SharePoint Knowledge Agent Quick Start

Key insights

• SharePoint Knowledge Agent — This summary covers a YouTube demo presented by Cory Newton-Smith on the Microsoft 365 & Power Platform weekly call.
  It introduces a built-in SharePoint helper that organizes content and prepares sites for Copilot.
• Key capabilities: the agent offers content summarization, metadata optimization, FAQ generation, broken link fixing, and handles conversational prompts.
  These features help surface relevant content and reduce manual upkeep.
• User experience: a persistent floating button appears on pages, libraries, and files to provide live, context-aware suggestions that match the user’s role and the current page.
  Users can ask questions in natural language and trigger common actions directly inside SharePoint.
• Business benefits: the agent speeds page creation, improves content quality, and centralizes AI assistance so teams don’t switch tools.
  It enables more consistent, AI-ready content that feeds better answers from Copilot.
• Admin setup and requirements: the feature is in preview and requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
  Tenant admins enable it via the SharePoint Online Management Shell using PowerShell commands (for example, Set-SPOTenant -KnowledgeAgentScope and options to exclude selected sites) and need Shell version 16.0.26413.12010 or later.
• Controls and considerations: admins can enable tenant-wide or exclude specific sites, and Microsoft plans more granular controls soon.
  Evaluate site-level enablement, review privacy and data-handling policies, and pilot in a subset of sites before broad rollout.

Overview of the demo

The recent Microsoft demo introduces the SharePoint Knowledge Agent, a built-in assistant that aims to keep intranet content organized and ready for AI-driven features. In the video, the presenter walks through live examples that show how the agent surfaces suggestions, fixes broken links, and enriches metadata to help users find information faster. As a result, the tool positions SharePoint content to work better with Copilot and other Microsoft productivity services. Moreover, the demo highlights how the agent appears as a floating control that adapts to the page and user role.

Importantly, the demo was shown during a Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community call on 30 September 2025, which provided real-world context for how teams might use the feature. The session emphasized that Knowledge Agent is currently in public preview and requires appropriate licensing to access all capabilities. Therefore, the preview status means organizations can evaluate the experience while Microsoft continues to refine functionality and controls. Overall, the presentation aimed to balance showing polished features with reminding viewers that the product is still evolving.

Key features demonstrated

The agent automates several content tasks, such as summarizing page content, suggesting layout improvements, and generating AI-powered FAQs to surface answers quickly. It also flags outdated pages and proposes fixes for broken links, which can help keep intranets accurate without constant manual review. In addition, the tool fills in or recommends metadata, improving search relevance and making content more discoverable across the tenant. Consequently, content becomes more consistent and better prepared for conversational queries through Copilot.

Beyond text actions, the demo showed multi-modal capabilities like document comparison and audio summaries, expanding how users can consume and validate information. The floating interface adjusts suggestions based on the user’s role—such as site manager, editor, or consumer—so recommendations are more relevant. This contextual behavior reduces noise and aims to prevent irrelevant prompts from appearing to casual readers. Hence, the agent tries to strike a balance between helpfulness and unobtrusiveness.

How it works and administrative setup

The Knowledge Agent runs inside SharePoint Online and uses Microsoft 365 AI services to analyze pages and files in place, rather than requiring separate tools or exports. Administrators enable the feature centrally using tenant controls in SharePoint, and current preview guidance notes that a Copilot license is required for full functionality. While the demo referenced command-line administrative actions, IT teams will typically set enablement and exclusions through SharePoint tenant settings and the SharePoint Online Management Shell. As a result, rollout planning is a mix of admin configuration and user education.

At present, enablement options are broad—either tenant-wide or excluding selected sites—but Microsoft plans to add more granular controls over time to accommodate diverse governance policies. This limited granularity in preview means organizations should test selectively and consider which sites should opt in first. Additionally, the agent respects existing SharePoint permissions so it does not expose content beyond configured access controls. Thus, administrators must pair technical setup with clear governance and visibility for content owners.

Benefits and tradeoffs

The main benefits are clearer content structure, faster page creation, and improved searchability, all of which can boost productivity and reduce routine editorial workload. In contrast, automation introduces tradeoffs: AI suggestions can be imperfect and sometimes require human review to maintain accuracy and tone. For example, automatically generated metadata might not reflect a team’s taxonomy unless governance rules are enforced. Therefore, organizations should treat agent outputs as helpful starting points rather than final edits.

Another tradeoff involves control versus convenience: enabling tenant-wide automation may speed adoption but reduces site-level customization, while per-site exclusion offers more control but increases administrative overhead. Privacy and compliance considerations also come into play, since AI enrichment touches stored content and metadata. Consequently, IT and compliance teams must evaluate risk, adjust policies, and log changes to ensure the agent aligns with organizational standards.

Challenges and operational considerations

Operationally, the biggest challenges include ensuring consistent taxonomy, training content authors to accept or edit suggestions, and preventing over-reliance on automatic changes. The demo highlighted contextual suggestions, but real-world usage can surface edge cases where the agent misclassifies content or misses nuance. In those instances, human reviewers need clear workflows to accept, reject, or correct recommendations. Thus, investing in governance and authoring guidelines is essential for success.

Scaling the agent across large tenants raises additional hurdles such as performance, prioritization of high-value sites, and monitoring for unintended edits. Administrators should pilot the feature in controlled groups and gather metrics on suggestion acceptance and content quality before broad rollout. Finally, ongoing feedback loops between site owners and IT will be necessary to refine rules, disable noisy prompts, and tune the agent’s behavior over time.

What this means for organizations

In summary, the SharePoint Knowledge Agent represents a step toward more intelligent intranets where content maintenance and discovery are partly automated. For many organizations, it can reduce routine tasks and surface knowledge faster, while aligning content for better responses from Copilot and related tools. However, cautious pilots, clear governance, and human oversight remain important to manage accuracy, privacy, and change control. Therefore, a measured rollout paired with measurement and training will help teams realize benefits while limiting risks.

Moving forward, organizations should monitor feature updates as Microsoft expands control granularity and refines AI behaviors based on preview feedback. In doing so, they can weigh convenience and control, address compliance needs, and shape how AI contributes to knowledge management in their environments. Ultimately, the demo shows promise, but real value depends on disciplined adoption, ongoing evaluation, and alignment with internal policies.

Keywords

SharePoint Knowledge Agent Quick Start, SharePoint Knowledge Agent tutorial, SharePoint knowledge management AI, SharePoint AI assistant setup, SharePoint knowledge base quick start, Microsoft 365 Knowledge Agent SharePoint, Deploy SharePoint Knowledge Agent, SharePoint document search agent