Set up and manage the agents in communities feature in Viva Engage

Important

The agents in communities feature is in public preview. Features in preview may undergo changes before general availability release. SharePoint integration is not yet available. When it becomes available, the agent will be able to use the Engage community’s SharePoint site and library, and you’ll be able to specify additional SharePoint sites or libraries outside the community.

Agents in Engage communities are AI-powered assistants designed to help answer questions from community members. In a community, the agent refers to past conversations and community SharePoint resources to generate responses to unanswered questions. The agent helps community members get timely, accurate information.

In so doing, community agents also help reduce question duplication. They save valuable time for community admins and experts by finding past threads and information sources, and by drafting responses.

Admins can configure the agent to automatically post answers, or to post after community admin or expert review.

To promote depth and accuracy, community admins can set the agent to refer to SharePoint sites and libraries that are available to the community.

Licensing requirements

A Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed community admin can add a community agent to the community. After the agent is active, Copilot-licensed admins and community experts can review, approve, and edit agent-drafted answers. After agent responses get posted, admins can delete them. All community members can see content posted by the community agent, regardless of license assignment.

Opt in to the agents in communities public preview

You can opt your network into the Agents in communities public preview through a simple network toggle:

1. Go to the Engage admin center and select Tenant settings.

2. Set the Community agent preview toggle to On.

Important

When the agents in communities feature is generally available, it will be managed directly through Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and this toggle will be removed.

How it Works

Every 15–20 minutes, the agent scans its assigned community for up to three unanswered questions.

The agent skips questions with a "Best" or "Verified" answer or that are older than 14 days. It drafts its answers using relevant grounding content and only responds if such content is available.

If confidence is low or review is enabled, admins or experts must approve the response before posting.

SharePoint integration requirements

A community agent automatically uses the Engage community's designated SharePoint library for source material. The Add sources feature allows you to add one or more SharePoint libraries or sites for source information.

To add SharePoint sites or libraries for agent use, you must be the community admin who set up the agent, and be a site owner of the SharePoint sites or libraries.

Note

Some limitations apply to the agents in communities preview release:

• SharePoint as a knowledge source is coming soon - you can still set up your agent now and add SharePoint later.
• Restricted content discovery for SharePoint isn't supported.
• Advanced SharePoint features (Information Barriers, Data Loss Prevention, Sensitivity Labels, Conditional Access, and Information Rights Management) aren't supported for SharePoint sites at launch.
• The preview release only supports SharePoint team sites.
• Audit logs for agent administration aren't supported. Audit logs will be supported at General Availability.

Add and configure the agent in your community

To add an agent, Copilot-licensed community admins can select the + icon next to Agent in the community member panel.

Agent configuration is straightforward:

1. From the Set up your agent dialog, apply the following settings:

   • Require review before posting: By default, the agent automatically posts answers to questions asked in the community. To require admin and expert review and approval before posting, enable this toggle.
   • Add sources: Add a SharePoint site or library to support agent responses with deeper information. The agent creator must own the site or library, and its content must be accessible to the community.

2. Enter the URL for the SharePoint site or library, such as https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teams/contoso-eng-specs and select Add.

3. In the same page, grant read-only access to the Microsoft 365 Group that's associated with the Viva Engage community.

4. Select Save to complete setup.

5. To update agent configuration, select the Edit icon next to Agent in the community member panel.

Review agent-drafted answers

If you enable reviews of agent-created information, suggestions appear in a dedicated Review agent suggestions page. Community admins and experts can apply the following actions:

• Approve: Select Post to push the answer to the community, marked as verified by the reviewer.

• Edit and Approve: Edit the answer before posting. The answer appears as posted and verified by the reviewer.

• Dismiss: Remove the suggestion from review. The agent doesn't attempt to answer questions with dismissed answers.

Community admins and experts receive review notifications in Teams and in the Engage notification bell when agent drafted content is ready for review.

Note

The agent’s reasoning appears on the Review agent suggestions page, and doesn't appear in posted messages. Agent reasoning describes how the agent arrived at the answer.

Community member experience

Agent-generated answers appear directly in the question thread, as posted by the agent. If they're approved, they also include a Verified Answer label. Members can provide quick feedback using emoticons.

FAQ

How is the agent evaluated, and what metrics are used?

We evaluate the agents in communities feature through extensive manual and automatic testing based upon Microsoft’s internal usage and measurements. The goal of evaluations is to promote legible, comprehensive, and quality responses. We also perform extensive evaluations for offensive and malicious questions and responses.

We also subject agents in communities to online and offline evaluations and metrics, and with user feedback (thumbs up/down), verbatim feedback, and manual evaluations by our product teams.

How can users minimize the agent’s limitations when using the system? 

The agents in communities feature answers questions based on grounding data, so it performs best in communities with good grounding data that's accessible to all community members. That content includes prior conversations (posts, comments, and replies), the community’s SharePoint library, and SharePoint sites specified by community admins. In new communities, or communities with low activity, customers should build up their SharePoint libraries with more content so the agent has sufficient grounding data.

Note

The agents in communities feature can't process image, audio, or video files.

What factors enable effective and responsible use of the Engage agents in communities feature? 

Community admins manage the agent according to the needs of their specific community:

• Disable automatic posting of agent responses to require community admin or expert approval before agent generated answers get posted to a community.
• Add grounding content to community SharePoint sites and libraries.
• Delete agent responses from the Community feed.

How do I provide feedback on the Engage agents in communities feature? 

If the community admin enables automatic posting: Any community member can give feedback by selecting the thumbs up or down in the agent’s message. Users can also add comments in the feedback form.

If the community admin disables automatic posting: Admins and experts submit feedback in the Agent Suggestions page by selecting thumbs up or down in the agent’s message. They can also add comments in the feedback form.

Can I delete an agent's response after it gets posted?

Community admins can delete agent-posted responses from the Community feed by selecting delete from the More ... menu under the agent's answer.