6 surprising ways a new AI agent can help you crush it at work

Imagine having an on-call research assistant that can analyze mountains of work and web data to give you insightful expertise in minutes, whether you’re preparing for a big meeting, brainstorming new product ideas or creating a strategic report.  

That’s what Researcher, a new AI agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, is designed to do. You tell it what you need, and it uses deep reasoning capabilities to securely gather and analyze your emails, meeting notes and work documents, plus external information like news articles and industry blogs, to quickly produce a comprehensive report that would have taken you hours or even weeks.  

Researcher is one of several AI agents, or tools for automated tasks, available in Copilot Chat for users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. While Copilot Chat and Researcher have access to the same work and web-based information, their difference lies in how they reason over it. Copilot Chat is great for quick, concise answers, while Researcher is built for multi-step analysis based on large quantities of disparate data.  

Researcher can gather extensive information, do deep analysis and ask clarifying questions to understand your request and contextualize answers. Its complex reasoning means answers may take minutes instead of seconds.  

You can now choose which model it uses and see its “chain of thought,” or reasoning steps for reaching conclusions, to help you verify its responses and understand the breadth and depth of its research. It uses data to better understand your question and synthesize it into a comprehensive report. And it uses only the data you’re allowed to access, staying in line with your organization’s security and privacy policies.  

Here are six unexpected ways Researcher can save time and resources and help you shine at work.  

The next time you’re preparing for a sales pitch with a valuable customer, you could do the manual work of digging through emails, chats and meeting notes to refresh your memory. Or you can prompt Researcher to create a report summarizing key points from past conversations and related internal data on your offerings.  

It can combine that with external information like recent news, public financial filings and global trends affecting your customer. And you can connect Researcher to proprietary data sources like a customer relationship management (CRM) platform or a service that aggregates data.  

The result is a well-documented report with timely insights and ways to handle potential conflicts to help you make a successful pitch.  

Sample prompt for a healthcare tech company preparing a client pitch:

“Summarize internal communications — emails, chats, meetings — with the XYZ company from the last quarter. Highlight their key concerns on data compliance and interoperability. Add external information including financial filings, recent news about them and the latest trends in digital health adoption. Include best solutions, case studies, talking points and insights from our CRM and market research platforms.”

Say your team is studying a strategic question like weighing two different capital investment strategies. Researcher can do much of the heavy lifting by doing a thorough analysis of your market, industry and competitors and reviewing internal data like roadmaps, bottlenecks and past performance.  

You can be specific with your prompts, like focusing on certain regions or product groups, or start with Researcher’s query templates for a “topic report” or “market analysis” and refine from there. Either way, you’ll receive a report with forecasts, risks and opportunities in minutes, instead of waiting for research that usually takes weeks or months.  

Sample prompt for a manufacturing company evaluating capital investments:

“Compare the long-term strategies of expanding our North American production facilities vs. building a new plant in Southeast Asia. Analyze internal past performance, product roadmaps, maintenance history and capacity constraints. Combine with external data on regional economic forecasts and labor costs, supply chain resilience, energy prices and competitor activity. Summarize projected risks and opportunities for each option for the next 10 years to support a strategic recommendation.”

Researcher combines objective data like key performance indicators with subjective data like leadership discussions at your last offsite — a capability handy for helping you prepare a holistic update for your next board meeting.  

The tool can help you summarize project outcomes, status reports and more in the context of business priorities and industry trends. Instead of bugging your colleagues for help, you can ask Researcher to pull essential details from email and chat threads into a big-picture view, complete with talking points that can help you tell a compelling narrative.  

Sample prompt for a chief digital officer preparing a board presentation:

“Create a board-ready update on digital transformation efforts over the past two quarters. Include KPIs and key milestones on platform adoption, automation gains and customer experience. Pull in insights from leadership discussions and team feedback. Add external context including competitor benchmarks and emerging tech trends, and talking points aligned with our long-term priorities.”

Want an innovation assistant to help you explore emerging trends and new product opportunities? Researcher can analyze internal things like customer feedback and product timelines with external factors like consumer trends and competitor news to create an overview of “white spaces” in your market, or potential opportunities for your organization.  

You can ask Researcher to look at unmet needs by different market segments or how your product lineup can adjust to consumer demand. You can watch in real time as Researcher gathers sources, evaluates them, revaluates them and finally writes its report. Or you can grab coffee and edit the report later in the tool, as you get it ready for your next phase of ideation. 

Sample prompt for a mid-sized outdoor gear company:

“Analyze our spreadsheet of customer feedback from the past 12 months on our daypacks and travel accessories and compare it with external consumer trend reports and competitor product launches. Identify unmet needs among urban Gen Z and millennial consumers who enjoy casual outdoor activities. Provide a summary of potential white space opportunities and suggest three product concepts to explore.”

When the clock is ticking on an escalated customer support ticket, Researcher can sift through emails, your chat history, support case notes, product manuals and previous tickets — along with any external factors affecting your customer — for a quick overview, saving you from having to ping multiple teams and wade through a lot of information.  

It can also find patterns like other customers with similar issues — sorted by categories like region, product group or use case — and compile suggestions for preventing future problems. That means less time chasing information and more time fixing the problem. 

Sample prompt for a support engineer handling an escalated issue:

“Summarize internal case notes, emails, chats and product updates regarding a support ticket for XYZ on intermittent API failures. Identify if other customers in the same region or using the same API version have reported similar issues. Highlight workarounds, root cause patterns and recent changes that could be contributing. Suggest next steps for resolution and prevention.” 

Researcher makes a helpful assistant when your week is packed with meetings and deadlines, providing more than just a calendar view, but an overview of upcoming tasks with essential information included for each one.  

For example, it can gather materials to review — including news articles you may have missed — before an upcoming meeting. It can include a summary of what’s happened to date on a particular project. It can add time-sensitive action items to your agenda from your chats, emails and meeting notes.  

Researcher understands details about people, teams and projects in your organization — helpful for when you join a new team or an unusually large call — and gives you the information you need, so you can get more done.  

Sample prompt for a project manager facing a busy week:

“Give me a weekly overview that includes my upcoming meetings, deadlines and key action items from recent emails, chats and meeting notes. Include documents I need to review and recent news and internal developments I might have missed. Highlight blockers and decisions that need follow-up and include background on any new teams or stakeholders I’ll be meeting with. Include suggestions for prioritizing tasks.”