Introduction

Using agents you create AI-powered assistants optimized for specific scenarios in Microsoft 365 Copilot. With instructions, you define the context for the agent and specify settings such as tone of voice or how it should respond. By configuring the agent's skills, you give it the ability to interact with external systems, trigger certain behavior under system conditions, or use custom workflow logic. One type of skill is actions that allow a declarative agent to communicate with APIs both for retrieving and modifying data.

Example scenario

Suppose you work in the sales department for Northwind Traders. You regularly need to check the status of orders and customers. You want to be able to quickly see what orders are pending, but also consider customer details in case you have questions. The Northwind Traders API exposes their data via an API. Rather than building a separate app, you want to build an agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot so that you can easily find the available orders and customer details. You want to use natural language to browse through the data and get answers.

What will we be doing?

Here, you create a declarative agent with an API plugin. The action allows the agent to interact with an external system using its anonymous API.

What is the main goal?

By the end of this module, you demonstrate your ability to create a declarative agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot that can access data from an external API.