Microsoft Researcher Agent Can Speed Decision-Making, But Check Your Work

• Microsoft Researcher can accelerate complex decision-making by using deep reasoning and retrieval across business and Web data to deliver structured analysis.
• With access to well-governed data, it potentially can improve research accuracy, efficiency, and productivity, and reduce costs and time.
• Researcher is subject to hallucinations like other AI services and requires verification of the analysis.
• Organizations should invest in training to help users understand how to use Researcher effectively.

Microsoft Researcher (Researcher) is an advanced reasoning AI agent based on OpenAI’s o3 model that is designed to shorten research cycles for strategic insights, potentially saving days of effort. It mimics human analytical thinking to analyze data from the organization and the Web to produce detailed, structured reports with higher accuracy than Microsoft 365 (M365) Copilot. As with M365 Copilot, Researcher users must have access to the data needed for research or risk skewing the analysis. Admins manage accessing agents in the M365 admin center, but an error with Researcher currently prevents this capability. Although similar to competing deep research services, such as OpenAI’s Deep Research Agent, Researcher is included with M365 Copilot, adding value to the license.