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Microsoft Unveils AI Researcher and Analyst Agents for 365 Copilot Rollout in April

• By Chris Paoli
• March 26, 2025

Microsoft on Tuesday introduced two new artificial intelligence agents, Researcher and Analyst, for its Microsoft 365 Copilot platform, expanding its use of generative AI to support complex workplace tasks. The agents will begin rolling out to select users in April, the company says.

The tools were designed to deliver expert-level assistance by integrating internal work data, such as emails, files, meetings, and chats, with external web sources, helping users generate insights and streamline decision-making.

The Researcher agent combines OpenAI’s research model with Microsoft’s own Copilot orchestration and search tools to tackle in-depth analysis tasks. Microsoft said the agent is aimed at producing higher-quality, more accurate insights than traditional methods.

"You can use Researcher to build a detailed go-to-market strategy based on the context of all your work data and broader competitive data from the web; identify whitespace opportunities for a new product based on emerging trends and internal data; or create a comprehensive quarterly report for a client review detailing work to date along with the latest market analysis," said Microsoft's Jared Spataro in a blog post.

Researcher also supports integration with third-party systems such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Confluence.

Also unveiled was Analyst, a data analysis agent powered by OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model. The agent uses chain-of-thought reasoning and Python-based computation to mimic human analytical thinking, according to the company.

Analyst is capable of transforming raw data into actionable insights, such as generating demand forecasts, creating customer behavior visualizations or developing revenue projections. It also allows users to view and verify the code it runs during analysis.

Both Researcher and Analyst will be available beginning in April through Microsoft’s new "Frontier" program, which gives customers with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license early access to features still in development.

The initiative signals Microsoft’s continued push to embed reasoning capabilities into the workplace, offering what it calls "expertise on demand" within the flow of daily work.

Agent Deployment Platform for Copilot Studio Microsoft also announced deep reasoning, and agent flows in Copilot Studio, which will allow organizations to build agents that can execute complex, multistep business processes or automate tasks through predictable flows.

Along with the new platform, new features have gone live that will allow autonomous agents to act independently, trigger events and manage business processes without manual intervention in Copilot Studio.

Microsoft emphasized that everything announced will be backed by the Copilot Control System, which enforces enterprise-level data grounding, access governance and compliance controls for IT teams.