Copilot Agents and Copilot Studio
People who have a repeatable task Copilot does well when prompted carefully, and want it packaged so others can run it
Prerequisites: Module 401 (Copilot 101) and Module 402 (Copilot Notebooks and Pages) or equivalent experience. A Microsoft 365 Copilot licence for Agent Builder; a Copilot Studio trial or licence for the second half.
Last verified 2026-09-17
Learning objectives
By the end, participants can:
- Distinguish the two agent types (declarative agents, which reuse Copilot's orchestrator and models, and custom engine agents, which bring their own) and say which one their scenario needs
- Build a declarative agent with Agent Builder from Create an agent from microsoft365.com/chat, office.com/chat or the Teams desktop and web clients; not on mobile with instructions, knowledge and a test
- Explain what Copilot Studio adds: knowledge sources, tools and actions, workflows, and the choice of harness (the GitHub Copilot harness, the standard harness and the Copilot chat harness)
- Describe how agents are billed (Copilot Credits, bought as prepaid packs, a one-year prepurchase plan or pay-as-you-go through Azure; zero-rated for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users on classic answers, generative answers and Graph grounding) and what the trial can and cannot do
- Trace the governance path (Microsoft 365 admin center, Agents page and Agent Registry, with agent requests approved or rejected before an agent reaches the Agent Store) and say who in their organisation may publish
What's in this module
7 lessons · 5 exercises · ~7 min reading
Starts withWhat an agent is, and is not~1 minExecutive summary
You will learn what a Copilot agent is, the two architectures Microsoft documents, how to build a declarative agent in minutes with Agent Builder, when to move up to Copilot Studio for knowledge sources and actions, and how agents are governed before anyone else can use yours. End state is one working declarative agent built on your own instructions and knowledge, shared with one colleague, plus a written decision on whether it needs Copilot Studio and who in your organisation may publish it. After this module you can tell an agent from a saved prompt, choose between Agent Builder and Copilot Studio on the merits, name the three harnesses and what each is billed in, and explain the approval path an agent takes to the Agent Store.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn, "Agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot", the two agent types, their components and when to build which: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/extensibility/agents-overview
- Microsoft Learn, "Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot", entry points, governance, limits: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/extensibility/agent-builder
- Microsoft Learn, "Overview - Microsoft Copilot Studio", agents, workflows, agent flows and the studio itself: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/fundamentals-what-is-copilot-studio
- Microsoft Learn, "Harnesses in Copilot Studio", the three harnesses and how each is billed: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/harnesses-overview
- Microsoft Learn, "Standard harness licensing", Copilot Credits, pay-as-you-go, the trial and what the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence includes: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing
- Microsoft Learn, "Manage agents in the Microsoft 365 admin center", the Agent Registry, agent requests and blocking: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/manage/manage-copilot-agents-integrated-apps
Prefer the live room?
This module also runs inside our in-person bootcamps and workshops in Copenhagen.
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