So you’ve heard of Microsoft Copilot Studio and you’re wondering—what can I actually build with this? Maybe you’ve seen demos of AI agents handling support queries or interacting with business systems, and you’re thinking, that looks awesome… but where do I start?
The good news is: getting started is easier than you think. You don’t need to be a developer, and you don’t need to know any machine learning. You just need a good idea—and a few clicks later, you can have your first Copilot up and running.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how to create your first Copilot Studio app, and we’ll build something that’s basic, but still cool and practical: a Vacation Day Checker.
What You’ll Build: A Simple Vacation Day Copilot
Your first Copilot will be a friendly little assistant that helps employees check how many vacation days they have left.
It’s simple, but touches all the basics:
- Understanding natural language input
- Pulling data from a sample source (mocked or real)
- Responding intelligently
- Optional: escalating to an HR contact if days are low
By the end, you’ll have an AI assistant that can chat with users and respond with useful info—all without writing code.
Step 1: Go to Microsoft Copilot Studio
Start by visiting https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.
Once inside, you’ll land on the Copilot dashboard. Here you can see existing copilots or start from scratch.
Click “Create a Copilot” to get started.
Step 2: Give Your Copilot a Name
Let’s call it something friendly like:
Vacation Buddy
Add a short description if you like, such as:
“Helps employees check how many vacation days they have remaining.”
Click Next to proceed.
Step 3: Set Up Your Topics (The Brain of the Copilot)
Topics are like the brain cells of your Copilot. Each one is triggered by specific phrases and performs a specific action or dialogue.
Click “Create a new topic” and name it something like:
Check Vacation Days
Add trigger phrases:
These are what users might say to activate the topic. Add a few like:
- “How many vacation days do I have?”
- “Check my PTO balance”
- “Tell me how much leave I have left”
Copilot Studio uses AI to match these, so they don’t need to be exact—just examples.
Step 4: Build the Conversation Flow
After adding trigger phrases, you’ll enter the authoring canvas—a visual flow editor.
Now you’ll define what happens after the topic is triggered.
Step 4a: Ask the user for their name or employee ID
Drag in a question node and ask:
“What’s your employee ID?”
Store the response in a variable called employeeId.
Step 4b: Call a data source (mock or real)
Now let’s simulate a data lookup.
If you don’t have a real system yet, create a Power Automate flow that returns mock data. Here’s an example flow structure:
- Trigger: When called from Copilot Studio
- Input:
employeeId - Action: Return static JSON like:jsonCopyEdit
{ "vacationDaysRemaining": 12 }
You can call this flow using a “Call an action” node inside the canvas.
Step 4c: Respond with the result
After calling the action, add a message node that says:
“You have {vacationDaysRemaining} vacation days remaining. Time to plan a holiday?”
You can make this more playful if you want. It’s your copilot!
Step 5: Test It!
Click the “Test your Copilot” button in the top-right corner.
Type something like:
“How much PTO do I have left?”
You should see it ask for your ID, call the flow, and respond with the mock data.
You’ve just built an end-to-end Copilot that understands intent, asks follow-up questions, and returns useful, personalised information.
Optional: Add Smart Escalation
Want to make it a bit more dynamic?
Add a condition:
- If
vacationDaysRemaining < 5, then show a message like:
“You’re running low on leave! Would you like me to connect you to HR?”
Then add a “Transfer to agent” or “Send email” step to complete the escalation path.
Step 6: Publish Your Copilot
Once everything is working, click Publish.
You can then share your copilot via:
- Microsoft Teams
- Internal company websites
- Direct link or iframe
There’s also a channel setup screen where you can configure Teams or webchat integration easily.
Final Thoughts
That’s it—you’ve just created your first Copilot Studio app! And while it might be simple on the surface, you’ve now covered the most important skills:
- Triggering a conversation based on natural language
- Capturing user input
- Calling data sources
- Using variables and conditions
- Returning smart responses
From here, the possibilities are endless. You could:
- Connect to a real HR system
- Let users request time off
- Add chat history memory
- Build a dashboard Copilot for managers
It all starts with the basics—and you’ve already taken the first step.
Want to Keep Learning?
Check out these resources:
- Microsoft Copilot Studio documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot-studio/
- Power Automate tutorials: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/
- Copilot Toolkit on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/copilot-toolkit
