The latest update to Microsoft 365 Copilot brings AI-powered search, so-called reasoning agents, and a new Agent Store. Some users already have access to certain features, while others may have to wait through May.
One of the additions is AI-powered enterprise search, which once challenged enterprise search vendors because of the complexity of applying policies across diverse data repositories to make sure only appropriate documents were called forth.
“With Copilot Search, we’re bringing the power of search and AI together to give you more relevant, context aware search results,” said Jon Friedman, corporate VP of design and research, in a video explainer. “It connects your work data and dozens of apps so you can quickly find what you need. And Copilot can summarize the files so you know what the content is without ever having to open the document.”
For anyone concerned about letting a large language model rummage through corporate files, Microsoft points to its Copilot Control System, intended to let IT admins and security folk manage Copilot interactions and access.
That includes an Apps and Agents section in Data Security Posture Management for AI with Purview for just this sort of oversight. There’s also a Copilot Analytics service and a Copilot Studio Agents Report available in Microsoft Viva Insights.
As for the AI itself, Microsoft 365 Copilot has taken on two new passengers: Researcher and Analyst. They’re “reasoning agents,” meaning they’re based on OpenAI’s reasoning models, although Microsoft hasn’t specified exactly which ones. Reasoning here refers to a process of breaking down tasks into steps and showing the execution of those steps.
The Researcher agent is intended to assist with multi-step research tasks, similar to the OpenAI deep research agent the AI giant introduced in February. Microsoft’s demonstration video of the process shows an agent being asked to come up with a marketing plan using the following prompt:
Imagine you are an ambitious but not very clever intern and your employer’s crack marketing team comes down with food poisoning after a recommendation engine’s suggestion to try a trendy found shellfish pop-up. You’d be thrilled to have an agent like Researcher craft a passable marketing plan for which you could take credit.
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The Analyst agent promises similar info-wrangling feats in the context of data analysis.
“Analyst is built on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model, and optimized to do advanced data analysis at work, including knowing when and how to use Python,” an unidentified Microsoft employee explains in a video. “So even if you’ve never written a single line of code, you can still get the rich data insights only Python can provide.”
You may not be able to understand the code, but Microsoft’s AI can explain it to you. Progress, apparently.
These new agents are available in the shiny new Agent Store, which also features offerings from various partners including Jira, Monday.com, and Miro, among others. Custom-built agents are in the mix too, giving companies the option to automate specific tasks or provide Copilot with