Trying to create AI Agent but unable to upload any file under "knowledge". Only option is to paste Public link.

Question

I am trying to create an AI agent that can automatically populate an Excel template I provide it under the knowledge section. The intent being to give the Agent a Excel file with lots of data and have the Agent automatically extract only the data I care about and apply it to the provided Excel template, saved under "knowledge".

The issue being I don't have any way to upload a file at all under Knowledge section. CoPilot agent creation only allows for me to paste a Public URL under the knowledge section.

Was able to get CoPilot to do exactly what I wanted in conversation mode, but when trying to automate with an AI Agent have hit this roadblock of not being able to upload this Excel template file.

Did try workaround of putting the Excel file on Sharepoint and creating a shared public link, but the agent seems to just ignore the Excel template and not follow its layout, so that "workaround" was no good.

See conflicting info online that uploading a file under Agent isn't possible at all, while other info shows direction on how to do so.

This is CoPilot under my company O365 account so unsure if that plays into this at all, but figured I would mention it.

Answer 1

Dear PK,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A.

The core of the issue lies in the distinction between what the "Knowledge" section is designed for and what your specific task requires.

The Knowledge section of a Copilot Agent is primarily built for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). This is a fancy way of saying it's designed to find and read textual information to answer questions. When you provide it a link (like your SharePoint file), it essentially does the following:

1. Crawls the Document: It accesses the file and extracts the text and basic data content from it.
2. Ignores the Structure: It does not understand the file as an Excel template with specific cell formatting, columns, rows, and layouts. It just sees the text inside.
3. Answers Questions: When asked a question, it retrieves relevant snippets of that text to formulate an answer.

This is why your SharePoint link workaround failed. The agent "ignored the Excel template" because, for its purpose, the template's structure is meaningless. It only saw the content.

You are correct that direct file upload for this purpose is currently limited or non-existent in the basic agent creation interface, especially within a corporate environment. The conflicting information you see online is likely due to the rapid evolution of the feature and differences between personal, enterprise, and developer versions of Copilot.

To achieve your goal, you need to shift your thinking from giving the agent knowledge to giving it a tool or an action it can execute. The correct tool for this job in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is Power Automate.

You can read more about Power Automate via Power Automate FAQ - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn.

I wish this could help. If you have any further issues, we are happy to assist.

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