# Autonomous agent

> A Copilot Studio agent with its own account that can start steps in a process by itself, instead of waiting for someone to prompt it.

**Category:** Copilot

**An autonomous agent works proactively rather than only responding to a message.** Some Copilot Studio agents can be given their own account, which lets them initiate steps as part of a shared workflow. Microsoft's examples are process-shaped: onboarding a new employee, or coordinating the logistics of a recurring meeting.

That is a different mode from the rest of Copilot, where every [agent](/glossary#agent), connector and flow still starts from something a person typed or scheduled. It is the deep end of the pool: try it only once a simpler [agent flow](/glossary#agent-flow) or agent already runs reliably. Pilot it narrowly, keep **human approval** on anything that writes, sends or spends, and watch credit use before letting it run unsupervised on a real business process.

## At work

An HR team pilots an autonomous agent that starts the onboarding steps for each new hire, with a human approval step before anything is sent to the new colleague.

## Often confused with

A scheduled agent flow. A flow on a scheduled trigger runs fixed steps at a time a person chose; an autonomous agent initiates steps in a process itself, without a prompt or a set time.

## Related terms

- Agent
- Copilot Studio
- Agent flow
- Copilot Credits

## See it in a lesson

[Copilot Studio: build and automate](/en/learn/copilot/advanced/copilot-studio)

## Further reading

- [What is Copilot Studio? (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/fundamentals-what-is-copilot-studio): The overview of the agents you can build in Copilot Studio.
- [Copilot Studio billing and licensing (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/billing-licensing): How Studio-built agents are billed, worth reading before a pilot.

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Last updated: 14/10/2026  
Source: Rollo Academy glossary