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[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]
The new agent experience in Microsoft Copilot Studio is a redesigned authoring and runtime environment for building AI agents. It introduces a natural-language-first approach to agent creation, a unified single-surface design, and an enhanced orchestration model that improves response quality and reasoning capability.
Note
This article reflects the new experiences for creating agents and workflows in Microsoft Copilot Studio. The new agent experience is currently available as a production-ready preview. Learn about the two agent experiences in Classic vs. new agent experience. The new workflows experience is in public preview. Learn about the two workflows experiences in Workflows overview.
- Public preview features aren't meant for production use and might have restricted functionality.
- Production-ready and public previews are subject to supplemental terms of use.
- Some capabilities available in the classic experience aren't yet available in the new experience.
- Agents and workflows created in the new experience can't be converted to the classic experience.
What is the new agent experience?
The new experience is built on an enhanced orchestration runtime that replaces the classic orchestration model used in Copilot Studio's existing (classic) agents. Instead of authoring explicit conversation topics, flows, and branching logic, you describe your agent in natural language and the system generates the underlying configuration.
The new experience is available alongside the classic experience. You choose which experience to use when you create a new agent. Agents created in the new experience can't be transferred to the classic experience, and agents created in the classic experience can't be transferred to the new experience.
For a detailed comparison of the two experiences, see Classic vs. new agent experience.
Try out the new experience
To try out the new experience, select Try it now on the classic experience home page.
You can switch back at any time by selecting the New experience toggle.
Key concepts
The new experience organizes an agent around its core components, configured from the Build tab:
Instructions: Define the agent's identity, tone, scope, and behavior. See Configure agent details and instructions (preview).
Knowledge: Connected data sources, organizational data through Microsoft IQ, and memory give the agent context for answering questions. See Add knowledge to an agent.
Tools and skills: Tools let the agent perform actions (calling APIs, running flows), while skills define reusable structured behaviors. See Add tools and skills to an agent.
Model: Choose the AI model that powers the agent's reasoning. See Select a model for an agent.
Connected agents: Delegate specialized tasks to other agents. See Connected agents overview.
Agent authoring surface
The new experience provides a tab-based surface for building and managing an agent:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Build | Configure the agent's identity, knowledge, tools, skills, and model |
| Preview | Test the agent interactively in a preview chat interface |
| Evaluate | Create and run test sets to measure agent quality |
| Monitor | Review recent tasks, files the agent accessed, and activity |
Agent lifecycle
Building an agent in the new experience follows this general flow:
- Create: Start from the Copilot Studio home page and choose to create a new agent with the new experience.
- Build: Configure who the agent is, what it knows, what it can do, and what its limits are.
- Test: Use the Preview tab and Evaluate tab to validate the agent's behavior.
- Publish: Deploy the agent to your chosen channels.
- Monitor: Track the agent's tasks, activity, and performance after deployment.
Orchestration and reasoning
The new experience uses an improved orchestration runtime that supports deep reasoning capabilities and higher-quality responses compared to the classic experience—particularly over Microsoft 365 data. Unlike the classic experience, where orchestration behavior is configurable, the new experience uses this enhanced orchestration model for all agents.
Learn more in Classic vs. new agent experience.
Availability
The classic agent experience remains fully supported alongside the new experience. For information on classic agents, see Create and delete agents and AI-based agent authoring overview. Learn more in Classic vs. new agent experience.