Analyst (Microsoft 365 Copilot)
Microsoft's built-in data-analysis agent — reasons over spreadsheets and datasets with a code interpreter, end-to-end.
Analyst is one of Microsoft's out-of-the-box reasoning agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, purpose-built for data analysis. The user brings raw data (Excel files, CSVs, pasted tables) and a business question; Analyst plans the analysis, writes and runs Python in a sandboxed code interpreter, cleans and reshapes the data, computes the answer, and returns the result with charts, code, and commentary — turning every knowledge worker into a lightweight data analyst.
What this agent does
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Reasons over user-provided spreadsheets and datasets with a sandboxed Python code interpreter.
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Plan-first workflow — the user sees and can challenge the analysis plan before code runs.
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Full transparency — exposes the code it ran, the intermediate outputs, and the final answer with charts.
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Integrated with Microsoft 365 — results flow back into Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Teams with one action.
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Ships built-in with Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and runs inside the tenant's governance boundary.
What you can expect
Measured as reduction in gut-feel decisions and in off-platform data analysis (unsanctioned Python notebooks, personal spreadsheets outside M365).
Measured as reduced load on the central analytics team for routine questions and upskilling of business users on data-driven reasoning.
Measured as time-to-insight for business questions (minutes vs. days) and number of data questions answered without escalating to the analytics team.