A recent IDC study revealed that companies using generative AI are averaging 3.7x return on investment (ROI) for every $1 spent.* The Business Opportunity of AI study, which was commissioned by Microsoft, also found that in the next 24 months, more companies expect to build custom AI solutions, including AI agents. These findings underscore the importance of investing in AI now—to reap the ROI, stay ahead of industry trends, and meet the increasing customer demand for advanced AI.
Partners who provide software, also known as independent software vendors (ISVs), can jump-start their AI initiatives by developing agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, with help from our development resources. I’ll illustrate this through the example of Solutions2Share, a Microsoft Solutions Partner in Digital & App Innovation.
Building the Teams Manager agent with the Copilot stack streamlined development
Solutions2Share, based in Germany, develops apps for the governance and management of Microsoft 365 products. It has hundreds of enterprise customers across Europe that rely on Microsoft for digital collaboration tools.
Given their strategic alignment with Microsoft, Solutions2Share quickly embraced Copilot and aimed to help their customers use it successfully. They decided to start by building a declarative agent, which runs on the Copilot engine, so they could take advantage of its built-in orchestrator and large language models (LLMs). Read my blog from Microsoft Ignite for more information on declarative agents and custom engine agents (in private preview) as well as guidance on when to build each one.
For Solutions2Share, building on the Copilot stack streamlined the development process.
"You don’t have to oversee all the technical details when you're not responsible for the LLM, and that saves crucial resources,” said Bastian John, Chief Technology Officer with Solutions2Share. “You can just trust the Copilot framework and concentrate on refining your business logic and use cases."
They began development by using message extensions in their premier app, Teams Manager, which helps enterprises control their Microsoft Teams environments with lifecycle management, governance, templates, and more. By building with existing message extensions, Solutions2Share was able to publish the Teams Manager agent quickly and easily. It’s now available on AppSource.
The agent enables employees to use natural language and metadata to ask Copilot to find specific Teams channels, which they can then easily share with colleagues. It’s a simple, valuable use case that saves time for employees, allowing them to stay in the flow of work because Copilot is available to handle these requests across Microsoft 365 apps. This collaboration between employees and the Teams Manager agent can also help reduce support requests for IT staff, freeing them to focus on higher-value work.
Now that Solutions2Share has successfully published the agent, they’re working to add new, advanced capabilities using Teams AI library. In the next release, scheduled to be available at the end of February, users can ask Copilot to create a Teams channel, and the agent will pull in the appropriate information, template, and project members.
Microsoft 365 Certification helps Solutions2Share meet market demands
Security is a critical factor for Solutions2Share. Many European enterprises want to ensure that a product’s security, privacy, and data protection features meet regulatory requirements before they consider any other capabilities, especially with newer technology like AI. Microsoft helps partners overcome these concerns with robust safeguards regarding AI features. For example, Microsoft 365 Copilot complies with our existing privacy, security, and compliance commitments, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and European Union Data Boundary.
Solutions2Share went a step further to get Microsoft 365 Certification for Teams Manager. Not only does this support Solutions2Share’s journey to align their agent with current international security, compliance, and data handling requirements, but it also builds customers’ confidence in the agent.
“It’s very powerful for us to say, ‘Microsoft certified that Teams Manager meets these rigorous standards, so you can trust it,’” said Bastian John. “That’s a huge step in the customer’s journey.”
Potential customers can use filters in AppSource and the Teams store to only show apps and agents with Microsoft 365 Certification, which helps build trust with admins as well.
Solutions2Share boosts adoption of the agent using best practices
Once an agent is published to the Microsoft commercial marketplace, it’s important to show customers the value it can deliver. Solutions2Share encourages adoption of Teams Manager partly through a proactive customer success program, in which they hold regular calls with their clients to update them on apps and new releases.
On these calls, they introduce the agent, explain what it can do, and demo the features. They conduct these live demos in the client’s environment, so it’s a real-world, customer-centric view of how the agent can be invoked from Microsoft 365 apps and how it draws on their organizational knowledge. Solutions2Share also uses these sessions to highlight the productivity gains customers will see from adopting Copilot, knowing that enterprises are much more likely to use the Teams Manager agent if they’re incorporating Copilot into their everyday habits.
“AI technology is completely transforming work,” Bastian John said. “It's important to implement it into our daily routine with Copilot, and into the daily routine of our customers, and then we can tap the new markets that will open up.”
For other ISV partners considering building AI agents, Solutions2Share recommends focusing on your core customer profile and crafting your use cases around the problems that would be best solved with the extra capabilities from extending Copilot. Beyond that, their advice is simple: dive in and just start building.
The Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program provides ISVs with tools, resources, and support to build and deploy AI agents effectively. Key benefits include Azure credits, technical training, the ISV Success program, and access to AI services like Azure AI Services and Microsoft Copilot Studio. Partners also gain go-to-market support, co-sell readiness assistance, and funding opportunities to accelerate innovation. Additionally, the program fosters collaboration through a vibrant partner ecosystem, technical consulting, and exclusive events to help ISVs succeed in the AI-driven marketplace. Read our latest ISV news to stay in the loop on upcoming changes and take full advantage of our programs and resources.
Learn more about Solutions2Share, Teams Manager, and agents in Copilot
For more information about Copilot and Solutions2Share, follow the links below.
*IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024