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Microsoft Introduces Copilot Chat Agents for Education

Microsoft recently announced Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a new pay-as-you-go offering that adds AI agents to its existing free chat tool for Microsoft 365 education customers. Powered by generative AI, agents can be tailored to perform autonomous tasks with a particular expertise, the company explained in a blog post. In education, that could mean expertise in instructional design, individual student preferences, or utilizing institutional data to offer relevant insights.

Copilot Chat includes:

  • Secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o (free);
  • Agents accessible within the chat (cost-per-use measured in "messages," with total cost calculated based on the sum of messages used by the institution); and
  • IT controls, including enterprise data protection and agent management.

Users will have access to a wide range of pre-built agents from Microsoft, the company said, with teaching and learning agents to be released in the coming months. Microsoft also plans to publish open source agents that will enable users to interact with course information and resources in learning management systems.

Ultimately, Microsoft said, "We expect institutions will have entire constellations of agents — helping to enhance existing processes and create new ones." For example, Florida State University is already utilizing Copilot Chat for "use cases ranging from providing course information and homework to help making data science more approachable and increasing analysis efficiency for researchers."

"Our goal at FSU is to empower faculty to develop their own custom AI solutions, and to give our faculty ownership over AI technology, and the way they use it in the classroom, so that they can define our path forward," commented Paul F. Marty, associate vice provost for academic innovation at the university. "Copilot Chat will make that opportunity real by enabling us to scale our pilot across campus in a way that’s intuitive and meaningful for everyone."

For more information, read the Microsoft Education blog.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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