New Copilot agents in OneDrive allow users to analyze and query multiple documents simultaneously.
Microsoft has made OneDrive agents generally available. This feature allows users to combine up to twenty files into a single agent via Microsoft Copilot, instead of querying just one document at a time. This agent is stored as a .agent file in OneDrive and acts as a kind of smart layer on top of the selected documents.
Sharing and collaboration
Agents are searchable and can be shared with colleagues. However, there is an important condition: anyone using the agent must also have access to the source files. Without these rights, Copilot does not provide useful answers. According to Microsoft, this helps teams to stay “on the same page without extra transfer moments”.
Instead of searching individual files, users can now ask overarching questions such as: “What decisions have we made so far?” or “What risks keep recurring?” Copilot then generates an answer based on the combined content of all linked documents.
Concerns about transparency
It is striking that Microsoft states that the use of OneDrive agents “does not require special admin configuration.” It is also unclear for the time being what exactly happens behind the scenes and how user data is processed. Microsoft has not yet provided any substantive explanation to questions from The Register about privacy and data usage.
AI functionality in OneDrive is not new, but this expansion makes collaboration and document analysis more focused. Organizations that are already using a Copilot-driven workflow may see benefits in this. Users who prefer not to use an AI assistant can turn the feature off.