Episode 402 – Declarative Agents with Andrew Connell

Welcome to Episode 402 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro Podcast. In today’s episode, we’re thrilled to have Andrew Connell (AC) joining us once again. If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll recognize AC as a repeat guest and one of the early voices who encouraged us to launch this podcast. In this episode, we’re diving deep into the world of Microsoft Copilot agents from a bit of a developer’s perspective . We expand on insights from Episode 400 and helping us understand some additional intricacies of how Copilot works under the hood. We’ll break down the different billing models and some limitations in what they provide and why having at least one $30 license is key to unlocking the semantic index. We’ll also explore how Copilot uses semantic indexing to ground responses in your organization’s data, and how it respects user permissions through access control lists. But it’s not all smooth sailing—AC also walks us through some of the current limitations, like missing metadata and large file indexing. He also shares a potential workaround using Azure AI Search for those needing more comprehensive coverage. Finally, we this weeks Microsoft Build Conference and tease a potential future episode where ACw will return to talk about custom Copilot development.

Andrew Connell

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• BlueSky

• Newsletter: The Full Stack Dev’s Microsoft 365 Playbook

• Podcast: Code. Deploy. Go Live. – codedeploygo.live

• Code. Deploy. Go Live on YouTube

Show Notes

• Episode 400 – Microsoft 365 Copilot Declarative Agents and Copilot Studio Agent Builder

• Create Copilot agents in Microsoft 365 Business Chat and Teams

• Grounding an agent to specific public websites

• Semantic indexing for Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot

About the sponsors

Would you like to become the irreplaceable Microsoft 365 resource** for your organization? Let us know!