Microsoft 365 Copilot Enhances Research with New 'Researcher' AI Agent

Microsoft 365 Copilot Introduces 'Researcher' Agent for Deep AI-Powered Research

Microsoft is enhancing its Microsoft 365 Copilot platform with a new feature called the 'Researcher' agent. This AI-powered tool aims to streamline and deepen the research process for users across web, mobile, and desktop applications. Positioned as a competitor to similar offerings from Google Gemini, Perplexity, and OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Researcher agent distinguishes itself by its ability to integrate and analyze a wider range of data sources.

Key Features and Functionality

Deep Research Capabilities: The Researcher agent is designed to conduct complex, multi-step research on behalf of the user. Users can instruct Copilot to gather thoroughly researched material on a specific topic or to create detailed action plans.
Autonomous AI Agent: It functions as an autonomous AI agent, capable of producing detailed documents that would typically require hours of manual research and compilation.
Integration with Internal Data: A significant differentiator for Microsoft's Researcher is its capacity to access and analyze a company's internal data. This includes emails, chats, meeting logs, calendars, transcripts, and shared documents. It can also integrate with external data sources like Salesforce and other custom agents used within an organization.
Leveraging Enterprise Knowledge Graph: The agent utilizes the enterprise knowledge graph to understand user and organizational context, including details about people, projects, and products, and how these entities interact within a company's workflow.
Configurable Data Sources: Users can configure the Researcher agent to reference data from various sources, including the web, local files, meeting recordings, emails, chats, and sales data, either individually or in combination.

Comparison with Competitors

While other platforms like Google Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT also offer deep research capabilities, Microsoft's approach with the Researcher agent emphasizes a more integrated and context-aware experience by tapping into proprietary business data. This allows for more personalized and relevant research outcomes.

Benefits for Businesses

For businesses, the Researcher agent offers a substantial advantage by automating time-consuming research tasks. Microsoft reports that early adopters have saved an average of 6-8 hours per week using the feature. The ability to leverage internal company knowledge graphs and custom AI agents, built using tools like Copilot Studio, further enhances its value for enterprise clients.

Availability

The Researcher agent is scheduled to begin rolling out to Microsoft 365 Copilot customers in April. It will be made available through a new 'Frontier' program, providing early access to new Copilot tools, similar to the Insider Preview program for Windows.

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About the Author

Nadeem Sarwar is a contributor for Digital Trends, focusing on technology and science journalism. He has a background in exploring smartphone technology and its advancements.

Topics Covered:

Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft
Microsoft Copilot
Tech News

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