Session Abstract

Not all agents are the same, and the platform you choose has a real impact on retrieval quality, development effort, and long-term maintainability. This session is a developer-focused comparison of three agent-building approaches, all tested against the same document library and metadata schema. We'll build and test: A out of the box SharePoint/Copilot agent A Copilot Studio agent using low-code orchestration and knowledge configuration A custom engine agent built on Azure AI Foundry / Azure AI Search We will test each agent against identical queries so we can compare accuracy, quality, and development effort required to build and maintain each one. You'll leave with guidance on which architecture fits which scenario — and when the extra complexity of a custom engine agent is actually worth it over declarative or Copilot Studio options. This session is aimed at developers and architects building or evaluating Copilot agent solutions in Microsoft 365.

Derek Cash-Peterson

Derek is passionate about building intuitive and useful applications, focusing on the design and user experience as well as the development. 

 He has over 20 years of industry experience building customized intranets, extranets, and public facing websites based on the Microsoft stack. He specializes in front-end development and visual design/branding of SharePoint, Teams, and Microsoft 365. He brings a design eye to a developers world along with skills in information architecture, content architecture, and collaboration strategy skills.