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Important
The Community Agent feature is in public preview. Features in preview may change before general availability release.
Community Agent is an AI agent for employee communities in Viva Engage that helps community admins and experts keep up with colleagues' questions, including questions that come up repeatedly. Each community can have its own Community Agent.
It searches community conversations, the community's connected SharePoint library, and additional SharePoint sites, libraries, or public websites added by an admin. It uses the information it finds to draft answers. Posted answers appear as replies to the original questions, where other community members can find and use them. Admins choose whether Community Agent posts automatically or requires admin or expert review before posting. Reviewers can approve, edit, or dismiss drafts.
Access requirements: Who can use and manage Community Agent
The following requirements apply during public preview:
| Action | Who | Required license |
|---|---|---|
| Add Community Agent to a community | Community admin | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
| Review, approve, or edit agent-drafted answers | Community admin or community expert | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
| Read answers posted by Community Agent | Community member | Standard Viva Engage license |
| View Community Agent analytics for a community | Community admin | Standard Viva Engage license |
| View Community Agent analytics across the network | Network admin | Viva Engage premium |
Network opt in: Enable Community Agent public preview for your network
A network admin must enable the public preview before community admins can add Community Agent.
Go to the Engage admin center and select Tenant settings.
Turn on the Community Agent preview toggle.
Important
At general availability, a new network-wide Community Agent setting will replace this preview toggle. We'll provide at least 30 days' notice and make the new setting available at the start of that notice period, so you can set your network's preference before general availability.
Community set up: Add Community Agent to a community
Community admins can add one Community Agent per community.
On the community page, under Admin actions, select Set up community agent.
On the Agent settings page, choose whether to turn on Require review before posting. By default, the agent posts answers automatically. Turn this setting on to require a community admin or expert to review and approve answers before they are posted.
Select Turn on agent.
After setup, Community Agent appears in the Agents section on the right side of the community page. Hover over its icon to see its status, capabilities, and knowledge sources.
To change the agent's settings, open the More items (...) menu in the community header, select Settings > Agent settings.
Choose knowledge sources
Manage the sources and settings below in the Knowledge section of Agent settings.
SharePoint sites and public websites share a total limit of 10 sites.
| Source | How it's included |
|---|---|
| Conversations in this community | Included automatically. Answers written by Community Agent are used only if a community admin or expert has marked them as verified. |
| The community's connected SharePoint library | Included automatically. |
| Other public communities in your Engage network | Turn on Include public community content. |
| Additional SharePoint sites or libraries | Select Add SharePoint site to add them. |
| Public websites | Select Add public website to add them. |
Only use expert and verified content
Turn on Only use expert and verified content to limit the community conversations the agent uses to best answers, verified answers, and content written or created by community admins and experts. This setting is off by default.
Include public community content
Turn on Include public community content to let Community Agent draw on content from other Engage public communities in your Engage network. This setting is off by default. Public websites are added separately.
Add SharePoint sites or libraries
Any community admin can add a SharePoint site or library. If the community's Microsoft 365 Group already has Read access, no access changes are needed. Otherwise, you'll be prompted to grant the group Read access during setup. An admin with Full Control of the site can grant this access.
Select Add SharePoint site.
Enter the URL for the SharePoint site or library, such as
https://zavacore.sharepoint.com/sites/m365-adoption, and select Add.If prompted, select Grant access. The community's Microsoft 365 group is added as a site visitor with Read permissions only. A site admin can remove this access at any time.
You can also grant access in the SharePoint admin center or in the site settings of the SharePoint site or library.
Files that don't inherit the site's permissions aren't used by the agent.
Sensitivity labels
You can add SharePoint sites whose sensitivity label is at or below the label on the community or its backing Microsoft 365 group.
Community Agent also checks the sensitivity labels of relevant files and site pages when drafting each answer. It won't use content with a higher sensitivity level than the community permits, even if that content was added to a connected site later.
For files, this support applies to sensitivity labels without encryption.
Note
SharePoint limitations
Examples of unsupported SharePoint compliance features include Restricted Content Discovery, Information Barriers, Data Loss Prevention, Conditional Access, and Information Rights Management. Support for these features isn't currently planned for general availability.
The preview release supports SharePoint team and communication sites only.
Add public websites
Add public websites, such as product documentation, to give Community Agent more information for drafting answers. The agent searches only the websites you add.
Use websites that are publicly accessible without signing in. The URL can have up to four path levels after the website address. For example, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/engage/overview has four path levels: en-us, viva, engage, and overview.
Select Add public website.
Enter the website's URL and select Add.
Review and manage answers
When the agent answers
When a question is posted, Community Agent checks whether it can answer it.
It skips questions with a Best or Verified answer, or questions older than 14 days.
If it finds no relevant information in its sources, it doesn't respond.
Drafting an answer can take a minute or two. Automatic posting includes an additional wait, so an answer may take several minutes to appear.
If Require review before posting is on, or the agent has low confidence in its answer, a community admin or expert must approve the answer before it is posted.
View drafts and past activity
On the community page, select Review answers in the Agents section. Use the Filter menu to switch between these views:
All four views cover a 14-day window. Posted, Dismissed, and Skipped use the date of the corresponding action.
| View | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Needs review | Drafts waiting for review. |
| Posted | Agent answers posted to the community. |
| Dismissed | Drafts that were dismissed. For drafts dismissed by a reviewer, the details show who dismissed them. |
| Skipped | Questions the agent couldn't answer, with an explanation of why it skipped them. |
Review a drafted answer
Community admins and experts receive notifications in Teams and Viva Engage when drafts are ready for review.
Select Needs review.
Read the draft and check its sources. You can also expand Reasoning to see how the agent arrived at the answer. This reasoning isn't included in the posted answer.
Choose an action:
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Approve | Post the answer as Community Agent. It is marked as verified by the reviewer. |
| Edit | Edit the draft before posting it. The posted answer is marked as verified by the reviewer. |
| Dismiss | Remove the draft from review. The agent doesn't attempt to answer that question again. |
Approved answers appear as replies to the original questions and include a Verified Answer label.
Note
When replies are added to a question while an agent draft is waiting for review, Community Agent checks whether the question has been sufficiently answered. If it has, the agent automatically withdraws its draft from Needs review.
Give feedback on an answer
Community members can select the thumbs up or thumbs down on a posted answer and add comments in the feedback form. Admins and experts can also give feedback on drafts before posting.
Delete a posted answer
Community admins can delete a posted agent answer. Open the More (...) menu under the answer and select Delete.
Measure activity and export data
View agent analytics in your community
Community admins can use agent analytics to understand how the agent supports their community and how agent-drafted answers are reviewed.
To view agent analytics, select the Analytics icon in the community header. Use the time period dropdown to view analytics for the last 7 days, 28 days, 90 days, or 12 months, or select Custom to set a timeframe.
The Agent activity section includes:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Question coverage | The percentage of questions the agent had enough information to answer. |
| Time to review | The most common wait time between when the agent drafts an answer and when a reviewer approves, edits, or dismisses it. |
| Answers generated | The total number of answers the agent generated in your community, whether or not they were posted. |
| Answers posted | The total number of agent-generated answers posted in your community. |
| People helped by agent | The number of people who reacted, voted, or replied to questions the agent helped answer during the selected time period. |
| Time saved by agent | Estimated time saved, based on an average of 15 minutes for an admin to draft each answer the agent posted. |
Use period comparisons and the Agent answers by review status chart to understand trends in agent activity. The chart shows drafts by status: pending, approved as-is, approved with edits, dismissed, or auto-posted.
Only community admins can view the agent section in community analytics. Community admins and experts can also see a summary of key metrics at the top of the answer review page.
View agent analytics across your network
Network admins can use agent analytics to understand adoption and activity across communities and identify where additional support might be needed.
To view agent analytics across your network:
Select the Analytics icon in Viva Engage.
Open the Network tab.
Use the time period dropdown to view analytics for the last 7 days, 28 days, 90 days, or 12 months.
The agent analytics view lists communities with an agent. For each community, it shows answers posted, people helped, estimated time saved, and question coverage. It also shows:
Agent status: Whether the agent is active or paused.
Agent mode: Whether the agent posts answers automatically or requires community admin or expert review before posting.
Time saved uses the same estimate of 15 minutes for each answer the agent posted.
Export Community Agent data
Use the Network Data Export API to export data for Community Agents across your network, including configuration, configured knowledge sources, and generated proposals with their review details.
Frequently asked questions
How is Community Agent evaluated?
We use manual and automated testing, both online and offline, to evaluate Community Agent. Tests draw on Microsoft's internal use and measurements and assess answer legibility, comprehensiveness, and quality, including how it handles offensive or malicious questions and responses. Feedback from community members and reviewers also informs our evaluations.
How can I help the agent answer questions in a new or less active community?
Add relevant reference material to the agent's knowledge sources. This gives Community Agent information to draw on while the community builds its conversation history.
Can Community Agent process images, audio, or video files?
Community Agent doesn't process image, audio, or video files.