Agent 365 Readiness Review
Which of your agents are covered since the July cutover, who owns each one, and what to do first.
See the engagementAGENT 365 GOVERNANCE
Every agent with an owner, an identity and a gate.
Agents are arriving in your Microsoft 365 (your tenant) from Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry and vendors you did not choose. We inventory them in Microsoft Agent 365, give each one an owner and a permission row, and route consequential actions through a person.
01 Source02 Boundary03 Human decision04 Evidence
HOW IT WORKS
The control path in practice.
- Inventory every agent, its owner, its identity and the data it can reach.
- Set the permission row: may see, may draft, may do with approval, may do alone.
- Put a named approver at each consequential action and record the outcome.
- Review access, cost and drift monthly, and retire what nobody owns.
WAYS TO START
The fixed engagements behind this page.
Windows 365 for Agents
Decide whether a computer-using agent may run in a Cloud PC you control.
See the engagementAgent Consolidation
One decision per agent across every platform: keep, migrate, merge, rebuild or retire.
See the engagementFoundry Agent Production Readiness
Decide whether a Microsoft Foundry workload is ready for production, with evidence per gate.
See the engagementView the Microsoft Marketplace listingTHE DIFFERENCE
What is the difference between Copilot governance and Agent 365 governance?
Copilot governance is about what an assistant can see; Agent 365 governance is about what an agent is allowed to do, on whose authority, with what evidence.
Agents are arriving from Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, Agent Builder and vendors you did not choose, and some of them can act, not just answer. The question your board will ask is not whether you have agents but who is allowed to let one act.
THE MICROSOFT INSIGHT
What is Microsoft Agent 365?
The control plane that observes, governs and secures agents built on Microsoft platforms or acquired from third parties, through the Microsoft 365 admin center, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview.
Microsoft Agent 365 is the control plane that observes, governs and secures agents built on Microsoft platforms or acquired from third parties, through the Microsoft 365 admin center, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender. (Microsoft Learn, checked Oct 31, 2026)
Govern agents through the tools the security team already runs and the inventory is one list. Govern them elsewhere and it is two lists that disagree.
THE METHOD
How does Agent 365 governance run in your tenant?
Inventory, permission row, gate, review: four steps, each ending in a record.
- Inventory every agent, its owner, its identity and the data it can reach.
- Set the permission row: may see, may draft, may do with approval, may do alone.
- Put a named approver at each consequential action and record the outcome.
- Review access, cost and drift monthly, and retire what nobody owns.
THE LICENSE
What changed when Agent 365 became generally available?
Since May 1, 2026 it is available to commercial customers, licensed by user rather than by agent, and works best with Microsoft 365 E5 as the base.
Microsoft Agent 365 became generally available for commercial customers on May 1, 2026, is licensed by user rather than by agent, is included in Microsoft 365 E7, and is sold as an add-on to Microsoft 365 E5, A5 and Business Premium or to the Defender Suite with the Purview Suite. (Microsoft Learn, checked Nov 4, 2026)
Plan the license with the inventory and agent sprawl is a budget line. Plan it after and agent sprawl is an invoice you explain.
THE DEFENSE
What stops an agent before it acts badly?
The approval gate first, and Microsoft Defender real-time protection second: it evaluates Agent 365 tool invocations made through Work IQ MCP before they run, and custom rules can block matching actions.
Microsoft Defender real-time protection evaluates Agent 365 tool invocations made through Work IQ MCP before they run; the default rule audits and custom rules can block matching actions. (Microsoft Learn, checked Oct 31, 2026)
With the gate and the rule, a bad action is an alert with an owner. Without them, it is a line in a log you read later.
AFTER TWO WEEKS
What will be working after two weeks?
- Every agent in scope is inventoried with owner, identity and data reach, and the orphans are named.
- The first permission rows are drafted and the approval path is agreed.
- One page separates the controls that were tested from the ones that were assumed.
- You hold the governance scope and its quote as a written decision.
The work is delivered remotely inside your own Microsoft tenant, wherever your business is, and on site only when the work needs it.
HONEST ABOUT LIMITS
What this does not do yet
It does not detect every attack on an agent with a generally available control. Microsoft Defender threat detection for Agent 365 managed agents, in public preview, raises near real time alerts for jailbreak attempts, indirect prompt injection, credential leakage and suspicious access. (Microsoft Learn, checked Nov 4, 2026, preview) The preview is labeled, and the gate and the blocking rule carry the design meanwhile.
It does not give every agent its own governed identity on day one: Microsoft Entra Agent ID is generally available, the agent Conditional Access and lifecycle controls need a Microsoft Agent 365 license, and the plan names the first wave.
It does not run the agents for you month after month: that is Managed AI and Agent Operations, a separate decision.
THE ONE THING TO REMEMBER
Agent 365 governance is about what agents are allowed to do, not what they can do.
Said another way: inventory, owner, permission row, gate, record.
Said a third way: an agent without an owner is an incident waiting for a name.
SHOW YOUR WORK
See the control path on a fictional bank.
The agent action gate
The fictional bank records the exact action and approver.
Coming
See every demonstrationDIRECT ANSWERS
Questions before you decide.
Do we need Microsoft 365 E7 for Agent 365?
No. Agent 365 is licensed by user, included in Microsoft 365 E7, and sold as an add-on to E5, A5 and Business Premium or to the Defender Suite with the Purview Suite. E7 changes the plan, not the starting point.
Which agents join automatically?
Agents built with Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio and Agent Builder. Agents built elsewhere join through registry sync or the Agent 365 SDK, which is checked for each vendor.
What is a permission row?
Four settings agreed before an agent runs: may see, may draft, may do with approval, may do alone. The row is recorded with every outcome and is what you show a board or an auditor.
What about agent identities?
Microsoft Entra Agent ID, which gives each agent its own governed identity with Conditional Access templates and sponsor lifecycle workflows, is generally available; the agent security controls need a Microsoft Agent 365 license, and the admin center wizard and agent user accounts are still in preview. The plan uses what is released and labels the rest.
How is it priced?
Quoted after a scoping call. The readiness assessment is read-only and scoped separately from remediation and from managed operations.
NEXT STEP
Start with a boundary you can explain.
Choose a focused check, or speak with the team about the workflow you need to improve.