Microsoft Gives Copilot Studio Agents Their Own Accounts: A Mailbox and Entra Identity, Plus One Memory Shared by Every Colleague That Can't Be Opted Out of in Preview

Microsoft announced on October 15 that agent accounts, business process memory and triggers are rolling out to Copilot Studio through its Frontier preview program. According to Microsoft Learn, an agent with an account gets its own Microsoft Entra ID, mailbox, and presence in Teams and the directory; it can send and receive email and be @mentioned, and its actions are attributed to the agent. An incoming email or a schedule can start its work without anyone prompting it. These agents share one memory across everyone: what one person tells it, and summaries of files they share, may appear in its replies to other colleagues even if those people lack access to the originals, and the documentation says there is no opt-out during the preview. Makers need Microsoft 365 E5 with the Agent 365 add-on, or E7; the tenant must join Frontier, each agent uses one Microsoft 365 Frontier for AI Teammates license, and usage is billed separately in Copilot Credits. In preview, these agents cannot read documents with protective labels such as Confidential or Internal Only, and they do not respond to anyone outside the tenant.

The agent becomes a person in the directory

Jason Moore, vice president of product for Microsoft Copilot Studio, wrote on October 15 that three capabilities are rolling out through the Frontier preview program: agent accounts, business process memory and triggers. The Microsoft Learn documentation is more specific. Once an agent is given an account and published, it gets its own Microsoft Entra ID and mailbox and appears in Teams and the organization's directory. It can send and receive email, join distribution lists, and be @mentioned in comments in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with actions attributed to the agent rather than to its maker. With triggers from the GitHub Copilot harness, an incoming email or a fixed time such as Tuesday morning is enough to start it working.

One memory, shared by everyone

Memory is the part that needs the most attention. Regular Copilot Studio agent memory is kept separately for each user; an agent with an account has a single shared memory, even in one-to-one chats. The agent's People card carries this notice: "Any files or chats you share can be summarized and included in the agent's responses to any user, even users without permissions to the files or chats and regardless of sensitivity label." The documentation acknowledges that the agent is guided not to bring up one person's details with someone else, but says shared memory has no privacy boundary between users and there is no opt-out in this preview.

Requirements and billing

Makers need Microsoft 365 E5 with the Microsoft Agent 365 add-on, or E7. The environment must be on the early release cycle, and admins have to switch the feature on in both the Microsoft 365 admin center and the Power Platform admin center. A tenant enrolled in Frontier receives a pool of Microsoft 365 Frontier for AI Teammates licenses; each agent with an account takes one when published, and publishing fails if none are free. Building, testing and running agents is billed separately in Copilot Credits.

What the preview can't do yet

Agents with accounts cannot read documents protected with labels such as Confidential or Internal Only, do not respond to anyone outside the tenant, and cannot yet co-author existing documents, only create new ones. They also stay silent in email threads with more than 250 people. The agent's email address uses the maker's alias as a fixed prefix and cannot be changed after publishing. For teams planning to try it, deciding which material is fine for the whole group to share matters more than setting up triggers: once agent memory is shared across a team, "who told it what" becomes a permissions question.

via: Microsoft Copilot Blog: Delegate shared business processes to agents that are more persistent and proactive, Microsoft Learn: Give your agent an account (Frontier)