Agents, agents, agents. It is the latest technology to widen our business applications’ impact. But without beQuite a few posts on my timeline are about honesty about what AI is. Apparantly too often the term AI Agents are used when they are basically automation in disguise. As I’m building and learning more about Agents with Copilot Studio I am often wondering what I am building. So here are some wondering thoughts about the subject.
And recently I read that no-one even knows what AI Agents are. I will not pretend I do know what they are, but I will add my 2 cents to the discussion. Especially since I love building AI Agents with Copilot Studio! Or am I building automation? AI Automation? I don’t know! So, let’s first try and get some definitions.
Definitions: Automate, Elevate, Delegate and Relegate?
Automation: Strictly speaking automation refers to the use of technology to perform tasks. It involves creating systems and processes that can operate independently, reducing the need for manual effort. When I automate, I do so with software development and to support business processes, to improve efficiency, quality and accuracy.
AI Automation: Now AI Automation takes automation a step further by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into the process. This sounds simple, but it geniuinly pisses people off if you call automation which calls a bit of AI an Agent. I use the term AI automation when the task has a defined input and output and usually resolves around a singular tasks. And we have to use AI in our automation else it’s merely automation.
Agents: Agents are software entities that act on behalf of users to perform specific tasks. They can be simple bots that follow predefined rules or advanced AI agents that use large language models (LLM) to understand and respond to user needs. Agents can interact with users, gather information, and execute actions to achieve their goals. And in the near future, they might do so autonomously!
Mixing in Copilot Studio
For the few readers who do not know me, I’ve been playing with Agents for quite some time. Back in the day we called them chatbots, which we programmed each conversation step with the Bot Framework SDK. After a few iterations Power Virtual Agent saw the light, and we could use messages nodes. In that time we already used machine learning, natural language processing and entity recognition. Did we call them AI Agents? Most of us didn’t. We still referred to them as chatbots.
Only after the introduction of LLM we saw the hype of Agents and AI Agents. This is such a recent concept that Microsoft 2 years ago thought of Copilots, renamed my beloved Power Virtual Agent to Copilot Studio and now the original name might make more sense! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the name changes at all, they make some sense most of the time. It’s just to illustrate how fast innovation and vision changes currently.
The thing is, how we build solutions is fundamentally changing. No longer will we have to rely on large “if, then, else” statements to eventually get to the result we want. However with Copilot Studio solutions we still use large areas of deterministic outcomes. Sometimes I question if I am building AI Automation or an Agent.
But does it matter what type of Agents we build?
But now that I’ve given it some thought. Does it actually matter how we call what agents we build? My answer? It depends! Yes I’m still a consultant. But let me answer the question from both sides, with a yes and no.
No, it does not matter because it’s vital to start learning. Start building a small agent, learn, iterate, and continue. The key is to begin with simple agents, understand their performance, and what works well for your users to gradually improve them. This iterative approach allows you to refine your agents based on real-world feedback. Whether we use basic automation or advanced AI, the goal is to continuously enhance our agents to meet user needs effectively.
About the Author
Microsoft Business Applications MVP, Lead Power Platform Consultant at Wortell
Reference:
Blanken, B (2025). The Future of Automation: AI Agents and Copilot Studio? Available at: The Future of Automation: AI Agents and Copilot Studio? – Power Addict Ben [Accessed: 27th March 2025].
Using a SharePoint Online list as a Knowledge source via ACTIONS in Copilot AI Studio
