As AI technology continues to advance, so do the opportunities to harness its potential for automation and improving user experiences. One of the most exciting recent developments in this space is Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, a powerful tool aimed at simplifying the creation of AI-driven assistants—known as “copilots”—within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
With more than 1.3 million paid Copilot subscribers already using the tool (reported by Microsoft earlier this year), it’s evident that AI copilots are quickly becoming a game-changer in the way we work and collaborate.
So, let’s dive into what Copilot Studio is, its key features and how you can use it to create your own customized AI copilots with practical, real-world applications shared by our team towards the end.
What is Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio is a platform within Microsoft 365 that allows us to create, customize and deploy AI assistants. These assistants, known as “copilots”, can interact with users/employees, answer their questions and perform tasks based on predefined workflows and AI-generated responses.
The studio offers a user-friendly interface and a variety of tools to help you build copilots that meet specific needs within your business, whether for internal use, customer service or other applications.
Key Features of Copilot Studio
Intuitive User Interface
Copilot Studio provides a clean, user-friendly interface, similar to Microsoft Power Automate, making it accessible even for those with minimal technical expertise.
Customizable Knowledge Sources
You can configure the knowledge base your copilot uses to answer questions. This includes adding websites, documents and even Dataverse data sources. For example, you might upload your company’s employee handbook and link to internal policy documents to create a comprehensive support tool for all your HR-related queries.
Dynamic Topic Management
The core functionality of a copilot revolves around ‘topics’—predefined conversation pathways that guide interactions. You can control the behavior of these topics using triggers and actions, similar to how you would set up a flow in Power Automate. An example is to use a copilot to handle frequently asked questions about your products or services, effectively reducing the need for direct human intervention.
Generative AI Capabilities
For queries not explicitly covered by predefined topics (above), copilots can use generative AI to provide the best possible answers based on the available knowledge sources. For example, one of our team here at Cloudwell who recently began exploring using the tool was able to set up a simple copilot to handle our HR leave requests. The copilot was configured to answer complex, unexpected queries using generative AI responses derived from a set of indexed company resources.
Integration with External Systems
Copilot Studio allows integration with external systems via actions, enabling complex workflows that go beyond a simple Q&A. For instance, you can use Copilot Studio to create an automated flow that not only responds to leave requests but also triggers a process in your HR system to update employee records accordingly too.
How to Create a Copilot in Copilot Studio
Creating a copilot involves several steps. Each step is customizable so you can tailor the assistant’s capabilities to your specific requirements, as follows:
1. Set Up Your Knowledge Base
Start by defining the knowledge sources your copilot will use. You can upload documents, add URLs, or connect to external databases to create a knowledge base for your copilot. This flexibility allows you to tailor the copilot’s responses based on specific, up-to-date information.
Word of warning: The knowledge base has some limitations, for example you can only include a limited number of URLs as a ‘knowledge source’. Plus, you’ll need to carefully manage the content you connect it to, to avoid inaccurate or outdated responses.
2. Define Topics and Triggers
Topics are the backbone of your copilot’s interaction model. You can define a topic for each type of query or interaction the copilot should handle. For example, a topic could be defined to handle all leave request queries, with triggers set up for phrases like “I’d like to request time off” or “How do I schedule PTO?”
3. Use Natural Language Processing
Copilot Studio supports natural language triggers, allowing the copilot to respond to user queries in a conversational manner. In practice, this means the copilot could understand variations of a query like “I need a day off” and still trigger the appropriate leave request topic.
4. Implement Generative Answers
For situations where the copilot cannot find an exact match to a user query, you can enable it to provide generative answers. This feature allows the copilot to use AI to formulate the best possible response based on its knowledge sources. A real-world example would be to enable a copilot to answer questions about your company policies even when the query was phrased in an unconventional way.
Top tip: You can set different levels of content moderation to control the quality and relevance of responses. High moderation ensures only accurate answers are provided, while lower settings allow for more creative but potentially less accurate responses.
5. Test and Refine
Copilot Studio provides a robust testing environment where you can simulate user interactions and refine your copilot’s responses. For instance, during testing, we found that the copilot we designed to handle leave requests was able to accurately guide our colleagues through the process, including confirming specific dates and checking policy compliance.
Real-World Applications of Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio is particularly useful if you’re looking to enhance your customer service, internal support or user engagement through automated AI interactions.
Here are a few real-world examples we think you could use it for:
- Customer Support: Use Copilot Studio to create a copilot that can handle common customer queries on your website, such as product information and troubleshooting steps. Using the copilot this way can reduce the volume of calls your customer service team receives, allowing your human agents to focus on more complex issues.
- Internal Help Desk: Deploy a copilot within Microsoft Teams to assist your employees with IT-related questions, such as password resets and software installation guides. This can potentially reduce the load on your IT support team and improve response times for common issues.
- Training and Onboarding: Utilize a copilot to assist with onboarding new employees. Use the copilot to provide interactive guidance on your company’s policies, benefits and even IT setup, allowing your new hires to get up to speed quickly, reducing the need for one-on-one training sessions.
- HR Process Automation: Develop a copilot to automate HR leave requests. Use the copilot to not only handle initial requests but also to integrate with your company’s HR system to update records and notify relevant managers, streamlining the entire process and reducing administrative overhead.
Copilot Studio’s a rapidly evolving AI tool
Microsoft’s Copilot Studio is still in preview and is rapidly evolving. As such be prepared for Microsoft to make frequent changes in its features and interface, which can impact your workflows.
Future enhancements are expected to improve the ease of use and expand functionalities, such as directly training copilots from document libraries in SharePoint, which will further integrate Copilot Studio into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
That said, even in its infancy, Microsoft’s Copilot Studio is a powerful tool that enables you to harness the power of AI for various applications. Whether for customer service, internal support or any other interactive needs, Copilot Studio offers a flexible, user-friendly environment to create effective AI copilots.
The platform’s ability to integrate with existing systems, use natural language processing and provide generative AI responses makes it a versatile solution for enhancing operational efficiency and user engagement.
Copilot Studio: Key takeaways
- You can build your own copilot from predefined templates or build one from scratch by defining actions, topics and knowledge sources.
- The main elements of a copilot in Copilot Studio are knowledge sources, topics, and actions. Knowledge sources provide the data the copilot can use to answer questions, while topics control the behavior of the copilot, similar to workflows in Power Automate.
- Copilot Studio leverages NLP to understand user queries and determine intent. This capability allows the copilot to respond intelligently to a wide range of inputs, enhancing interaction and engagement.
- Copilot Studio integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, SharePoint, and Power Platform, making it easier for you to deploy and use within your existing Microsoft environments.
- Copilots can be published across various channels like websites and Teams. There are different authentication methods, including Teams authentication and custom Azure Active Directory setups.
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If you’re interested in building your own copilot, consider diving into Microsoft’s learning resources or experimenting directly within Copilot Studio to explore the possibilities.
Alternatively, get in touch with us here at Cloudwell and we can work with you to identify where best to deploy a customized AI assistant in your organization to help drive efficiency, improve your employee experience and support your team’s productivity.