How to choose the right AI Agent for your SharePoint Intranet
AI agents can significantly enhance information discoverability and user experience in SharePoint-based intranets. However, choosing the right type of agent is not a one-size-fits-all decision—it depends on your intranet’s structure, content quality, and your organization’s technical capabilities. In this article, we’ll explore the different Copilot agent options, their benefits, and common pitfalls to avoid so that AI truly supports everyday information retrieval.
Why does an AI agent belong in a modern intranet?
A modern intranet is no longer just a static repository, it should be an active tool that supports employees in their daily work and accelerates information access. AI agents add a new dimension to the intranet: they understand natural language queries, consolidate fragmented content, and deliver direct answers—eliminating the need to click through multiple pages.
This significantly improves the user experience and saves time. AI can also recognize synonyms, understand context, and even process content written in different languages, making it especially valuable in multilingual organizations. When the role of the intranet changes from passive to active, the AI agent acts as its intelligent user interface.
💡 For example, instead of contacting HR, employees can ask an AI agent: “How do I report sick leave?” or “Am I eligible for a car benefit?” The agent responds instantly, based on instructions found on the intranet.
Six types of AI Agents – what’s the difference?
The right AI agent for your SharePoint intranet depends on your organization’s needs, technical maturity, and available licenses. Microsoft offers six different types of agents, each with its own strengths.
1. Copilot in Microsoft 365 Applications
Many users already have an M365 Copilot license, which finds information in addition to the content on the intranet. By default, Copilot prioritizes content you’ve interacted with (e.g., emails and Teams messages) over intranet pages. Therefore, it is important to ask Copilot to focus specifically on intranet sources each time in the prompt.
💡 Tip: You can also take advantage of Copilot’s personalization feature to make a note of, for example, “Prefer intranet sites with URLs that start with: https://ympäristönnimi.sharepoint.com/sites/intranet.” This way, the answers are always based on intranet content, but you can also override the rule with a new prompt if necessary.
Limitations: The prompts will be long if you don’t take advantage of personalization.
2. Built-in SharePoint agents SharePoint
You can embed these agents into SharePoint sites as dedicated buttons or web parts. They use the entire hub as their data source, which makes deployment simple: it is often enough to add a hub site to the agent. This works well for smaller intranets, but in large entities, the amount of data can exceed the agent’s processing capacity, which can lead to inaccurate responses.
Because the SharePoint agent operates within a specific site, you can define site-specific instructions to guide its behavior. You can also copy the agent to other sites and set it as the default to enable wider deployment.
💡 Tip: An excellent choice for small intranets or for the piloting phase before a larger solution. In addition, the instructions written for the SharePoint agent can be used later in Copilot Studio agents.
Limitations: On large intranets, the SharePoint agent may provide incorrect answers, such as referring to the home page instead of the article.
3. Knowledge Agent (currently in preview, coming to general availability in 2026)
The Knowledge Agent is integrated into the SharePoint agent menu and appears to replace the site-specific SharePoint agent if it hasn’t been customized before the Knowledge Agent becomes available. The Knowledge Agent has its own button in the bottom-right corner.
In testing, the Knowledge Agent has provided better answers than the SharePoint agent, but it cannot be personalized. Additionally, it only responds based on the site where the question is asked. The exception is the root site of a hub site, in which case the agent also responds based on the sites connected to the hub.
💡 Tip: The Knowledge Agent can perform actions related to content creation and management. We recommend it as a companion for content creators.
Limitations: The agent cannot be customized, nor can it always search across the entire hub site. Therefore, for searching information across the intranet, we recommend a customizable agent.
4. Copilot Studio Lite (lightweight agents)
Lightweight agents provide an easy way to create AI agents directly based on SharePoint sites. However, they don’t support the entire hub site as a source of information, and the official site limit is 100. You can’t embed light agents directly into SharePoint, but the Copilot integration in the Edge browser is available.
You can use light agents for medium-sized needs, such as edge integration, when you don’t require extensive customizability. They include fewer configuration options than full-fledged Copilot Studio agents, but can serve as a good intermediate step between the SharePoint agent and the broader solution. Personally, I prefer Copilot Studio agents if the SharePoint agent is not enough.
5. Copilot Studio agents Copilot
Studio agents offer a versatile and scalable alternative for leveraging AI on a SharePoint-based intranet. They can access multiple data sources, but each site must be added separately. This change was introduced in October 2025, so keep it in mind if you are updating older agents.
My colleague’s blog post “Guide to SharePoint Channel in Copilot Studio” provides good guidance on how to deploy. After you deploy the agent, you can place it prominently on the intranet and set it as the site’s default. You can also download its configuration file and copy it to other sites to support wider deployment.
💡 Tip: An excellent choice when most users have a Copilot license and want a SharePoint agent-like experience, but with better functionality, more configuration options, and scalability. In addition, it supports a pay-as-you-go model and messaging packages, allowing unlicensed users to take advantage of the agent.
6. Azure AI Foundry agent
This is the most advanced option, designed for complex and demanding use cases. You can connect the agent to rich data sources and Azure AI services to deliver highly accurate answers, even when the content is broad and decentralized. Pricing is based on resource usage, which can be more cost-effective than Copilot Studio’s pricing model – especially when many users don’t have an M365 Copilot license.
Implementation requires developer resources and technical expertise, so smaller organizations may prefer solutions that are easier to manage.
💡 Tip: Sulava is currently working on a package solution that would reduce the cost of building the Azure AI Foundry agent. If you are interested, please contact us at sales@sulava.com.
Security and compliance
Copilot solutions work across Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Azure, and follow the security and compliance controls that your organization already has in place. When handling sensitive information, you should take advantage of Microsoft sensitivity labels and related security features.
Copilot doesn’t fix everything
While AI agents improve data retrieval and user experience, they don’t replace good content management. Outdated, unpublished, or duplicate content can lead to incorrect responses.
Outdated content: Copilot doesn’t automatically detect that content is up to date, so outdated pages can affect responses. Prompts can limit responses to recently updated material, but strict filters may exclude relevant older sources.
Images without alt text: If you store content only in images without descriptive filenames or alt text (e.g., “DSC0011.jpg”), Copilot won’t be able to find or use it.Accessibility metadata is essential.
Duplicate content: Copilot doesn’t merge or filter duplicate content. If the same information appears in multiple sources, the agent may refer to one or more of them, sometimes even all of them, which can confuse the user. Unless you actively hide or remove older popular pages, the system may prioritize them over newer content.
The user of Copilot is the real pilot
AI isn’t perfect. Good content, clear instructions, and active testing are still key. The AI agent is a tool and the user is its pilot.
💡 Tip: Always test and use Copilot to write agent instructions!
Summary: Choosing the right agent
- Small intranet or quick test: Start with SharePoint agents to evaluate default prompts, sources, and instructions.
- Medium or large intranet with Copilot licenses: Use Copilot Studio agents as default agents on SharePoint sites.
- Large user base without M365 Copilot licenses: Consider Azure AI Foundry agents with resource-based pricing.
If you have any questions, we’re happy to help you choose the AI agent solution that best fits your organization’s needs!
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