M365 Copilot now lets you build apps and agents with natural language prompts

Microsoft 365 Copilot users can now direct the generative AI (genAI) assistant to build apps on their behalf that feature dashboards, charts, and other interactive elements.  

It’s one of three new ways to automate work tasks with M365 Copilot unveiled Tuesday by the company. The other functionalities include a workflow automation builder agent and Copilot Studio “lite” —  a simple version of Microsoft’s low-code and no-code AI agent builder tool now accessible from M365 Copilot. 

“Leveraging these agents and Copilot Studio, Copilot now empowers employees to turn ideas into impact by creating apps, workflows, and agents — just as easily as having a conversation,” Charles Lamanna, Microsoft president of business and industry Copilot, said in a blog post. 

Each feature is aimed at a wide range of office workers, a Microsoft spokesperson said; IT admins will be able to access or disable the use of the App Builder and Workflows should they wish.

With the new App Builder tool, creating an app can be done in just a few minutes, according to Microsoft, with the AI assistant tapping into M365 content such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. The company offered as an example an interactive “career tracker” app that shows progress towards set goals and upcoming events. 

To start building an app, a user provides a simple text description of the app’s scope  along with relevant documents. The user can then preview the app and refine the layout, making edits with prompts in M365 Copilot. (The assistant will also make suggestions for further additions or changes.) Once the app is published, users can share it via a link just as they would a document. Data created in a new app is stored in Microsoft Lists as backend. 

The App Builder is similar in some sense to AI “vibe coding” tools that have gained traction of late, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. The feature may appeal to “staff like marketing, sales, HR, etc., that need to build simple apps that users can interact with, and not have to take weeks or months by delegating the app creation to devop staff,” he said.

In addition, a new Workflows agent coming to M365 Copilot lets users set up workflows such as sending emails or managing calendars with natural language prompts. It’s based on the existing Agent Flows feature in Copilot Studio, Microsoft said. 

Microsoft

Users first describe a task — perhaps a software bug reporting workflow that automatically replies to the sender, confirming that their request is being handled. The agent will then generate the workflow, connecting to apps such as Outlook and Teams when necessary. A visual outline of the automated tasks is shown, with users able to make changes using natural language. How the automation is used can be trakced once it’s live. 

“The challenge here is will knowledge workers with little coding experience be able to define and build a useful agentic workflow?” said Gold. “Will it take multiple iterations, and if so, will they be patient enough to see it through? You really need to define a process well in order to fully automate with an agent, and not sure everyone can do so, or at least for complex workflows.”

As for the Copilot Studio lite feature, it enables the creation of AI agents tailored to specific tasks from M365 Copilot. Again, a natural language description is required to outline the purpose of the agent, or it can be done via a “configure” screen that provides more detailed control, such as what files the agent can access. 

The App Builder and Workflows agents are available now to M365 Copilot subscribers as part of their existing license via the Microsoft 365 Agent Store. The Copilot Studio lite feature is also included in M365 Copilot subscribers at no extra cost. Those without a license can access the features with Microsoft’s Copilot Credits systems, or a “pay-as-you-go” plan. 

Copilot Studio lite can also be accessed for free to build agents grounded on web knowledge only.