Summary
In our example, Contoso employees needed a more direct way to find answers to common IT support questions. Rather than requiring employees to search for information on their own or contact the IT help desk for routine questions, you created an agent that can provide guidance from approved support information, remain within a defined scope, and direct employees to additional assistance when necessary.
By planning, creating, configuring, validating, testing, and refining the agent, you developed a solution that helps employees find information more efficiently while supporting responsible use of organizational knowledge.
Key takeaways
In this module, you learned how to:
- Plan an agent by defining its purpose, audience, scope, approved knowledge, expected behavior, escalation approach, and validation criteria.
- Create and configure an agent by using a creation prompt, reviewing the generated configuration, writing instructions, and connecting an approved knowledge source.
- Test and refine an agent by submitting representative requests, comparing responses with validation criteria, and updating the configuration when needed.
Remember
An effective agent doesn't begin with configuration. It begins with a clear understanding of the problem it needs to solve, the audience it serves, the knowledge it can use, and the situations that require human assistance.
The planning brief serves as the foundation for the agent's instructions, knowledge, testing approach, and ongoing refinement. Whether you're creating an IT support agent, a customer service agent, or another type of business agent, the same planning process helps ensure that the agent remains focused on its intended purpose.
Without an agent, employees might need to locate and search support information themselves or contact the IT help desk for routine questions. Support team members would need to repeatedly direct employees to existing information while also handling issues that require investigation or technical assistance.
A well-defined agent can make approved support information easier to access, provide more consistent responses, and help users determine when they need human assistance. By validating and testing the agent before making it available to users, an organization can identify gaps, refine its behavior, and provide a more consistent support experience while allowing support teams to focus on issues that require direct assistance.
The same approach can be applied to other scenarios. By defining a clear purpose, connecting approved knowledge, establishing boundaries, validating the configuration, and testing representative requests, organizations can create agents that support users while remaining aligned with organizational requirements and expectations.
You now have a repeatable process for planning, creating, configuring, validating, testing, and refining agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio.