Researcher and Analyst

Standard Microsoft Copilot chat is tuned for speed. Some tasks deserve more time. Microsoft includes two built-in agents for that: Researcher and Analyst.

1. Researcher

Researcher handles complex, multi-step research. It takes longer than standard chat, draws on the web and your work content (files, emails, meetings and chats you can access), and produces a structured report with citations.

Find it in the Microsoft Copilot app under Agents in Chat.

Use it when you need:

• A briefing pulled from several sources.
• A structured report with headings and citations you can verify.
• Background before a client meeting or a decision.

Prepare a briefing on everything we have discussed with [client] about the office move in the last three months, from email, meetings and shared files. Include decisions made, open issues and next steps, with citations.

Research the main points of [published guidance or public topic] using reputable public sources. Summarise what it means for a UK mid-sized professional services firm, and list the sources used.

2. Analyst

Analyst is designed for data work. It reasons through analysis step by step, can run Python, and shows its working so you can follow how it reached a result.

Using the attached sales export, identify the customers whose order volume fell by more than 20% year on year. Show your method and produce a chart.

3. When to use which

4. Limits

Both agents need the Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Microsoft applies usage limits to these deeper agents; check the current limit with your admin.