This demo showcases features currently in public preview, including Windows 365 for Agents and Computer Use in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Preview features are subject to change and may not reflect the final generally available experience.

The future of enterprise automation isn’t just about building smarter agents, it’s about enabling you to do more with agents, across more of the organization, directly within environments companies already rely on. This means AI agents need access to enterprise applications, not just APIs. Nearly every organization has work that falls outside the reach of APIs. Legacy systems, internal web apps, and line-of-business tools built before the age of AI integration represent a notable portion of where work happens. Windows 365 for Agents closes that gap by giving AI agents their own secure, managed Cloud PCs to run on - allowing intelligent automation to run across any application with a user interface. Windows 365 for Agents doesn't ask IT to choose between capability and control - the agent runs on Entra-joined, Intune-enrolled Cloud PCs governed by the same Zero Trust policies that protect every human user in the organization.

Windows 365 for Agents is the execution platform behind some of Microsoft's most advanced AI initiatives and partner solutions.

• It powers agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio computer use — Microsoft's toolkit for building custom AI agents that automate web and desktop tasks using natural language, with no machine setup required.
• It is embedded in Project Opal in Microsoft 365 Copilot, which uses Windows 365 for Agents to complete work tasks securely and intelligently on users' behalf.
• Researcher with Computer Use in Microsoft 365 Copilot enables automated website navigation with real-time visualization.
• For developers who need full programmatic control, the Windows 365 for Agents API combined with the Microsoft Agent 365 SDK provides a pro-code path — the API handles Cloud PC pool session management and MCP-based desktop automation, while the SDK wraps the agent with enterprise identity, governed M365 data access, and OpenTelemetry observability. This combination supports any agent framework including Semantic Kernel, LangChain, OpenAI Agents SDK, and Anthropic Claude.

This interactive demo focuses on building and deploying a computer-using Agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio with a concrete, familiar scenario: automating expense report submission against Contoso's legacy expense reporting system - a UI-driven, API-incomplete environment that typifies the long tail of enterprise software. You'll see the full lifecycle of a Windows 365 for Agents deployment as you build, test and publish your agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio and Agent 365.

Select exercise 1 to begin.

Microsoft Copilot Studio is the recommended no-code and low-code platform for building and deploying agents that use Computer Use. It provides a guided authoring experience where agent instructions are written in plain natural language, tools are configured through a visual interface, and Cloud PC pools are provisioned and connected without writing any code. For organizations and developers who need deeper programmatic control, Microsoft also offers the Windows 365 for Agents API and the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK — a pro-code path that provides direct access to the same underlying compute infrastructure. In this exercise you will use Copilot Studio, which is the fastest and most accessible path to a production-ready agent.

The agent you will build automates expense report submission against Contoso's legacy expense reporting web application: a UI-driven system with no comprehensive API surface. The agent is designed as two cooperating components. The parent agent handles the conversational layer: it greets the employee, accepts uploaded receipts, extracts structured expense data from each one using vision and reasoning capabilities, resolves any ambiguities with the user, and collects the report header information needed to file the report. Once all data is confirmed, the parent agent invokes the Computer Use tool, which takes over and navigates Contoso's expense website directly — filling in the report header, entering each expense line item through the application's modal interface, certifying the report, and pausing for the employee's final review before submission. This two-component design keeps the conversational experience clean and focused while giving the Computer Use tool a precise, well-scoped set of instructions for reliable execution.

Starting in Microsoft Copilot Studio, signed in as admin@contoso.com, select Agents in the left navigation.

Select Create blank agent (in the top right corner of Copilot Studio).

Click on the Enter agent name field to simulate typing Contoso Expense Reporting Agent and then click Create.

Start by providing a custom icon for your agent. Select Edit in the Details section and then select Change icon.

On the Change icon dialog, click Change icon.

Click to select the icon file (contoso_expense_agent_icon.png) in the picker and then select Open.

Click Save on the Change icon dialog.

Under Select your agent's model, click to expand the menu and review the available options. Copilot Studio supports models from both OpenAI and Anthropic, giving you flexibility to choose.

For this demo, you will be using Claude Sonnet 4.6, so click the menu again to collapse it.

In Copilot Studio, agent behavior is defined with natural language — no code is required. The instructions you write become the system prompt that governs how the agent reasons, what steps it follows, and how it handles edge cases and user input. Clear, step-by-step instructions with explicit context about identity, goals, and constraints are the most effective approach. Next, you will specify the natural language instructions for the parent agent.

Start by clicking the Edit button in the Instructions section.

Click in the Instructions text field to simulate typing your instructions. This is where you specify (in natural language) context about agent identity and steps for the agent to perform — in this case interacting with the user to gather receipts, extract key information (consulting the user as needed), and then invoke the computer use tool we'll create next to file an expense report using Contoso's expense reporting website.

Click Save to save your instructions.

Click on the scroll bar in the Agent overview tab to scroll down.

In the Tools section, click the Add tool button.

Under Create New, select Computer use (preview).

Computer use is a tool in Copilot Studio (currently in preview) that lets your agent interact with and automate tasks on a Windows computer. It works with websites and desktop apps by selecting buttons, choosing menus, and entering text into fields on the screen. Describe in natural language what you want computer use to do, and it performs the task on a computer you set up by using a virtual mouse and keyboard. With computer use, agents can complete tasks even when there's no API to connect directly to the system. If a person can use an app or website, computer use can too. You can use computer use for tasks like automated data entry, invoice processing, and data extraction.

Recall that the responsibilities of acquiring and processing receipts and entering the data from those receipts into the expense reporting web app are partitioned between our parent agent and Computer Use tool.

Click in the Instructions field to simulate typing our Computer Use tool instructions — which will dictate the input to expect from the parent agent and instructions on how to enter that data into the web application, soliciting input/approval from the user as needed.

Click Add and configure to continue.

Select the Name field to simulate typing Computer use – Contoso Expense Reporting.

Select the Description field to type Accepts expense report data as input and uses Contoso's expense reporting web app to enter and submit the report.

Click the vertical scroll bar to scroll down to the Machines section.

The Machines section determines where computer use executes. Copilot Studio supports three options, each suited to different requirements. For full details see the Microsoft Learn article Configure where computer use runs.

Select the dropdown menu next to Machine to review the available options

You have the option to run computer use on a managed browser, Cloud PC pool, or Bring your own machine.:

• Managed Browser - The managed browser lets you get started quickly without any machine setup, providing web automation using Microsoft Edge. applications, but is not Entra-joined or Intune-managed.
• Cloud PC pools are powered by Windows 365 for Agents – which supplies scalable, secure, compute resources for Computer using agents. Cloud PCs are Entra joined and Intune enrolled – enabling full governance and compliance.
• Bring-your-own-machine lets you use Windows machines that you own and manage. You own and manage machines in Power Automate.

Contoso will choose to run Computer use on a Cloud PC pool. Select Cloud PC pool from the dropdown menu.

When choosing to run computer use on a Cloud PC pool, you have the option of quickly provisioning a new pool using Microsoft Copilot Studio or choosing an existing Cloud PC pool. The prerequisites for Cloud PC pool provisioning and usage are outlined in the Microsoft article Use Cloud PC pool for computer use runs.

Contoso already has a Cloud PC pool provisioned for Computer Use so we will use that. Select Cloud PC pool – Computer Use.

Connection specifies the connection that will be used for this tool to connect to the Cloud PC pool. You can use an existing connection or create a new connection to change the credentials used. In this case, you will use the service account connection that has already been created for this pool and also keep the default of Maker-provided credentials.

Click the vertical scroll bar to scroll down.

Human supervision is where you specify who should be contacted via email (Outlook) if the computer-use agent detects potentially harmful instructions that could alter model behavior. For this demo — we will leave the default of admin@contoso.com.

Access control: By default, computer use can operate on any website or application. If you want to restrict this access, enable access control to define the specific URLs and desktop applications that computer use should be limited to. You can configure both websites and applications. Note that access control prevents the model from taking actions on sites or apps not in the allow list, but does not prevent navigation to them — for stricter web access restrictions, combine access control with browser policy settings managed through Intune. Contoso wants to limit agent actions to only the resources necessary to complete its task — namely Microsoft Edge and the corporate expense reporting web app.

Next to Access control — set the toggle to Only allow specific websites and desktop apps.

Click the Add button in the Allowed websites and desktop apps section.

Select the text field to type the URL for the expense reporting website: https://expenses.contoso.com and then click Add.

Copilot Studio will add both the URL to the expense website and Microsoft Edge. Confirm both are now on the allow list and then select Save (in the upper right of the computer use tool authoring surface) to save your Computer Use tool.

Once the Computer Use — Contoso Expense Reporting tool has been successfully saved, we'll return to the parent agent to test and then publish your agent.

Select the Overview tab in the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent header to continue and test your agent.

Testing computer use is a key step in the authoring journey. Copilot Studio's built-in test experience is the recommended environment for validating agent behavior before publishing. When you launch a test from the computer use tool's configuration page, the left panel displays your instructions alongside a live step-by-step log of the tool's reasoning and every action it takes. The right panel shows a real-time preview of the machine the agent is interacting with, so you can watch computer use navigate the application exactly as it would in production. This combination of reasoning transparency and visual playback makes it straightforward to identify and fix issues with instructions before the agent reaches end users.

The test experience also showcases one of the most important properties of computer use: because it is powered by an AI model with vision capabilities, it adapts to interface changes rather than relying on brittle element selectors or scripts. When a button moves or a screen layout changes, the agent continues working. After a successful test run, the full session — including timestamped screenshots, action logs, and the agent's reasoning at each step — is available in the Activity view, providing an audit trail that compliance and operations teams can review on demand.

Now that you've added computer use to our Expense Reporting Agent you are ready to test it out prior to publishing it more broadly to the organization. Select Test to begin.

Our agent has started the conversation by asking for receipts as we expect. Click in the chat message field to type File an expense report for Adele Vance's trip to San Francisco for the TechConnect Summit with the attached receipts, then click the paperclip (attachment) button to choose the receipts.

Click on any of the receipts in the file picker to select all 3 and then select Open.

Verify the receipts have been uploaded and then click the send button or press Enter.

One critical agent capability is the ability to function with a human in the loop when needed to attain security, quality and accuracy in execution. Our agent instructions require human-in-the-loop interaction to resolve higher degrees of uncertainty in processing receipts. Specifically, before proceeding, the agent will identify any receipts where:

• It is unable to determine the value for a required field
• The business purpose is unclear (e.g. personal vs. business item)
• The category is genuinely ambiguous

The agent will ask the user one clear question per ambiguous item and wait for a response before moving to the next. In this case, the agent has detected that the restaurant receipt includes multiple meals and drinks and has asked for more information about the attendees.

Select the chat message field to type Megan Bowen and Allan Deyoung also attended for a Team dinner and then click Send or press Enter.

The Expense Report Agent is almost ready to invoke computer use to enter the expense report data into Contoso's website — review the summary and suggested values, then click in the chat message field to type Use Partner Conference and then click Send (or press Enter) to confirm the cost center and continue.

The Expense Report Agent has now invoked Computer Use (ExecuteCUA) and informed you in chat that "Computer use will begin as soon as a computer is available" as the agent checks out and connects to a Cloud PC in the allocated pool.

When the Cloud PC is running and ready, the agent will again notify you in chat, where you will also see a screenshot taken of the Windows 365 Cloud PC computer use will run on.

Computer use has now checked out a Cloud PC from the pool and will proceed to open Microsoft Edge, navigate to the Contoso expense reporting website, and begin entering the report. It will fill in the report header fields: title, business purpose, project code, and trip dates. It will then work through each expense line item by opening the Add Expense modal, entering the date, category, merchant, amount, and receipt information, and saving each line before moving to the next. Watch the agent's reasoning log and the live machine preview as it works through the form. When all line items have been entered, computer use will scroll to the certification section, check the certification checkbox, verify the total, and pause to return control to you for final review before submitting.

When the agent is ready to submit the expense report, you will be prompted to review the amount and approve. Click in the chat message area to type submit and then click send (or press Enter).

Your expense reporting agent has successfully submitted an expense report. Before we continue — take note of the detailed audit trail of steps taken by the agent and its underlying reasoning (both in the chat history and in the ExecuteCUA panel Session Replay and Activity logs).

Click on the screenshot of the expense report website under Session Replay to briefly review the sequence of actions taken by computer use.

You are looking at frame 41/82 in the session replay — just as the agent is starting to add the second expense line for the car rental.

As the session replay progresses — actions/click targets are overlaid with a red cross, giving you a sense of how computer use navigates and interacts with Contoso's legacy expense reporting website.

Click on the X to close the Session replay panel.

You have completed testing your agent and are ready to publish it.

Click anywhere on the screen to continue with the interactive demo.

You have completed Exercise 1.

Select Exercise 2 to continue.

Publishing a Copilot Studio agent to your organization involves two distinct layers. The first is the channel layer: in Copilot Studio you connect the agent to Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot, making it available as a bot that users can interact with in Copilot. The second is the organizational catalog layer: by submitting the agent for approval through Agent 365, you enter a governed publishing workflow where an IT administrator reviews the agent's data access, permissions, and capabilities before approving it for inclusion in the Teams app store under the Built by your org section. This approval gate is intentional — it ensures that every agent available to your organization has been explicitly reviewed and approved, with governance policies applied at the point of publication rather than after the fact.

In Copilot Studio — begin by clicking the Publish button in the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent header.

On the Publish this agent dialog, select the checkbox to Force newest version and then click Publish.

Now that you've taken the initial publish step, let's review the channels where it will be available. Select the Channels tab to continue.

Under Microsoft Channels, select Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.

Verify that the checkbox is selected to Make agent available in Microsoft 365 Copilot and then select Add channel.

Adding the Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot channel makes the agent available for direct interaction in both surfaces. However, the agent will not appear in the Teams app store or the Agent 365 registry until the separate organizational catalog submission and admin approval steps that follow are completed.

Now that you've added Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot — select Availability options under Agent preview to ensure the agent is registered with Agent 365 and available in the app store within Teams.

Under Show in the store, select Show to everyone in my org.

Review the text in the Show in Teams app store for org dialog — noting that the Expense Reporting Agent will feature prominently in the Built by your org section of the Teams app store after approval in Agent 365.

Select Submit to org catalog.

Review the text of the Give everyone access to this agent? dialog and click Yes.

The request has now been submitted. Click anywhere on the screen to switch to the Microsoft 365 admin center, where you will review and approve the request.

Review and Approve Agent in Agent 365

Select Agents > All agents in the left navigation of the Microsoft 365 admin center.

On the All agents page, select the Requests tab.

Select Contoso Expense Reporting Agent on the Requests tab.

On the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent panel, you can review more context on Data & tools, Security and Permissions associated with the agent prior to approval.

For this demo — select Publish to store.

Expense reporting is a fairly universal need at Contoso, so you will be making the agent available to the entire organization in Teams (but not pre-installing it). Under Select users or groups who can install the agent select All.

Under Select users or groups who will have the agent pre-installed select None, and then click Next.

The Apply Template panel is where IT administrators enforce governance policies on the agent at the point of publication. Microsoft's default security template is pre-selected and locked — it applies a baseline set of protections to every agent approved through this workflow. Administrators can then layer additional custom policies on top of the defaults by selecting them here. These policies are applied to the agent's Entra Agent ID and govern the conditions under which the agent can acquire tokens and access organizational resources — the same Conditional Access framework that governs human user identities. Policies configured here take effect immediately upon publication and apply wherever the agent runs.

In this case, Contoso has already defined a Conditional Access policy to block high-risk agents. Select the checkbox next to Conditional Access.

Verify the default selection: 'High Risk Agent Control' — this policy uses Entra ID Protection signals to automatically block any agent identity assessed as high risk from acquiring tokens and accessing organizational resources. Microsoft recommends pairing this with a second policy scoped to approved agents using custom security attributes, so that only explicitly approved agent identities are permitted to run. For reference, see the Conditional Access for Agent ID documentation on Microsoft Learn. Then click Next.

Select Continue without saving and then click Continue.

On the Review permissions panel, select Next.

On the Review and finish panel, select Publish.

Review the summary on the You published Contoso Expense Reporting Agent panel and click Done.

You have approved the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent for inclusion in the Teams app store. Select the Registry tab to confirm.

The All agents page in the Agent 365 Registry now shows the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent as published and available to the org.

Click anywhere on the screen to complete this exercise.

You have completed Exercise 2.

You can select any exercise to review or click Home to return to the beginning of the demo.

Exercise 4: Employee Experience – Install Agent and File an Expense Report in Microsoft Teams

Agents published through Copilot Studio and approved in Agent 365 are available to employees in Microsoft Teams in two ways. The first is through Microsoft 365 Copilot — users with a Copilot license can discover and invoke agents directly in the Copilot chat interface, where agents surface alongside other Copilot capabilities. The second is as a standalone Teams app, available from the Teams app store under the Built by your org section. In this model the agent opens as a dedicated chat conversation in Teams, separate from Copilot, and is available to any user with the appropriate license whether or not they have Microsoft 365 Copilot.

In this exercise, Adele Vance is installing the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent as a standalone Teams app. Adele accesses the agent through the Teams app store, which is the correct path for broad organizational rollout where not every user necessarily has a Copilot license. Once installed, the agent greets Adele proactively, guides her through uploading her receipts, resolves any ambiguities in conversation, and then uses Computer Use running on a Windows 365 Cloud PC to file the report on her behalf — all without Adele ever needing to interact with the legacy expense web app directly.

Starting in Microsoft Teams signed in as Adele Vance, select Apps (the plus sign) in the left navigation.

Click the vertical scroll bar to scroll down to the Built for your org section.

Click on Contoso Expense Reporting…

Prior to adding the Expense Reporting Agent to Teams, Adele can review Overview and Permissions information. Select Permissions to review the permissions required by this agent.

The agent requires relatively minimal permissions, so Adele is comfortable adding it to Teams. Click Overview to return to that tab and then select Add.

Once the Contoso Expense Reporting Agent has been successfully added, select Open to go straight to filing an expense report.

Our agent has started the conversation by asking for receipts as we expect.

Click in the chat message field to type File an expense report for my trip to San Francisco for the TechConnect Summit using these receipts, then click the Plus (actions and apps) button to choose the receipts.

Choose Attach file and then click Upload from this device.

Click on any of the receipts in the file picker to select all 3 and then select Open.

Verify the receipts have been uploaded and then click the send button or press Enter.

The Expense Reporting Agent has noticed multiple meals and drinks on Adele's restaurant receipt and needs clarification. The ability to include human-in-the-loop interaction is critical for reliable, effective agent execution.

Select the chat message field to type Megan Bowen and Allan Deyoung also attended the dinner and then click Send or press Enter.

The Expense Report Agent is almost ready to invoke computer use to enter the expense report data into Contoso's website.

Review the summary and suggested values, then click in the chat message field to type Use Training and Professional Development as the cost center and then click Send (or press Enter) to confirm the cost center and continue.

The Expense Report Agent has now invoked Computer Use and informed you in chat that "Computer use will begin as soon as a computer is available" as the agent checks out and connects to a Cloud PC in the allocated pool.

When the Cloud PC is running and ready — the agent will again notify you in chat, where you will also see a screenshot taken of the Windows 365 Cloud PC computer use will run on.

The agent is using Computer Use — powered by Windows 365 for Agents — to navigate to and enter Adele's expense information into Contoso's expense reporting website. Adele always dreads filing expense reports because of all of the detailed steps and clunky outdated interface. Now Adele can focus on other work while the Expense Reporting Agent handles that for her.

Click on the Cloud PC screenshot posted by the agent in chat to get a feel for the action being taken by computer use.

The agent will continue to include snapshots of actions it is taking on the expense reporting website with Computer Use. These screenshots provide useful context and an important audit trail with detailed steps and reasoning which can be reviewed after execution if needed.

Click on the back arrow next to Image to return to the conversation with the agent.

When the agent is ready to submit the expense report, you will be prompted to review the amount and approve. Click in the chat message area to type submit and then click send (or press Enter).

The expense reporting agent has successfully submitted the expense report for Adele.

Click anywhere on the screen to continue with the interactive demo.