Course Overview
Four days of hands-on, low-code Agentic AI development with Copilot Studio and Copilot Cowork, designed for Software Engineers, Solution Architects, and Power Platform Makers. You progress from foundational concepts through tools, orchestration, and ALM, and build agents that solve real business challenges.
You start with the essentials: what agents and copilots are, how agents work with knowledge, prompts, tools, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which harness runs an agent in Copilot Studio, where to build an agent and how Copilot Credits pay for it, and the ready-to-use agents in Copilot: Researcher and Analyst, SharePoint Agents, and Agent Builder. The Copilot Chat basics are pre-class homework.
Copilot Cowork, the agentic experience for everyday knowledge workers, follows. With built-in skills, custom SKILL.md skills, scheduled and event-driven prompts, and plugins, anyone on your team automates recurring workflows without writing code, while human-in-the-loop approvals keep every step under control.
Copilot Studio Basics teaches you to create and configure Standard agents, ground them with knowledge, and build conversations with topics, entities, variables, Power Fx, and Adaptive Cards before you publish to Teams and Copilot. You then give agents tools: prompts with Code Interpreter, Dataverse, connectors, Agent Flows, REST APIs, MCP servers, and Computer Use for apps without an API. Advanced topics add autonomous agents with event triggers, deep reasoning, multi-agent routing, and Microsoft Foundry agents.
Microsoft Copilot harness agents come next, built side by side with the Standard agents of the earlier modules: the unified Build surface and its orchestrator, Agent Skills in the open SKILL.md format, tools, MCP, and the Workflows designer, grounding with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, and Fabric IQ, testing agents with evaluations, and building apps.
You then publish and maintain what you build: environments and solutions, Microsoft channels, ALM, and source control. Finally you hand the authoring itself to a coding agent: Claude Code with the Copilot Studio plugins clones an agent to `.mcs.yml` files, adds and validates a topic, publishes and tests it, and migrates a Standard agent to the Microsoft Copilot harness, all from the terminal and every change a file you can diff.
An optional forward look hands whole processes to AI teammates: Autopilot, and agent accounts that give a Copilot Studio agent its own identity, mailbox, and Teams presence, made proactive with triggers and governed through shared memory and licensing.
Who should attend
- Power Platform Makers
- Software Engineers for Agentic AI
- Solution Architects for Agentic AI
Prerequisites
- GitHub User Account
- Basic Knowledge of the Microsoft 365 Platform
- Pre-class homework: Manage email efficiently with Microsoft Outlook and Copilot Chat on AI Skills Navigator (16 minutes)
Course Content
Module 1: Introduction to Copilot Cowork & Copilot Studio
- Agents & Copilots for Microsoft 365
- How Agents Work
- Agent Harnesses: Choose the Runtime
- Where to Build and What It Costs
- Copilot Chat & Productivity Agents
- Prepare the Tenant: Licenses & Credits (optional)
Module 2: Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork
- Getting Started with Cowork
- Core Capabilities: Communication, Documents, Calendar, Research & Automation
- Understanding Skills: Built-in Skills & the Side Panel
- Creating Custom Skills with SKILL.md
- Organizing Work with Projects
- Scheduled Prompts & Event-Driven Tasks
- Extending Cowork with Plugins
- Human-in-the-Loop: Approving Actions & Staying in Control
Module 3: Copilot Studio Basics
- Standard Agents: Create & Configure
- Knowledge Sources & Suggested Prompts
- Topics, Entities & Variables
- Power Fx: Formulas in Topics
- Adaptive Cards: Collect Structured Input
- Publishing to Teams & Copilot
Module 4: Extending Copilot Studio Agents with Tools
- Prompt Tool & Code Interpreter
- Connector Tools: Prebuilt Connectors
- Agent Flows: Deterministic Automation
- Dataverse: Knowledge & Business Records
- Custom Connectors & REST APIs
- MCP Servers as Agent Tools
- Computer Use: Apps Without APIs
Module 5: Advanced Copilot Studio Agents
- Autonomous Agents & Event Triggers
- Deep Reasoning Models
- Generative Orchestration & Multi-Agent Routing
- Microsoft Foundry Agents: Core Concepts
- Foundry Agents in Copilot Studio
- Test and Evaluate Standard Agents (optional)
Module 6: Microsoft Copilot Harness Agents in Copilot Studio
- Standard vs. Microsoft Copilot Harness Agents
- The Unified Build Surface and the New Orchestrator
- Agent Skills in Copilot Studio
- Tools, MCP, and the New Workflows Designer
- Hooks: Steps That Run Every Time
- Grounding Agents with Work IQ, Foundry IQ, and Fabric IQ
- Test and Evaluate Copilot Studio Agents
- Migrate Standard Agents to Microsoft Copilot Harness Agents
- Building Apps in Copilot Studio
Module 7: Publishing & Maintaining Copilot Studio Agents
- Power Platform Admin Center & Architecture
- Introduction to Power Platform Environments & Solutions
- Publishing and Deploying Copilot Studio Agents
- Application Lifecycle Management for Copilot Studio Agents
- Exporting & Importing Agents between Environments
- Deployment Pipelines & Source Control Integration
- Using Advanced Channels: WhatsApp, Web & Direct Line (optional)
- Agentic Building: Copilot Studio Plugins for Coding Agents
Module 8: AI Teammates: Autopilot & Agent Accounts (Optional)
- Meet Autopilot: Digital Teammates in Microsoft 365
- Working with Autopilot: Goals, Memory & Long-Running Work
- Agent Accounts: Give a Copilot Studio Agent Its Own Identity
- Proactive Teammates: Triggers, Email & Teams Mentions
- Shared Memory, Licensing & Teammate Governance
English
German