Researcher in Copilot: It's Not Just for Research

The name "Researcher" might be a little misleading when it comes to the Researcher Agent. There are lots of things it's actually very good at where you wouldn't necessarily look at the process as pure research.

For example, if you're a consultant, like me, who bills clients based on time, Researcher can be really good at looking at your logs of billable time and finding work that might have been missed. Its access to your Microsoft 365 content, including your calendar, emails, chats, and meetings, allows it to thoroughly review a wide range of activities and highlight inaccuracies, inconsistencies, or just missed items.

This is the true power of layering AI on top of contextual data; little of what I do is pure "research" where even the smartest PhD researcher armed with Google would find what I need, as they require specific work content to understand the context. Microsoft 365 Copilot bakes in that context because it's the AI that is built from the ground up with access to all your work.

More often than worrying about how smart Researcher is, what's of more consequence is how much effort it's going to expend to get a good answer. My busywork doesn't require a PhD, it requires data access and effort, and if you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, Researcher is the place to go for that!

First posted on Linkedin on 07/10/2025 -> Click here to view post