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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tAI & Emerging Technology | AI Learnings Series | Modern Workplace & IT | ModernEUC | Tech Talk\t\t\t\n\t\t

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Copilot Studio Moves to Entra Agent ID

\n\tByJorge Pereira\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t2026-08-282026-09-06\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t

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Tags: AI, AI Agents, AI Series, artificial intelligence, Copilot, Microsoft 365

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Part of: AI Learning Series Here

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Disclaimer: I create this content entirely on my own time, and the views expressed here are mine alone (not my employer’s). Because I love leveraging new tech, I use AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and others as a “digital team” to help research and polish these articles so I can share the best possible insights with you!

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I’ve been talking quite a bit about Microsoft’s massive effort to make Copilot a more usable and coherent platform. Piece by piece, Microsoft is bringing together agents, identity, security, governance, and management into a more consistent enterprise framework. The latest move is the rollout of self-service migration for existing Copilot Studio agents to Microsoft Entra Agent ID — and while it may sound like a small technical change, it points to something much bigger: AI agents are becoming first-class enterprise identities.

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According to Microsoft 365 Message Center notification MC1462458, the gradual rollout began on August 24, 2026, through Power Platform Advisor. Copilot Studio agents created before May 2026 may still be using traditional app-registration identities, and Microsoft is recommending that organizations migrate eligible agents to Entra Agent ID.

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At first glance, this may sound like a relatively minor identity-management change.

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It isn’t.

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This is another important step toward something enterprises increasingly need as AI adoption accelerates:

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Agents need identities, permissions, governance, monitoring, and lifecycle management just like people and applications do.

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With this change:

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AI agents are becoming first-class enterprise identities — and they need to be governed that way.
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What is Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

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Microsoft Entra Agent ID extends Microsoft’s identity platform specifically to AI agents.

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Historically, many agents have been represented inside Entra as conventional application registrations or service principals. They could authenticate and access resources, but from an identity-governance perspective they essentially looked like applications.

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Agent ID changes that model.

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Microsoft describes Agent ID as an identity foundation designed specifically for AI agents, allowing organizations to discover, govern, monitor, and protect agent identities across their environments.

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For new Copilot Studio agents, Microsoft now automatically provisions an Entra Agent ID. Older agents may continue using their original app-registration identities until they are migrated.

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That distinction becomes increasingly important as organizations go from experimenting with a handful of AI assistants to potentially operating hundreds or thousands of agents.

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Why migrate existing Copilot Studio agents?

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The real value is governance.

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Moving an agent to Entra Agent ID brings the agent more directly into Microsoft’s identity and security ecosystem.

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Among the benefits Microsoft highlights are:

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Audit logging in Microsoft Entra ID, providing better visibility into agent authentication activity.
Agent lifecycle management, helping organizations manage agents from creation through retirement.
Integration with Microsoft Entra ID Governance.
Better visibility into connector permissions, with connector permissions appearing as API permissions associated with the agent identity.
Conditional Access targeting, allowing organizations to apply policies based on factors such as network location, device compliance, or risk conditions.

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That last point is particularly interesting.

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As agents begin accessing enterprise systems, calling APIs, invoking workflows, retrieving organizational data, and acting on behalf of users, security teams will increasingly need to answer questions such as:

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Which agent accessed this system?
What permissions does that agent have?
Who owns it?
Should it still have access?
What happens when the employee who created it leaves?

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Traditional application registrations weren’t designed around those questions.

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Agent identity governance is.

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What changed on August 24?

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Microsoft’s August 2026 Message Center announcement adds an important operational piece to this transition.

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The company began the gradual rollout of self-service migration through Power Platform Advisor on August 24, 2026.

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Organizations with eligible agents can use the Power Platform admin experience to identify and migrate older agents.

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Microsoft’s current documentation also states that older agents can be manually migrated using the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell, or Power Platform APIs.

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For administrators, the Power Platform Advisor workflow is intended to make identifying and migrating those agents easier.

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The general path described in the Message Center announcement is:

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Power Platform admin center → Actions → Entra ID Governance → Active

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From there, administrators can review the migration action and identify eligible Copilot Studio agents.

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Don’t migrate everything at once

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One of Microsoft’s more important recommendations is also one of the most practical:

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Start small.

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Instead of migrating every agent immediately, begin with a small batch of noncritical agents.

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After migration, validate the complete agent experience, including:

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Channels
Authentication
Actions
Connectors
Power Automate flows
Integrations
Permissions

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Then check Microsoft Entra sign-in logs and Conditional Access results before moving on to the next group.

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If an agent doesn’t validate correctly, Microsoft recommends reverting it before continuing with additional migrations.

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This is particularly important because an agent is rarely an isolated object.

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A production Copilot Studio agent might connect to SharePoint, Dataverse, Power Automate, APIs, Teams, custom connectors, or other enterprise systems.

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The identity may change behind the scenes, but the entire chain of dependencies still needs to work.

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\n\n Step \n\n	\n\n What to Do \n\n	\n\n Why It Matters \n\n
\n\n 1. Inventory your agents \n\n	\n\n Identify each agent, owner, business purpose, environment, current identity, connectors, flows, channels, and dependencies. \n\n	\n\n You need to know what exists before you can govern or migrate it effectively. \n\n
\n\n 2. Classify by risk \n\n	\n\n Group agents as low, medium, or high risk based on the data they access and the actions they can perform. \n\n	\n\n This helps determine migration order and validation requirements. \n\n
\n\n 3. Document dependencies \n\n	\n\n Review authentication, API permissions, connectors, Power Automate flows, Teams deployments, external APIs, and service accounts. \n\n	\n\n Identity changes can affect integrations that may not be obvious at first. \n\n
\n\n 4. Migrate in waves \n\n	\n\n Start with a small group of noncritical agents, validate them, then move to broader production groups. \n\n	\n\n A phased approach reduces the impact of unexpected issues. \n\n
\n\n 5. Validate after migration \n\n	\n\n Test channels, authentication, actions, connectors, flows, integrations, and permissions. \n\n	\n\n A successful migration is more than simply changing the agent identity. \n\n
\n\n 6. Monitor and govern \n\n	\n\n Review Entra sign-in logs, Conditional Access results, permissions, ownership, and lifecycle status. \n\n	\n\n Migration should be the beginning of stronger agent governance, not the end. \n\n

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One important documentation caveat

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Microsoft’s documentation around this transition has been evolving quickly.

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Some earlier Microsoft guidance described a recreate-and-decommission process for Copilot Studio agents using legacy service principals, while newer Copilot Studio documentation now describes migration through the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell, and APIs. Microsoft’s August 2026 Message Center announcement adds the new Power Platform Advisor self-service migration capability.

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For that reason, organizations planning a migration should check the latest Microsoft documentation and their own Power Platform Advisor experience before designing a migration process around older guidance.

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This area is changing rapidly.

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The bigger story: AI agents are becoming first-class enterprise identities

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This is the part of the announcement I find most significant.

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The enterprise AI conversation is rapidly moving beyond:

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“Which AI model should we use?”

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and toward:

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“How do we safely operate an organization filled with AI agents?”

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Agents won’t simply answer questions.

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They will increasingly:

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access corporate information,
call APIs,
execute workflows,
interact with applications,
create and modify information,
communicate with other agents,
and perform tasks on behalf of employees.

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Once agents can act, identity becomes foundational.

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We already understand this concept for humans:

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Identity → Authentication → Authorization → Governance → Monitoring → Lifecycle
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AI agents need essentially the same discipline.

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Microsoft Entra Agent ID is one example of that transition becoming part of mainstream enterprise infrastructure.

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Where Agent 365 Fits In

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The move to Microsoft Entra Agent ID is also part of a much bigger picture.

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Microsoft is positioning Agent 365 as the centralized control plane for observing, governing, and securing AI agents across the enterprise. Entra provides the identity and access layer, while Agent 365 brings broader visibility, lifecycle management, policy enforcement, and governance across an organization’s growing agent population.

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That relationship is important:

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Entra Agent ID answers “Who is this agent, and what can it access?”

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Agent 365 answers “How do we manage, govern, monitor, and secure all of our agents at scale?”

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Microsoft’s direction is becoming increasingly clear: as agents become part of everyday work, organizations will need the same disciplines around identity, ownership, lifecycle, security, compliance, and access controls that they already apply to people and applications. Microsoft’s current Agent 365 guidance specifically ties agent governance to Entra for identity, Defender for security, and Purview for data governance.

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And that makes this Copilot Studio migration more than a technical cleanup exercise.

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Entra Agent ID gives an agent an enterprise identity. Agent 365 gives the enterprise a way to manage the agent population.
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My recommendation

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If your organization has been building Copilot Studio agents for some time, don’t treat this as simply an identity migration. With Entra Agent ID providing the identity foundation and platforms such as Agent 365 emerging to manage and govern agents at scale, this is a good opportunity to review your overall agent inventory, ownership, permissions, lifecycle, and governance model.

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Ask:

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What agents do we have?
Who owns each one?
What can each agent access?
Which agents are still being used?
Which permissions are actually necessary?
What happens when an agent or its owner is no longer needed?

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These questions will become increasingly important as agent adoption expands.

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The organizations that establish this discipline now will be in a much better position as the number, reach, and autonomy of their AI agents grows.

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I am glad to see that

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Agent identity is becoming a foundational part of enterprise AI governance.
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References and Further Reading

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Microsoft 365 Message Center — MC1462458: “Migrate Copilot Studio agents to Microsoft Entra Agent ID” — The specific Microsoft advisory announcing that self-service migration began rolling out on August 24, 2026, through Power Platform Advisor. It recommends migrating older Copilot Studio agents that may still use legacy app-registration identities. The original notice is available to Microsoft 365 administrators through Message Center. A public summary is available here: MC1462458 public summary.
Manage Microsoft Entra Agent IDs in Copilot Studio — Microsoft’s primary guidance on how Copilot Studio uses Entra Agent ID, including benefits such as audit logging, lifecycle management, connector-permission visibility, Conditional Access, and migration options for existing agents.
What’s New in Microsoft Entra Agent ID — A useful overview of the latest Agent ID capabilities, including migration guidance for Copilot Studio agents and Microsoft’s broader direction for managing agent identities at enterprise scale.
Migrate Copilot Studio Agents to Microsoft Entra Agent ID — Microsoft’s detailed migration guidance for organizations with older Copilot Studio agents using legacy service principals or application registrations.
What’s New in Microsoft Copilot Studio — Microsoft’s rolling list of Copilot Studio changes and releases, including the move to automatically provision Entra Agent IDs for new agents.
Microsoft Agent 365 — Microsoft’s overview of Agent 365 as the enterprise control plane for observing, governing, and securing AI agents, including integration with Entra for identity, Defender for security, and Purview for data governance.

Some of My Related Posts:

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Step	Action	Typical Owner
Audit	List all existing agent and blueprint identities in Entra ID	IT administrator
Assign	Name a business sponsor for every agent identity	Department head
Review	Extend Conditional Access policies to cover agent sign-ins	Identity administrator
Monitor	Check agent-specific sign-in logs monthly	IT support or MSP

Agent identities and authentication for Copilot Studio

\n\t\t\t\tIn this article\n\t\t\t

Understand agent identities

How does Copilot Studio identify agents for authentication?

When is an Entra Agent ID provisioned?

Why does my agent have an identity in Microsoft Entra ID?

What's the difference between Copilot Studio agents and Agent Builder agents?

Work with agent identities

Do I need to manually create or configure an agent identity?

How do I find which app registration or Agent ID belongs to my agent?

Can I bring my own Agent ID or app registration?

Why does Copilot Studio add the agent owner to the agent identity?

Security and permissions

Who can generate tokens by using the agent identity?

For Entra Agent IDs

For Azure Bot Service skill validation

For legacy app registrations

What scopes are attached to my agent's Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

How do the scopes appear in Microsoft Entra ID?

When are scopes added or removed?

Does this change apply to legacy app registrations?

Entra Agent ID migration

What happens to existing agents that I created before Entra Agent ID was available?

Does enabling Agent ID change how my agent authenticates?

What are Blueprint Principals?

Why did my agent fail to be created because of a Microsoft Entra quota or limit?

Agent lifecycle

What happens to the agent identity when you delete an agent?

Related articles

Feedback

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In this article

How to Govern AI Agents in Copilot Studio: The 2026 Enterprise Guide

How We Help

Intelligent Process Automation

Platform Architecture & Governance

Enterprise AI & Copilot Systems

Data & Decision Intelligence

Consulting

Process Insights

Key Takeaways

The short answer: what agent governance actually requires in 2026

What is Microsoft Entra Agent ID and why does it change governance?

Identity-layer authorization replaces prompt-based controls

How does Microsoft Agent 365 fit into agent governance?

Agent 365 capabilities compared

Where do you start governing Copilot Studio agents?

Why should agents be shared with Entra groups instead of individual users?

What about distributing agents without giving away maker access?

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to buy Agent 365 to govern Copilot Studio agents?

When did Entra Agent IDs become mandatory for Copilot Studio?

How is agent governance different from traditional Power Platform governance?

How do I prevent agents from accessing data they shouldn't?

What is \"agent sprawl\" and why is it a security risk?

Who should own agent governance in the organization?

Where this is heading

Govern your agents before they outnumber your controls

Sources

Table of Contents

Let’s make your tech stack work together

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Contact Us

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What is Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

Why migrate existing Copilot Studio agents?

What changed on August 24?

Don’t migrate everything at once

One important documentation caveat

The bigger story: AI agents are becoming first-class enterprise identities

Where Agent 365 Fits In

My recommendation

References and Further Reading

RELATED TOPICS TO THIS ARTICLE

Some of My Related Posts:

Microsoft Entra Agent ID: Securing Non-Human Identities as AI Agents Enter Your Business

9 October 2026

What are the key takeaways on Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

What is Microsoft Entra Agent ID and why does it matter now?

How is an agent identity different from a traditional service principal?