Building AI Agents and Extending Copilot for 365

As AI transforms how we work, the ability to customize conversational assistants is becoming a critical skill. This text-based course guides you through the foundational concepts of building custom AI agents and extending Copilot for 365 to fit your organization's unique needs. You will start with core definitions of generative AI, large language models, and agentic architecture before moving on to practical extension techniques. By the end of this course, you will understand how to connect external data sources, design plugins, and build autonomous agents that streamline daily business tasks. What you'll learn: 1. Learn the foundational architecture of AI agents and how they interact with users and external systems. 2. Understand how to extend Copilot for 365 using plugins, connectors, and declarative agents. 3. Configure secure API connections to integrate custom business data into your AI workflows. 4. Apply modern design patterns to ensure your AI agents respond accurately and safely. 5. Practice designing effective prompts and grounding techniques to improve response quality. 6. Explore retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) concepts to connect your agents to live databases. The curriculum begins with essential terminology and foundational AI concepts, ensuring a solid starting point. From there, you will read through step-by-step conceptual walkthroughs and code-based examples to learn how to plan, build, and deploy your custom extensions. This course is designed for beginner developers, IT professionals, and tech-savvy business analysts who want to customize AI tools without needing advanced machine learning backgrounds. No prior experience with AI development is required. Start reading today to unlock the potential of custom AI agents in your daily workflow.