Agent Builder in Microsoft 365: GAME CHANGER

Amelia Roberts introduces the powerful new feature of Agent Builder within Microsoft 365, a tool that transforms the way businesses interact with AI assistants in their ecosystem. The Agent Builder, part of Copilot Business Chat, allows users to create custom AI agents designed to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and provide personalized user experiences. Here's a breakdown of what was covered in the video:

What is the Agent Builder?

Agent Builder is a new feature within Microsoft 365, enabling users to create personalized virtual assistants directly from Copilot Business Chat. The tool eliminates the need for technical expertise or navigating the full Copilot Studio, offering a simplified interface for creating custom agents. While you can start with a basic agent in Business Chat, it is possible to further customize it through Copilot Studio for advanced functionalities.

Creating Your First Agent

Amelia walks viewers through the steps of creating an agent. For this demonstration, she uses a fictional scenario where the agent, named Zaden, is created for the marketing team at Basgiath War College.

• Step 1: Open Copilot Business Chat and click the 'Create an Agent' button.
• Step 2: Define the purpose of the agent. In this case, Zaden's purpose is to assist the marketing team by providing information on the college's branding and marketing strategies.
• Step 3: Provide Co-pilot with a prompt to set the agent's tone, purpose, and branding voice. The more detailed the prompt, the better the AI’s responses.
• Step 4: Add specific documents or data sources, such as SharePoint URLs, to the agent's knowledge base. Amelia added marketing documents and social media strategy files from SharePoint to ensure Zaden had the correct information.

Testing and Customizing Your Agent

Once Zaden was created, Amelia demonstrated how to interact with the agent to test its responses. For instance, she asked about the school’s brand colors and received an initial incorrect answer, showing how easy it is to adjust the knowledge sources. By adding more relevant documents or tweaking the knowledge sources, the responses became more accurate.

• Adding Knowledge Sources: Amelia added a SharePoint URL and marketing strategy documents to ensure Zaden provided accurate, on-brand information.
• Testing the Agent: The bot was tested by asking questions, and based on the information it pulled from SharePoint, it gave accurate answers, referencing the documents it accessed.

Advanced Customization in Copilot Studio

While the Business Chat offers an easy start for basic agents, Amelia explains that for more advanced features, you can launch your agent into Copilot Studio. In Copilot Studio, you can create more sophisticated agents with actions like code interpretation, image generation, and custom prompts for greater functionality.

Managing Your Agents

Once the agent is created, Amelia discusses the option to edit and manage agents. You can return to the "Create an Agent" section to make any changes to tone, settings, or documents. For example, if the tone of voice needs to be adjusted or more documents need to be added, users can modify the agent’s settings quickly.

Conclusion

The Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 is a powerful tool for creating customized virtual assistants that integrate seamlessly into your workflow. With its user-friendly interface, it empowers even those without technical expertise to build agents tailored to their business needs. Whether you’re looking to enhance customer service or improve internal processes, Agent Builder can help your organization leverage AI to its fullest potential.

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