AI agents
Should we build our AI agent in Copilot Studio or have it custom built?
Last updated
Build the agent in Copilot Studio when it serves staff inside Microsoft 365, answers from SharePoint and approved knowledge, and calls a handful of systems through Power Platform connectors at moderate volume. Have it custom built when it must apply complex rules, write into ERPs such as Pronto Xi or SAP with full audit, serve customers or suppliers at high volume, or run on your own infrastructure. Many organisations combine both.
Who this is for
IT leads, Microsoft 365 and Power Platform owners, application managers and operations managers in Australian and New Zealand organisations with several sites, deciding where an AI agent for staff, customers or suppliers should be built. Typical agents answer procedure questions, triage requests, look up orders and jobs in Pronto Xi, Business Central, Dynamics 365 or simPRO, or draft records for a person to approve.
Solve8 works in fixed-fee phases: discovery on one process at one site with a measured baseline and a written recommendation, a shadow pilot on live work where your team sets the accuracy bar, a build into your systems on your infrastructure in Australia, then support or handover. A person approves what the agent produces. Workshops run on site and builds run remotely under your access controls.
What Copilot Studio covers today
Copilot Studio is Microsoft's low-code builder for agents. Agents publish to Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint, websites and mobile apps. They answer from up to 500 knowledge sources, including SharePoint, uploaded files, OneDrive, Dataverse, Salesforce and Confluence, and act through Power Platform connectors, custom connectors, MCP servers, HTTP requests, agent flows and event triggers. Admins govern these with Power Platform data policies that can require sign-in and block HTTP calls, channels or triggers.
Copilot Studio or custom: how to decide
| Question | Points to Copilot Studio | Points to a custom agent |
|---|---|---|
| Who talks to the agent? | Staff signed in with Microsoft 365 | Customers, suppliers or subcontractors in large numbers, or channels outside Microsoft |
| What does it mostly do? | Answers from SharePoint and approved documents, simple lookups and requests | Multi-step work that writes to the ERP, applies pricing or compliance rules and handles exceptions |
| Which systems does it touch? | Microsoft 365, Dataverse, Dynamics 365 and systems with a reliable connector | Pronto Xi, simPRO, SAP or older systems that need retries, queuing and reconciliation |
| Where must data and model calls stay? | Microsoft's Australian data location commitments meet your policy | Every prompt, document and log must stay in your own environment, with a model you choose |
| Who maintains it? | A Microsoft 365 or Power Platform team with a named owner | A development team or partner with source control, automated tests and release management |
Licensing model, without the price list
Copilot Studio is billed in Copilot Credits, which replaced messages as the unit on 1 September 2025. Credits come from prepaid pack subscriptions, pay-as-you-go billing linked to an environment and charged monthly for credits used, or a one-year prepurchase plan. Each response or action uses credits according to its complexity. Capacity is enforced monthly, unused credits do not carry over, and usage beyond capacity can lead to service denial.
To build agents, makers need one of the access options Microsoft lists, such as a Copilot Studio user licence (available once the organisation holds a prepaid Copilot Credit pack), the Copilot Studio authors role or a trial licence. For staff with Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, agent use in Copilot Chat, Teams or SharePoint for classic answers, generative answers and Microsoft Graph grounding is not charged when the agent runs under the user's own identity. Other activity is billed in credits, so run Microsoft's usage estimator and read the current Copilot Studio Licensing Guide before committing.
Limits to check before you commit
Generative quotas
Generative answers, tool calls and agent flow actions share a quota per environment: 50 requests a minute and 1,000 an hour with one to ten prepaid packs, and 100 a minute on pay-as-you-go. Users see a failure notice at the limit.
SharePoint knowledge
An agent using generative orchestration can draw on up to 25 SharePoint sites. Where the maker has no Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, generative answers only use SharePoint files under 7 MB.
Labelled files and spreadsheets
OneDrive and SharePoint files labelled confidential or highly confidential, or password protected, are not indexed. Agents cannot write and run code, so analytical questions over spreadsheets answer poorly.
Payloads and flows
Connector payloads are capped at 5 MB. Flows triggered by agents share 250,000 Power Platform requests a day across the organisation, and that figure does not rise with more packs.
Where the data sits
Microsoft stores Copilot Studio data for Australian environments in Australia East (New South Wales) and Australia Southeast (Victoria). Its listed exceptions include global services such as Microsoft Entra ID, external channels you configure, and conversation activity kept in the region of each user's Exchange mailbox. New Zealand is not listed, and Microsoft stores data for organisations in unlisted locations in the United States, so confirm your environment was created in the Australia region. If every prompt, document and log must stay in an environment you control, that points to a custom agent.
When a custom agent fits better
It writes into the ERP
Creating sales orders in Pronto Xi or supplier invoices in SAP needs validation, retries and a record of who approved each entry, which is easier to test in code.
Outside users at volume
Customer or supplier agents with heavy traffic can reach the generative quotas and use credits quickly. A custom agent's running cost follows the model calls you design.
Model and hosting choice
A custom agent can use the model that tests best on your own documents and run on your infrastructure in Australia.
Rules that vary by site or contract
Branch pricing, credit limits and compliance rules are easier to maintain in versioned code with automated tests.
Using both
A common pattern keeps Copilot Studio as the front door in Teams and puts the heavy work in one custom service that the agent calls through a custom connector or MCP server. That service reads documents, applies your rules, writes to Pronto Xi, Business Central or SAP, and keeps the audit log. IT governs one connection, and staff keep a familiar Microsoft 365 experience.
Related work
Power Platform or custom buildFor approval workflows and automation that do not need an agent.
Copilot readiness assessmentFix permissions and oversharing before agents read SharePoint.
AI agentsCustom agents that act across your ERP and field systems, with a person approving.
Connect AI to your CRM and ERPHow agents read from and write to business systems safely.
Sources
Microsoft Learn, Copilot Studio licensing: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing
Microsoft Learn, Copilot Studio quotas and limits: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-quotas
Microsoft Learn, Data locations in Copilot Studio: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/data-location
Microsoft Learn, Configure data policies for agents: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/admin-data-loss-prevention
Questions
Is Copilot Studio included with Microsoft 365 Copilot licences?
Partly. Staff with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence can use agents in Copilot Chat, Teams and SharePoint for classic answers, generative answers and Microsoft Graph grounding without charge when the agent runs under their own identity. Agents for unlicensed staff, customers or suppliers, and other billed activity, need Copilot Credits from packs, pay-as-you-go or a prepurchase plan.
Can a Copilot Studio agent create records in Pronto Xi, Business Central or SAP?
Yes, through a prebuilt connector, a custom connector or an MCP server. Systems without a prebuilt connector, such as Pronto Xi, usually need a custom connector to an integration service. Where the agent writes orders or invoices, put validation, approval and logging in that service so every record can be traced.
Does a Copilot Studio agent keep our data in Australia?
Microsoft stores Copilot Studio data for Australian environments in Australia East and Australia Southeast, with listed exceptions for support, global services, external channels you configure and conversation activity stored with each user's mailbox. Check your environment region, publishing channels and mailbox locations against your privacy policy and client contracts.
Can we start in Copilot Studio and move to a custom agent later?
Yes, if integration logic sits in a service the agent calls and the instructions, knowledge sources and test questions are documented. A later custom agent can reuse the same service and test set, so the move changes the front end only.
Who can build Copilot Studio or custom agents in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane?
Microsoft partners and Power Platform consultancies build Copilot Studio agents, and AI development firms build custom agents. Ask any provider to show a working agent that writes to a system like yours and explain how they measured its accuracy. Solve8 recommends and builds either across Australia and New Zealand, with workshops on site.
Related
- We bought Microsoft 365 Copilot licences. How do we make sure it doesn't show staff files they shouldn't see?Microsoft 365 Copilot only shows what staff can already open, so oversharing is a permissions fix. Reports, labels and Purview steps to run before rollout.
- Custom AI developmentAI that reads, checks and drafts the first pass.
- System integrationConnections between the systems you run.
- Private AI infrastructureAI that runs inside your own environment.
Choosing where your first agent should live?
A 30-minute review with a senior consultant. You leave with a written one-page summary you can share internally.
Fixed-fee phases, agreed before we start. Stop after any phase.