Microsoft Copilot Studio will let developers build AI bots that act like agents

Microsoft’s platform to help businesses use copilots is getting new features designed to build more intelligent bots, handle more common work processes, integrate direct line-of-business data into the copilot experience and generate Copilot extensions.

Unveiled in 2023, Microsoft Copilot Studio allows enterprise customers to develop copilots that are specific to their needs. These AI assistants are attuned to the business workflow, can have tailored conversations for predictable scenarios, leverage proprietary data, and more.

Build your own Copilot agents

It appears the days of using chatbots are waning, and more companies are opting for smarter and independent agents to act on their behalf. To that end, Microsoft is releasing new capabilities to let business customers develop Copilot agents, which will be authorized to automate long-running business processes. These agents will be capable of reasoning over user inputs and system actions, using memory to bring in context and learning and acting based on feedback.

Other tech companies, including Zendesk, HubSpot and Sprinklr, have offered AI agents to their enterprise customers in some capacity. Microsoft’s offering is not that dissimilar, though it might provide organizations with more flexibility to create agents and operate them as they want.

Microsoft says users will always retain control of the situation, allowing them to delegate authority whenever they want and establish clear guidelines.

Copilot agents are available through Microsoft’s Early Access Program. The company plans to make iterations and refine capabilities before making Copilot agents more widely available later this year.

Publish your own Copilot extensions

Developers can customize and extend Copilot’s capabilities to suit their business needs and processes. Copilot extensions allow end users to adjust the actions Copilot takes while having it work across all systems. They can be published to Copilot for Microsoft 365 and directly within Microsoft Teams. In addition, they can be distributed through the Partner Center, meaning extensions can be installed through the Copilot store and the various Microsoft 365 app stores.

Businesses that want employees to improve expense report filing, for example, could develop a Copilot extension and distribute it within Teams or 365. Think of these applications as specialized use cases of Microsoft’s AI.

Copilot extensions are currently in private preview, while Partner Center publishing is in preview.

Conversational analytics in Copilot Studio

What company doesn’t love analytics and metrics? It’s one thing to publish an AI app, but it’s another to know how well it’s doing exactly what it should be doing. Now, in preview, Microsoft will provide deep insights into custom copilots, specifically how users are engaging with these bots.

Coming soon: Copilot Trust Platform

Organizations wanting to consolidate tools will soon be able to embed Microsoft Copilot into their own experiences. The company plans to announce the Copilot Trust Platform, providing programmatic access to the same enterprise-grade trusted services that Copilot is built on. It’ll feature responsible AI checks, enterprise data protection security, and scaled inferencing and retrieval across all of a company’s data and app estate.