Government teams run on Standard Operating Procedures, manuals, handbooks, review instructions, HR policies, and proposal workflows. They’re essential—and everywhere. But during every Government Prompt‑a‑thon we've run this year, one theme kept repeating: "Our policies are many and finding the right answer quickly is nearly impossible."
Turning SOPs Into Simple Q&A Agents is possibly one of the fastest wins for public‑sector teams. Take the SOPs and guidance you already have, upload them to SharePoint Online (what's that? they're already there? I know!). Then, create an agent using nothing but descriptive natural language. No code. No connectors. No fuss. (Disclaimer: these claims are the author's personal boasts, not all use cases or requirements will match this example and therefore these statements are not legally binding 🤣)
Employees can then ask natural‑language questions such as:
- What are the steps for the annual review process?
- Do I need an attachment for a proposal amendment?
- How do I request parental leave?
The agent reads the SOPs, process manuals, and guidance documents and returns clear, plain‑language answers grounded in official policy. (see Marketing Review Agent example below)
No workflow building.
No complex setup.
Just natural language in, natural language out.
Using the Marketing Review Agent to approve this blog post
As a Microsoft employee, on this blog, I have to get approval when publishing content about our products. This process requires human intervention and multiple reviews: Draft the article, submit it to Legal, wait for someone's workload to clear so they can review it, receive feedback, make changes, submit again.
But the documentation is there. Dozens of word documents and PDFs that say what I can post, what I can't post, when I need to get review, when I need approval from customers. Over and over, this process must be followed exactly and without fail. By people who simply don't have the energy to be as careful as we should in the review of the policies.
Microsoft's Marketing Review Agent removes any potential bottlenecks. For example, I wrote this blog at 2:30am, submitted it to the Marketing Review Agent at 2:47, and was editing it at 2:52. Not even one day to turn around the edits and publish the blog post, in what could possibly have taken weeks.
This is an actual screenshot from the Marketing Review Agent's feedback on this very blog postCompliance documents, stored in SharePoint, are the sole source of truth for the agent, and plain language instructions ensure each time the agent evaluates a blog it does so exactly the same way - over and over and over ... was there a policy change? Marketing simply updates the knowledge sources, the agent immediately applies the change to the next review it makes.
New social media types?
New instructions?
New NDA policies?
New human intervention requirements?
Thousands of employees have the opportunity to take advantage of this agent without having to know the policies.
Disclaimer: AI assists but does not replace compliance officers or legal determination processes. The Marketing Review Agent ensures timely delivery of content for public consumption, but also recognizes some situations require human intervention. End users are ultimately responsible for the results of AI generated content, as that content may be inaccurate - I know this because the Marketing Review Agent told me, multiple
The structure of the review comes from the agent’s natural language instructions, ensuring every submitted draft receives the same consistent, policy‑aligned review—without the author crafting prompts.
This same pattern applies across government scenarios - simply provide your SOPs as knowledge to an agent and ease the burden of human intervention, giving employees the ability to run their first pass on these type of scenarios:
- Proposal compliance
- HR guidance updates
- Program office communications
- Grant compliance
Requirements and features may vary, but anywhere teams need a consistent, repeatable check against policy, this agent pattern may fit.
Join Us in Arlington
We’re hosting the M365 Copilot Agent‑a‑thon in Arlington February 26, an interactive event for public‑sector teams.
You’ll get hands on with M365 copilot and learn to:
- Build agents using natural language
- Connect them to SOPs, policies, and guidance in SharePoint Online
- Create Q&A and document‑review agents
- Learn best practices for accuracy and governance
If your organization is buried in SOPs and process documents, this is the fastest way to turn them into service agents your workforce can actually use.
Microsoft