What is a Copilot agent?
Also known as: Copilot Studio agent, M365 agent
A Copilot agent is a custom, task-specific assistant built on Microsoft Copilot Studio or the Microsoft 365 Agents platform that combines instructions, knowledge sources, and actions to automate a workflow. Agents can read organizational data, call connectors, and act on a user's behalf, which makes their permissions, grounding data, and ownership a governance concern. Unmanaged agent creation produces the same sprawl and oversharing risks as any other self-service capability.
A Copilot agent bundles instructions, knowledge sources, and actions into a task-specific assistant. Built in Copilot Studio or on the Microsoft 365 Agents platform, an agent can read organizational data, call connectors, and take actions on a user’s behalf, which is what makes it useful and what makes it a governance concern.
The risk pattern is familiar: when anyone can create an agent, agents accumulate faster than anyone reviews them. Each one has permissions, grounding data, and an owner that should be known. Governing agents means inventorying what exists, assessing what each can reach, and attaching ownership and lifecycle before sprawl sets in.
