The Difference Between Declarative Agents and Autonomous Agents in Copilot Studio
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way businesses automate tasks, improve customer experiences, and increase productivity. One of the most exciting platforms leading this transformation is Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, a low-code environment that enables organizations to create intelligent AI-powered assistants and workflows. https://dellenny.com/the-difference-between-declarative-agents-and-autonomous-agents-in-copilot-studio/Topics and Nodes in Microsoft Copilot Studio: The Foundation of Intelligent Conversations
Artificial intelligence is changing the way businesses communicate with customers and employees. From automating support requests to handling internal workflows, conversational AI tools are becoming an essential part of modern digital transformation. One platform leading this evolution is Microsoft Copilot Studio. https://dellenny.com/topics-and-nodes-in-microsoft-copilot-studio-the-foundation-of-intelligent-conversations/Enterprise AI Agent Architecture Patterns Using Copilot Studio
Artificial Intelligence is no longer limited to chatbots answering customer queries or virtual assistants scheduling meetings. Enterprises are now building intelligent AI agents capable of automating workflows, orchestrating business processes, integrating enterprise systems, and assisting employees in real-time. As organizations scale their AI adoption, architecture becomes the defining factor between isolated experiments and enterprise-wide transformation. https://dellenny.com/enterprise-ai-agent-architecture-patterns-using-copilot-studio/10 Real-World Copilot Studio Use Cases That Save Teams Hundreds of Hours
Artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept reserved for enterprise tech giants. Businesses of all sizes are now using AI copilots to automate repetitive work, improve customer experiences, and help employees become more productive. One platform that is quickly gaining attention in this space is Microsoft Copilot Studio. Organizations across industries are exploring practical copilot studio use cases to reduce manual work and streamline operations. From customer support automation to internal HR assistance, Copilot Studio allows companies to build intelligent AI agents without requiring advanced coding skills. https://dellenny.com/10-real-world-copilot-studio-use-cases-that-save-teams-hundreds-of-hours/Legal Teams: Drafting Documents Securely with Copilot
In today’s legal environment, speed matters just as much as accuracy. Legal teams are under constant pressure to draft contracts faster, review documents more efficiently, and maintain airtight compliance standards. At the same time, firms and corporate legal departments are handling larger volumes of sensitive information than ever before. This is where AI-powered tools like Microsoft Copilot are transforming the way legal professionals work. https://dellenny.com/legal-teams-drafting-documents-securely-with-copilot/Copilot for Planner and To Do Automating Task Management
In today’s fast-paced digital workplace, managing tasks effectively is one of the most important skills for productivity and team success. Between meetings, emails, chats, and deadlines, it’s easy for key action items to fall through the cracks. Microsoft’s latest innovation—Copilot for Planner and To Do—aims to change that by using artificial intelligence to automate and simplify task management. This powerful integration between Microsoft 365 Copilot, Planner, and To Do allows individuals and teams to automatically generate, organize, and monitor tasks using natural language. Instead of spending hours setting up task lists or following up manually, you can let Copilot do the heavy lifting. https://dellenny.com/copilot-for-planner-and-to-do-how-ai-automates-task-management/How GitHub Copilot Impacts Code Reviews and Collaboration
Software development has always been a team effort. While writing code is important, the real strength of modern engineering teams often comes from how effectively developers collaborate, review changes, and maintain code quality together. The rise of AI-powered coding assistants has added a new layer to this process, and one of the most widely discussed tools is GitHub’s GitHub Copilot. https://dellenny.com/how-github-copilot-impacts-code-reviews-and-collaboration/Copilot Chat vsus. Microsoft 365 Copilot. What's the difference?
While their names sound similar at first glance, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, they differ in several aspects. And more importantly: one is built on top of the other. What is Copilot Chat (Basic)? First things first. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is often simply called Copilot Chat. Copilot Chat (Basic) generates answers based on web content, while Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is also grounded on users' data, like emails, meetings, files, and more. Since early 2025, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat has been available to all users in organizations, becoming the entry point to AI assistance for many organizations. Copilot Chat (Basic) is the foundational Copilot experience available at no extra cost for everyone with an eligible Microsoft 365 plan, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium Copilot Chat (Basic) is secured, compliant, and it does not required the full Copilot add-on license. Copilot Chat (Basic) is able to ground responses on: Public web content. Content explicitly shared or work data manually uploaded to the chat by the user. On-screen content or content displayed on-screen in apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. When it comes to agents, Copilot Chat (Basic) offers these features: You can create your own declarative agents grounded on public web content with Agent Builder. You can use agents built by your org grounded on organizational data with the pay-as-you-go method. There are Microsoft prebuilt agents available like Prompt Coach, however Microsoft premium prebuilt agents like Researcher or Analyst are not included. The screenshot below shows how Copilot Chat looks and highlights its main capabilities. Note the Upgrade button, meaning this is not Microsoft 365 Copilot, but the Copilot Chat (Basic) experience. Note that EDP (Enterprise Data Protection) is available in Copilot Chat (Basic). What is Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium)? Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) is a paid add-on license that builds on top of Copilot Chat and unlocks Copilot's full power. It is available for selected Microsoft 365 plans, including: Microsoft 365 E3 / E5 Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Microsoft 365 Business Standard & Business Premium With a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, users get everything Copilot Chat (Basic) offers, plus much more: Data grounding: Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) includes Copilot Chat grounded on web and/or on user's Microsoft 365 data like emails, meetings, chats, and documents. Office apps: It integrates deeply into Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and more. The integration includes features like Edit with Copilot allowing Copilot to adjust live your documents or email based on your prompts. Custom agents: It brings the capability to create your own declarative agents grounded in organizational data and/or web data. You can create agent either using Agent Builder or Copilot Studio. MS prebuilt agents: Premium prebuilt agents like Researcher and Analyst are included in Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium). The screenshot below shows the Copilot chat experience for users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Note that EDP or Enterprise Data Protection also applies here How can I access Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat? Today, Copilot Chat is accessible via https://m365.cloud.microsoft or https://copilot.cloud.microsoft using your Entra ID (work or school account). One important difference in day-to-day experience: Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license typically see Copilot prominently surfaced across Microsoft 365 apps. Users with Copilot Chat only may not see it pinned by default on the Microsoft 365 home page. To improve discoverability, Microsoft 365 Copilot administrators can pin Copilot Chat via the Microsoft 365 admin center, ensuring that users can easily access it without friction. Especially convenient is that if you use the M365 Copilot Chat app on Windows, you can open Copilot using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C. What’s the difference? The differences between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot mainly come down to: Licensing Data grounding (web-only vs. personal work data) Integration depth within Microsoft 365 apps I’ve listed the key differences in the comparison below. 👇The Daily Stand-Up Agent A Custom Copilot for Summarizing Jira & Azure DevOps Progress
Modern software teams move fast. Between sprint planning, backlog grooming, pull requests, deployments, and stakeholder updates, developers often spend more time discussing work than actually doing it. One of the biggest pain points in Agile workflows is the daily stand-up meeting especially when team members need to manually summarize updates across dozens of tickets in tools like Jira and Azure DevOps. https://dellenny.com/the-daily-stand-up-agent-a-custom-copilot-for-summarizing-jira-azure-devops-progress/The Architecture of Copilot Agents: Building Intelligent Assistants for the Modern Era
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence has ushered in a new class of systems often referred to as copilot agents. These agents are not fully autonomous decision-makers, nor are they passive tools they sit in the middle, augmenting human capability by assisting with tasks, providing insights, and automating workflows while keeping humans in the loop. From coding assistants to enterprise productivity tools, copilot agents are becoming foundational to how we interact with software. https://dellenny.com/the-architecture-of-copilot-agents-building-intelligent-assistants-for-the-modern-era/
