wanting to build more sophisticated Agents with custom workflows, integrations with external systems, or advanced capabilities, Microsoft offers Copilot Studio—a more comprehensive development environment.
With Copilot Studio, you can create Agents that don't just answer questions but take actions: updating records, triggering workflows, or integrating with your line-of-business applications. This requires a separate licence and typically involves more technical setup, but for businesses with specific, complex requirements, it opens up significant possibilities.
For most organisations starting out, however, the Agents you can build with your existing Copilot licence will deliver substantial value. Once you've mastered these fundamentals and identified more advanced needs, you can explore Studio as a next step.
The technical side of creating Agents is relatively simple. The harder part—and the more important part—is adoption. A brilliant Agent that nobody uses is worthless.
When you deploy an Agent, treat it like any other change management initiative. Introduce it clearly, explain the problem it solves, and show people how to access and use it. Consider running a brief training session or creating a simple guide that shows common questions the Agent can answer.
Make Agents easily discoverable. If people have to hunt for them, they won't bother. Ensure they're prominently linked from relevant SharePoint sites, mentioned in team communications, and integrated into your team's daily tools.
Celebrate successes. When an Agent helps someone solve a problem quickly or provides a particularly useful answer, share that story. This builds momentum and encourages broader adoption.
Any time you're working with AI and company data, security should be top of mind. The good news is that Copilot Agents inherit Microsoft 365's robust security framework. Agents only access information that users already have permission to see, and all interactions happen within your secure Microsoft 365 environment.
That said, you should still be thoughtful about what information you make available through Agents. Just because something is technically accessible doesn't mean it should be easily queryable by an AI assistant. Consider the sensitivity of information, regulatory requirements in your industry, and your organisation's data governance policies.
At The Final Step, our security-first mindset means we always encourage clients to think carefully about data access and permissions. If you're unsure about the security implications of creating Agents in your environment, this is exactly the sort of conversation we can help with.
Copilot Agents represent a significant shift in how businesses can leverage AI. Rather than AI being something that happens "somewhere else" in your organisation, Agents let you embed AI assistance directly into your team's workflows, grounded in your specific business knowledge.
The technology will continue to evolve. Microsoft is constantly enhancing Agent capabilities, and we expect to see increasingly sophisticated features become available. But, you don’t need to wait – the Agents you can build today can deliver real, measurable value.
The businesses that will benefit most from Agents are those that start experimenting now. Create an Agent, test it with your team, learn from the experience, and iterate. This hands-on approach will give you insights that no amount of reading can provide.
If you're excited about the possibilities of Copilot Agents but unsure where to begin, we can help. At The Final Step, we work with businesses across London and the UK to implement and optimise their Microsoft 365 environments, including Copilot.
Whether you need help identifying the right use cases for your business, want support creating your first Agents, or would like training for your team on how to build and manage Agents effectively, we're here to help you fulfil your potential through technology.
Book a free consultation with our team to discuss how Copilot Agents could work in your specific environment, or give us a call to talk through your requirements. We'll help you move from theory to practice, creating Agents that deliver genuine value for your business.
The future of work is AI-assisted, and Agents are one of the most practical ways to bring that future into your organisation today. The question isn't whether you should explore Agents – it's which one you'll build first!