Agent Builder M365 Copilot: 8 New Ready-to-Use Templates

What Changes with the Arrival of These Templates

Creating a useful agent from a blank page requires time and a good grasp of instruction patterns. To accelerate adoption, Microsoft has introduced eight new templates directly into the Agent Builder for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Each template comes with pre-calibrated instructions, suggested knowledge sources, and for some, additional capabilities enabled by default.

These templates target two distinct profiles: business users who want an operational personal agent in minutes, and teams who want to share a common agent via Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.

The Three Major Agent Families

Before detailing the templates, it is useful to understand the taxonomy chosen by Microsoft, as it determines what the agent can or cannot do.

Autonomous agents are the most powerful but also the most sensitive to instruction quality. Microsoft has revised the recommended prompt patterns for recent models to achieve more predictable behaviors.

The Eight Templates in Detail

Plan My Day

This template produces an autonomous agent that consolidates your calendar, priority emails, and pending tasks to generate a structured daily plan. It leverages Microsoft Graph data (calendar, Outlook messaging, To Do) and can be scheduled to run each morning at a fixed time.

Reference link: Agent Builder Template – Plan My Day

SME Finder

This retrieval-type template allows you to locate an internal expert on a given subject. It relies on Microsoft 365 profiles (declared skills, recent documents, Viva activity) to suggest the right people to contact. Useful for large organizations where the standard directory is no longer sufficient.

Reference link: Agent Builder Template – SME Finder

AI Learning Advisor

A retrieval-type agent focused on skills development. It guides employees toward relevant training resources based on their role or a subject entered in natural language. Knowledge sources can be customized to point to an internal LMS (Learning Management System) or SharePoint libraries.

Reference link: Agent Builder Template – AI Learning Advisor

Status Update Agent

A task-based agent that collects and consolidates project status updates from Teams, email, or a SharePoint list, then generates a structured summary. It reduces time spent manually compiling progress reports.

Reference link: Agent Builder Template – Status Update Agent

Templates with Enhanced Capabilities

Some templates go beyond instructions and document grounding. They activate additional capabilities natively:

• Microsoft Graph Access to read calendar, emails, or tasks without manual configuration.
• Automatic Scheduling: the agent can run at defined intervals without user intervention.
• Web Actions: some templates can query external sources via Bing or pre-configured connectors.

These enhanced capabilities are flagged in the Agent Builder interface when selecting a template. Verify the permissions granted before sharing an agent at scale — an agent with Graph access reads data on behalf of the user running it, not on behalf of the creator.

Sharing, Pinning, and Agent Discovery

Once created, an agent can be distributed in several ways:

• Direct Sharing via a link or from the Agent Builder interface.
• Pinning in Teams: the agent appears in the Teams sidebar for quick access.
• Publishing to the Organization's Agent Catalog, accessible from Microsoft 365 Copilot by end users.
• Scheduling: for autonomous agents, a recurrence can be set directly in the builder.

User-side discovery happens through the dedicated agents tab in the Copilot interface. Administrators can control which agents are visible and to whom via app management policies in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

Best Practices for Instructions

Microsoft has revised recommendations for writing instructions (system prompts) to account for behaviors of next-generation models. A few structuring rules:

• Be Explicit About Scope: clearly state what the agent should not do, not just what it should do.
• Define Tone and Output Format: bullet points, table, prose summary — the model follows an explicit constraint better.
• Avoid Contradictory Instructions: a multi-capability agent must have clear priority rules between its sources.
• Test with Edge Cases: an out-of-scope question should trigger a polite refusal, not a made-up answer.

The templates provided by Microsoft serve as a reference for these patterns. Before modifying a template's instructions, read them in full to understand the underlying logic.

Key Takeaways

• The eight new templates cover three agent types: retrieval, task-based, and autonomous.
• Some templates activate Graph or web capabilities without additional configuration — verify permissions before any large-scale deployment.
• Agents run in the context of the end user, not the creator: no privilege escalation is possible.
• Sharing can be done via link, Teams, or via the organization's catalog.
• The complete catalog is available at aka.ms/HPACatalog and reference documentation at Microsoft Learn – Agent Builder.