Microsoft is integrating the Researcher agent into Copilot Notebooks. This integration enables complex, multi-step research directly within the Notebook experience across enterprise data sources, powered by OpenAI’s researcher model with advanced chain-of-thought reasoning.
Timeline
The rollout should be completed in October 2025.
Impact for your users
The Researcher agent, previously available in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, is now accessible directly inside Copilot Notebooks. This integration supports in-context, iterative research workflows without requiring tool switching, designed for multi-step reasoning and synthesis across enterprise data sources.
Users can perform multi-turn research while maintaining full conversational context and access to previous outputs. All research runs securely across permitted organizational data sources, fully respecting existing permissions and compliance policies.
Note:
The Researcher agent includes all organizational data sources to which the user has access, such as SharePoint, Excel, Word, PowerPoint files, and other configured sources. Users may see content they have never accessed before.
All chats with the Researcher agent are saved within the Notebook. Responses can be refined through follow-up questions, exported to Word, or stored as a Loop page for collaboration with others on the Researcher’s content.
Additional points to consider
- Both the Researcher agent and Copilot Notebooks require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
- For Copilot Notebooks, users also need:
- An active SharePoint or OneDrive for Business service plan.
- Permission to create a personal Loop workspace (My Workspace).
- Access to the Researcher agent — if granted, users now automatically gain access to Copilot Notebooks.
- As announced in September, a Microsoft 365 Copilot license will soon be limited to 25 queries per month and user for Researcher and Analyst combined. Additional usage will incur metered limits.
