One of the first questions in any agent project is where to build it. Microsoft offers three options, and the right one depends on who will use the agent, what it needs to do and how tightly it must be governed.
| Agent Builder | Copilot Studio | Microsoft Foundry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who builds | Information workers | Makers and developers | Professional developers |
| Audience | You or a small team | A department, the whole organisation or customers | Any, including custom apps and channels |
| Typical agent | Q&A over SharePoint, files and email | Multi-step workflows, approvals, business-system integration | Custom models, data-heavy reasoning, multi-agent systems |
| Governance | Microsoft 365 admin center | Power Platform admin center with environments and ALM | Azure resource controls, Entra identity, network isolation |
Start simple, grow when you need to
An agent created in Agent Builder can be copied to Copilot Studio when it needs more connectors, enterprise deployment or lifecycle management. Copilot Studio agents can call Foundry agents, so pro-code capabilities can be added without starting again.
Govern all three in one place
Agents from all three tools integrate with Microsoft Agent 365, so IT and security see one registry, apply one set of access policies and protect agent activity with Purview and Defender, whichever tool built the agent.
How Regulus can help
Not sure where your use case belongs? Our agent discovery workshop maps your ideas to the right platform, with effort, cost and governance for each.