Kurt Shintaku's Blog

At Ignite 2024, we introduced the preview of new out-of-the-box agents in Microsoft 365, including the Facilitator, Interpreter, Project Manager, Employee Self-Service Agent, and Agents in SharePoint. These are new agents that you can experience directly out-of-the-box within Microsoft 365 apps. These new agents supercharge Copilot – adding specialized skills and knowledge while automating specific tasks at hand. These out-of-the-box agents take on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization. They handle simple, mundane tasks to more complex and multi-step business processes. These agents in Microsoft 365 will drive the next level of business value for every organization.

Here’s a short video that goes over all the new agents announced:

What is the Facilitator agent?

The Facilitator agent works within Teams meetings and chats for more effective collaboration. In meetings, the Facilitator generates real-time AI notes during your meetings, allowing everyone to co- author and collaborate seamlessly. In chats, the Facilitator maintains an up-to-date summary of important information as the conversation happens, including key decisions, actions items, and open questions to resolve. This new agent is available in public preview.

What is the Interpreter agent?

The Interpreter agent enables real-time speech-to-speech interpretation in Teams meetings so each participant can speak and listen in the language of their choice in up to nine languages, instantly overcoming language barriers. Meeting participants can also have the Interpreter simulate their personal voice for a more inclusive experience. This new agent will be available in public preview in 2025.

What is the Project Manager agent?

The Project Manager agent automates project management in Planner, handling everything from plan creation to executing tasks. Whether it’s a long-running or a short-term project, the Project Manager can automatically create a new plan from scratch or use a pre-configured template by simply inputting the goals. Once the plan is in place in Planner, the Project Manager oversees the entire project, including the assignment of tasks, progress tracking, reminders and notifications, and status reporting. It can also complete tasks, including content creation. This new agent is available in public preview. 553. PUBLIC

What are Agents in SharePoint?

Agents in SharePoint empower employees to gain insights faster and make informed decisions grounded on specific SharePoint content. Every SharePoint site now includes an agent for immediate use. Users can easily create their own agents with just a few clicks, tailored to specific SharePoint files, folders, or sites that support common business process such as field service reps using the agent for product installations or finance teams using the agent to manage quarterly budget planning with data grounded on the company’s budget policies and forecast information. These agents can be edited to have a personalized name and certain behaviors, and can be shared across emails, meetings, and chats, with users being able to ask the agent questions and getting real-time responses. They can also be customized in Copilot Studio, where admins can connect to third-party data sources and add actions and further automate workflows. Agents in SharePoint follow existing SharePoint user permissions and sensitivity labels to prevent the oversharing of sensitive information and are built on the same powerful AI technology as Microsoft 365 Copilot, ensuring data stays within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. Agents in SharePoint are generally available.

What is the Employee Self-Service Agent?

The Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat) expedites answers for the most common workplace policy-related questions and takes action on key HR and IT related-tasks. From Business Chat, users can retrieve benefits and payroll information, start a leave of absence, request a new laptop with IT and even get assistance for Microsoft 365 products and services, all in one place. The agent is customizable in Copilot Studio, where admins can use a variety of tools and data sources including: pre-configured templates, workflows, and connectors; authoritative knowledge sources such as SharePoint, HR (Workday), IT systems (SAP and ServiceNow); and a library of tailored responses to sensitive topics. This new agent is available in private preview.

What licensing is required to access the public preview of agents in Microsoft 365?

For the public preview of the Facilitator, Interpreter, and Project Manager agents, customers are required to have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to access these agents in Microsoft 365. Beyond preview access, additional licensing details will be communicated at a future date.