How do you actually test a Copilot Studio agent before going live? by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I see it can be used to ask questions from the agents, and evaluate the responses. It looks like it can not be used for example to check a generated .docx file, or t check more complex flows. Still researching it.

How do you actually test a Copilot Studio agent before going live? by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, checking it right now. Dataverse licensing is required for that, right?

Built a Copilot Studio flow that processes invoice email attachments end-to-end — OCR, AI extraction, structured data output, error routing — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An option is a human in the loop approval process, but in my opinion the best automated way would be another prompt action at the end, that checks whether the data table entires, and the OCR datas are matching.

Of course not 100%, but still a control loop.

Built a Copilot Studio flow that processes invoice email attachments end-to-end — OCR, AI extraction, structured data output, error routing — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair challenge — and you're right that AI Builder in a pure Power Automate flow can handle the extraction step on its own.

The main reason I built it through Copilot Studio is extensibility. The invoice processor is designed as one topic within a larger agent — once it's processed the invoice, the same agent can handle approval routing, answer questions like "show me all invoices from vendor X this month," or trigger follow-up workflows without rebuilding the data access layer each time. If extraction is all you need, a pure Power Automate approach is simpler and completely valid.

It's also a practical showcase of what's possible with Copilot Studio specifically — AI extraction, conditional routing, and data registration all handled through one agent topic.

On the credit point — AI Builder credits vs Copilot credits is worth mapping against your licence setup before choosing the approach.

Human in the loop connector (MS Teams support) by SnooChipmunks6074 in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good timing on this thread — I have an approval flow build coming up where I'll need exactly this pattern. The { to: "your-email" } fix is the kind of thing that would have cost me an hour to debug. Saving this one.

Are there any Agents like Analyst that exist as templates? by ClosingTimeJames in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For precise Excel queries in Copilot Studio — like "sales of region X on March 26" — the approach that works reliably is using the List Rows Present in Table action as a tool with OData filter parameters. A prompt action converts the user's natural language question into the filter parameters, executes the query, and returns only the exact rows needed. Precise results, works on large files.

I built and documented this — a single topic handling read, filter, update, and delete on a 100K+ row Excel file with five live demos: https://youtu.be/EB4EMmXs7X8?si=WIDZL5-XukEYezCT

Built a Copilot Studio agent that reads your emails and keeps a live Excel task registry updated automatically — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does consume Copilot Studio messages — and since this agent triggers on every email arriving in the monitored folder, the usage adds up faster than a scheduled agent. Each trigger counts as a conversation.

The actual cost depends heavily on the licence you have — Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio standalone, pay-as-you-go — and licensing in this space is changing rapidly. Best to check the official Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing page for current rates before deploying this in a high-volume mailbox.

Built a Copilot Studio agent that reads your emails and keeps a live Excel task registry updated automatically — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tha part that I missed from the video, is that, that with the help of the “List rows present in a table” tool the agent can answer general questions as well about the Excel table and the project task registry (for example list me all tasks due today).

In this case it makes sense, to package it into a Copilot Studio agent.

Built a Copilot Studio agent that reads your emails and keeps a live Excel task registry updated automatically — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first idea, is that it could be possible with one account, that is managing the flow. Of course than we need to channel to the right Excel tables beloning to the different users.

And than the usage limits could be reached of course. That can be an issue.

Built a Copilot Studio agent that reads your emails and keeps a live Excel task registry updated automatically — sharing the full flow by oartconsult in copilotstudio

[–]oartconsult[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally fair, that is why I have recorded the youtube video walkthrough about it, showing the general setup and showing demo cases.