Set up and manage agents in communities in Viva Engage

Agents in Engage communities are AI-powered assistants designed to help answer questions from community members. In a community, the agent refers to past conversations and community SharePoint resources to generate responses to unanswered questions. The agent helps community members get timely, accurate information and helps reduce duplicate questions. Agents save valuable time for community admins and experts by finding past threads and information sources, and drafting responses.

Admins can configure the agent to post automatically, or require community admin or expert review before posting.

To promote depth and accuracy, community admins can set the agent to refer to SharePoint sites and libraries that are available to the community.

Licensing requirements

A Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed community admin can add a community agent to the community. After the agent is active, Copilot-licensed admins and community experts can review, approve, and edit agent-drafted answers. After answers are posted, admins can delete them. All community members can see content posted by the community agent, regardless of license assignment.

Opt in to the agents in communities public preview

You can opt your network into the Agents in communities public preview through a simple network toggle:

1. Go to the Engage admin center and select Tenant settings.

2. Set the Community agent preview toggle to On.

How it Works

• Every 15–20 minutes, the agent scans its assigned community for up to three unanswered questions.
• It skips questions with a Best or Verified answer, or are older than 14 days.
• If confidence is low or review is enabled, admins or experts must approve the response before posting.
• The agent grounds its answers in:
  • The community's SharePoint site and library, plus any SharePoint sites added
  • Posts, comments, and replies in the community
  • Prior agent answers that an admin or expert has marked as verified
• If no relevant grounding content is available, the agent doesn't respond.

SharePoint integration requirements

The community agent automatically uses the Engage community's connected SharePoint library for source material. The Add reference material feature allows you to add one or more SharePoint sites or libraries for source information.

To add SharePoint sites or libraries for agent use, you need the following requirements:

• Be the community admin who set up the agent.
• Be a site owner of the SharePoint site or library you want to add.
• Make sure the community's Microsoft 365 group has Read permissions on each SharePoint site or library you add.

Add and configure the agent in your community

To add an agent, select Add agent in the community member panel. Copilot-licensed community admins can add one agent per community.

Agent configuration is straightforward:

1. From the Set up your agent dialog, apply the following settings:

   • Require review before posting: By default, the agent automatically posts answers to questions asked in the community. To require admin or expert review and approval before posting, enable this toggle.
   • Select Add community agent to finish creating the agent.

2. After you save the agent, go to Agent settings > Knowledge > Add reference material to add SharePoint sites or libraries from outside the community. You can add these sites only after you complete the agent setup. The community admin must be a site owner or site admin for each added site.

3. Enter the URL for the SharePoint site or library, such as https://contoso.sharepoint.com/teams/contoso-eng-specs and select Add.

   

4. If prompted, select Grant access to grant read permission to the community's Microsoft 365 group for the selected site or library you just added. You can also do this step in the SharePoint admin center or the site settings of the SharePoint site or library.

5. To change the agent configuration, select the Edit icon next to Agent in the community member panel.

Review agent-drafted answers

When you enable reviews of agent-created information, suggestions appear in a dedicated Review agent suggestions page. Community admins and experts can take the following actions:

• Approve: Post to push the answer to the community as the agent. It's marked as verified by the reviewer.

• Edit and Approve: Edit the answer before posting. The answer appears as posted and verified by the reviewer.

• Dismiss: Remove the suggestion from review. The agent doesn't attempt to answer that question again.

Community admins and experts receive review notifications in Teams and in the Engage notification bell when agent drafted content is ready for review.

Community member experience

Agent-generated answers appear directly in the question thread, as posted by the agent. If they're approved, they also include a Verified Answer label. Members can provide quick feedback using emoticons.

FAQ

How is the agent evaluated, and what metrics are used?

We evaluate the agents in communities feature through extensive manual and automatic testing based upon Microsoft’s internal usage and measurements. The goal of evaluations is to promote legible, comprehensive, and quality responses. We also perform extensive evaluations for offensive and malicious questions and responses.

We also subject agents in communities to online and offline evaluations and metrics, and with user feedback (thumbs up/down), verbatim feedback, and manual evaluations by our product teams.

How can users minimize the agent’s limitations when using the system? 

Agents in communities answer questions based on grounding data, so it performs best in communities with good grounding data that's accessible to all community members. That content includes prior conversations (posts, comments, and replies), the community's SharePoint site and library, SharePoint sites specified by community admins, and prior agent answers that an admin or expert has marked as verified. In new communities, or communities with low activity, customers should build up their SharePoint libraries with content to improve grounding.

What factors enable effective and responsible use of the Engage agents in communities feature? 

Community admins can tailor agent behavior to their specific community:

• Disable automatic posting to require community admin or expert approval before posting of agent-generated answers.
• Add grounding content to community SharePoint sites and libraries.
• Delete agent responses from the Community feed when needed.

How do I provide feedback on the Engage agents in communities feature? 

Any community member can give feedback by selecting the thumbs up or down in the agent’s message. Users can also add comments in the feedback form.

Admins and experts submit feedback in the Agent Suggestions page by selecting thumbs up or down in the agent’s message. They can also add comments in the feedback form.

Can I delete an agent's response after it gets posted?

Community admins can delete agent-posted responses from the Community feed by selecting delete from the More ... menu under the agent's answer.