Azure Ai search not working with Copilot Studio

Question

I have tried to use Azure AI search in Copilot Studio. I have create the search service in azure with a blob storage where I keep the data. When I use search explorer in Azure the data is found. But if I add the same vector storage into copilot studio no information seems to be available. The connection is made, no errors appear. The correct vector is selected and it is selected as the only knowledge source in the generative answer. What can I do to fix this ?

Answer 1

Hello Radu, Kindly please follow below steps.

1. ✅ Confirm Index and Vector Configuration

In Azure AI Search:

Your index must contain a vector field ("vector" type) with proper configuration.

  Your **content field** (e.g., `"content"`, `"chunkText"`, etc.) must be:
  
        `"searchable": true`
        
              `"retrievable": true`
              
                 The vector config (name, dimension, similarity type) must be **exactly** as expected by Copilot Studio.
                 

2. ✅ Check Embedding Format

Are the embeddings in your Azure Search index compatible?

Copilot Studio expects OpenAI-compatible embeddings (like those from text-embedding-ada-002).

  Check that the vectors in your index have the **correct dimensions (e.g., 1536)**.
  
     If you embedded documents with another model (e.g., custom ML), they may be incompatible.
     

3. ✅ Enable “Use for Generative Answers”

In Copilot Studio, under Knowledge sources:

Make sure your Azure AI Search source is checked for “Use for generative answers.”

  If it's not enabled, Copilot won’t query it during user interaction.
  

4. ✅ Index Permissions

Ensure that Microsoft Copilot Studio has permission to query your Azure AI Search index.

If you're using a Managed Identity, it needs Search Index Data Reader role on the search service.

5. ✅ Diagnostics in Copilot Studio

• In Copilot Studio > Topics > select a test question > Test bot > then open the Diagnostics pane:
  • See if the search is triggered.
  • Look at the trace of the response — does it show any documents being retrieved?
  • If not, the search is either failing silently or returning no hits. Thanks,  Shah *************************************************************************  If the response is helpful, please click "upvote" and upvote it. You can share your feedback via Microsoft Copilot Developer Community Response Feedback link. Click here to escalate.