Study guide for Exam AB-650: Administering Microsoft 365 and AI Services

Purpose of this document

This study guide should help you understand what to expect on the exam and includes a summary of the topics the exam might cover and links to additional resources. The information and materials in this document should help you focus your studies as you prepare for the exam.

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Updates to the exam

Our exams are updated periodically to reflect skills that are required to perform a role. We have included two versions of the Skills Measured objectives depending on when you are taking the exam.

We always update the English language version of the exam first. Some exams are localized into other languages, and those are updated approximately eight weeks after the English version is updated. While Microsoft makes every effort to update localized versions as noted, there may be times when the localized versions of an exam are not updated on this schedule. Other available languages are listed in the Schedule Exam section of the Exam Details webpage. If the exam isn't available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes to complete the exam.

Note

The bullets that follow each of the skills measured are intended to illustrate how we are assessing that skill. Related topics may be covered in the exam.

Note

Most questions cover features that are general availability (GA). The exam may contain questions on Preview features if those features are commonly used.

Skills measured

Audience profile

As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you configure, manage, secure, and govern Microsoft 365 tenants, workloads, and AI services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, agents, and connected AI capabilities. You enable secure, compliant, and scalable productivity across the organization by governing data access, protecting information, and supporting collaboration between users and agents. You operate and continuously optimize Microsoft 365 and AI services at enterprise scale, helping to ensure reliable and effective outcomes in an AI-powered workplace.

As a Microsoft 365 and AI services administrator, you collaborate with architects and administrators across workloads, infrastructure, identity, security, compliance, endpoints, and applications.

For this exam, you should have experience with Microsoft 365 workloads and Microsoft Entra ID, an understanding of Defender XDR capabilities, and familiarity with Microsoft Graph PowerShell.

Skills at a glance

  • Configure and manage Microsoft 365 tenants and workloads (20–25%)

  • Govern and secure Microsoft 365 tenants and workloads (40–45%)

  • Manage and secure AI services in Microsoft 365 (35–40%)

Configure and manage Microsoft 365 tenants and workloads (20–25%)

Configure and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant

  • Configure branding in a Microsoft 365 tenant, including logo, company URL, themes, and backgrounds

  • Implement and manage domains

  • Configure and manage organizational settings, including security and privacy settings and the organization profile

  • Manage and monitor Microsoft 365 licenses, including group-based licensing and pay-as-you-go

  • Manage and monitor licenses for AI services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Agent 365, and Microsoft Copilot Studio

  • Configure and use Microsoft 365 Backup, including setup, restore, and monitor

  • Configure and review network connectivity insights

  • Monitor the health of Microsoft 365 services by using Service health, including notification configuration

Manage Microsoft 365 workloads

  • Create and manage mailboxes, including shared mailboxes

  • Create and manage teams in Microsoft Teams, including channels, owners, and members

  • Configure settings for Copilot in Teams meetings, including transcription

  • Create and manage SharePoint sites, including permissions

  • Configure SharePoint and OneDrive for Copilot, including SharePoint Advanced Management, Microsoft Search in SharePoint, and site exclusions

Govern and secure Microsoft 365 tenants and workloads (40–45%)

Manage identities in Microsoft Entra

  • Create and manage Microsoft 365 users

  • Manage guest users and external access settings

  • Create and manage groups, including Microsoft 365 groups

  • Manage roles for Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

  • Create and manage administrative units

  • Create and manage contacts

  • Perform bulk management, including Microsoft Graph PowerShell

Implement and manage authentication and access in Microsoft Entra

  • Configure and manage authentication methods

  • Implement and manage Microsoft Entra Password Protection

  • Configure self-service password reset (SSPR)

  • Investigate and resolve authentication issues

  • Implement and manage Microsoft Entra Conditional Access policies, including Microsoft Entra ID Protection and multifactor authentication

Secure Microsoft 365 workloads

  • Manage alerts in Microsoft Defender for Office 365

  • Configure threat policies and rules in Defender for Office 365

  • Investigate and respond to email and collaboration threats by using Defender for Office 365

  • Configure and manage attack simulations, including training campaigns

Protect data in Microsoft 365 by using Microsoft Purview

  • Identify requirements for Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies, including those for Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, endpoints, and Copilot

  • Identify requirements for information protection, including sensitive information types, sensitivity labels, and sensitivity label policies

  • Identify requirements for data lifecycle management, including retention labels, retention label policies, and retention policies

  • Review and respond to DLP alerts for Microsoft 365 and AI services

  • Monitor and secure AI activity by using Microsoft Purview Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Manage and secure AI services in Microsoft 365 (35–40%)

Enable and manage Microsoft 365 Copilot

  • Assess tenant readiness for Copilot, including in-app experiences

  • Identify and resolve data readiness issues for Copilot, including data leaks, data oversharing, and data compliance

  • Manage web search for Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

  • Configure Microsoft 365 Copilot Search

  • Configure Copilot settings for a tenant, including self-service purchases, Copilot in admin centers, release preferences, AI disclaimer, and video and image generation

  • Manage Copilot user experiences

  • Manage Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork

  • Manage third-party AI providers

  • Configure Copilot connectors

Implement and manage agents in Microsoft 365 and Agent 365

  • Manage the lifecycle workflows for agent identities by using Microsoft Entra Agent ID

  • Secure agent access, including access packages and conditional access

  • Manage agent owners

  • Configure agent settings, including allowed agent types, sharing, templates, and user access

  • Discover and manage Microsoft and third-party agents in the agent registry

  • Review requests and publish or reject agents in the agent registry

  • Install, block, or control access to agents in the agent registry, including uploading custom agents

  • Manage tools in Agent 365

Secure and govern agents by using Agent 365

  • Monitor agent activity by using Agent 365

  • Protect sensitive data by using Agent 365

  • Evaluate compliance gaps by using Agent 365

Monitor AI services in Microsoft 365

  • Manage and monitor costs for AI services in Microsoft 365

  • Monitor usage reports for Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center, including workload-level adoption details

  • Monitor usage and adoption for AI services in Microsoft 365 by using the Copilot Control System

  • Monitor service health by using the Copilot Control System

Study resources

We recommend that you train and get hands-on experience before you take the exam. We offer self-study options and classroom training as well as links to documentation, community sites, and videos.

Study resources Links to learning and documentation
Get trained Choose from self-paced learning paths and modules or take an instructor-led course
Find documentation Microsoft 365 documentation
Microsoft 365 admin center help
Tenant management for Microsoft 365 for enterprise
Microsoft Entra ID documentation
Microsoft Defender products and services
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager documentation
Microsoft Purview compliance documentation
Ask a question Microsoft Q&A | Microsoft Docs
Get community support Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Tech Community
Follow Microsoft Learn Microsoft Learn - Microsoft Tech Community
Find a video Exam Readiness Zone
Browse other Microsoft Learn shows