BRAND AGENT

What Are Brand Agents?

Brand Agents are AI-powered agents that represent a specific brand or business inside Microsoft Copilot. When users ask Copilot questions related to your product category, your Brand Agent can respond with branded, personalised guidance, product recommendations, and direct paths to purchase.

Announced January 2026 at the National Retail Federation conference. Brand Agents mark the transition from passive advertising to active AI brand presence.

How Brand Agents Work

Brand Agents operate within the Microsoft Advertising ecosystem. When a user’s query matches your Brand Agent’s configured product categories and intent signals, your agent is surfaced as a conversational participant — able to respond, recommend, and route to checkout.

The agent draws on three data sources: your product catalogue (via Microsoft Merchant Center), your configured brand voice and response templates, and real-time conversation context from the Copilot session.

Configuration: Step-by-Step

Prerequisites

  • Active Microsoft Advertising account
  • Microsoft Merchant Center with approved product feed
  • Brand safety guidelines document (for brand voice configuration)

Setup steps

  1. Navigate to Microsoft Advertising → Copilot → Brand Agents
  2. Create a new Brand Agent and define your product categories
  3. Connect your Merchant Center feed as the product data source
  4. Configure brand voice: tone, key messages, prohibited language
  5. Set intent triggers: the query types that should activate your agent
  6. Configure response templates for common question types
  7. Link to Copilot Checkout if enrolled
  8. Submit for Microsoft review and activation

Brand Voice & Tone Design

Your Brand Agent’s voice is configured through the Microsoft Advertising platform. Define these parameters carefully — they govern every interaction your agent has in Copilot.

  • Tone: Professional, casual, expert, friendly
  • Key differentiators: What makes your brand unique
  • Response style: Brief and direct vs detailed and educational
  • Prohibited topics: Competitor mentions, price claims you can’t support
  • Call-to-action preference: Shop now, learn more, get a quote

Performance Dashboard & Analytics

Brand Agent performance is tracked in Microsoft Advertising under Copilot → Agent Performance. Key metrics:

  • Agent impressions: How often your agent was surfaced
  • Engagement rate: Users who interacted beyond the first response
  • Checkout conversion: Agent sessions that completed a purchase
  • Session quality score: Microsoft’s measure of interaction quality

Independence notice: CopilotAdvertising.ai is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation. All Microsoft product names are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation used for editorial purposes only.