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Posted 21st February
he journey for AI technology across the last two years has witnessed such accelerated growth that it now appears in almost every element of our daily lives. Importantly for the modern workplace, we are currently witnessing a watershed moment where AI technology is being placed firmly in the hands of the users for the bespoke creation and development of automated tools & processes to help with tasks.
For small to medium enterprises, this represents a huge opportunity in productivity gains, cost savings and the ability to get more and more insights from the data they store and process.
Addressing the advent of the Agentic Era over the last 12 months in particular is an area that should be of great interest to any company looking to make steps towards their own AI journey. It is becoming ever clearer that AI agents and their application will have a transformative effect across almost every space and industry for the next generation in how we approach our work.
Microsoft Copilot Agents are the perfect way to harness this change-making technology through steps that build on the foundations of your business processes while leveraging your existing investment in your IT environment.
Investing in the Microsoft 365 Copilot means the power and capability is accessed directly inside its apps. When people are working within Word, PowerPoint and Excel, for example, and efficiency inspiration strikes, they can build and develop Copilot Agents with uninterrupted flow. A completely aligned and active intelligence is therefore always at your side for every working task.
Microsoft has emerged as the most valuable leader in the use of AI for SMEs over the last two years. Microsoft Copilot has demonstrated some incredible advantages for daily task automation and its integration with the suite of Microsoft 365 Apps is proving to be a definite game changer for productivity. The key development now is how to maximise these benefits and adopt the use of agentic AI Agents technology through the creation of bespoke Copilot agents that drive your company forward.
BCN is proud to be one of the very few Managed Service Providers in the country that has been awarded with accreditation in all six areas as a Microsoft Partner for the modern workplace. This puts us in a wonderful position of being familiar with these ground-breaking tools and affords us direct access to the development resources that will get the most from them.
Here, we wanted to take a comprehensive look at how to create Microsoft Copilot agents with a keen eye on the best practices to follow and some of the pitfalls to avoid from the outset.
Everything begins with the overall business goals. Our experience over the years has shown time and time again that to get the most from the application of digital tools you must understand the value that you are trying to add. Whether you are looking for gains across efficiency, streamlined productivity or making some difficult cost-saving decisions, it’s crucial that you first identify where processes could be improved.
Once you have established the reason why there are gaps or inefficiencies, you can move on to how and when to apply digital tools to assist you.
It always helps to imagine concrete examples of Copilot Agents in action to better appreciate the value they offer. The cases for the following solutions demonstrate exactly how a process has been identified and improved and may even work as a basis for further tailoring in the building of your own specific solutions.
Copilot Agents can work across the whole workflow for online retail. Personalised offers based on customer data can be automatically rolled out, supply alerts raised with the relevant departments notified and post-purchase follow ups can be created to further elevate customer service.
Updates for your customers, insights into their behaviour, assistance with the purchase process and even account managing & onboarding are all areas primed for Copilot agents to assist with.
The intelligence available in Copilot Agents can automate training for team members, act as a question-and-answer resource for their role and handle any holiday/absence requests with a full overview of calendars and resource management to apply sign-off or decline.
One of the most impressive ways that Copilot is encouraging adoption of agentic AI for SMEs is the intuitive build it offers. A conversational experience with natural language chat prompts allows users direct and instant access to the results they want to see. Inside Copilot Studio you will see a library of Copilot Agents that have been built in response to some popular and useful use cases, much like the ones mentioned above.
Clicking the ‘Add’ button and telling Copilot how you want to adapt the agent with simple descriptive language in the chat box will customise it accordingly. You can instruct the agent on what company data to use and which knowledge to apply in any process or answers. This could be taken from certain folders and files within your IT environment, public websites and information resources. At this point you can even add elements such as the tone of voice to use when presenting the information, which is essential in customer facing scenarios.
With the teams and roles of an organisation crossing over on tasks throughout the modern working day it does become increasingly likely that people will be reaching the same conclusion for improvements. Having the same idea is positive but running two Copilot agents that perform the same task invites several difficulties and possible pitfalls.
The best way to avoid this is through the effective centralised management of all Copilot agents with an admin portal. This allows for access control and audit logging to manage all Copilot agents within your organisation consistently and securely from one environment and ensures that communication between all departments and team members regarding Copilot Agents is optimised.
Centralised management will also prevent the creation of duplicated agents from different teams. It encourages more collaboration and can lead to some effective edits and extensions as the Copilot Agents evolve alongside the company and its goals. This should be prioritised to ensure consistency for all work processes that Copilot Agents will work on, and it also mitigates any unforeseen challenges that arise from team members leaving the organisation.
Business leaders and key stakeholders are all now well versed in the idea that your data is your company. With the threat landscape from cyberattacks becoming ever more sophisticated and increasing year on year, it is critical that all company data is secure. Data is the raw material that Copilot Agents will be using to carry out their tasks, so this is the perfect time to conduct some of your own research – using the integrated tools from Microsoft – on what kinds of data you have and how well organised it is.
To ensure the security of environments used by Copilot Agents, it’s essential to start with a manual data assessment. This initial step helps identify sensitive data and potential risks without incurring high costs. Following this, leveraging technology like Microsoft Purview can further enhance the process by scanning for any unauthorised access and mitigating vulnerabilities. Combining both manual and technological approaches provides a comprehensive strategy to protect sensitive information.
Connecting Copilot Agents to data should be viewed in the same way as it is for granting user access. Strict controls and permissions must be implemented for authorisation to data sources, so the identified sensitive or restricted data remains safe at all times.
Keeping company data clean and well organised is the foundation of all good digital housekeeping. Many organisations are now working with data that is years, sometimes decades old, across multiple sources and accuracy can often be compromised as a result. Copilot Agents need accurate, up-to-date and well organised data to provide the most reliable and effective answers and assistance. It’s well worth the accompanying exercise of a data quality audit alongside the development of your first Copilot Agents.
Implementing high quality data standards across the board such as consistent templates, naming conventions and metadata is the target here. Enforcing this standardisation is a huge step towards optimising data quality and therefore the value of the Copilot Agents that are created and developed is increased.
It can feel somewhat overwhelming and a little daunting at first, thinking about the use of Copilot Agents across your company. BCN has always found that small incremental steps will often lead to the greatest insights with the use of any AI tools, and agentic AI specifically.
That’s why we suggest Microsoft automation for common and high volume tasks as a good place to start. Allowing Copilot Agents to generate emails, take notes, summarise conversations and provide reference documentation will take away a noticeable amount of admin in daily workloads that inevitably leads to new ideas. Once these Copilot agents are established, greater avenues of opportunity are revealed to the users and a transformative partnership begins to form for where to go next.
Defining clear escalation protocols for these automation agents where they cannot resolve a task or query is also key. Importantly, this gives you a new lens on how to view company processes for efficiency and highlights the important people that will be able to help deepen their understanding and value.
BCN is a keen believer that people will always be the defining factor in the success of new technology for businesses. We have always maintained that informed and up-to-date teams create the best environment for security, efficiencies and insights in the modern workplace. The digital tools and applications people use are an extension of the knowledge and experience they hold, and Copilot Agents are an exciting development of this philosophy.
Training Copilot Agents to handle wider ranges of queries and scenarios is a long-term process that requires the same updates and training you should currently offer team members. Any changes, developments or additions to your company products and services should be evident in the data and information that Copilot agents access to align their output with shifting company goals and priorities.
It’s essential to remember the key pillars of successful AI adoption. When integrating AI systems, several crucial factors must be considered to ensure their effective and ethical use. Fairness guarantees that AI systems treat everyone equally when distributing resources, information, and opportunities. Reliability and safety ensure that AI systems perform well in various contexts and conditions, making them dependable and secure. Privacy and security are paramount, as AI systems must protect individuals’ privacy and safeguard sensitive information.
Inclusiveness emphasises engaging people and empowering everyone, making AI accessible and beneficial to all. Transparency ensures that AI systems are understandable, allowing users to trust and comprehend their operations. Lastly, accountability ensures that people are responsible for the AI systems they create and deploy, maintaining ethical standards and addressing any issues that arise.
Ultimately, the success of Copilot Agents will always be judged on their performance and efficacy. Tracking this performance with metrics such as response accuracy, user satisfaction and overall resolution & task completion times is essential information to gather throughout the use, creation and development of any AI agents.
Identifying areas for improvement or extension into other tasks should be a continuously monitored process.
User feedback really is king here. Collecting data on how the Copilot Agent is being used, where it is operating and what data it is accessing creates a feedback loop right back to the beginning. Understanding the value AI agents can offer has to be the driver for their use and development. By observing their interactions and updating the data they use, there is an organic sense of improvement that will be shared right across the company, its team members and the Copilot Agents that work within it.
Following this blueprint and the methods within it will allow your organisation to take the most measured approach to the adoption of Copilot Agents. Data security, enhanced productivity and efficiency gains will be underpinning every step you take, but it makes sense to align these values with the greatest overall user experience.
With the oncoming mass wave of agentic AI tools and Copilot Agent creation this is perhaps the most important aspect to remember. The competitive edge that will raise certain companies and organisations above their peers will only arrive when this innovation meets user satisfaction to encourage consistent and regular use. That’s when the real value will surface.
Working alongside an MSP partner such as BCN allows you to get there quicker, in the most secure way, with the skilling up of your team members as priority.
Contact us today to start your own Copilot Agent creation journey. Our AI team is always on hand to share all the knowledge and experience you need to take a deeper dive into agentic AI and get going
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