Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Hello everyone, I apologize if my question seems too basic. However, even after using Copilot, I couldn’t reach a clear conclusion, so I’d appreciate any help you can provide.

Here’s the situation: The agents I develop through Copilot Studio Teams (see photo01) deliver much higher-quality responses compared to those developed in Copilot Studio (see photo02). I believe there might be an additional abstraction layer in the Copilot Studio Teams environment. I’d like to know if there’s a way to replicate the same results from Studio Teams within Copilot Studio.

I’ve noticed two major differences in the responses:

Copilot Studio Teams: The response is written progressively as it’s processed, making it feel more “human” and better aligned with the requested tone.

Copilot Studio: The response feels more “robotic” and comes as a single block of information.

Both agents have the same instructions and knowledge base. If you could guide me on how to build a high-quality agent using Copilot Studio, it would help me publish it in our environment so all employees can use it without major difficulties.

Categories:

Building Copilot Studio chatbots in Microsoft Teams

Hello,

Thank you for your excellent question and for providing clear visual examples. This is a very common point of confusion, and you have correctly identified a key difference in behavior between agents built in Copilot Studio for Teams and the standalone Copilot Studio web experience.

You are right that there is an additional abstraction layer at play. The higher-quality, more "human-like" responses you are seeing from the agent built within Teams are due to its direct integration with the broader Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem.

The Key Difference: Copilot for Microsoft 365 Integration

Copilot Studio for Teams: When you build an agent directly within the Teams app, it is created as an extension of Copilot for Microsoft 365. This means it inherits the underlying large language model (LLM), conversational engine, and response generation capabilities of the main Copilot service. This engine is optimized for a fluid, natural, and progressive (streaming) response style, which is why it feels more "human".
Standalone Copilot Studio: The web version of Copilot Studio is a more powerful, customizable platform for building standalone agents [, ]. While it also uses powerful generative AI, its primary focus is on providing developers with granular control over topics, plugins, and integrations. By default, its response generation is more direct and less conversational unless specifically configured.

How to Replicate the High-Quality Responses in Copilot Studio

While you cannot change the fundamental response-generation engine of the standalone Copilot Studio to perfectly match the Teams experience, you can take several steps to significantly improve the quality and tone of your agent's responses.

1. Leverage "Generative Answers" with a Custom Prompt

This is the most impactful setting. Instead of relying solely on pre-defined topics, you can configure the agent to generate answers dynamically from your knowledge base, and you can guide its personality with a custom prompt.
How to configure:
In your Copilot Studio agent, go to the Generative AI section.
Under Websites, add the sources for your knowledge base (e.g., your SharePoint site).
In the Custom instructions section, you can write a detailed prompt to define the agent's persona and response style.
Example Custom Instruction:
"You are a friendly and helpful HR assistant. Your responses should be clear, concise, and empathetic. Always answer in a step-by-step manner. When you provide information, do so in a conversational and progressive way. Avoid technical jargon and use a supportive tone."

2. Use Adaptive Cards for Better Formatting

The robotic, single-block responses can be broken up and made more visually appealing using Adaptive Cards. You can design cards that present information in a more structured and interactive way, with buttons, lists, and images. While this doesn't enable a streaming response, it dramatically improves the user experience.
How to use: In your topic's conversation flow, instead of using a simple "Send a message" node, use the "Ask with Adaptive Card" node.

3. Implement Custom Logic with Power Automate
For complex responses that require a specific flow or formatting, you can call a Power Automate flow from your agent's topic. The flow can process the information, format it exactly as you want (e.g., create a formatted string with line breaks and emojis), and then return the formatted text to the agent to display to the user. This gives you complete control over the final output.

By combining these techniques—especially by crafting a strong custom instruction for the generative answers feature—you can build a high-quality agent in the standalone Copilot Studio that closely mimics the polished, user-friendly experience you're seeing in the Teams-integrated version, making it ready for a successful company-wide rollout.

Best Regards,

Jerald Felix .