Microsoft's spring release for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Wave 2 spring) landed on 23 April 2025 after a long wait, and with it the Copilot Researcher Analyst agents finally became real. So far, though, only tenants in the Frontier early access program get to use them. On the admin side I've heard plenty of talk about "reasoning agents", Copilot Notebooks, Copilot Search, the new Agent Store and image generation under "Create". My questions are the same as with every release. I want to know what is actually available today and what is still preview, which features need special access, and how I keep user expectations and governance in check.

Researcher and Analyst stay in preview while other features roll out

For admins, the headline is the arrival of the Researcher and Analyst Copilot agents. Microsoft calls them its first reasoning agents for Microsoft 365. They are built to work through tasks on their own, collect information and produce more advanced analysis. Researcher pulls from your organization's work data and, if enabled, from the web. Analyst works with structured data such as Excel files and tables in OneDrive and SharePoint.

There is a limitation. According to the April announcement, Researcher and Analyst are only available to tenants in the Frontier early access program. Tenants in the program will find the new agents in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app and in Copilot Chat. Microsoft hasn't announced a date for general release yet. Copilot Notebooks, Copilot Search and the Agent Store are a different story. They are rolling out to all Copilot-licensed tenants, with the usual caveats about regional and service rollouts.

Frontier, the Agent Store and integrated apps control who gets access

Access control is the hard part, as usual. A tenant in the Frontier program still has to assign the right licences and permissions, because the new agents show up in the Copilot app, Copilot Chat and the Agent Store. Before you change anything, read the Microsoft documentation on agent extensibility and management. It explains how agents get distributed and which controls the admin center gives you. Watch the Agent Store closely. Without proper policies and approvals, it can quickly turn into a back door for shadow IT.

These are the main levers at the moment:

  • Frontier: Only invited tenants see Researcher and Analyst; assignment is done in Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Copilot
  • Agent Store: You can enable or disable Microsoft agents and custom agents here. Review admin roles and DLP policies for agent access.
  • Copilot Notebooks and Copilot Search show up across the whole tenant as the rollout progresses. Keep an eye on them and tell your users clearly what's coming.
  • Licensing: Every new feature needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and Researcher and Analyst also need Frontier early access.

I cover agent management in more depth in Managing Copilot agents: Control, approval, and cost risks.

Researcher and Analyst inherit the user's data permissions

People often misunderstand which data these agents can reach. Researcher uses the same data access mechanisms Copilot already has. If enabled, it combines your work data (email, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams) with public web sources. That means sensitive information can turn up in summaries and search results whenever the user's identity has permission to see it. Analyst sticks to the tenant's structured data and uses the Copilot platform's analysis and visualization capabilities.

The diagram below shows how data moves between the user, Copilot Researcher Analyst and their sources:

flowchart LR
  User["User"] --> CopilotApp["Copilot app"]
  CopilotApp --> AgentStore["Agent Store"]
  CopilotApp --> Researcher["Researcher"]
  CopilotApp --> Analyst["Analyst"]
  Researcher --> WorkData["Work Data"]
  Researcher --> Web["Web"]
  Analyst --> WorkData

Figure: How Copilot Researcher and Analyst reach data through the Copilot app and the Agent Store

The granular Copilot controls you already have in place, such as SharePoint search restriction, sensitivity labels and DLP, apply to the new agents as well. If you want a refresher on limiting oversharing through Copilot, take a look at Restricted SharePoint Search: Copilot pilots done right.

Licensing and enablement shape what users should expect

Every one of these features needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. The exception is image generation in "Create", which may require OpenAI credits. For now, Researcher and Analyst additionally require Frontier early access. Make it clear internally that these features are not generally available yet. Don't promise too much, because most tenants won't get them for some time.

Practical tip: In most of my projects I suggest testing the data access of new Copilot agents in a separate test tenant before they reach production. It's also the safest place to check your DLP and compliance settings.

Copilot Notebooks (still in preview) are useful for organizing complex tasks and working on them together. Pay attention to where the content ends up and who can open it, because permissions still apply.

Spring has arrived, but not yet for every tenant

With the Copilot Researcher Analyst update, Microsoft 365 Copilot takes a big step toward its agent plans. In practice, only tenants in the Frontier program get to try reasoning agents right now. Everyone else will mostly notice Copilot Notebooks, Copilot Search and the Agent Store first, and those need careful internal communication and solid governance controls. Managing data access and governing agents matters more now than it did before. For more on the wider Wave 2 release and the agent landscape, read Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: Pages, agents and admin challenges and Microsoft's Copilot overview on Microsoft Learn.