Over the last few years, we’ve seen artificial intelligence move from something experimental and futuristic to something genuinely useful in everyday work. Tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot are helping people write emails, summarise meetings, analyse simple and complex data, and automate tasks in ways that were unimaginable not long ago. This was only the beginning; the hot topic now is AI agents.
Agents are not just assistants; they don’t just answer questions to help us with tasks. Instead, you can think of them as digital colleagues, they understand goals, take actions on your behalf, follow rules, make decisions and work continuously in the background. Just like a colleague you trust, an agent can handle parts of your workload so you can focus on the work that really matters.
Microsoft are building these agents directly into the tools millions of people use every day, Outlook, Teams, Word, SharePoint and even your organisations internal processed. Whether you’re a business leader, a frontline worker, or an everyday employee who just wants less admin.
The key takeaway is that AI agents are not replacing people, they are there to support you in your everyday work life.
Agents matter for businesses of every size because they take on repetitive tasks that may slow people down. For small and medium sized businesses, they act like extra team members, handling admin, answering questions and automating repetitive work without needing more staff or technical expertise. For larger enterprises, agents help scale knowledge across thousands of employees, streamline complex processes and ensure consistency and compliance across departments. In both cases, agents free people to focus on meaningful, high-value work rather than manual tasks, helping organisations boost productivity every day.
Microsoft include agents directly into the tools people use every day, making AI feel more like a part of the natural workflow. Across Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel, this is what we refer to as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Think of it as an embedded agent that understands your context, can take action, and helps people complete tasks quicker but still effectively.
Alongside this, we have Copilot Studio, this tool takes agents a step further by allowing organisations to build their own custom agents tailored to their business processes. A few examples could be to automate employee onboarding, provide HR or IT support, surface business data, or run entire workflows. The best part about this is it does not require coding skills; with the correct training any type of employee can configure these types of agents. By combining ready-made agents in Microsoft 365 with fully customisable agents in Copilot Studio, Microsoft is enabling businesses of all sizes to introduce AI agents that feel intuitive, purposeful, and aligned to how teams work.
Microsoft has designed its entire agent ecosystem with security and trust at the core, ensuring businesses can confidently adopt AI without exposing sensitive data. Every agent, whether built into Microsoft 365 or created through Copilot Studio operates within the same enterprise-grade security, compliance and permissions framework that your organisation already relies on. These are key things that need to be in-place before safely adopting AI and agents. This means agents can only access the data a user is permitted to see, and every action is governed by existing policies.
Below is a high-level table on Microsoft’s licensing stance when it comes to AI and Agents. This helps understand which license your users need:
At Nabra Tech, we’ll work closely with you to ensure you are AI ready, ensure you have the correct licensing in-place, ensure your current security stance is ready for AI adoption. We will help you get the full value from Microsoft Copilot and custom agents, not just the features, but the real-world impact.
In our next blog we will cover how agents differ from chat bots, which have been around for many years. Stay tuned!
Get in touch with us today for more information: hello@nabratech.co.uk