About
Copilot Agents are AI-powered assistants that can be tailored to support specific processes, roles, teams and areas of expertise. By combining clear instructions with organisational knowledge, agents can provide guidance, answer questions, surface relevant information and support day-to-day decision making.
Unlike general AI tools, Copilot Agents can be configured around a specific purpose. Whether supporting onboarding, training, finance processes, policies, procedures or frequently asked questions, agents can help make knowledge more accessible and easier to use.
As organisations continue to adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot, agents provide a practical way to capture expertise, improve consistency and reduce the time spent searching for information or responding to routine queries. They can support individuals, teams and wider communities by bringing together knowledge from trusted sources and presenting it in a way that is easy to access.
Building effective agents requires more than simply uploading documents. Successful agents are designed with a clear purpose, well-defined instructions and relevant knowledge sources, ensuring they deliver accurate, useful and reliable responses.
This workshop provides an introduction to designing and building Copilot Agents, helping participants understand how agents can be applied to real workplace challenges and used to enhance productivity, knowledge sharing and service delivery across NHS finance.
Workshops
In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to build your own Copilot Agent from scratch, create clear instructions using Markdown, connect relevant knowledge sources, and test and refine responses.
You’ll explore how agents can be used to support processes, guidance, training, policies, FAQs and other day-to-day tasks, while gaining practical experience of designing an agent around a real workplace need.
By the end of the session, you’ll have a working Copilot Agent that can help users access information, provide consistent guidance and support your chosen process or area of expertise.
The session will be delivered by Vincent Young, Senior Finance Manager – Financial Services, NHS North East London.
Pre-requisites
To get the most from this workshop, you’ll need:
- Access to Microsoft 365 Copilot
- Basic familiarity with using Copilot Chat
- Access to Copilot Agents (must be enabled by your organisation)
- One process, task or problem you would like your agent to support
- A small set of documents, guidance notes, procedures or FAQs that could be used as a knowledge source (templates and examples can be provided if needed)
- Basic understanding of file storage locations, such as SharePoint, OneDrive or Teams
- Willingness to learn simple Markdown formatting for creating clear agent instructions and prompts
- Completion of the Process Mapping with AI session
Book on to the upcoming online workshops:
Downloads
Useful resources