Microsoft Copilot Studio Step by Step: Customizing Copilot and creating agents

Title Page....1

Copyight Page....2

Contents....5

Foreword....17

Acknowledgments....20

About the author....22

Introduction....25

Who this book is for....25

The Step by Step approach....26

Features and conventions....27

Download the practice files....29

Important note about changes to Copilot Studio....29

Errata, updates, and support....30

1. Understanding Copilot Studio and agents....31

Practice files....31

Get started with Copilot Studio....32

What is an agent?....33

Sign up for a Copilot Studio free trial....33

Create an agent in Copilot Studio by describing it....37

Understand the capabilities of Copilot Studio....48

Microsoft’s agent-building toolset....48

Key components of agent architecture....53

Core capabilities of Copilot Studio....55

Explore use cases for Copilot Studio agents....57

Internal agents (for employees)....59

External agents (for customers or suppliers)....62

Success metrics....66

Skills review....67

Practice tasks....68

Get started with Copilot Studio....68

Understand the capabilities of Copilot Studio....69

Explore use cases for Copilot Studio agents....69

2. Designing effective agents....71

Practice files....71

Choose the type of agent....72

Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot or build a stand-alone agent....72

Conversational agents....76

Autonomous agents....77

Multi-agent systems....79

Select the agent’s orchestration model....81

Generative orchestration....82

Classic orchestration....86

Azure CLU integration....95

Design the agent’s capabilities....96

Define the agent’s scope and purpose....97

Give the agent your brand voice....97

Identify the knowledge sources and tools your agent needs....98

Define the logic strategy....102

Identify topics....104

Plan for fallback and escalation....108

Understand and calculate agent costs....111

The capability being invoked....112

The orchestration model used....113

Tenant graph grounding, the channel, and the user license....114

Purchasing message packs for your agent....115

Using the Copilot Studio agent usage estimator....116

Skills review....117

Practice tasks....118

Choose the type of agent....118

Select the agent’s orchestration model....118

Design the agent’s capabilities....119

Understand and calculate agent costs....120

3. Building agents with the lite experience of Copilot Studio....122

Practice files....122

Describe and configure an agent....124

Create an agent by describing it....124

Configure an agent and add knowledge....135

Add capabilities to your agent....150

Edit an existing agent....154

Build an agent from a template....157

Share and manage agents....164

Share an agent with other users....164

Manage agents....170

Skills review....175

Practice tasks....176

Describe and configure an agent....176

Build an agent from a template....177

Share and manage agents....178

4. Building agents in Copilot Studio....179

Practice files....179

Understand environments and solutions....180

Create a new environment....180

Select an environment for your agent in Copilot Studio....186

Work with solutions....188

Configure a new agent....188

Start creating an agent using configuration....189

Set the primary language for the agent....192

Set the agent’s name and icon....194

Write a description and instructions....194

Add suggested prompts....197

Add knowledge....200

Create the agent....200

Manage agent settings....201

Enable deep reasoning....203

Manage the response model and response formatting....203

Edit the primary language and add secondary languages....205

Edit the Conversation Start topic....208

Start with an agent template....214

Install a managed agent....218

Skills review....223

Practice tasks....224

Understand environments and solutions....224

Configure a new agent....224

Manage agent settings....225

Edit the Conversation Start topic....226

Start with an agent template....227

Install a managed agent....227

5. Building autonomous agents....229

Practice files....229

Identify use cases for autonomous agents....230

Autonomous agents versus workflow automation....230

Identify use cases....235

Build an autonomous agent....238

Plan an autonomous agent....238

Create the agent and add knowledge and tools....240

Write instructions....256

Add a trigger....261

Iterate and add additional tools to your agent....269

Use deep reasoning....277

Best practice....283

Publish and monitor an autonomous agent....284

Review the activity....286

Skills review....290

Practice tasks....291

Identify use cases for autonomous agents....291

Build an autonomous agent....292

Publish and monitor an autonomous agent....293

6. Grounding agents in knowledge....295

Practice files....295

Understand how knowledge works in Copilot Studio....296

Set up a “Playground Agent” to use for this chapter....297

General knowledge from the LLM....300

Generative answers and the Conversational boosting topic....308

Content moderation....311

Official knowledge sources....313

Connect to public websites as a knowledge source....317

Website knowledge behavior and limitations....322

Allow the agent to use web search....325

Add files as a knowledge source....328

Upload files....329

Connect to OneDrive or SharePoint files and folders....342

Manage connections....360

Add SharePoint as a knowledge source....364

Tenant graph grounding....365

Connect to a SharePoint site....368

Connect to a SharePoint List....374

Best practice for working with SharePoint as a knowledge source....381

Add real-time connectors to enterprise data....381

Connect to enterprise data using real-time connectors....382

Add Dataverse tables as a knowledge source....390

Best practice for working with Dataverse as a knowledge source....400

Skills review....401

Practice tasks....402

Understand how knowledge works in Copilot Studio....402

Connect to public websites as a knowledge source....403

Add files as a knowledge source....403

Add SharePoint as a knowledge source....404

Add real-time connectors to enterprise data....405

7. Authoring topics....406

Practice files....406

Create and edit topics....407

Create topics from a description and understand triggers....408

Create topics from blank....433

Edit topics using code....439

Use message nodes and adaptive cards....441

Add a message node....441

Add an image to a message....448

Use cards in a message....452

Use other message node features....464

Use questions, variables, and entities....465

Understand variables....465

Add a question node using variables and conditional logic....466

Understand entities....481

Use formulas, logic, and generative answers....490

Use PowerFx formulas....491

Expand the branching logic....499

Understand slot filling and configure skip behavior....509

Add knowledge to a topic....516

Manage topic transitions and internal triggers....523

Redirecting and ending topics and conversations....524

Topic triggers....537

System topics....543

Skills review....545

Practice tasks....546

Create and edit topics....546

Use message nodes and adaptive cards....547

Use questions, variables, and entities....548

Use formulas, logic, and generative answers....548

Manage topic transitions and internal triggers....549

8. Extending agents with tools....551

Practice files....551

Use connectors and REST APIs....552

Add a connector as a tool....553

Add a tool from a REST API....581

Create agent flows....584

Create stand-alone agent flows....586

Create agent flows triggered by an agent....614

Add tools to a topic....632

Use a prompt as a tool....642

Add tools from a Model Context Protocol server....658

Skills review....668

Practice tasks....668

Use connectors and REST APIs....669

Create agent flows....670

Add tools to a topic....672

Use a prompt as a tool....673

Add tools from a Model Context Protocol server....675

9. Designing multi-agent orchestration....677

Practice files....677

Understand multi-agent orchestration....678

When to use child agents....678

When to use connected agents....679

Create and use child agents....680

Connect to existing agents....697

Connect to an existing Copilot Studio agent....697

Connect to other existing agents....704

Skills review....705

Practice tasks....705

Understand multi-agent orchestration....705

Create and use child agents....706

Connect to existing agents....707

10. Publishing and authenticating agents....709

Practice files....709

Understand and select the agent authentication method....710

Publish and test an agent....717

Choose and configure channels....727

Publishing to external channels....728

Publishing to internal channels....730

Skills review....753

Practice tasks....753

Understand and select the agent authentication method....754

Publish and test an agent....754

Choose and configure channels....755

11. Monitoring agent performance....756

Practice files....756

Analyze conversational agent performance....757

Understanding conversational agent metrics....763

Download and view conversation transcripts....776

Download conversation sessions from Copilot Studio....776

Download conversation sessions from Dataverse....779

Analyze autonomous agent performance....785

Understanding autonomous agent metrics....786

Skills review....790

Practice tasks....791

Analyze conversational agent performance....791

Download and view conversation transcripts....791

Analyze autonomous agent performance....792

12. Working with voice and customer engagement systems....793

Practice files....793

Create a voice-enabled agent....795

Understand voice-enabled agent capabilities and settings....795

Configure topics for voice-enabled agents....804

Use knowledge with voice-enabled agents....809

Test a voice-enabled agent using chat....811

Publish to a customer engagement channel and configure escalation....816

Skills review....836

Practice tasks....836

Create a voice-enabled agent....837

Test a voice-enabled agent using chat....837

Publish to a customer engagement channel and configure escalation....837

13. Extending Copilot Studio agents with Azure AI....839

Practice files....839

Create a vector index in Azure AI Search....840

Review or set up Azure prerequisites....841

Import and vectorize your data in Azure AI Search....842

Add Azure AI Search as a knowledge source....852

Bring your own Azure AI Foundry model....862

Select the primary model for your agent....863

Select the response model for your agent....865

Select the model for a prompt tool....867

Skills review....880

Practice tasks....880

Create a vector index in Azure AI Search....881

Add Azure AI Search as a knowledge source....881

Bring your own Azure AI Foundry model....882

A. Build an IT helpdesk agent....884

Practice tasks....885

Set up prerequisite components....885

Create an agent....886

Add a knowledge source....887

Author a simple topic by describing it....888

Add a tool to send a notification to the IT Team....889

Author a topic using branching logic and add a tool....890

Add a tool to create an IT Helpdesk ticket in SharePoint....892

Test your agent: knowledge....894

Test your agent: topics....894

Test your agent: tools....895

Publish your agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot....896

Build a customer support agent....898

Practice tasks....899

Set up prerequisite components....899

Create an agent....900

Edit the agent greeting....901

Add knowledge about the daily specials....901

Add a tool to respond to complaints....902

Add a tool to make recommendations for catering....904

Create a topic for event catering....906

Create an agent flow to call the prompt for event catering....907

Add the agent flow to the Event catering request topic....908

Update the instructions to reference the topic and tool....909

Test the agent....910

Publish your agent to the demo website....910

Index....912

Renowned Microsoft AI authority Lisa Crosbie unveils an essential guide to mastering agent building and business process automation with Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft Copilot Studio Step by Step: Customizing Copilot and creating agents is the definitive, hands-on guide for professionals seeking to master Microsoft’s low-code agent-building platform. The book combines reference material with step-by-step tutorials, making complex AI concepts accessible to low-code makers, consultants, and IT pros. You will learn to design, build, and deploy AI-powered agents that automate workflows, transform business processes, and integrate with Microsoft 365 Copilot and your line of business systems. Through practical scenarios, best practices, and end-to-end examples, this book equips users with the skills to leverage Copilot Studio for organizational value, offering the depth and clarity needed to turn ideas into working solutions, and emerging as the essential resource for this rapidly growing technology.

By reading this book, you will:

• Understand the foundational concepts and architecture of Microsoft Copilot Studio and AI agents
• Create AI-powered agents using natural language and low-code tools for internal and customer-facing scenarios
• Configure autonomous agents with event-driven, scheduled, and data-based triggers
• Ground your agents in organizational knowledge by connecting to multiple data sources
• Author structured conversational topics using advanced tools like branching logic and adaptive cards
• Extend agent capabilities with connectors, prompts, MCP servers, and workflow automation
• Design multi-agent orchestration using child and connected agents to delegate tasks across specialized domains
• Publish and authenticate agents across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, websites, and other external channels
• Monitor agent performance using built-in analytics to optimize user experience
• Expand your solutions with advanced capabilities for integration with voice channels, customer engagement hubs and Azure AI