Exercise 1, Task 1: Use the Researcher agent to analyze your competitors and identify industry trends

Fabrikam’s Sales leadership identified the hospitality industry as a key growth opportunity for EcoSense 360, the company’s smart energy management solution. Before the Sales team dives into broader market research, leadership requested that you provide a structured, data-driven analysis of the competitive landscape and industry trends—information that can be referenced in strategy discussions and sales planning.

To accomplish this goal, you turn to Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Researcher agent, which is designed for in-depth, repeatable business analysis. You plan to use the Researcher agent to identify leading hotel energy management systems, compare their features and pricing models, and summarize key differentiators. The goal is to create a solid foundation of verified, structured intelligence that can inform subsequent market research, proposal development, and sales strategy.

By starting with the Researcher agent, you ensure that you have accurate, repeatable insights about the competitive environment before exploring broader market trends with Copilot Chat.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. In your Microsoft Edge browser, sign in to the Microsoft 365 home page (https://www.microsoft365.com) if necessary and select the Researcher agent in the navigation pane.

  2. Ask the agent to research and compare the top three energy management systems currently used by large hotel chains. Include pricing models, customer segments, and differentiators. Ask it to structure the findings in a comparison table. Lastly, ask it to summarize current trends and innovations shaping the hotel automation and sustainability market.

[!IMPORTANT] Since it typically takes Researcher at least 5-10 minutes to complete its analysis, proceed to Task 2. You can work on Task 2 while Researcher conducts its business analysis. Once you complete Task 2, return here and continue with this task.

  1. With Task 2 complete, switch back to the Microsoft Edge browser tab containing the Researcher agent. Once Researcher finishes gathering its insights, select the Convert to Word button (which might appear as Open in Word depending on your version), which directs Researcher to present its findings in a Word document. Review the information compiled by Researcher.

  2. You plan to use this document in Task 3 when you create a sales proposal, so make note of the file name that appears above the Word menu bar. If Copilot assigned a generic file name, such as Document 1, select the document name and rename the file to something more appropriate, such as Top 3 EMS systems.

  3. In the Copilot pane in Microsoft Word, verify the Edit with Copilot icon appears in the prompt field next to the plus (+) sign. If it doesn’t appear, select the plus sign, and then in the drop-down menu, select Edit with Copilot.

  4. In the prompt field, ask Copilot to compare the results in this document that were generated by the Researcher agent to the results from the market research conducted by Copilot Chat, which you created in Task 2 and stored in the EcoSense360 market research.docx file. Attach the EcoSense360 market research.docx file to your prompt.

  5. Review the results of this comparison, especially the Conclusion, which should summarize the differences between the two types of research.

At this point, you can proceed to Task 3.