Copilot Agents, Developer Tools, Sharing/Publishing and Message Consumption

Microsoft 365 Copilot has grown beyond just a productivity booster inside Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook and Word...etc.);  it's become a flexible AI platform that connects your organizational data with Microsoft 365 apps to automate work and answer complex questions. Licensed users also have the ability to create Copilot Agents.

What are Copilot Agents

Copilot Agents are AI enabled assistants that provide secure, real-time interactions between Copilot and other enterprise systems. They can be pre-built by Microsoft and 3rd parties (licensed M365 Copilot users only have access to 1st party agents; those built by Microsoft).  If a prebuilt agent doesn't fit your needs, users can create custom agents. Copilot Agents can be a simple Q&A bot for a specific SharePoint site or a complex custom agent built in Copilot Studio.   

Agent Developer Tools

The 3 tools listed below give a user increasing options for sourcing content and customization for building agents.   The basic, most straight forward are SharePoint Agents up to providing users the most flexibility building advanced agents via Copilot Studio (full version).  Agents can be: declarative or custom where a declarative agent operates within a set of instructions, tools and access to internal knowledge sources in M365.   Agents are categorized from simple retrieval to task (see below).

Use the matrix below as a guide for agent type, category, developer tool and use case.

SharePoint Agents

These agents are AI assistants that are developed directly in a SharePoint site.  By default they are scoped to the site where they are built in, meaning they are easy to deploy and focused on providing site content more intelligently.  Users must have an M365 Copilot license and edit permissions to the SharePoint site in order to create or modify the agent.  Qualified users will see the Copilot icon in the upper right of your browser window when viewing SharePoint site pages.

SharePoint agents are easy to build using no-code, provide contextual help to site visitors and are end-user friendly. To learn more visit Get Started with SharePoint Agents.

Copilot Studio

Microsoft Copilot Studio has two versions.   A 'lite' version and the full version.  Please review the decision tree below when mapping your scenario to the right tool.

Agent Builder (aka Copilot Studio 'lite')

This low-code tool allows for building declarative agents (retrieval & basic task) that extend Microsoft 365 with enterprise knowledge sources and instructions.  The agents built with Copilot Studio 'lite' provide more functionality (than SharePoint Agents).   Agent builder is located in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (for users with the M365 Copilot license) via the URL https://m365.cloud.microsoft and is best suited for your own use or small teams.

New Agent start page

Use Copilot Studio 'lite' when you need to connect to multiple types of data (not just SharePoint) and you want more control over your agent without using complex logic.   Its a useful tool to prototype ideas quickly. To learn more visit Build agents with Agent Builder and Build your own Agent.

The side-by-side comparison highlights a few of the main differences in functionality between Copilot Studio 'lite' vs full-version.   

Detailed feature comparison between Copilot Studio 'lite' and Copilot Studio.

IMPORTANT:  If you are using Agent Builder to create your Copilot Agent and later find that you want to develop more advanced features, then use the built-in option to Copy your agent to Copilot Studio.

Copilot Studio 'full-version'

Agents built for a broad audience (such as your whole department, organization or external customers) should consider building their agents via the full version of Copilot Studio.   Copilot Studio is a standalone web portal with a diverse set of tools for complex or scalable solutions.  This tool is recommended if your agent will be built with advanced capabilities like multi-step workflows, custom integrations, external API calls, or with more control over deployment and management.  Agents built with Copilot Studio also support authentication.  Access the Copilot Studio web service at https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com.  

The Home page in Copilot Studio will show created agents and agents that have been shared with you for a specific environment.   The sample below shows the Home page in the default environment.

When using Copilot Studio, be sure to verify the environment you are working in.  Refer to the highlighted screenshot below for those users new to Power Platform.  Otherwise this is the same toggle option available in Power Apps and Power Automate.

Copilot Studio Governance

Northwestern IT has established a few governing rules for users building agents with Copilot Studio.

• While its possible for all M365 Copilot licensed users to build agents in the default environment, there are no tenant-level copilot credits available for published agents.
• The default environment is OK for use while testing agents; NOT for production agents.  Production agents in the default environment with billed copilot credits run the risk of having their agent disabled by Microsoft.
• Developers and power users wishing to publish an agent for production use must have their agent(s) reside in a dedicated environment.
  • A TDX ticket must be opened with Collaboration Services to assist with the creation of the environment.
  • As dataverse is a prerequisite for agents built with Copilot Studio, an initial purchase of 2GB of Database Capacity will be required.  Database capacity in 1GB increments can be purchased from CDW.  Please open a ticket with Collaboration Services for assistance.
  • Environment access is restricted by an EntraID security group.  Group ownership will be delegated to the appropriate people affiliated with the school / department for which the environment was created.  Agent developers and users with shared agent collaborative authoring access must be a member of this security group.
  • Each group member will also be provisioned a Copilot Studio User license. This is a free user license provisioned by Collaboration Services.
  • Dataverse access is also restricted.  Each user that has environment access will also need dataverse permissions.  Unless otherwise specified all users will be granted 'Environment Maker' rights.
• Production agents in most cases will consume copilot credits.  Please review the latest Copilot billing rates. Also refer to 'Copilot Agent Message Consumption' below.
• A Copilot credit pack (of 25,000 credits per month) can be purchased from CDW. A purchased credit pack will be assigned to an environment. It's also possible to distribute a credit pack across multiple environments. Please open a ticket with Collaboration Services for assistance.

Sharing vs Publishing an Agent

It's possible to share and publish agents built with either version of Copilot Studio.   This section will note the differences of both across each toolset.

Agent Builder

Sharing an agent provides limited, direct access to a small group of users.  Ideal for feedback and collaboration while building your agent. A tenant restriction is in place that prohibits sharing an agent with anyone in the organization.  

Publishing an agent is intended for deployment across the organization or integration with other channels across M365 (eg Teams or Copilot).  The matrix below contains a feature comparison of declarative agents in Agent Builder. Note that 'channels' in this context means platforms and not channels in Teams.

Copilot Studio

Unlike Agent Builder, the full version of Copilot Studio gives a couple sharing options to Agent authors.  Share an agent to users to only chat with it or share an agent for collaborative authoring.  The latter gives the users the ability to view, edit, configure, share and publish the agent.  However, users with collaborative authoring cannot delete the agent.  The shared users must also have a Copilot Studio user license.   Note that if users are not members of the environment for the shared agent, that it can take up to 10 minutes for the agent to appear in their Copilot Studio.  Sharing with collaborative authoring does require that the shared user be a member of the environment with at least the environment maker security role to the database.  The following covers agent sharing options in Copilot Studio.  

Publishing an agent built using Copilot Studio deploys the agent for use across several channels that can range from Teams to websites or mobile apps (several options are documented by Microsoft and accessible after selecting the 'Key concepts' link at the end of this paragraph).  The publish feature is also used to send the latest content to a production agent.  Authentication is enabled by default.  If you want to allow anyone to chat with your agent, you can opt to select 'No authentication'.  Note: when using 'No authentication', implies that your agent cannot use tools with user credentials.  To learn more visit Key concepts - Publish and deploy your agent.

Copilot Studio is backward compatible with the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, meaning agents can be published to the Copilot app channel.  Configuration steps can be viewed here.

Managing Agents / Agent Store

The Microsoft 365 Copilot app Agents section appears to users with an M365 Copilot license.  Listed agents can be installed by Microsoft (eg Researcher and Analyst), specific agents that you created, or installed agents that were shared with you.

The Agent store can be found under All agents. Visible in the right pane, you will first see a list of installed agents, to several agents built by Microsoft. Choose the 'See more' dropdown for a complete list of agents for a given section.  Scroll past Microsoft Agents to view any agents shared with you as well as additional filter categories for consumption.

On the other hand, Copilot Studio does not have a central accessible store like the M365 Copilot app. As previously mentioned, the full version of Copilot Studio views agents by environment.  Users will see agents they created or available shared agents relative to a specific environment.  Agents ready for publishing that were developed in the default environment will either need to be moved or recreated in a different environment previously setup and configured with copilot credits.  Please review Export and Import agents using solutions.  Reach out to Collaboration Services if you encounter any issues.

Copilot Agent Message Consumption (Copilot Credits)

Copilot Credits are a usage-based currency in Copilot Studio, measuring the computational effort of AI actions like generating responses, retrieving information or executing tasks.  Costs vary by complexity, ranging from 1 credit for simple answers to 10+ credits for complex actions. For the latest information, please review Copilot billing rates.

It's important to note that Copilot agent interactions during development and testing do not consume Copilot credits.  Copilot credits will be required for user interaction with production agents EXCEPT when the user has an M365 Copilot license as this license covers agent use. More specifically:  Employee-facing usage scenarios (Business to Employee) of Copilot Studio agents and Copilot Studio tools and features that these agents invoke are included in the Microsoft 365 Copilot USL when the user of the agent is licensed with Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the agent operates using the authenticated Microsoft 365 Copilot USL user’s identity. Usage is limited to fair usage limits. Microsoft reserves the right to update the limits as the product evolves, and new usage patterns emerge.  Refer to the list below for a summary of Copilot Credit consumption rules.

• Prompts in topics or actions triggered from the agent-embedded test panel are free.
• Prompts and models in agent flows always consume Copilot Credits, even when triggered from an agent-embedded test panel, or from the flow designer.
• When a classic flow is transformed into an agent flow, AI Builder/AI Tools prompts and models within this flow can only consume Copilot Credit (prompts and models in classic flows try to consume first AI Builder credits, then Copilot Credits)
• Testing a prompt (within prompt builder) or a model (within the AI models page) is free.
• Prompts in agents or agent flows consume Copilot Credits, even if the model is in preview.

A Copilot Credit pack (or bundle) can be purchased from CDW.  This capacity pack includes 25,000 credits per month. Credit packs can be distributed across multiple environments. As with any Microsoft license these annual licenses can be prorated depending on the purchase month relative to the annual renewal month (July is the renewal month for Microsoft licensing).