Artificial intelligence is transforming how we work, but not in the way many of us might have imagined. Instead of replacing humans, AI is becoming our teammate – taking on the routine, time-consuming tasks that slow us down and freeing us to focus on the creative, strategic work that truly matters. This shift is being powered by AI agents, and if you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, you already have access to a powerful suite of them.
At Silicon Reef, we’re already using these agents to streamline workflows and speed up work while maintaining control, security, and quality. In this guide, we share what we’ve learnt and how agents can help you do the same.
What Are AI Agents, and Why Should You Care?
Before diving into Microsoft’s specific agents, it’s worth understanding what makes an AI agent different from the chatbots and AI assistants you might already be familiar with.
Traditional chatbots are reactive – they wait for you to ask a question, follow a script, and provide answers based on predetermined responses. They’re helpful for simple queries, but they can’t take action or adapt to complex situations. AI agents, on the other hand, are autonomous and proactive. They don’t just respond to questions; they observe, reason, make decisions, and take actions across multiple systems to achieve specific goals.
Think of it this way: a chatbot might tell you how to schedule a meeting, but an AI agent can actually check everyone’s calendars, find the optimal time, send the invites, and follow up with reminders – all without you lifting a finger. AI agents can initiate workflows, access multiple data sources simultaneously, learn from interactions, and even collaborate with other agents to complete complex tasks. Research shows that AI agents can boost team productivity by 60% per employee without sacrificing quality, and employees working with agents report feeling 72% more likely to describe themselves as “very productive”.
This distinction matters because AI agents are changing the fundamental nature of work. Organisations are moving from simple AI assistance to what Microsoft calls “Frontier Firms” – companies that are human-led and agent-operated. In these organisations, employees aren’t just using AI tools; they’re managing teams of AI agents that handle everything from data analysis to customer outreach, allowing humans to focus on leadership, innovation, and strategic decision-making.
Microsoft’s Vision: Intelligence on Tap
Microsoft is rapidly expanding its agent ecosystem. At Microsoft Ignite 2025, the company unveiled new intelligence capabilities including Work IQ (which helps Microsoft 365 Copilot understand your work context, relationships, and company knowledge), Agent 365 (a control panel for managing agents across your organisation), and numerous new agent capabilities.
If you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, you already have access to a growing library of built-in agents. These agents are specialised for different tasks, and they’re ready to use right now in your Copilot interface. Beyond these built-in options, you can create your own custom agents using Copilot Studio – no coding required.
Microsoft continues to release new agents regularly, so the capabilities available to you will only expand from here. Let’s look at a snapshot of what’s available now and how these agents can help with the work you’re actually doing.
The Built-In Copilot Agents Available to You
1. Workflows Agent – Automate Tasks with Natural Language
What it does: The Workflows Agent lets you automate processes across Microsoft 365 apps by simply describing what you need in plain English. Instead of setting up complex automation steps or writing code, you can say something like “Each morning, summarise all unread high-priority emails and post a digest to my Team’s channel,” and the agent builds that workflow for you across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and other apps.
Why it matters: Automation shouldn’t require technical expertise. This agent makes it possible for anyone to create workflows that ensure routine processes happen automatically and consistently. That means fewer manual errors, no forgotten follow-ups, and more time for work that actually requires your attention. The workflows are enterprise-grade in terms of security and compliance, so they’re safe and auditable.
A practical example: You run monthly all-hands meetings and need to share key announcements within 24 hours. Set up a workflow that watches for a “town hall recap” email, extracts key points, formats them as an intranet post, publishes it, sends it to your company distribution list, and reminds department heads to cascade it. Once configured, it runs automatically each month – saving hours of coordination work.
2. People Agent – Organisational Intelligence & Meeting Prep
What it does: The People Agent aggregates information about colleagues from your emails, chats, meetings, and shared files to help you understand your organisation’s people and relationships. It prepares you for interactions by surfacing relevant context about who you’re meeting with and helps you find colleagues with specific expertise.
Why it matters: Nobody wants to walk into a meeting unprepared. This agent briefs you on what you and a colleague last collaborated on, any pending items between you, their role, and their areas of expertise. It also functions as a skill-finder – ask “Who in our company knows about data visualisation?” and it identifies colleagues with that expertise, making it faster to solve problems and form the right teams.
A practical example: You’re planning a digital workplace transformation and need a steering group combining technical knowledge, change management experience, and cross-departmental credibility. Ask the People Agent to identify colleagues with recent technology project experience, strong cross-team connections, and successful change leadership. It surfaces names with details about their recent work, helping you build an effective team quickly.
3. Researcher – In-Depth Information Gathering
What it does: The Researcher agent scans internal knowledge bases and external sources to gather credible, concise information on any topic. It synthesises findings and provides citations for credibility.
Why it matters: Research normally means reading through dozens of documents, articles, and reports to find relevant information. The Researcher does this work for you, delivering summarised insights with proper references in a fraction of the time. This is particularly valuable when you need to get up to speed quickly on a complex topic, compile a report, or gather background for a decision. The citations ensure your work is well-sourced.
A practical example: Your organisation is shifting to hybrid working and needs to update people policies. Ask the Researcher to compile hybrid working trends, benchmark data from other organisations, relevant employment law changes, and engagement research. It delivers a comprehensive briefing with citations, giving you the evidence base needed to shape policy decisions confidently.
This is one of our favourites at Silicon Reef!
4. Analyst – Data Analysis and Visualisation Made Easy
What it does: The Analyst agent turns raw data into clear insights, reports, and visualisations. You provide data or ask questions about metrics, and it generates charts, summaries, and forecasts.
Why it matters: Not everyone has advanced Excel or Power BI skills, but everyone needs to understand their data. This agent bridges that gap by letting you ask questions in plain language and receive visual, easy-to-understand answers. It spots trends, creates graphs, and explains numbers without requiring technical expertise – democratising data-driven decision-making.
A practical example: You’ve run an annual employee engagement survey with 3,000 responses. Upload the data to the Analyst Agent and ask it to highlight key findings, create visualisations showing engagement by department and theme, and flag concerning trends. Within minutes, you have clear, shareable insights with charts ready for leadership presentations.
6. Surveys Agent – Simplified Survey Creation and Analysis
What it does: The Surveys Agent helps you design, distribute, and analyse surveys through a conversational interface. It’s integrated with Microsoft Forms but accessed through natural language – describe what you need, and it builds the survey.
Why it matters: Creating effective surveys requires thought about question design, distribution, and analysis. This agent streamlines the entire process. Describe your survey’s purpose and it drafts well-structured questions. It then helps you send the survey through appropriate channels (email, Teams), tracks responses, sends reminders, and provides insights and summary reports. This creates faster feedback loops without heavy manual effort.
A practical example: You’re rolling out a new IT tool and want to gauge adoption, identify barriers, and gather improvement feedback. Tell the Surveys Agent to create a pulse survey covering ease of use, role relevance, training sufficiency, and suggestions. It designs questions, sends reminders, and provides a summary highlighting key findings and common suggestions ready to share with your implementation team.
7. Skills Agent – Find and Develop Skills Across the Organisation
What it does: The Skills Agent uses your organisation’s “People Skills” data to find talents and skillsets within the company. It’s built on a skills inference system that automatically maintains up-to-date skill profiles for each person based on their activities and a comprehensive skill taxonomy.
Why it matters: For employees, this acts as a personal career development assistant – helping them identify their skills, understand requirements for different roles, and find colleagues who can mentor them. For leaders and HR, it’s a strategic planning tool that reveals the skill landscape of the workforce, making it easier to form project teams, identify capability gaps, and plan training. It makes your organisation’s expertise visible and actionable.
A practical example: Your organisation has announced a strategic direction requiring specific capabilities – perhaps data science skills or experience with particular platforms. Use the Skills Agent to map your current capability landscape: who has these skills, how strong they are, and where gaps exist. It identifies internal mentors and helps you design targeted upskilling programmes and internal knowledge-sharing initiatives.
8. Writing Coach – Polish Your Writing with AI Feedback
What it does: The Writing Coach provides AI-powered feedback and suggestions to improve your writing. It works on emails, documents, or any written content, helping refine grammar, tone, clarity, and style.
Why it matters: Clear communication is essential in every role, but not everyone has the same writing confidence. This agent acts like an intelligent editor, catching mistakes, improving clarity, and suggesting better phrasing. It can adapt to your style over time and help you adjust tone for different audiences. For organisations, this leads to better overall communication quality – fewer misunderstandings, more persuasive messaging, and more professional output.
A practical example: You’re drafting a job posting and want it to appeal to diverse candidates, accurately reflect the role, and communicate your culture. Share it with the Writing Coach, asking it to ensure language is inclusive, requirements are realistic, and tone reflects your employer brand. It rewrites sections to remove unintentional barriers and strengthens your culture description – resulting in a posting that attracts stronger candidates.
Using AI for drafting and editing is probably the use case we’re all most familiar with. By using an agent purpose-built for writing, you’ll likely get far more powerful results than with a regular chat-based AI tool.
9. Idea Coach – Your Brainstorming Partner
What it does: The Idea Coach helps generate and refine ideas. Give it a topic or problem, and it suggests ideas, approaches, and solutions, even helping you structure them into actionable plans.
Why it matters: Creative blocks happen. The Idea Coach provides fresh perspectives and structured guidance on demand, helping you move from vague concepts to actionable plans. It offers suggestions you might not have considered, jump-starting innovation. Having an unbiased brainstorming partner available anytime is valuable for strategy, campaigns, and scenarios that benefit from creative thinking.
A practical example: Employee engagement scores have dipped, particularly around career development. Ask the Idea Coach to brainstorm strengthening career pathways and communicating these to staff. It might suggest mentorship matching, skill badges, colleague-led learning series, manager conversation guides, and progression examples. It helps you evaluate impact and implementation ease to prioritise initiatives.
10. Prompt Coach – Learn to Ask Better Questions of AI
What it does: The Prompt Coach teaches you how to write effective prompts for Copilot and other AI tools. It interacts with you to refine your questions or commands so you get more useful results.
Why it matters: The quality of AI’s output depends on how you ask. Many users are new to formulating queries for AI and may get frustrated with unhelpful responses. The Prompt Coach helps you phrase requests clearly and specifically, leading to better outcomes. By educating users on best practices – like providing context, specifying format, or defining the AI’s role – it improves everyone’s effectiveness and reduces wasted time.
A practical example: Your team is starting to use Copilot but getting inconsistent results. Use the Prompt Coach to train everyone: show how vague questions improve when made specific, demonstrate how context improves answers, and explain different prompt types. With better prompting skills across the team, everyone gets more value from Copilot with less time spent refining results.
Getting familiar with this agent will help you get more from the other agents – it’s all about the prompt.
11. Learning Agent – Personalised Upskilling and Copilot Tips
What it does: The Learning Agent offers personalised learning and upskilling guidance within Copilot. It suggests Copilot usage tips tailored to your work, recommends skill-building resources (often via LinkedIn Learning), provides curated learning paths, and offers role-play exercises to practice skills.
Why it matters: Learning in the flow of work is more effective than scheduled training. As you work, the Learning Agent nudges you with tips like “Did you know Copilot can also do X?” or connects you to relevant learning content exactly when you need it. This contextual approach accelerates skill development and tool adoption without disrupting your workflow.
A practical example: You’re leading a digital transformation and need your IT team to develop project management and change leadership skills. Enable the Learning Agent for them. As they work on projects, it surfaces just-in-time tips on risk management and stakeholder communication, recommends relevant LinkedIn Learning modules, and suggests practice scenarios – helping them pick up skills naturally within their actual work.
12. Learning Coach – Your Personal Learning Companion
What it does: The Learning Coach helps you master any subject or skill with a structured plan. It acts like a tutor – creating study schedules, explaining concepts, quizzing you, and keeping you motivated.
Why it matters: It enables self-directed learning with AI guidance. Instead of passively consuming courses, you get an interactive experience where the agent breaks down complex topics and adapts to your progress. For organisations, this supports continuous learning where employees can pick up new skills independently, with the AI ensuring they stay on track.
A practical example: You’re considering a move into HR but lack formal training. Use the Learning Coach to build a personalised learning path covering HR fundamentals, employment law, people analytics, and HR technology. It breaks subjects into manageable units, checks understanding through quizzes, adjusts pace based on your progress, and connects learning to real-world scenarios—building capability in your own time.
This isn’t a duplication from the one above – Learning Agent and Learning Coach are two separate agents!
13. Career Coach – Career Path Guidance
What it does: The Career Coach was originally designed for students but is now available for organisational use. It helps users explore career goals, build relevant skills, and find career opportunities in a personalised way.
Why it matters: Whilst primarily educational in focus, some organisations use this for early-career employees or internship programmes. It provides structured guidance on setting career goals and identifying steps to achieve them – recommended courses, networking opportunities, resume tips. For large organisations, it can supplement career development resources and scale coaching capabilities for younger employees.
A practical example: You’re running an internship programme and want to provide meaningful career coaching at scale. Make the Career Coach available to your cohort. Interns use it to explore career paths within your organisation, build skills in areas of interest, practice interviews with mentor feedback, and understand requirements for roles they’re targeting – whilst your mentors focus on deeper relationship-based coaching.
Building Your Own: Custom Agents
The built-in agents are just the starting point. With Copilot Studio, you can create custom agents tailored to your specific needs – no programming required. Whether you need an agent grounded in your company’s knowledge base, one that automates a unique business process, or one that integrates with specialised systems, you can build it using natural language instructions.
Custom agents can be as simple or sophisticated as needed. You might create a declarative agent focused on specific SharePoint sites or knowledge sources, or build more complex custom engine agents with advanced workflows and integrations. Microsoft makes this easier through tools like the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit, Copilot Studio, and Agent 365 – the control panel for managing all agents across your organisation.
Making This Work for Your Organisation
We’re at the beginning of a fundamental shift in how work gets done. The agents available in your Microsoft 365 Copilot licence can transform how your team operates – from automating workflows and analysing data to creating content and finding expertise. As Microsoft continues introducing new capabilities at pace, your ability to work effectively with agents becomes increasingly valuable.
At Silicon Reef, we help organisations unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365 – including Copilot and its agent ecosystem. Whether you’re looking to identify where agents can make the biggest impact for your Internal Communications, IT, or HR teams, or you need support building custom agents tailored to your specific workflows, we work with you to turn these capabilities into practical solutions that improve how your people work.
The technology is here. The question now is how you’ll put it to work.
Are you ready for Copilot Agents?
Take a pulse on how ready your organisation is with our digital workplace audit checklist. See where you’re succeeding, where there are opportunities for improvement and start taking the steps to get there.
