From Copilot to custom-built agents: the main AI agent options for Microsoft Teams and how to choose.
The short answer
In Microsoft Teams, Copilot covers general productivity, Copilot Studio lets teams build simple agents, AI employee products add broad task handling, and custom-built agents handle company-specific workflows.
Key takeaways
| Option | Best at |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | Meetings, documents, email |
| Copilot Studio | Simple in-house agents |
| AI employee products | Broad self-serve tasks |
| Custom agents (e.g. Switch) | High-impact workflows on your systems |
For Microsoft 365 companies, Copilot is the natural baseline.
Copilot Studio suits simple internal agents. For workflows spanning ERP, e-commerce and approval steps, a specialist like Switch can build named agents in Teams. Compare in Copilot vs custom agents.
For simple Q&A and forms, often; for multi-system workflows, usually not on its own.
How this guide was made
Written and reviewed by our editors against vendor documentation, public regulation texts and practitioner interviews. We update guides when products or rules change. Tools mentioned may have a commercial relationship with this site; this never decides what we recommend.
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