Microsoft Agent 365 is a control plane for AI agents. It helps organizations discover, manage, govern and secure agents across their environments, including supported agents from Microsoft and third-party sources.
Reviewed September 6, 2026. The earlier description of Agent 365 as an agent-building framework has been corrected.
Where Agent 365 fits
Your organization may build or acquire agents using different tools. Agent 365 provides a management and governance layer that connects with Microsoft 365 administration, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender. It does not, by itself, build your business workflow or establish that every external agent supports every control.
Start by checking the supported integration, agent identity and permissions for each agent you intend to manage. Confirm the available controls in your tenant and subscription before treating an agent as governed.
What your team still needs to decide
Each agent needs a business owner and a defined purpose. Document the information it may access and the actions it may take. Identify where a person must approve an action, including changes to customer records, external communications or financial transactions.
Record what happens when the agent encounters missing information, conflicting instructions or an unavailable service. An operator should be able to identify the failure, stop execution and recover without granting broader permissions just to make a run succeed.
Review licensing and data handling
Microsoft documents Agent 365 as available with eligible subscriptions and included in Microsoft 365 E7. New purchases have prerequisites that must be checked against current Product Terms. Do not assume that a license includes all agent runtime usage, connected services or partner products.
Governance also requires a data-flow review. Establish which systems process or retain inputs, outputs and audit information, who can access them and how long they remain. Applying a Microsoft control does not establish a blanket zero-retention or compliance guarantee for an entire workflow.
Start with an inventory and a controlled pilot
List the agents in use, their owners, platforms, permissions and business purpose. Select one bounded use case. Test access restrictions, approval behavior and shutdown or recovery procedures before expanding its scope.
Keep evidence of the tests and unresolved gaps. A pilot should produce a decision about readiness, not just a demonstration that an agent can respond.
Prepare your agent governance assessment
Our Microsoft Agent 365 identity and security assessment evaluates the readiness of a defined scope. Download the free Microsoft 365 AI Security and Governance Checklist, or book a free 15-minute strategy call.
Microsoft sources
Agent 365 overview; service description and feature availability; licensing prerequisite announcement.