Simple personal Agents
This is the first Agent stage. Think of these as saved specialist helpers rather than autonomous workers. They can be useful for repeatable instructions and public or deliberately supplied knowledge, but their file and organisational-data grounding is limited.
Typical products and features
- Copilot Chat Agents
- Agent Builder
- Public web grounding
- Instruction-based personal Agents
Best-fit users
- Policy officers
- Product officers
- Learning and development staff
- Customer support leads
- Innovation leads
Extra cost risk: Usually low, but organisational grounding can introduce extra licensing or metered access
Watch-outs
- Do not overstate what a basic Agent can do: it is often closer to a reusable helper than an autonomous system.
- Basic Agents do not automatically gain broad access to organisational work data.
- If the Agent needs SharePoint, Microsoft Graph, connectors or broader work grounding, check licensing, admin controls and permissions.
- Shared Agents should have an owner, purpose, scope and review date.
Example use cases (9)
Regulatory research helper
Agent that checks public Ofqual, JCQ or DfE pages
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Assessment terminology coach
Agent explains terms such as validity, reliability and standardisation
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Prompt coach
Agent helps staff write safer prompts
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Public consultation monitor
Agent helps find and summarise public consultations
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Centre guidance drafting helper
Agent follows AO tone-of-voice instructions
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
UK jurisdiction checker
Agent reminds staff to check England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differences
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
AI in assessment reading assistant
Agent summarises public research and policy
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Meeting challenge agent
Agent asks critical questions before a governance meeting
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder
Public regulatory research agent
A policy officer creates a web-grounded Agent using public Ofqual, DfE, JCQ or sector guidance to manually check for updates, monitor consultations and summarise public changes.
Where: Copilot Chat / Agent Builder