As part of the Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2025, we were honored to feature a powerful session by Mantra Singh, Senior Architect at Cognizant, titled “Building Your Own Copilot with Copilot Studio.”
In this engaging session, Singh walked us through the remarkable evolution of bots from basic, rule-based systems to the sophisticated, generative AI agents we now see transforming industries. More importantly, he showcased how Microsoft Copilot Studio empowers anyone regardless of coding experience to build and deploy these intelligent agents quickly and effectively.
The Evolution of AI Agents: From Jarvis to Reality
Singh’s personal journey began with a love for fictional assistants like Jarvis from Iron Man, which planted the seed for his passion in intelligent agents. Early bots, however, were largely rule-based, relying on scripted logic and keyword triggers. With the rise of Generative AI, this changed dramatically.
Today’s bots are no longer passive responders, they are intelligent agents capable of reasoning, orchestrating tasks, and performing actions. These agents enhance productivity and user experience across industries, from onboarding and support to marketing and operations.
Milestones in Agent Evolution
📌 Key Moments in the Timeline
- Pre-AI Era: Basic, rule-based bots dominated the landscape.
- AI Emerges: Bots began to reason, improving their ability to assist employees.
- ChatGPT Impact: Sparked mainstream interest in intelligent agents.
- Microsoft Copilot Initiative: Microsoft launched copilots across M365, Azure, and Power Platform.
- Copilot Studio Introduced: A low-code/no-code tool for creating AI-powered agents in minutes.
- Autonomous Agents: Now generally available, enabling end-to-end task execution without human intervention.
Microsoft Copilot Studio: Democratizing AI Agent Development
What Is Copilot Studio?
Copilot Studio is part of the Microsoft Power Platform, offering a drag-and-drop, low-code/no-code environment for building agents that can:
- Retrieve information from public/internal sources (e.g., SharePoint, Microsoft Learn).
- Handle structured interactions (e.g., ordering a laptop, filing a ticket).
- Integrate with APIs and systems (e.g., ServiceNow, Salesforce, Jira).
- Deploy to Teams, websites, WhatsApp, Slack, and more.
🗣️ "You can build an agent in 10 minutes without any coding." – Mantra Singh<!-- wp:heading {"level":3} -->
What's Agent?
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An agent is like a smart digital helper. It can answer questions, guide users through tasks, connect to different systems, and even do things like create tickets or send emails, all without needing human help.
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The Agent Capability Spectrum
🔍 1. Retrieval Agents
Examples: ChatGPT-like bots that fetch information
Focus: Search and answer questions from documents and web
🔧 2. Task Agents
Examples: Bots that create tickets, book appointments
Focus: Structured, repeatable actions based on user input
🤖 3. Autonomous Agents
Examples: Agents that complete end-to-end processes
Focus: Fully automated workflows with decision-making logic
Practical Use Cases Across Industries
- HR: Employee onboarding, benefits queries, leave tracking
- IT: Password resets, hardware requests, incident creation
- Sales & Marketing: Lead qualification, campaign info delivery
- Operations: Procurement, inventory updates, logistics tracking
One real-world example involved an older employee at Cognizant building a vendor management agent, proving that age or coding experience is no barrier.
Recommended Strategy
- Start Small: Use the free trial to build a pilot agent for a small group.
- Show Value: Demonstrate time and effort savings internally.
- Scale Gradually: Expand to more agents and users.
- Adopt M365 Copilot: For advanced integration across Microsoft 365.
Security & Trust: Data Belongs to You
Singh reinforced Microsoft’s commitment to data privacy:
“Your data is your data. It’s not trained or sent to ChatGPT, OpenAI, or Gemini.”
This reassures organizations that their data stays within their tenant.
The Future of Interaction: “Copilot is the New UI for AI”
As Satya Nadella aptly stated, Copilot is becoming the new interface between users and AI. Whether via chat, Teams, or embedded systems, conversational AI is transforming how we work, decide, and deliver.
Cost, Licensing & Adoption Strategy
💰 Pricing Options
| Plan |
Details |
| Free Trial |
30–60 days full access |
| Production License |
$200/month (25K messages, 5 SharePoint sites) |
| Pay-As-You-Go (PSGo) |
$0.01 per message |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot |
$30/user/month for full M365 data integration |
📺 Watch the Full Session
This session is full of real examples and clear steps for anyone who wants to start creating useful bots with Microsoft tools.
Key Takeaways
- Copilot Studio empowers anyone, not just developers to create intelligent agents.
- Agents can retrieve, act, and operate autonomously across departments.
- Multi-agent architectures (master-child agents) are emerging for enterprise-level solutions.
- Copilot Studio is cost-effective, flexible, and integrates with Microsoft and third-party systems.
- The shift from static UIs to conversational AI is real and it's here.
Your Turn: Build Your First Agent
Build a Copilot Studio agent that:
- Uses your company website or SharePoint file as a knowledge base.
- Performs an operation like laptop ordering or sending an internal email.
🌐 Continuing the Journey
This bootcamp may have ended, but our community journey continues. Let’s keep building. Let’s keep learning. Let’s stay connected.
We encourage you to share your favorite sessions, insights, and moments from the event. Tag your peers, highlight what you’ve learned, and let’s continue the conversation around digital innovation and the Microsoft Power Platform.