Introduction

In today’s workplace, efficiency is king. Employees are constantly looking for ways to cut down repetitive tasks and get answers faster. Microsoft has stepped up with a new feature in SharePoint—SharePoint Agents.

These are AI-powered assistants built directly into SharePoint sites, designed to help you interact with your company’s content in natural language. Instead of hunting through folders and libraries, you can just ask the agent a question and get an instant, context-aware response.

In this article, we’ll cover what SharePoint Agents are, how to use them, licensing requirements, customization options, real-world examples, and security considerations. By the end, you’ll see why this is one of Microsoft’s most exciting productivity features for 2025.

What Are SharePoint Agents?

At their core, SharePoint Agents are AI assistants built into SharePoint that allow you to:

• Summarize content
• Generate quick insights
• Answer questions about documents, lists, and pages
• Provide context-aware suggestions based on your permissions

There are two main types of SharePoint Agents:

1. Ready-Made Agents (Built-In)

• Automatically enabled on every SharePoint site
• Scoped only to that site’s content
• Require no setup or editing
• Perfect for quick, general use

2. Custom-Built Agents

• Created by users with edit permissions
• Can be scoped to specific documents, lists, or sites
• Allow customization of name, branding, behavior, and tone
• Stored as .agent files in SharePoint (within Site Assets or a document library)
• Can be shared with colleagues via a secure link

This flexibility allows organizations to start simple with built-in agents and scale up to powerful, custom AI assistants as their needs grow.

Licensing and Access Requirements

Before using or creating SharePoint Agents, you’ll need the right license:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot license – provides full access to SharePoint Agents.
• Pay-as-you-go service option – an alternative licensing model for organizations.

To create or edit custom agents, you must also have site editing permissions on the relevant SharePoint site. Without these, you’ll only be able to interact with existing agents.

Security and Governance

Security is a top priority with SharePoint Agents:

• Agents respect SharePoint file permissions—if you don’t have access to a document, the agent won’t reveal it.
• Admins can manage agent permissions by controlling access to .agent files.
• All activity occurs within the Microsoft 365 compliance framework, so data governance, auditing, and retention policies still apply.

This ensures organizations can adopt SharePoint Agents without compromising trust or compliance.

Real-World Use Cases

Let’s look at how different professionals can use SharePoint Agents:

• Recruiter: Summarize resumes and filter candidates by specific experience.
• Training Manager: Generate a training course outline from existing documentation.
• Product Team Member: Create a 5-minute elevator pitch for a product using internal content.
• Operations Lead: Pull instant project updates without digging through long reports.

These examples highlight how agents help different departments save time, improve workflows, and drive smarter decision-making.

Comparison: Ready-Made vs. Custom Agents

Feature	Ready-Made Agent	Custom Agent
Availability	Auto-enabled on every site	Must be created by site editors
Scope	Limited to one site	Flexible—multiple sites, lists, files
Customization	None	Full—name, branding, scope, behavior
Storage	Not stored as a file	Stored as .agent file in SharePoint
Sharing	Not shareable	Shareable via secure link

Conclusion

SharePoint Agents represent the next big leap in workplace AI and automation. By combining Microsoft’s AI capabilities with SharePoint’s robust content management, these agents give employees a smarter way to work—whether that’s summarizing documents, filtering resumes, or answering quick project questions.

With built-in options for beginners and customizable agents for advanced users, organizations can roll out this feature at their own pace. And since all actions respect existing permissions and security policies, adoption can happen safely and confidently.

If you haven’t yet explored SharePoint Agents, now is the time—because the way we interact with workplace content is changing fast.

Happy Sharing…