Copilot Employee Self-Service Agent
I’m looking for some clarity regarding the rollout of the https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-agents/employee-self-service-agent/ and whether others are seeing it in their environments yet. I’ve been following this closely and initially understood that a formal request was required to gain access. However, the Microsoft Learn documentation now provides specific, step-by-step instructions on how to enable and access it directly. Despite following those instructions to the letter, the agent is still not appearing within my tenant. I’ve verified my configurations against the guide, but the options simply aren't visible. A few questions for the community: Has anyone else successfully enabled the agent using the self-service steps in the documentation? Is there or was there ever a manual "request-for-access" process that overrides the published steps? I’d appreciate any insights or if anyone from the product team could clarify if the documentation is slightly ahead of the actual deployment.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. 👇
All scheduled prompts failing — "couldn't be completed" error — Power Platform provisioning issue?
I'm hoping someone from Microsoft or the community has seen this. All my scheduled prompts are failing at execution time with this error: "This scheduled prompt couldn't be completed. It will be retried during the next scheduled run." Key facts: M365 Copilot license on a direct Business subscription The same prompts run correctly in Copilot Chat Even the simplest scheduled prompt fails: "List emails I received in the past 5 days. No analysis needed — just the list." The scheduling UI works fine — prompts appear in the Active list with correct schedules Failure is at execution time. Retries also fail. Admin-side investigation already completed: Power Platform environment: Ready No DLP policies in the tenant No admin toggle for scheduled prompts exists in M365 admin center (noted as unusual) Org-level optional connected experiences: enabled User-level optional connected experiences toggle absent (consistent with org locking it On) The absence of an admin toggle for scheduled prompts in the M365 admin center is the one thing that stood out — I wonder if this indicates the feature wasn't fully provisioned when the Copilot license was applied. Sharing here in case this is a known issue or others are experiencing the same. Any insight from Microsoft engineers or others who've resolved this would be appreciated.
Is the Copilot model picker available in Word for the Microsoft 365 Premium (Individual) plan?
Hello, I would like to confirm whether the Copilot model picker is available in Microsoft Word for subscribers of the Microsoft 365 Premium Individual plan. Specifically, I am referring to the feature that allows users to switch between different AI models, such as: - Claude Opus 4.7 - GPT-5.5
Copilot Compliance Nightmare? Microsoft Suddenly Rolls Out Flex Routing
Microsoft plans to introduce flex routing to handle situations when demand exceeds capacity for Copilot processing in Europe. This could be an issue for Microsoft 365 tenants in the European Union or European Free Trade Association who want to be sure that their data is processed in Microsoft local datacenters and not sent to the U.S. or Australia when available capacity cannot meet the demand for “large language model inferencing”. https://office365itpros.com/2026/04/07/flex-routing-copilot-europe/How to become a Frontier 💪
If the Workflows agent sounds like a mystery to you, or you doubt of the existence of the =Copilot() function in Excel at all, then keep reading becasue this tip may be for you! Features like the =Copilot() function in Excel, the Workflows agent, or the Learning agent are part of the Frontier program. But what's the Frontier program and how to join it, this what this post is all about. What's the Frontier program? The Frontier program can help you get early-taste of Microsoft 365 Copilot features before they go public. If you care about Copilot new features, and want to help new features improve, then the Frontier program is for your. It is great stuff to give feedback and help Copilot product development. 💪 Here's Microsoft official definition of the program: The new Frontier program gives customers early access to experimental Microsoft 365 Copilot innovations in their own environment. Frontier agents are previews designed for evaluation and feedback. Features may change as development continues. How to join Frontier program? Follow the instructions below to turn it on: Web apps Desktop apps And Agent store Step 1: Go to M365 Admin Center Log in as M365 Global Admin Click on Copilot and then Settings Step 2: Search for "Frontier" Search for "Frontier" Click on Copilot Frontier Step 3: Pick your choice Select the "Web apps" tab to enable for your web apps Select "Specific users" to add the security group you want to enable the Copilot Frontier for Want to enable on desktop apps too? Step 4: Select Desktop and mobile apps Select the "Desktop and mobile apps" tab to enable for desktop Follow the link to find out the deployment option that best fit your environment ( In my environment, adding a reg key worked best How do you know what's new in Frontier? Want to find out the latest Frontier innovations? In this page you can find it: Frontier program – Microsoft Adoption
This is a Problem - Quick Response Mode Missing in Copilot
Hi, I noticed Quick Response mode has completely disappeared from Copilot, and have seen many other users report the same issue starting January 2026 on MS Q&A site. I also read that Microsoft is pushing a new Smart Mode, which changes how responses work and may be replacing older models. The Quick Response mode fit my workflow far better than Think Deeper and Smart does. Since it disappeared, and the introduction of Smart Mode, I have constantly run into issues because now the app is making it's own decisions and interpretations of subjects and projects which is extremely frustrating because it's 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. Taking away the ability to choose which mode a user prefers, and leaving it up to the bot, is taking away personal preference and what works for individuals needs. Quick Response was added during the GPT-5 update in 2025, so I don't understand why it suddenly vanished. Can someone please explain what's happening and whether QR is coming back, as this mode is something I need due to limited time and needing to finish projects. Please and thank you.
