Create your first Copilot Agent

Welcome back to Copilot Your Day, your weekly LinkedIn newsletter with Copilot insights and inspiration. Getting the most out of it!

One of my top 3 prediction for 2025 was "2025 is the year of the agent" - so let's start building our first agent together ??.

Every week I have to create a SEO description for this newsletter on LinkedIn including a SEO title. I am not that familiar with SEO best practices and instead of always using a prompt, I can now build an agent that is specialized for this task.

But first things first, when we talk about agents, there are different ways to build them.

1. Agent Builder - the easiest way
2. Copilot Studio - low code approach
3. Code-based - pro-code approach for even more possibilities

Today I will show you how to use the Agent Builder.

Let's get started ??

?? If you'd like to experience this live, join Bennet Brünings and me for our webinar with Microsoft.

???? Register now

How to build your Agent with Agent Builder

Please note that you may not be able to do this. Based on your organization's settings, it's possible that your administrator has disabled this option.

Start in your UI for AI, M365 Copilot, and open the right pane.

You'll see the 'Create an Agent' button (here "Create Agent")

It will open a popup window (powered by Copilot Studio) where you can start.

As you can see, there are several ways to start

1. Describe (here "Beschreiben")
2. Configure (here "Konfigurieren")
3. Starting from a template

Use a descriptive way to build your agent

The first way is to describe what you want your agent to do. There you have space for 2,000 characters to describe it in the best way. Based on your description it will generate the first version.

?? Pro tip: use M365 Copilot to optimize your description

So let's do this - I wrote the following in my Copilot:

I would like to create a Copilot Agent with the Agent Builder. I am going to use the descriptive way to generate my Agent. therefore a need an accurate description what my agent should do. Please help me generate a description with max. 2000 characters. The main goal of the agent is to create great SEO description and titles based on a existing article. The agents should act as a marketing professional and consider the best key words. In general my articles are part of a newsletter called "Copilot Your Day". The newsletter covers the latest and greatest about M365 Copilot and deliver practical insights about M365 Copilot.

I get the following response:

Sure, I'd be happy to help you with that! Here's a description for your Copilot Agent:

Agent Description:

The primary objective of this Copilot Agent is to generate compelling SEO descriptions and titles based on existing articles. Acting as a marketing professional, the agent will analyze the content of each article and identify the most effective keywords to enhance search engine visibility. The agent will ensure that the generated descriptions and titles are not only optimized for SEO but also engaging and relevant to the target audience.

The agent will focus on articles that are part of the "Copilot Your Day" newsletter, which covers the latest and greatest updates about Microsoft 365 Copilot. This newsletter aims to deliver practical insights and valuable information about M365 Copilot to its readers. By leveraging advanced SEO techniques and keyword analysis, the agent will help increase the reach and impact of the newsletter.

Key Features:

• Analyze existing articles to extract key themes and topics.
• Identify and incorporate the best keywords for SEO optimization.
• Generate engaging and relevant SEO descriptions and titles.
• Ensure that the content aligns with the tone and style of the "Copilot Your Day" newsletter.
• Continuously update and refine SEO strategies based on performance metrics and industry trends

The agent will be an invaluable tool for enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of the "Copilot Your Day" newsletter, ultimately driving more traffic and engagement from readers interested in Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Feel free to adjust or add any specific details that you think are necessary. Let me know if there's anything else I can assist you with!

So I will definitely going to use this for my descriptive way - copy & paste - let's see

Copilot says it has generated the agent based on my input, but we need to name it.

Let's name it "CYD-SEO Agent"

Third, Copilot would like to know what should be emphasized or avoided: Again, I ask my M365 copilot for input. Actually, Copilot's input was pretty good. I added the fact that the SEO title should be a maximum of 60 characters and the SEO description should be a maximum of 140 characters.

If you'd like to have additional customizations, you can add them to your agent builder now.

What I love about this process is that you can integrate directly with Agent Builder if you have any questions or need additional information.

Doublecheck your configuration

If you switch to "configure" you can see that Agent Builder has done all the work for you. Based on the chat history and my input, it sets all the settings and behaviors.

I just added the Icon to my Copilot Your Day Logo and I enable Webcontent - Now, I am ready to go.

If you want to add specific web content, such as best practices for generating SEO, etc., you'll need to build the agent using Copilot Studio. In Agent Builder, you can only select SharePoint URLs as a specific knowledge base.

When you're ready, just click "Create".

This can take a few seconds.

Let's test our first Copilot Agent

I have my own Copilot Agent right in my UI for AI.

So let's give it a try. I'm going to copy and paste the article here and see if I can get a great SEO title and description:

Looks great, doesn't it? Since I am not a marketing professional, what do you think Jens Berger Doreen Sch?fer Jonas Maurer ? ??

Okay, one thing I need to improve is to get the result directly in English. But that's done quickly.

Now it's your turn! Let's create your first Agent

I'm curious to see and here, what are the cases you have in mind? Let's try it! and create your first Copilot agent with Agent Builder.

Please note that this is the easiest way and that Agent Builder has some limitations. However, I'm sure it's a great starting point. As you get more advanced, you can switch to Copilot Studio or even create a sophisticated agent with high code and third party integration.

As you know: It's a journey. Starting with the basics is a great way to train your mindset and get an idea of how Agent will change the way we work.

I am launching my own podcast

For all my German subscribers - I am more than excited to announce that I am starting my own podcast. It's called Copilot Your Day, of course. In each episode I will have great guests and we will talk about Copilot. From strategic perspectives to best practices and real world cases.

The first episode will be released tomorrow. I have Didier Hubounig with me and we look back at an interesting 2024 and what we can expect from 2025. ??

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and activate the ??.

I am a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in M365 Copilot and Viva. Copilot Your Day is a weekly LinkedIn newsletter that shares best practices and the latest and greatest information around Copilot.

So be sure to subscribe the newsletters and if you like it feel free to share it, like it and comment it ?? thank you!

If you'd like to get even more Copilot tips, follow me on LinkedIn ??