MS-4019: Transform your everyday business processes with agents
Design, build, and publish Microsoft 365 Copilot agents that automate your everyday work — no code required. Covers Agent Builder, Copilot Studio, and the governance boundary.
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About This Course
Design, build, and publish Microsoft 365 Copilot agents to automate your everyday work using both the no-code Agent Builder inside Copilot Chat and the pro-maker Copilot Studio surface. Business users learn how to identify agent-worthy processes, ground an agent in the right knowledge sources (SharePoint, files, connectors), extend it with Power Automate actions, publish it to the channels your team uses, and manage the governance boundary. By the end you'll be able to ship a working agent for a process you own no developer required.
Course Curriculum
10 Lessons
Fundamentals of Agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot — Concepts and Strategies
Learn what a Microsoft 365 Copilot agent actually is in 2026 — the "declarative agent" mental model, how an agent composes instructions + knowledge + actions on top of Copilot's underlying model, where agents surface for end users (Copilot Chat, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint), and which everyday business processes are strong candidates for agent automation. By the end of this lesson you will be able to identify an agent-worthy process at your organization and describe the agent that would automate it.
Working with Prebuilt Copilot Agents — Concepts and Strategies
Learn the prebuilt Microsoft 365 Copilot agent catalog — Analyst, Researcher, Visual Creator, Prompt Coach, Idea Coach, Writing Coach, and Employee Self-Service — including when each is the right tool, how they ground on your tenant data, and how to prompt them for high-signal answers. By the end of this lesson you will be able to pick the right prebuilt agent for a given business question and get useful output on the first try.
Explore prebuilt agents: Analyst, Researcher, and one more - Lab Exercises
Note: This lab pre-provisions a Windows 11 VM with Microsoft 365 apps and sample files — allow up to several minutes for the environment to become ready before you begin.
Get hands-on with Microsoft's prebuilt Copilot agent catalog: analyze a survey dataset with the Analyst agent, synthesize project context with the Researcher agent, and then pick a third agent from the Store and apply it to a real problem. By the end of this lab you will have a working feel for how prebuilt agents ground on data + how their outputs differ from a generic Copilot Chat turn.
Agent Builder — Building Custom Agents in Copilot Chat — Concepts and Strategies
Learn the no-code Agent Builder experience inside Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat — how to design an agent's persona, scope, and boundaries via natural-language instructions, when to attach knowledge sources vs when instructions alone are enough, how to draft strong suggested prompts, and how the shareable-link publish model works. By the end of this lesson you will be able to plan a custom Agent Builder agent for a real work scenario and know what to write in every field.
Build a custom agent in Copilot Chat with Agent Builder - Lab Exercises
Note: This lab pre-provisions a Windows 11 VM with Microsoft 365 apps and sample files — allow up to several minutes for the environment to become ready before you begin.
Build your first custom Copilot agent end-to-end using Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat — write the instructions, attach knowledge sources, craft suggested prompts, test in the Preview pane, and publish a shareable link. By the end of this lab you will have a working agent scoped to a business process you own.
Extending Agents with Knowledge and Actions — Concepts and Strategies
Learn the three power-ups of a Microsoft 365 Copilot agent: knowledge sources (SharePoint sites, files, OneDrive folders, SharePoint lists, uploaded files, public web, Dataverse, Copilot connectors), tools (formerly actions — Power Automate flows, connector tools, prompts as tools), and triggers in both flavors (autonomous Power Automate triggers, plus the newer generative-orchestration custom triggers: On Knowledge Requested, On Plan Complete, AI Response Generated). Also covers multi-agent orchestration with agent handoff (Employee Self-Service pattern) and Copilot connectors as MCP grounding for live external data. By the end of this lesson you will be able to decide when a process needs a static agent versus one with real-world side effects, pick the right extension for the job, and know when to compose specialist child agents behind a primary.
Create a SharePoint agent with knowledge sources - Lab Exercises
Note: This lab pre-provisions a Windows 11 VM with Microsoft 365 apps and sample files — allow up to several minutes for the environment to become ready before you begin.
Build a SharePoint agent bound to a site so it can answer questions grounded in that site's content — configure sources, behavior, welcome message, starter prompts, and share the agent with your team. By the end of this lab you will be able to spin up a site-scoped agent for any SharePoint knowledge collection.
When to Graduate to Copilot Studio — Concepts and Strategies
Learn when Agent Builder stops being enough and it's time to move to the pro-maker Copilot Studio portal — the generative orchestration model, why "topics" are optional/legacy, how the Test panel + turn-by-turn trace helps you debug an agent, how actions (Power Automate + connectors + prompts as tools) compose into a maker flow, and what autonomous-agent triggers unlock. By the end of this lesson you will be able to tell whether your next agent belongs in Agent Builder or in Copilot Studio.
Build and publish an agent in Copilot Studio - Lab Exercises
Note: This lab pre-provisions a Windows 11 VM with Microsoft 365 apps and sample files — allow up to several minutes for the environment to become ready before you begin.
Build an agent in the standalone Copilot Studio maker portal — configure the generative orchestration, attach a knowledge source, add an action, test in the debug pane, and publish to the Microsoft 365 Copilot channel so it surfaces in Copilot Chat. By the end of this lab you will be able to author a Copilot Studio agent from scratch and ship it to end users.
Governance, Security, and Adoption for Agents — Concepts and Strategies
Learn the governance boundary around Microsoft 365 Copilot agents — the Copilot Control System (CCS) admin surface with agent inventory + pinning + lifecycle actions, Microsoft Entra Agent ID + Microsoft Agent 365 as the identity and control plane, Microsoft Purview DSPM for AI as the content-policy front door, Insider Risk Management "Risky AI usage" + "Risky Agents" templates for behavior, the Microsoft Frontier program for scoped preview access, and the capacity discipline that keeps a Copilot Studio bill honest. By the end of this lesson you will be able to plan the security + adoption story for shipping an agent to your organization.
This course includes:
- 24/7 AI Instructor Support
- Live Lab Environments
- 4 Hands-on Lessons
- Completion Badge
Earn Your Badge
Complete all lessons to unlock the MS-4019 Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents achievement badge.
MS-4019 Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents
Awarded on completion of the SkillMeUp MS-4019 course covering agent design, Agent Builder in Copilot Chat, SharePoint agents, Copilot Studio pro-maker build + publish, and the governance boundary for Microsoft 365 Copilot agents.
Skills You'll Earn
Complete all lessons in this course to earn this badge