Copilot Agents

On this page:

• What are Copilot Agents?
• What are the limitations of Copilot Agents?
• How can I create and share Copilot Agents?
• How can I edit Copilot Agents?
• How can I open Copilot Agents that other people have shared?
• Example Copilot Agents

Video guides:

📹 Video – Creating and sharing Copilot Agents

📹 Video – Editing a Copilot Agent

📹 Video – Adding Copilot to Microsoft Teams

📹 Video – Opening Copilot Agents from shared links

What are Copilot Agents?

Copilot Agents are custom bots that you can set up with your own instructions to complete specific tasks. For example, if you find yourself often using Copilot to help you create multiple-choice quizzes, you could create an Agent whose sole focus is to help you do this. Essentially, they save you from having to type out or copy and paste in the same ‘prompt’ (instructions) each time. Once you’ve created an Agent, you can use it yourself whenever you want, or share it with other people.

You can also give Copilot Agents access to a certain amount of custom knowledge, but it needs to be within the 8,000 character limit (see the limitations section). So you probably couldn’t create an Copilot Agent with access to information about every week of your course, but you could create several Agents, each with access to information about a set week or topic.

What are the limitations of Copilot Agents?

Copilot Agents are similar to other custom bots, such as OpenAI’s ‘custom GPTs’ or Google Gemini’s ‘Gems’, but with some important limitations:

• You can’t upload documents – you need to put all the custom information you want to bot to have access to (i.e. information that it won’t have from its general training data) in the ‘prompt’ when you set it up. The prompt can be up to 8,000 characters.
• Due to organisational policies, you can’t give Copilot Agent access to the web.
• Currently, the only way to add Agents is by using the Copilot ‘app’ in Microsoft Teams. Once you’ve added an Agent, it will be available in the web interface (copilot.cloud.microsoft.com). This isn’t very intuitive – see How can I add Copilot Agents that other people have shared?

You may have heard the word ‘Agent’ used in reference to AI before, and in order to set expectations it’s useful to note that Microsoft’s use of the word to describe their custom bots is a bit of an outlier. In general, ‘Agent’ or ‘Agentic’ is used for AI tools that can operate with a degree of autonomy – for example ‘narrow’ agents like Google’s Deep Research that can create research reports, or ‘general’ agents like Chat GPT’s Operator that can use a computer. Copilot’s Agents are not ‘Agentic’ (autonomous) in this sense.

How can I create and share Copilot Agents?

Currently, you can create Copilot Agents in both the web Copilot interface, and from within the Copilot ‘app’ in Teams. However, you can only actually open Agents from within Teams! Watch the video or follow the written instructions below to get started

📹 Video – Creating and sharing Copilot Agents

Setting Up Copilot in Teams

1. Open Microsoft Teams
2. Click on Apps on the left side
3. Search for ‘Copilot’
4. Select the Copilot card
5. Select ‘Add’.

Creating a New Agent

1. Select the newly added Copilot app symbol from the left-hand menu in Teams.
2. Click ‘Create an Agent’ on the right-hand side of the Copilot interface.
3. Choose ‘Configure’ for manual set up.
4. Give your Agent a name (e.g. ‘Find an Ed Tech tool!’)
5. Add a description of what your Agent does

Adding Instructions and Knowledge

1. Use the instructions field (8,000 character limit) to:
   • Define the Agent’s goal
   • Add knowledge it should reference
   • Set boundaries for responses
2. Best practice: Write instructions in a separate Word document first to help you stay within the character limit and easily refine content.

Creating Conversation Starters

1. Add prompts that help users begin conversations
2. Give each prompt a short title
3. Write out the full message users will see when clicking the prompt
4. Add 2-3 prompts to guide different user scenarios

Testing Your Agent

1. Click on your conversation starters to see how they work
2. Test with sample questions to confirm responses use your knowledge base
3. Make adjustments if needed

Sharing Your Agent

1. Click ‘Create’ to finalize your Agent
2. Click ‘Change Sharing Settings’
3. Set to ‘Anyone in the organization’
4. Copy the link
5. Share the link in Teams (note: links only work when opened within Teams)

Limitations to Note

• 8,000 character limit for instructions
• Cannot upload documents (all information must be in the prompt)
• Web search is blocked due to security policies
• Any URLs you include in the instructions will be removed
• Shared Agent links only work when opened from within Teams

How can I edit Copilot Agents?

After creating your Copilot Agent, you may want to make changes based on testing or to add missing information. Watch the video or read the written instructions to learn how to edit your agents:

📹 Video – Editing a Copilot Agent

Accessing the Edit Function

1. Click ‘Create an Agent’ (as if making a new one)
2. Click on ‘My Agents’ in the breadcrumb trail at the top of the Agent pop-up window
3. This will show a list of all your created Agents

Making Changes to Your Agent

1. Find your Agent in the list (e.g. ‘Find an Ed Tech Tool)
2. Click the pencil icon next to the Agent name
3. This returns you to the original setup screen
4. Modify the information in the prompt field as needed
5. Click ‘Update’ to save your changes

What Happens After Updating

• Changes take effect immediately
• Users who already have the link will automatically see the updated version
• No need to reshare the Agent after making changes

How can I open Copilot Agents that other people have shared?

To open a link to a Copilot Agent, you need to do two things:

• add the Copilot ‘app’ to Microsoft Teams
• open the link to the Copilot agent from within Microsoft Teams (not from your browser).

Watch the video or follow the steps below for detailed guidance. You could use one of the links in the Example Agents section to practice adding an Agent.

📹 Video – Adding Copilot Agents from shared links

Add the Copilot ‘App’ to Teams

1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. Select ‘Apps’ in the left-hand menu.
3. Search for ‘Copilot’ and select the Copilot tile.
4. Select ‘Add’. Copilot should now appear as an icon in the left-hand menu.

Paste the Copilot Agent link into Teams before you open it

Once you have the Copilot ‘app’ installed in Teams, to make the link to the Copilot Agent work correctly, you need to open the link from within Microsoft Teams. Opening it from a browser won’t work. You could ask the person who is sharing it with you to send you a Teams message, or you could send yourself a message with the link.

After the first time you open it from within Teams, the Agent will then be available to you from the right-hand menu under ‘Agents’ in both the Copilot app in Teams and the Copilot webpage.

Troubleshooting

If you’ve followed the steps above and the Copilot Agent link still won’t work, or you get an error message, the person who shared the link may need to change the permission settings, For example, they could change the permissions to ‘Anyone in your organization’ and then re-share the link. To change the sharing permissions of an existing agent, you need to open it for editing – see How can I edit a Copilot Agent?

Example Copilot Agents

Here are some Copilot Agents that the Ed Tech team have created to demonstrate the potential of this feature. To use these Agents, you need to have the Copilot ‘app’ in Teams and open the link from within Teams (the easiest way is to paste it into a message to yourself!). Follow the steps in How can I add Agents that other people have shared with me?

https://m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/?templatedAppId=9e2962b8-7eae-4124-86f3-1799090725e1&templateInstanceId=cec6eb55-66cb-472a-a1d3-931ddae98cfa&environment=Default-4b18ab9a-3765-4abe-ac7c-0e0d398afd4f&source=embedded-builder

https://m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/?templatedAppId=9e2962b8-7eae-4124-86f3-1799090725e1&templateInstanceId=c1d4a6f9-0365-4534-ad84-91038c7ccefd&environment=Default-4b18ab9a-3765-4abe-ac7c-0e0d398afd4f&source=embedded-builder

https://m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/?templatedAppId=9e2962b8-7eae-4124-86f3-1799090725e1&templateInstanceId=14d14e5e-2737-4fdf-99bf-57917e75b75e&environment=Default-4b18ab9a-3765-4abe-ac7c-0e0d398afd4f&source=embedded-builder

https://m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/?templatedAppId=9e2962b8-7eae-4124-86f3-1799090725e1&templateInstanceId=e2ceab34-7e0b-4d14-9d4e-bb586b91855f&environment=Default-4b18ab9a-3765-4abe-ac7c-0e0d398afd4f&source=embedded-builder