Microsoft 365 Copilot & Agents

Day 1: AI Foundations & Microsoft 365 Copilot

AI Foundations & Microsoft 365 Copilot

Day 1 lays the groundwork. Participants gain a clear, jargon-free understanding of how AI and large language models work, and how Microsoft has embedded that intelligence across the Microsoft 365 productivity suite. Both technical and non-technical attendees leave able to articulate the value of Copilot and align it to their organisation’s priorities.

Module 1 — Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
What is AI and why it matters now
Large Language Models (LLMs) — how they work and what they can do
The Microsoft Graph and semantic indexing
Responsible AI: Microsoft’s principles and your organisation’s obligations

Module 2 — Microsoft 365 Copilot Overview
How Copilot integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Loop
The Copilot architecture — LLMs, Microsoft Graph, and organisational data
Copilot Chat and the universal search experience
Licensing requirements and deployment prerequisites

Module 3 — The Business Case for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Productivity gains and creativity amplification across roles and departments
Real-world use cases: summarisation, drafting, meeting intelligence, and data analysis
Measuring Copilot impact with Viva Insights and the Copilot Dashboard
Building an adoption roadmap — from pilot to organisation-wide rollout

Key outcome for Day 1
Attendees leave with a confident understanding of what Microsoft 365 Copilot is, how it works, and how to build the internal business case for deployment.

Day 2: Building Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio

Hands-on creation aligned to Microsoft Applied Skills PL-7008

Day 2 is the hands-on core of the programme. Aligned to the Microsoft Applied Skills credential PL-7008: Create Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio, participants move from concept to working agent across four modules. No prior Copilot Studio experience is required — this day is ideal for makers, Power Platform professionals, and IT administrators who want to build agents hands-on.

Microsoft Applied Skills Alignment: PL-7008
The content in Day 2 maps directly to the PL-7008 learning path. Participants who complete this day will be well-prepared to attempt the PL-7008 assessment and earn the Microsoft Applied Skills credential: Create Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Module 4 — Get Started with Microsoft Copilot Studio
Introduction to the Copilot Studio interface and agent concepts
Creating your first agent — name, description, and instructions
Configuring knowledge sources and grounding data
Testing and iterating in the built-in test canvas

Module 5 — Design Agent Conversations Using Topics
Understanding topics — how agents manage and route conversations
Creating trigger phrases and conversation flows
Using nodes: message, question, condition, and redirect
Managing system topics and fallback behaviour

Module 6 — Build Intelligent Agents with Generative AI
Connecting agents to knowledge sources: SharePoint, websites, and Dataverse
Enabling generative answers — dynamic responses grounded in organisational content
Configuring AI-generated summaries and fallback generative behaviour
Tuning relevance, tone, and content safety settings

Module 7 — Add Structured Automation to Agents
What are workflow tools — combining deterministic logic with AI
Creating Power Automate flows as agent tools
Triggering workflows from topics and agent actions
Testing and validating automation end-to-end
Publishing agents to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams

Key outcome for Day 2
Attendees leave with a thorough understanding of how to build generative AI-powered agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio — covering topics, knowledge grounding, and automated workflows — and fully prepared to pursue the PL-7008 Applied Skills credential.

Day 3: Agent Governance, Security & Microsoft Agent 365

Governing your agent estate at scale — from the Copilot Control System to Agent 365

Day 3 shifts from building to governing. As organisations deploy more agents — built in Copilot Studio, the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK, or sourced from third-party partners — the need to observe, control, and secure that estate becomes critical. Participants explore all creation paths, master the Copilot Control System, and then go deeper into Microsoft Agent 365: Microsoft’s enterprise control plane for AI agents, generally available since May 2026.

Module 8 — The Copilot Control System & Agent Policies
The Copilot Control System (CCS) in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Managing tenant-level Copilot and agent settings
Agent inventory: reviewing capabilities, permissions, and certifications
Agent Store: discovering, assigning, deploying, and blocking agents
Governing user-installed and admin-installed agents
Monitoring Copilot and agent usage, activity, and compliance reports

Module 9 — Agent Creation Paths: Choosing the Right Tool
Agent Builder — no-code declarative agents for end users
Copilot Studio — low-code agents with external data, APIs, and workflows (PL-7008)
Microsoft 365 Agents SDK — pro-code, model-agnostic (Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel, LangChain, OpenAI Agents)
Teams Toolkit — pro-code deployment for Teams and Microsoft 365
Decision framework: matching the creation tool to the use case and team capability

Module 10 — Microsoft Agent 365: The Enterprise Control Plane for AI Agents
Microsoft Agent 365, generally available since 1 May 2026, extends governance and security beyond Microsoft 365 to every agent across your organisation — including agents on AWS Bedrock and Google Cloud. Built on three pillars — Observe, Govern, and Secure — Agent 365 gives IT and security teams a single, unified view of every AI agent in the enterprise.

Observe
Centralised agent registry — a single inventory of all agents across your environment
Agent Map: visualise agent relationships, data flows, and dependencies
Real-time visibility into agent adoption, activity, and health signals
Role-specific dashboards for IT admins, security teams, and business leaders

Govern
Centralised lifecycle management: approve, start, stop, and decommission agents
Access control and permissions via Microsoft Entra ID
Compliance and audit readiness through Microsoft Purview integration
Cross-platform governance: Microsoft 365, AWS Bedrock, and Google Cloud agent registry sync (public preview)
Publishing workflows: from Copilot Studio to the organisational catalog with admin approval

Secure
Identity and risk-based access controls via Microsoft Entra
Data loss prevention and information protection via Microsoft Purview
Runtime threat detection and real-time protection via Microsoft Defender
Blocking unsafe agent behaviours and malicious activity at runtime (Intune and Defender, June 2026)
Protecting interactions: prompts, responses, and sensitive data in transit

Key outcome for Day 3
Attendees leave with the expertise to govern every agent in their organisation — regardless of how or where it was built — using the Copilot Control System and Microsoft Agent 365. They are equipped to build a secure, compliant, and observable AI agent estate.

Why This Course?

For IT Professionals
Deploy Copilot securely, govern agents at scale, and build the technical foundation that makes AI adoption sustainable — earning the PL-7008 credential along the way.

For Makers & App Builders
Build intelligent, generative AI-powered agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio — connecting to knowledge sources, designing conversation flows, and automating workflows with Power Automate.

For CTOs & Decision Makers
Understand the strategic value of agentic AI, evaluate the investment with confidence, and lead your organisation into a future where every AI agent is visible, governed, and secure.

Microsoft 365 Copilot and its ecosystem of intelligent agents represent one of the most significant shifts in enterprise productivity in a generation. This course gives your organisation’s leaders and technologists everything they need to move from awareness to action — building, deploying, and governing agents responsibly, securely, and at pace.