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Efficient automation is crucial for modern businesses aiming to improve productivity and maintain consistency. Microsoft Copilot Studio’s Agent Flows feature introduces structured, rule-based workflows that enable AI agents to perform repetitive tasks with precision and reliability.

Understanding Agent Flows

Agent Flows are deterministic sequences of actions that AI agents follow to execute tasks. Unlike dynamic agents that adapt in real-time, Agent Flows provide a predefined path, ensuring consistent outcomes for routine processes.​

Key Benefits

• Predictable Execution: With predefined steps, Agent Flows ensure that tasks are performed consistently, reducing errors and variability.​
• Ease of Creation: Users can build Agent Flows using natural language instructions or a visual designer, making automation accessible to non-developers.
• Integration with AI Actions: Agent Flows can incorporate AI capabilities, such as intelligent document processing and decision-making, enhancing their functionality.

Practical Applications

Agent Flows are ideal for automating structured, repetitive tasks across various domains:​

• Invoice Processing: Automatically extract data from invoices, validate entries, and route them for approval.​
• Customer Feedback Management: Direct feedback to appropriate teams based on predefined criteria, ensuring timely responses.​
• Compliance Checks: Enforce regulatory procedures by guiding processes through established compliance workflows.​

Building Agent Flows

To create an Agent Flow in Copilot Studio:​

1. Choose between natural language input or the visual designer to outline your workflow.
2. Define triggers that initiate the flow, such as receiving an email or a scheduled time.​
3. Specify the sequence of actions, incorporating conditions and loops as needed.​
4. Integrate AI actions to enhance the flow’s capabilities.​

By implementing Agent Flows, businesses can achieve greater efficiency, reduce manual workload, and ensure consistency in their operations.

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations require AI solutions that can handle complex tasks with precision and insight. Microsoft Copilot Studio’s Deep Reasoning feature empowers AI agents to perform advanced analytical tasks, bringing human-like reasoning capabilities to your automated workflows.

What is Deep Reasoning?

Deep Reasoning integrates advanced reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o1, with your enterprise data to enhance the analytical capabilities of AI agents. This fusion allows agents to process complex information, discern patterns, and make informed decisions, much like a seasoned professional.​

Key Features

• Instruction Analysis: Agents assess the complexity of tasks by analyzing instructions and input data, identifying ambiguities or multifaceted requirements.
• Contextual Understanding: By considering the broader context, agents determine when tasks exceed the capabilities of standard models and require advanced reasoning.​
• Dynamic Decision-Making: An orchestrator within Copilot Studio decides when to invoke deep reasoning, ensuring optimal performance without manual intervention.​

Real-World Applications

Deep Reasoning opens new avenues for automation in various industries:​

• Supply Chain Optimization: Agents can analyze global market trends and internal data to forecast demand and optimize logistics.​
• Request for Proposal (RFP) Generation: By understanding client requirements and historical data, agents can craft comprehensive, tailored proposals efficiently.
• Legal Document Review: Agents can scrutinize contracts to identify potential risks and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

How Does Deep Reasoning Work?

Unlike default models, Deep Reasoning isn’t automatically applied to all tasks. To utilize it, include the keyword reason in the agent’s instructions for specific tasks or steps. For instance:​

1. Parse the request body to identify: Location (e.g., Arizona) and services requested (e.g., cleaning, landscaping, maintenance).
2. Use Get suppliers from ERP flow to retrieve internal supplier data.
3. Search your internal knowledge base for information on suppliers’ capacity, location, and performance.
4. Run a web search flow and extract market share, revenue, rank, and other relevant information from all suppliers.
5. Using the data, use reason to provide one top recommendation to the user request along with the relevant context.​

By specifying reason, the agent invokes the deep reasoning model for that particular step, ensuring a thorough and nuanced response.​

Seamless Integration

Deep Reasoning operates transparently within Copilot Studio. Developers can also explicitly control its activation by including the keyword “Reason” in agent-building instructions, providing flexibility and precision in agent behavior.​

Enabling Deep Reasoning in Copilot Studio

To activate Deep Reasoning for your agents:

1. Open your agent in Copilot Studio.
2. Navigate to Settings.
3. Select the Generative AI tab.
4. Enable Generative mode if it’s not already active.
5. Toggle on Use deep reasoning models.​

Note: Deep Reasoning is currently supported in the US and EU (excluding the UK) regions as of 04-21-2025

Practical Applications

Deep Reasoning enhances various business processes, including:​

• Market Analysis: Evaluating trends to recommend optimal investment opportunities.
• Inventory Management: Analyzing demand patterns to suggest effective inventory strategies.
• Legal Review: Comparing complex documents to identify discrepancies and ensure compliance.​

Monitoring and Optimization

Copilot Studio provides an Activity page where you can trace when and how your agent utilizes Deep Reasoning. The activity map displays nodes indicating the use of deep reasoning, allowing you to review the reasoning steps and outcomes for continuous improvement.​

Considerations

• Performance: Deep Reasoning may result in longer response times due to its comprehensive analysis.
• Targeted Use: Apply Deep Reasoning to tasks that truly benefit from in-depth reasoning to maintain efficiency.​

Conclusion

Integrating Deep Reasoning into your AI agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio enables your organization to automate complex tasks with greater accuracy and insight. By harnessing advanced reasoning capabilities, your agents can deliver more informed and contextually relevant responses, driving better business outcomes.