Configure knowledge sources for agents

By default, the agent uses public web data sources to research records and their companies. However, you can enhance the relevance of the research insights and email content by adding custom knowledge sources that are specific to your organization and industry. For example, in Sales Qualification Agent, you can add customer testimonials and case studies as knowledge sources for outreach emails to engage with records effectively.

Considerations

Before you configure knowledge sources for agents, consider the following factors:

• When you add a knowledge source to the agent, you're redirected to Microsoft Copilot Studio. So, ensure that you have the necessary permissions to access and modify the knowledge sources in Copilot Studio. The agents use specialized micro agents in Copilot Studio for outreach emails, follow-up emails, and research insights. Knowledge sources you add to these micro agents are only used for the specific purpose they're configured for. For example, knowledge sources you add to the Research micro agent are only used for research insights, and not for outreach emails or follow-up emails.

• If the Sales Qualification Agent and Sales Opportunity Agent are in the same environment, they share the same knowledge sources for account research insights. The knowledge sources that you add to or remove from one of the agents also affect the other agent. If you see knowledge sources that you didn't add, it's possible that those sources are configured for the Sales Opportunity Agent. Don't remove them unless you want to remove them from both agents.

• Ensure that you place any files or documents that you want the agent to use in a SharePoint folder. The agent doesn't support any other file sources, such as OneDrive.

• In Copilot Studio, when you upload files from SharePoint, select the SharePoint option in the Featured section. The SharePoint option under the Upload file section isn't supported. Selecting this option blocks the agent from processing the records. The following screenshot shows the correct option to select in Copilot Studio:

  

Add knowledge sources for company research

By default, the agent uses public web data sources to research records and their companies. However, you can add custom knowledge sources that you want the agent to use to get more relevant and specific insights about the record and their company.

1. Depending on the agent you're configuring, go to the Sales Qualification Agent settings page or the Sales Opportunity Agent settings page.

2. In the Knowledge section, select Research.

3. Under Enrich research with knowledge sources, select Company research. Company insights include industry type, company size, financials, priorities, and news. The following examples are the best sources to add as knowledge sources for company research:

   Insight	Typical questions answered	Examples of out-of-box data sources
   Company background	What does the company do? What is its size and industry?	Company website, Wikipedia pages, Crunchbase profiles
   Strategic priorities	What is the firm focusing on? Does their priority match with what we are selling?	Annual reports, earnings-call transcripts
   Financials	How healthy is the business? Will they have budget to buy what we are selling?	SEC filings, Bloomberg, Dataverse finance tables
   Recent news	What just happened that matters to us, and shows a need or intent for our solutions?	Bing news search

4. Select Add in Microsoft Copilot Studio or Manage in Microsoft Copilot Studio to add or remove knowledge sources. You're redirected to the D365 Sales Agent - Research agent's Knowledge page in Copilot Studio.

5. Add relevant knowledge sources and return to the agent settings page. The knowledge sources you added in Copilot Studio are listed under Company research. You can now test the knowledge source.

6. Select the Test icon ( ) in the Company research section. Follow the instructions in the Test insight pane and verify whether the agent is generating relevant research insights using the knowledge sources you added.

Configure the agent to generate competitor insights

The agent can provide insights about competitors for a record. These insights include information about your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and talking points to help sellers position your products or services effectively against the competition. As an admin, you can configure the agent to generate competitor insights by specifying key competitors and uploading relevant knowledge sources.

How the agent identifies competitors to research

The agent identifies competitors for a record from the following sources:

• Competitors you add to the record. The agent gives these competitors the highest priority. If you specify a competitor in the record, the agent researches only that competitor.

• No competitors are specified in the opportunity record. The agent identifies competitors using the following sources, in order:

  • Closed opportunities with competitor information. When the agent identifies multiple competitors, it ranks them and selects the top three for research by using the following factors, in order of importance:

    Order	Factor	Description
    1	Admin configuration match	The agent selects competitors that match your admin-configured competitor list first.
    2	Frequency in closed opportunities	The agent ranks higher competitors that appear in the most closed opportunities.
    3	Reported revenue	The agent sorts competitors by their reported revenue, highest first.
    4	Alphabetical order	If all other factors are equal, the agent sorts competitors alphabetically as a tiebreaker.

  • Closed opportunities with no competitor information. The agent identifies competitors using web search results based on account research and the opportunity’s value proposition. It then matches these competitors against the competitor list configured in the agent settings.
    The agent uses only competitors that both appear in the web search results and are included in your configured competitor list.

    • If no web-identified competitors match the configured list, the agent uses all competitors from the configured list.
    • If no competitors are configured, the agent uses competitors identified through web research alone.

Specific to Sales Opportunity Agent

In addition to the above sources, Sales Opportunity Agent analyzes the historical trends show win and loss rates from past opportunities, and generates insights.

• Win or loss rate: The win or loss rate shows how often your organization won deals against a competitor. It's calculated by using the closed opportunities analyzed (up to 10) and represents the proportion of wins compared to the total number of opportunities considered.

• Insight generation: To provide additional context, the agent generates insights by analyzing the Description field in the opportunity close records. These insights highlight patterns, outcomes, and competitive signals from past deals.

Add competitors and knowledge sources for competitor insights

When the agent doesn't find competitor information in the record or doesn't find any overlapping mentions of competitors across different sources, it uses the competitors list you add in the agent settings as explained in this section.

You can also upload relevant documents such as battle cards, positioning briefs, and market analysis reports to help the agent generate more accurate and relevant insights. To learn more, see considerations for knowledge sources.

1. Depending on the agent you're configuring, go to the Sales Qualification Agent settings page or the Sales Opportunity Agent settings page.

2. Under Knowledge, select Research, and then scroll down to the Competitor research section.

3. Under Key competitors, select + Competitor to add up to three competitors for the product line that the agent works on.

4. Select Upload in Microsoft Copilot Studio to upload or remove knowledge sources for competitor insights.
   The D365 Sales Agent - Competitors agent's Knowledge page opens in Copilot Studio.

5. Select Add knowledge and then select Upload file.

   Note

   You can upload only slide decks or documents as knowledge sources for competitor insights.

6. Select the documents. You can group similar documents into a group to help the agent understand the context better. For example, you can group all documents related to a specific competitor. Select Upload > Upload as a group to upload the documents as a group.

   

   You can also group individual documents into a group after uploading them. Select a document in the Knowledge page and select Create file group to create a group and add the document to it.

7. Return to the agent settings page and select the Test icon ( ) in the Competitor research section. Follow the instructions in the Test insight pane and verify whether the agent is generating relevant research insights using the knowledge sources you added.

Add custom fields for research

Add custom fields to the agent to enhance the context for generating research insights. For example, if you have a custom field that indicates whether a record is a high-priority account, add that field to the agent to help it prioritize insights for those accounts. Add both Opportunity and its related entities' custom fields to the Sales Opportunity Agent.

1. In the Agent research settings page, go to the Add fields to include section.

2. Select + Add and choose custom fields that you want the agent to include in the research context.

   

Add knowledge sources for outreach and follow-up emails

Add knowledge sources that the agent uses to draft outreach and follow-up emails to records. For example, add customer testimonials and case studies as knowledge sources for outreach emails to engage with records effectively.

1. Go to the agent settings page.
2. In the Knowledge section, select Agent emails. Add knowledge sources for the following email types: - Knowledge sources for email personalization: The agent uses these knowledge sources to draft personalized outreach emails. Add relevant customer testimonials, case studies, and other insights to engage with the record effectively.
   - Knowledge sources for email responses: This setting is only applicable for the Research and engage mode. The agent uses these knowledge sources to draft follow-up emails to respond accurately and ask insightful questions. For an effective follow-up, add knowledge sources that include price sources, product specifications, sales playbooks, SKUs, and more.
3. Select Manage to add or remove knowledge sources in Microsoft Copilot Studio. For email personalization, the D365 Sales Agent - Outreach Emails agent's Knowledge page opens in Copilot Studio. For email responses, the D365 Sales Agent - Engage Autonomous agent's Knowledge page opens in Copilot Studio.
4. Add relevant knowledge sources and go back to the agent settings page. The knowledge sources you added in Copilot Studio are listed under the respective email type.

Example scenario: Contoso Investment Bank targets high-net-worth (HNW) records

Goal: Contoso’s sales operations team wants the agent to decide if a record’s personal net worth exceeds US$5 million. If it does, they want to include tailored talking points in the outreach email.

After you publish the knowledge sources, the agent:

• Fetches NetWorth from the SharePoint list to decide if the record meets the high-net-worth threshold.
• Uses Dunn & Bradstreet’s high-quality data to augment public sources.
• Surfaces company priorities from the analyst reports suggesting relevant investment products.
• Quotes the latest Bloomberg headline in the latest news card.
• Generates an email that references the record’s net-worth range and a recent strategic move.

Best practices

Consider the following best practices when adding knowledge sources:

• Keep descriptions specific. Adding descriptions such as "Dataverse table with Assets Under Management by client" is more helpful than just "Finance table."
• Limit public sites. Too many broad domains dilute relevance; add the few that best match your industry.
• Review security. The agent only presents data that the signed-in seller is permitted to access.
• Monitor capacity. Large files and frequent refreshes consume AI credits; track usage in Power Platform admin center.

By using curated knowledge sources, the agent becomes a top researcher that understands your organization and surfaces the insights your sellers value most.

Next steps

• For Sales Qualification Agent:

  • Run simulation to review outreach email content.
  • Start the Sales Qualification Agent.

• For Sales Opportunity Agent:

  • Configure advanced settings (optional).
  • Start the Sales Opportunity Agent.

Related information

Add knowledge to an agent
Configure the Sales Qualification Agent Set up and configure Sales Opportunity Agent