Agents extend the capability of Microsoft 365 Copilot in exciting ways, letting you customize your Copilot experience to fit your specific needs by connecting to your organization’s knowledge and data sources as well as automating and executing business processes. This article covers how to find, install, and get started with agents. 

Note: Agents are available to customers with a Microsoft 365 Copilot (commercial) license.​​​​​​​

Explore agents

Agents can be found in the app store in Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft 365 app. From Copilot in Teams or the Microsoft 365 app, select Get Copilot agents on the side panel to the right to explore agents in the app store. 

The Get Copilot extensions menu item on the right rail of Teams.

Alternatively, you can open the app store in Teams or the Microsoft 365 app by selecting the Apps icon located on the left sidebar. From there, select Copilot agents on the left panel to see the list of agents.  

The Teams apps store with the Copilot agents category selected.

Once you have found an agent that you'd like to use, install it by selecting Add on the app tile or in the app details dialog.

Note: For agents that your IT admin has not yet approved, you will see a Request approval option instead. 

After installing, select Open in Copilot. You will see the agent selected on the side panel on the right. This indicates that you're chatting with the agent.  

Using agents in Business Chat

In Business Chat (BizChat), select the agent you want to use on the side panel to the right. 

Business Chat, with an agent selected on the panel on the right.

Tip: You can also @ mention the agent directly from Copilot to chat with it.  ​​​​​​​ A BizChat window showing the list of agents that appears when you @mention them.

Agents help retrieve information and complete tasks through prompts that you provide via the compose box, framed as questions or requests. 

Many agents have starter prompts to help illustrate what the agent can help you with. If you select one of these prompts, it will auto-populate in the compose box. You can then send this prompt to the agent or edit it as you wish. 

You may pin or unpin agents in the right side panel for easy access. Simply hover on the agent name in the right side panel and a pin button will appear. Select the pin button to pin the agent toward the top of your list of agents. 

The list of Copilot agents with an arrow pointing to the pin button.

Note: Visual Creator is an agent built by Microsoft and pinned by default.

Using agents in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint

To use agents in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint,

  1. Open a Word document or PowerPoint presentation and go to Copilot on the Home tab.

  2. Select the Switch copilots menu button button at the top left of the Copilot panel to view installed agents.  ​​​​​​ ​​​​​​​ The Copilot Agents list in Microsoft Word

  3. Select the agent you want to use from the list.

Now, you're all set to start interacting with the agent directly within the document or presentation you’re working on. 

Tip: You can also @ mention the agent directly from Copilot in Word or PowerPoint to chat with it. 

Learn more

Introducing Copilot agents

Get started with Copilot

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