Agents · Lesson 01 Pro ~11 min read Multi-source research

Researcher: the analyst on your team.

Researcher is one of two flagship named agents Microsoft shipped in Copilot Chat (the other is Analyst). It synthesizes information from your work data — emails, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive — alongside the web, and produces full reports. Think Deep Research, but with access to your company's context.

Workflow 01 Internal-aware competitive analysis

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Use Researcher to pull from your work data + the web

The killer Researcher pattern: ask a question that requires both external context and your internal knowledge.

The prompt that works

Hybrid researchRun a competitive analysis on [Competitor X] for our upcoming customer meeting. Use both web sources and our internal data: From the web: their public positioning, pricing (if listed), product changes in the last 6 months, analyst coverage, recent funding or layoffs. From our SharePoint and Teams: any sales notes mentioning them in the last 90 days, the competitive battlecard from product marketing, any customer feedback comparing us to them. Produce a structured report: - Their current positioning vs. ours - Top 3 strengths they have (from web + customer feedback) - Top 3 weaknesses we can lean into - 3 concrete talking points for the customer meeting Cite every internal source by document name and last-modified date.

Best use cases

  • Competitive analysis for sales conversations
  • Market research informed by your CRM
  • Strategy memos blending internal data + external context
  • Prep for executive briefings
Researcher can only see what your M365 permissions allow. If a SharePoint site is restricted, Researcher can't read it — that's correct behavior, but means some sources may be invisible.
Time savings: A real competitive analysis: 4-6 hours analyst time → 20 min Researcher + review.

Workflow 02 Long-form internal report production

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Quarterly business review draft, generated from your data

Researcher excels at multi-document synthesis. When you need to pull together a coherent narrative from scattered sources, it's the right tool.

The prompt that works

QBR draftDraft our Q1 business review for the leadership team. Pull from: - Our Q1 financials in SharePoint (file: Q1-2026-Financials.xlsx) - Sales pipeline reports in our 'Sales Ops' team site - Customer success quarterly review in 'CS Team' site - Engineering velocity metrics from our 'Eng Ops' Teams channel - Our written Q1 strategy doc from leadership SharePoint Structure the report: - Executive summary (1 page) - Financial performance vs. plan - Sales: pipeline, wins, losses - Customer outcomes: NPS, churn, success stories - Engineering progress vs. roadmap - Strategic risks identified this quarter Match the voice of last quarter's review (also in SharePoint, file: Q4-2025-Review.docx).

Best use cases

  • Quarterly or monthly business reviews
  • Board reports drafted from data sources
  • All-hands prep covering multiple functions
  • Investor updates pulled from your real data
Researcher's output is a draft. Always review numbers manually — if it misread a cell label in your financials, the wrong number flows through the whole report.
Time savings: QBR draft: 1-2 days of work → 1-2 hours including human review.

Workflow 03 Decision-support research

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A specific question, all relevant sources

Sometimes you need an answer informed by context, not a research report. Researcher in 'specific question' mode is fast and concrete.

The prompt that works

Decision supportShould we approve the budget request from Marketing for the conference sponsorship? Pull from: - The request itself (email from [name], date [date]) - Our last 4 quarters of marketing spend ROI data - Past conference sponsorships and outcomes (in SharePoint marketing folder) - Industry benchmarks for B2B conference sponsorship ROI Don't tell me yes/no — give me: - The 3 strongest reasons in favor - The 3 strongest reasons against - The 1 data point that should drive the decision - 2 questions to ask Marketing before approving

Best use cases

  • Budget approval prep
  • Vendor selection support
  • Hiring decision context
  • Go/no-go on strategic projects
Researcher will respect a 'don't tell me yes/no' instruction. If you want a recommendation, ask for one explicitly.
Time savings: Decision context gathering: 30-60 min → 5 min.
Researcher access

Generally available in Microsoft 365 Copilot as of June 2025. Requires a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license. Available in Copilot Chat — invoke by selecting 'Researcher' from the agent picker or by prompting with research-focused phrasing.

Run one Researcher task that uses both internal + external sources

Pick a real decision or report you owe someone this week. Frame it as a Researcher prompt that requires both your company's data AND web context. Compare the time and quality to what you'd produce manually.

Back to Copilot Mastery → Try a prompt in the playground →

What you can do now

  • Use Researcher for tasks needing both internal + external context
  • Cite internal sources by name so you can verify
  • Always review numbers from financial or data sources manually
  • Frame multi-document syntheses as structured reports, not vague asks
  • Know that permission boundaries are enforced — some sources invisible to it
Pro
Up next in Copilot Mastery

Lesson 02 · Analyst — turn data into insight

Analyst is Researcher's sibling agent — focused on quantitative work. Excel-heavy analysis, charts, statistical insight, all from natural language prompts. See the track →