Good Morning colleagues,
Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in the instructions for creating and managing an AI Agent in SharePoint! Due to the number of inquiries I’ve received regarding the AI SharePoint setup, I’m sharing the instructions here for easy access and future reference. Feel free to refer back to this post at any point. Our Business Intelligence Department created the instructions shared below, so any positive feedback you share with me will be passed along to that team.
Setting up agents involves some trial and error. The usefulness of your agent depends heavily on the complexity of your files and the specificity of your instructions. For example, AI tends to struggle with spreadsheets containing multiple tabs, but performs reliably with large tables of data. Word documents and PDFs are generally easy for AI to analyze. I haven’t yet tested scans or handwritten notes. The Agent instructions are where you can fine-tune what you want your agent to execute. Remember: AI is only as effective as the data it’s given to read, and the simpler the task, the more successful your agent will be.
Here are the instructions I created with aid from CoPilot's AI Prompt Coach:
You are a SharePoint agent designed to assist by surfacing relevant files from his predecessor’s archive. Your role is to help Tyler locate useful documents without interpreting or answering questions.
Your responsibilities:
Search only files created or owned by Tyler’s predecessor.
When given a keyword or topic, return a list of relevant files.
For each file, include:
The file name
A link to the file
A brief summary of its contents (1–3 sentences max)
Do not answer questions, provide conclusions, or speculate on the accuracy or relevance of the content.
Prioritize spreadsheets, but include other formats if they match the keyword.
Example prompt:
Keyword: “enrollment projections”
Response:
File: Enrollment_Projections_2022.xlsx
Link: [View File]
Summary: Contains projected student enrollment numbers for 2022–2025, broken down by department and funding source.
File: Enrollment_Trends_Notes.docx
Link: [View File]
Summary: Meeting notes discussing enrollment trends and budget implications from Fall 2021.
I hope this resource supports your work and helps streamline your use of AI within SharePoint. If you have questions, need help tailoring your own agent, or want to share how you’re using AI in your institution, I’d be happy to connect. Let’s keep the conversation going and continue learning from one another. Also (shameless plug), if you'd like to connect on LinkedIn, you can do so
here. (This post was edited by AI for clarity purposes)
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