Certificate in Building Generative AI Agent with Copilot Studio

• Generative Orchestration vs. Classic Topic Routing
• When to Use Each Orchestration Model
• Tool Selection, Knowledge Selection, Fallback Behavior
• Walk-through of an Orchestration Trace

• Tour of the Copilot Studio Authoring Experience
• Creating an Agent using the Describe Flow
• Switching to Configure View: Instructions, Starter Prompts, Tone, Role
• Saving, Testing, and Versioning

• Knowledge Strategy — Why Grounding Matters
• Connecting Websites, Uploading Files, SharePoint Sites
• Adding Web Search as a Fallback
• Connecting Dataverse for Structured Data Grounding
• Governance Considerations by Source Type

• When to Use a Topic vs. Letting Generative Orchestration Handle It
• Trigger Phrases, Variables, Conditions, and Branching
• Authored vs. Generated Topics
• Hands-on Topic Building Demo

• What is a Prompt Tool? Reusable, Parameterised AI Prompts
• Designing Structured Outputs (JSON Schema)
• When to Use a Prompt Tool vs. a Topic vs. a Flow

• Conversational vs. Autonomous vs. Workflow Automation
• Triggers, Tools, and Deep Reasoning
• Activity Tab for Monitoring and Debugging

• What an Agent Flow Is and When to Build One
• Calling a Flow as a Tool from an Agent
• Returning Structured Data to the Agent

• Extending Agents with Custom Connectors
• Authentication Patterns Overview (API Key, OAuth)
• Building and Testing a REST Action

• What MCP Is and Why It Matters for Agent Ecosystems
• Connecting an MCP Server to Copilot Studio
• When to Choose MCP over a Custom Connector

• Multi-Agent Patterns — Delegation, Specialisation, Escalation
• Context Passing and Guardrails Between Agents
• Designing a Sub-Agent for a Specific Role

• Publishing Conversational Agents to Teams, M365 Copilot, Website / Direct Line
• Activating Triggers and Monitoring Autonomous Agents via the Activity Tab
• Governance: Environments, DLP, Agent Lifecycle, Ownership, "Off Switch"
• Q&A and Resource Handoff

Goal

Build an autonomous agent that receives expense claim emails, reasons against the policy, and emails the employee with an approve / flag / reject decision.

Key Tasks

• Create "Expenses Agent" (Configure mode)
• Add "Send an Email" tool (Outlook / Gmail connector)
• Upload Expenses Policy PDF as knowledge source
• Write instructions: decision framework, policy citation, HTML email
• Add "When a new email arrives" trigger (subject: Expense Claim)
• Test without reasoning → enable Deep Reasoning → retest
• Publish and verify via Activity Tab

Three Test Scenarios

• Approve — $62 client lunch
• Flag — $340 monitor (requires manager review)
• Reject — $85 gym membership (non-reimbursable)

Goal

Build a Prompt Tool that extracts structured data from unstructured invoices / receipts, then saves the extracted fields to a SharePoint list via an Agent Flow.

Prompt Tool

• Create "Extract Invoice Data" Prompt Tool
• Input: invoice_text
• Extract: invoice_number, vendor, date, total, currency, category
• Configure JSON structured output schema

Agent Flow

• Create "Save Extracted Invoice" Agent Flow
• Map extracted fields to SharePoint list columns

Topic Integration

• Trigger: "extract this invoice" / "file this receipt"
• Prompt → Confirm → Save Flow
• Stretch: Confidence score, duplicate check, high-value routing

Goal

Wire a public REST API as a custom tool and call it from an agent. No auth, no setup — perfect for a quick hands-on integration.

Key Tasks

• Add Tool → Custom Connector / REST API
• Base URL: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com
• Action: GetUserById (GET /users/{id})
• Test with id = 1, verify JSON response
• Ask agent: "Get me the contact details for user 3"
• Discussion: Connector vs. Agent Flow HTTP action

Goal

Connect a pre-existing MCP server to Copilot Studio and call one of its tools from an agent.

Key Tasks

• Add Tool → Model Context Protocol
• Paste MCP server URL + authentication
• Review discovered tools, enable selected ones
• Test via agent question + inspect Activity map
• Discussion: MCP vs. Connector vs. Flow, governance

Goal

Extend the Expense Review Agent with a connected L2 Reviewer Agent that handles complex or high-value cases.

Key Tasks

• Create "L2 Expense Reviewer" agent with deeper policy knowledge
• Enable Deep Reasoning and publish
• From Expenses Agent → Add Tool → Agent (Connected)
• Instruction: Hand off when flagged or > $500
• Test with $1,200 business-class claim
• Observe delegation via Activity map
• Discussion: Sub-agents vs. more tools, context passing