What Is a Copilot Agent?

Microsoft defines it as follows:

“Agents are specialized and can be used with Copilot to perform specific tasks, often with minimal input from the people that use them. They can respond to and resolve user inquiries in real time, or they can operate independently, taking specific actions based on data and predefined goals. They can also run business processes, adapt to new challenges, and improve over time”.

(SOURCE:  1).

So as one can infer, a Copilot Agent can be viewed as a subset of the overall Microsoft Copilot platform, but it is designed to help you in specific tasks that you are trying to accomplish.  In this regard, there are three specific Agents, and are as follows:

  1. The Prompt and Response Agent:These are specifically designed to answer any queries that you submit to them.  For example, if you are using Excel for a financial analysis project, and need help in creating a macro, you can ask the Agent for guidance.  It’s response could be some simple tips, or if you ask it to, it can even create a brand new macro for you.  They provide a back-and-forth exchange of conversation as you need to and typically come either as a Chatbot or a Virtual Assistant.  But, the only disadvantage with this kind of Agent is that the answers they provide to you are only as good as the datasets that are fed into them.
  2. The Task Agent:This is a more powerful kind of Agent, which is powered primarily by Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing based algorithms.  In this regard, they are designed to understand, learn, and adapt to the end user behavior over a period of time.  They are great for analyzing large sets of data and learning from past interactions.  A good example of this is Digital Personality, which is used in the healthcare industry.  Instead of having a virtual appointment with your actual doctor, the Digital Personality can engage in this kind of conversation.  Because of its algorithms, it can look up previous conversations and use them to engage in a more meaningful dialogue that specifically addresses your needs.
  3. The Autonomous Agent:This kind of Agent can be custom configured to what your exact needs are, and they are designed for heavy usage.  They can even interact with other Agents and collaborate on ways in which to improve existing processes, operations, and workflows.  Thus, they are widely used in supply chain and logistics applications.  For example, this kind of Agent can do the following:
    • Inventory Management
    • Shipment Tracking
    • Resource AllocationThey can even be used to manage Smart  Cities, where they can do the following:
    • Manage traffic flow.
    • Public Transportation scheduling
    • Schedule energy flows across major power grids

How To Get Started with The Microsoft Agent

Here are some tips to decide which kind of Agent will best meet your needs:

  1. Identify Its Main Use Case:Try to figure out for what kind of situation you need the Agent for.  For example, if you are a writer and working on a book manuscript, the Prompt/Response Agent will be best suited for this.
  2. Do The Research:Once you have identified the application you want to use the Agent for, it is important that you do some research into it.  One of the key things you will want to know in this regard is its security features, and how well it will keep your data safe from being exposed to others.
  3. Testing:Once you have decided on an Agent, then you need to evaluate in a sandboxed environment to make sure that it does what you want it to.  For instance, in the case of a book manuscript, you can take one chapter that has already been written and ask the Agent to provide suggestions as to how it can be improved.
  4. Training/Configuring It:Depending upon what you choose, you may have to train the Agent to do what you want it to do.  The more sophisticated ones, such as the Autonomous Agent, typically do not come ready to use “out of the box”.  Rather, you will have to feed it data sets and configure it to your own requirements.
  5. Setting Up Metrics:If your Agent  is going to be used for a very large-scale application, such as that of warehouse distribution, you will want to set up benchmarks and Key Performance Indicators to see how the Agent does over time.  Depending  upon that, and if all goes well with it, you can easily scale up in just a matter of minutes, since it is a Cloud based offering.

Conclusions

Although the Copilot tool is a very powerful one, getting it is quite easy.  To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Log into your M365 Copilot app.
  2. Select the following:
    • Add Ins
    • More Add Ins
    • AgentsThis is illustrated in the diagram below:

(SOURCE:  2).

  1. Once you have found the Agent that you want to deploy, select on:
    • Add
  2. Once the Agent has been installed, select one:
    • Open In Copilot

Finally, if you need help or have any questions about the Copilot Agent, contact us today.

Sources