Northwestern users that have purchased an M365 copilot license will have access to use several custom copilot agents published by Microsoft. Below you'll find some references on the Researcher Agent.
FAQs
General Information
- What is the Researcher agent? It is a "supercharged research partner" within Microsoft 365 Copilot designed to tackle complex, multistep research tasks by gathering and analyzing information from both the web and your internal workplace data.
- What technology powers it? The primary engine is a version of OpenAI’s o3 reasoning model, which uses chain-of-thought processing to work through research problems iteratively.
- How does it differ from standard Copilot? While the standard Copilot is optimized for speed and everyday tasks (like summarizing an email), Researcher is designed for deeper reasoning. It takes more processing time to deliver comprehensive, source-cited reports.
Access and Licensing
- Who can use the Analyst agent? It is available to users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
- How do I access it? In the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, navigate to the "Agents" section and select "Researcher".
Use the following link https://m365.cloud.microsoft or if already logged into M365, select the M365 copilot app from the waffle menu.
- Are there usage limits? Yes, there is a combined limit of 25 queries per user per month for the Researcher and Analyst agents.
- Which languages are supported? The Researcher agent supports over 30 languages, the same as M365 copilot.
Functionality and Usage
- What output does it provide? It delivers structured summaries with key insights, source citations, and suggested next steps.
- What data can it access? It can reference your Work data (emails, chats, meetings, and files) and Web data (via Bing) to generate insights.
- Does it support other AI models? Yes, it recently added support for Anthropic's Claude models. (Microsoft is forecasting Claude to be generally available by end of February 2026)
Security and Privacy
- What are the data boundaries? All research occurs within the Microsoft 365 commercial data processing boundary, inheriting all existing security and compliance commitments.
- How are permissions handled? Researcher respects your existing identity and permissions model. It only presents data that the individual user has permission to access.
Support Resources
Interested in using the Researcher Agent? An M365 copilot license is available for purchase through iBuyNU via CDW.
Your feedback on this article is welcome, and we review comments regularly. However, if you have an issue or question requiring immediate attention or want to discuss your feedback on this article, please get in touch with the Northwestern IT Service Desk at 847-49
1-4357 (1-HELP) or
consultant@northwestern.edu.