Microsoft Copilot Studio Step by Step: Customizing Copilot and creating agents

Renowned Microsoft AI authority Lisa Crosbie unveils an essential guide to mastering agent building and business process automation with Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft Copilot Studio Step by Step: Customizing Copilot and creating agents is the definitive, hands-on guide for professionals seeking to master Microsofts low-code agent-building platform. The book combines reference material with step-by-step tutorials, making complex AI concepts accessible to low-code makers, consultants, and IT pros. You will learn to design, build, and deploy AI-powered agents that automate workflows, transform business processes, and integrate with Microsoft 365 Copilot and your line of business systems. Through practical scenarios, best practices, and end-to-end examples, this book equips users with the skills to leverage Copilot Studio for organizational value, offering the depth and clarity needed to turn ideas into working solutions, and emerging as the essential resource for this rapidly growing technology.

By reading this book, you will:

• Understand the foundational concepts and architecture of Microsoft Copilot Studio and AI agents
• Create AI-powered agents using natural language and low-code tools for internal and customer-facing scenarios
• Configure autonomous agents with event-driven, scheduled, and data-based triggers
• Ground your agents in organizational knowledge by connecting to multiple data sources
• Author structured conversational topics using advanced tools like branching logic and adaptive cards
• Extend agent capabilities with connectors, prompts, MCP servers, and workflow automation
• Design multi-agent orchestration using child and connected agents to delegate tasks across specialized domains
• Publish and authenticate agents across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, websites, and other external channels
• Monitor agent performance using built-in analytics to optimize user experience
• Expand your solutions with advanced capabilities for integration with voice channels, customer engagement hubs and Azure AI

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introducing Copilot Studio and agents

1             Understanding Copilot Studio and agents

2             Designing effective agents

Part 2: Building agents with Copilot Studio

3             Building agents with the Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot

4             Building agents in Copilot Studio

5             Building autonomous agents

6             Grounding agents in knowledge

7             Authoring topics

8             Extending agents with tools

9             Designing multi-agent orchestration

Part 3: Publishing and monitoring your agent

10          Publishing and authenticating agents

11          Monitoring agent performance

Part 4: Extending and integrating with other platforms

12          Working with voice and customer engagement systems

13          Extending Copilot Studio agents with Azure AI

Appendices: Practice tasks for end-to-end agent scenarios

Appendix A        Internal IT Helpdesk Agent

Appendix B        Customer Facing Agent

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