Generate insights using the Analyst Agent

Sometimes your work as a business professional requires deeper analysis to make informed decisions. Whether you're preparing a sales report, evaluating product performance, or identifying trends, you need actionable insights from your data—without advanced technical skills.

Choose the right tool for your task

In the previous unit, you explored Copilot in Excel—a powerful way to analyze, chart, and transform data within a spreadsheet. Now that you're familiar with what Copilot can do inside Excel, you may wonder when to reach for a different tool. Microsoft Copilot offers three experiences for data work, each suited to a different type of task.

The key difference is depth and scope. Copilot in Excel works within your spreadsheet—ideal for quick analysis and visualization of a specific dataset. The Analyst agent is built for more complex, multi-step tasks: it reasons across multiple files, surfaces patterns you might not know to look for, and produces structured, shareable reports. Copilot Chat handles everyday requests that don't require a dedicated data tool.

In this unit, you'll explore how to use the Analyst agent to analyze data, generate visualizations, and uncover key metrics. Whether you're working with Excel files, databases, or cloud storage, the Analyst agent helps you interpret data, summarize findings, and create ready-to-share reports—all within your Microsoft 365 apps.

What is the Analyst agent?

The Analyst agent is an AI-powered assistant built into Microsoft Copilot. It's designed to help you:

• Analyze organizational data from sources like Excel spreadsheets, databases, and cloud storage.
• Provide insights using chain-of-thought reasoning, identifying trends, outliers, and key metrics.
• Generate easy-to-read reports with visuals such as charts and tables.
• Support tasks like forecasting demand, visualizing customer purchasing patterns, or comparing sales performance across regions.

Unlike standard Copilot Chat, which focuses on drafting and editing, the Analyst agent is optimized for data analysis, visualization, and insight generation.

To use the Analyst agent, you must have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It can be accessed through the Microsoft Copilot app (available via browser at https://copilot.cloud.microsoft or through the desktop app). It's also available on iOS and Android via the Microsoft Copilot mobile app. It's prepinned under the Tools section.

For an overview of the Analyst agent's functionality, see the Microsoft Copilot adoption hub.

Imagine you're asked to provide a report comparing sales performance across regions and quarters. You want to identify key trends, top-performing products, and areas for improvement. The following section details how the Analyst agent can assist you in this task.

How to prompt using the Analyst agent

In Copilot Chat:

1. Open the Microsoft Copilot app in your browser.

2. Find and select Analyst in the left navigation pane of Microsoft Copilot Chat.

   

3. Attach the files you want to analyze by selecting the + icon and choosing content from your device or cloud storage. The Analyst agent is ideal for statistical analysis, data visualization, and reporting data files, including Excel, CSV, and JSON files. You can also use Analyst for content analysis, keyword extraction, summarization in .txt, .doc, and .pdf files.

4. Prompt: Highlight key trends in sales performance by region and quarter. The Analyst agent analyzes your data and generates a report with charts, tables, and summary insights.

5. Refine your analysis with follow-up prompts:

   • Identify top-performing products based on customer engagement metrics.
   • Visualize sales growth over the last four quarters.
   • Compare sales performance between regions.

6. Choose your output format by asking the agent to format results for different audiences:

   • Summarize findings into three bullet points for a leadership slide.
   • Write an executive summary for this report.
   • Draft an email update summarizing these insights.

Iterate and explore deeper insights

The Analyst agent supports iterative problem-solving. Refine your queries, explore additional metrics, and ask clarifying questions to uncover deeper insights as needed.

With the Analyst agent, you transform complex data analysis into a streamlined process. You analyze data, visualize trends, and prepare actionable insights to share with your team—all without leaving your Microsoft 365 apps.