Ignite 2024 Updates

AI at work

Agents in SharePoint Now Generally Available (Microsoft Ignite 2024)

Microsoft announced the general availability of Agents in SharePoint, a new feature within Microsoft 365 designed to enhance productivity by enabling users to create scoped, AI-powered agents. These agents act as subject matter experts tailored to specific SharePoint content, helping teams quickly surface insights, scale expertise, and streamline decision-making processes.

Key Highlights

Capabilities:

• Agents leverage SharePoint content (sites and documents) to perform tasks, answer queries, and assist in workflows.

• Ready-made agents are available by default for each SharePoint site, with options for easy customization.

• Supported file formats include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDFs, and more, with future support for metadata, lists, and video files.

Common Use Cases:

• Customer Support: Simplifies information retrieval for IT and engineering teams, improving efficiency and response times.

• Onboarding: Helps new hires quickly adapt by providing centralized, easily accessible information.

• Product Support: Acts as a triage tool for field incidents, offering analysis and recommendations.

• Budget Planning: Aids finance teams with insights and prioritization to reduce errors and save time.

Ease of Use:

• Agents can be created from the SharePoint ribbon, document libraries, or the home tab.

• They dynamically update as source content evolves, ensuring information remains relevant and accurate.

Collaboration Features:

• Agents can be shared via Teams or email, and @mentioned in chats for collaborative use.

Security and Governance:

• Agents respect existing SharePoint permissions, ensuring data security and preventing oversharing.

• Built on Microsoft 365’s data privacy and governance framework.

Advanced Customization:

• Integration with Copilot Studio (in preview) allows further customization, including third-party integrations and automation workflows.

How to Get Started

Agents are easy to use and accessible via the Copilot icon in the SharePoint ribbon. Users can create agents through:

• The Copilot Icon: Select “Create an agent” from the drop-down menu.

• Document Libraries: Choose files and click “Create an agent.”

• Home Tab: Select “+ New” and choose “Agent.”

Agents are file-based, stored as .agent files within SharePoint, and managed like any other file—copy, move, delete, or archive as needed.

Collaboration in Microsoft Teams

Share agents with your team via email or Teams chats. Use @mentions to bring agents into conversations, allowing them to provide instant, context-relevant support. Permissions are respected at every step, ensuring secure collaboration.

Security You Can Trust

Agents inherit SharePoint’s existing security protocols:

• Retention Labels: Prevent data loss.

• Sensitivity Labels: Ensure compliance.

• Permissions Management: Restrict access to authorized users only.

For instance, when sharing agents in a Teams chat, users without appropriate permissions are notified, and sensitive responses require approval before being shared.

Licensing and Promotion:

• Agents are included in the Microsoft 365 Copilot license, with a pay-as-you-go option arriving soon.

• A promotional offer (December 1, 2024 — June 30, 2025) provides 10,000 free queries per month for non-Copilot users in qualifying organizations.

Roadmap:

Upcoming features include editing ready-made agents, integrating OneDrive files, creating hub site agents, and expanding Copilot Studio customizations.

This innovation is poised to transform how organizations utilize SharePoint for knowledge management and collaborative productivity.

In our Next series we will be learning about the different set of agents available…Stay Tuned…

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