Microsoft's 365 Copilot gets Researcher and Analyst, two new agents to help you out

Microsoft unveiled two advanced AI agents, Researcher and Analyst, for its Microsoft 365 Copilot. These agents will apparently make users more productive by saving time on research and data analysis.?

Here’s how the new agents work

Researcher agent uses the OpenAI model to do extensive research work, including third-party data from sources such as Salesforce and ServiceNow. The agent enables the quick and simple extraction and summation of data from various sources, facilitating a whole-picture view analysis and decision-making.

Analyst uses OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model to process raw data, execute Python code, and generate detailed reports. It behaves like a skilled data scientist, automatically conducting advanced data analysis so that users can derive insights and graph data patterns without excessive manual effort.

These AI features will be available to Microsoft 365 Copilot licensees starting in April through an early access program. Anyone interested in using these features can join the program to include Researcher and Analyst in their workflow.

Microsoft Copilot Studio also gets upgraded

In addition to Researcher and Analyst, Microsoft is introducing new autonomous agent capabilities in Copilot Studio. They plan to provide AI-powered, rule-based workflows for automating anything, further increasing users’ productivity and efficiency.

And lastly, new capabilities that enable you to build autonomous agents in Copilot Studio are generally available today. Now, agents can act independently, initiate events, and automate complex business tasks.