Microsoft has launched two new AI “reasoning” assistants, Researcher and Analyst, as part of its Microsoft 365 Copilot suite. Starting June 2025, these tools are available to all Microsoft 365 Copilot users, helping you work smarter by offering expert-level research and data analysis.
Meet Copilot’s Researcher and Analyst AI Agents
Microsoft 365 Copilot is more than just a chatbot. Researcher and Analyst bring advanced reasoning to your fingertips. All you need to do is craft the right prompt.
Researcher uses OpenAI’s deep research language model combined with Microsoft’s technology to help with complex research. It can quickly gather, summarize, and organize information. This means you don’t have to spend hours searching and reading through documents.
For instance, Researcher can get insights from third-party sources like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Confluence, etc. Companies can integrate this data and build a complete picture of their domain and pinpoint trends and opportunities.
Analyst works on data. It works inside the Microsoft suite to turn raw numbers into useful insights. Using Python scripting and step-by-step reasoning, Analyst helps you spot trends, make calculations, and create summaries or charts. This can save you time and reduce errors when dealing with complicated spreadsheets. For instance, you can take raw data and turn it into a demand forecast for a new product.
Microsoft’s blog has more examples of Researcher and Analyst in action.
Microsoft
Researcher and Analyst tackle huge tranches of information piggybacking on OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model. Both tools are no longer limited to early testers.
If you have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, you can start using Researcher and Analyst now. You can easily find both of these new features in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app as pins and through Copilot Chat. Users can make up to 25 combined queries each month.
According to Microsoft’s announcement, Researcher supports 37 languages, and Analyst is available in 8, but they’ll both be adding more languages soon.
However, Microsoft’s new AI agents aren’t free. You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription, which will set you back $30 per month.
Agentic AI as Tomorrow’s Assistants
Adding these AI reasoning agents changes how you work with Microsoft 365 apps. Instead of relying on manual research or spending hours on spreadsheets, you get help that thinks with you. This cuts down the time you spend on repetitive tasks and lets you focus on making decisions and creating value.
For professionals who handle data or conduct research, these tools can be invaluable. They bring expert help right to your fingertips without needing special training in AI, coding, or even math and statistical skills.
Opening these features to all (paying) users shows Microsoft’s push to take powerful AI tools beyond the enterprise. It’s about making work easier and more effective, no matter your role or industry.
From my experience, having AI that understands context and can reason through multi-step problems is a step beyond simple automation. While AI feels like pinging a knowledgeable intern for the grunt work, agentic AI feels like calling on a specialist who’s ready to jump in exactly when you need it.
As AI becomes second nature for us, Researcher and Analyst give Microsoft 365 users a smart way to reason better and save enterprises time and resources. But there is also the possibility that agentic AI might replace those very workers whose efficiency it promises to improve.
