What is Azure AI Search?

Azure AI Search (formerly known as "Azure Cognitive Search") is an enterprise-ready search and retrieval system, with a comprehensive set of advanced search technologies, built for high-performance applications at any scale.

Azure AI Search is the recommended retrieval system for building RAG-based applications on Azure, with native LLM integrations between Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Machine Learning, and multiple strategies for relevance tuning.

Azure AI Search can be used in both traditional and GenAI scenarios. Common use cases include knowledge base insights (catalog or document search), information discovery (data exploration), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and indexing automation.

Architecturally, a search service sits between the external data stores that contain your un-indexed data, and your client app that sends query requests to a search index and handles the response.

What is Knowledge in Copilot Studio?

Within Copilot Studio, knowledge sources act in concert with generative answers. When knowledge sources are added, agents can use enterprise data from Power Platform, Dynamics 365 data, websites, and external systems. Knowledge sources allow your agents to provide relevant information and insights for your customers.

Published agents that contain knowledge use the configured knowledge sources to ground the published agent. Knowledge can be incorporated at the agent level, in the Knowledge page, or at the topic level, with a generative answers node in an agent topic.

Knowledge sources can be incorporated into agents during their initial creation, added after the agent is created, or added to a generative answers topic node.

Azure AI Search as Knowledge in Copilot Studio

The introduction of Azure AI Search into Microsoft Copilot Studio brings a powerful new capability that enhances the intelligence and relevance of agents. By incorporating Azure AI Search as a knowledge source in Copilot Studio, Microsoft enables makers to create smarter, data-driven copilots that respond with more accuracy and context, grounded in live data from across an organisation’s ecosystem- driving business value.

Business Value

The integration of Azure AI Search into Microsoft Copilot Studio brings substantial business value. By using pre-built Azure AI Search indexes as knowledge sources, Copilot Studio enables makers to build more precise and contextually grounded copilots. This integration delivers several key benefits:

• Enhanced Relevance: Copilots can now leverage pre-built indexes to deliver more accurate and context-aware responses, ensuring users get relevant information every time.
• Data Scalability: With Azure AI Search’s ability to handle extensive and varied datasets, organisations can scale their AI solutions across departments and use cases without sacrificing performance.
• Flexibility: Makers can customise data queries and filters, making it easier to generate highly tailored responses that meet the specific needs of their users.

Expanded Data Source Integration

Azure AI Search transforms Copilot Studio by enabling seamless integration with a wide range of data sources. This expanded connectivity supports SQL databases, NoSQL stores, and a variety of other structured data formats. Through these integrations, Copilot Studio enables:

• Data Querying and Filtering: Copilots can precisely query and filter data, ensuring that responses are not only relevant but also actionable and accurate.
• Unified Data Access: By consolidating data from different sources into a single index, makers can ensure their copilots have access to a holistic view of the information needed for decision-making.
• Semantic Enrichment: Using natural language processing, copilots can deliver enriched, human-like responses that go beyond basic search results, offering a deeper understanding of the data.

For a complete overview of supported data sources, you can explore the Azure AI Search Data Sources Gallery.

Future Potential and Use Cases

The integration of Azure AI Search in Copilot Studio is a game-changer with wide-ranging use cases. For example:

Azure AI Search in Copilot Studio significantly enhances enterprise knowledge management by enabling copilots to access internal knowledge bases, such as training materials, documents, and policies. This allows for streamlined employee onboarding, training, and knowledge sharing across departments, ensuring that employees have immediate access to relevant information, improving productivity, and reducing time spent searching for resources.

In customer support, copilots can query product manuals, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs to provide instant and accurate answers to customers. This reduces response times, improves efficiency, and ensures consistent service. Additionally, copilots can assist support agents by offering them relevant documents, empowering them to resolve customer issues faster and more effectively.

For market and competitive analysis, copilots can aggregate data from various sources to provide executives with actionable insights. By analysing internal data alongside market trends, sales figures, and competitor performance, copilots help decision-makers gain a clearer understanding of the market landscape, ultimately aiding in more informed and timely business strategies.

This integration supports Microsoft's broader vision of making AI solutions more accessible and customisable, allowing businesses to innovate at scale.

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