Model Context Protocol (MCP) is available for use with Microsoft Copilot Studio, enables powerful integrations with external systems—but also introduces new security challenges. This article explores how to securely deploy MCP with Copilot Studio Agents.
A previous article explained how Microsoft 365 usage report data can highlight inactive Copilot users. If we add audit data to the mix, the analysis becomes much richer because we can see exactly what use people make of different Copilot apps, like Word, Chat, Outlook, and so on. Better data means better decisions!
Everyone's very excited about the potential goodness of Copilot agents, but how Microsoft 365 tenants will manage potentially thousands of agents in the future is something that isn't clear. Some administrative capabilities are in the Microsoft 365 admin center, but are these sufficient? We don't think so, and this article explains why and what we'd do about the problem.
Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing costs a lot of money. At $360 annually, it's important to make sure that everyone with a license makes full use of Copilot to become more productive and efficient. Usage data is available in the Graph, and some PowerShell can reveal who's using Copilot and who's not. With that data, you can decide whether to remove licenses for reassignment to other users.
Microsoft is all in for Copilot at present and agents are a big part of the story. Multiple ways exist to create a declarative agent for use with Copilot in BizChat and Teams. This article reviews how to create an agent with the Teams Toolkit, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft 365 Copilot - and if any usage data are created for custom agents.
Microsoft has a new allInteractionHistory Graph API in beta. The API returns details of user interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot apps, like Copilot in Word and Copilot in Outlook at a much more detailed level than what is available in the usage report API. Despite the current flaws in the API, having access to detailed information about how people use technology is incredibly valuable.
In this Episode of the Practical 365 Podcast, Paul and Steve explore Microsoft's ever-expanding Copilot strategy, debate the complexities of Microsoft Places licensing, and discuss whether every AI feature really needs Copilot branding.
You can't prevent Microsoft 365 Chat finding documents based on searches against Microsoft 365 Search and the semantic index. But you can stop Copilot from using the content of sensitive documents in its summaries and generated text. This article explains how the different ways to block Copilot in Microsoft 365 work.
Every time Microsoft 365 Copilot interacts with a user, the Microsoft 365 substrate captures the Copilot interaction as a compliance record in the user's mailbox. By fetching and analyzing the compliance records, we can understand how the user interacts with Copilot. This article discusses how to retrieve and analyze the records with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK.
Microsoft's big launch of Copilot Wave 2 featured many new capabilities, like a super-duper focused Inbox for Outlook (one that works this time), Python in Excel, and a profusion of agents for SharePoint Online. The idea behind agents is pretty good and should be valuable, even if IT might have some dark thoughts about how agents might allow people to access information that they shouldn't (this won't happen).
Market analysts question if companies like Microsoft will ever generate a return on their AI investment. That hasn't stopped Microsoft spending $19 billion in FY24 Q4, so they must be hopeful. Meanwhile, at Black Hat USA 2024, a presentation exploring some vulnerabilities in Copilot should make all Microsoft 365 tenants with Copilot consider how to secure their organization better.
GitHub Copilot costs $10/month. At that price level, anyone working with PowerShell should try out the AI assistance to see if it helps. But will GitHub Copilot work well with Microsoft 365 PowerShell modules like Exchange Online and the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. That's what we tested and report on here.
