Adventures with Copilot Studio: The Right Agent for the Job

I wanted to share a fantastic infographic created by Ragnar Pitla and Tina van Heerden on when to choose a Connected Agent or Child Agent.

The original post can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ragnarpitla_copilotstudio-multiagent-dynamics365-activity-7431727834206887936-n-Qn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAABL96gBbvUghIO-lMxMDBk1EKbNiiclLxc.

Based on their excellent work, here is a list of questions that can help you select between a Connected Agent and a Child Agent.

Are you crossing a system or domain boundary?

Examples:

• CRM → Finance
• HR → IT
• Sales → Operations

✅ Use a 🛜 Connected Agent

Is this work staying inside the same business domain?

Ask yourself:

• Is this part of one larger workflow?
• Is the functionality closely tied to the parent agent?
• Would separating it just improve modularity?

Examples:

• Tax calculation inside an order process
• Discount logic for purchases
• Approval workflows in the same system

✅ Use a 👦 Child Agent

Will a different team own or maintain this capability?

Ask yourself:

• Will another team build or maintain this agent?
• Does it belong to a different system or product area?

✅ Use a 🛜 Connected Agent

Does the capability need its own lifecycle?

Ask yourself:

• Does it need to be published independently?
• Will it have a separate ALM pipeline?
• Should it be reusable across multiple agents?

✅ Use a 🛜 Connected Agent

Is this simply a modular sub-task of a larger agent?

Ask yourself:

• Is this part of one larger workflow?
• Is the functionality closely tied to the parent agent?
• Would separating it just improve modularity?

Examples:

• Tax calculation
• Discount evaluation
• Order approval

✅ Use a 👦 Child Agent

Can my agent use both?

Absolutely! You’ll find that as your Agent ecosystem matures that it will be quite common for your Agents to use both🛜 Connected Agent and 👦 Child Agents.