Microsoft’s New ‘App Builder’ Agent: No-Code App Creation Comes to Copilot

An "App Builder" agent is coming to the Frontier Program for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users.

This new agent promises to build no-code apps based on natural language prompts that can be "shared like documents" and used within the context of Microsoft 365 Copilot.

These apps will store their data in SharePoint with a site provisioned per app and will support no external data connections. According to a separate screenshot shared in a message center, under a new "Inventory" view these apps will be distinct from Canvas and Model-driven apps and be listed as "App Builder" apps. To understand these differences, and this data approach (which stands apart from what we might think of as Power Apps best practices) some exploration will be needed.

There's an important balance here that must be reached, both with this agent and others like the new Workflows Agent. Putting appropriate capabilities in the hands of non-technical users for traditional automation or app creation alongside AI agents makes sense; this democratization of creation has long been a goal of Power Platform. But does AI-based building lead to more value or just more things that need to be managed?

It shouldn't go without mentioning that one of the example prompts shown, "Build an app that can track team tasks, project milestones, and updates", sounds an awful lot like a request to build Microsoft Planner. I suspect the agent would just go ahead and try to build something that is objectively less capable. But in the AI age, the "right" answer should be to consider the request holistically and help that user explore the services already available in Microsoft 365. A future ideal state for this type of tool would likely bridge those different lanes to ensure the option to build is only considered after the option to use what is already available.

Rollout of this new agent is starting today for Frontier Program enabled tenants based in the United States. It will be available for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users.

First posted on Linkedin on 10/28/2025 -> View Linkedin post here