If a genie gave you one wish to spend at work, what would it be? Think about it carefully, because when the wish is spent you don’t get another one.
Would it be to go home early for the rest of your working life? If so, this could just be your lucky day.
Your wish, granted
This week Valerie Merrill builds the closest thing Copilot has to a genie: an agent that does your job, your way, with your documents. She builds it from scratch, live, step by step. And in the best Blue Peter tradition, she even has one she made earlier. The whole thing rests on one idea: creating an agent is easy if you explain the role and the instructions clearly because that will directly impact it’s performance.
Copilot writes the instructions for you
Here’s the part that removes the last excuse. You don’t have to write those instructions yourself. Valerie opens Copilot Chat, describes what she wants the agent to do, and asks it to draft the instructions and a starter prompt. Copies the result straight into the New Agent instructions field. So the key is describing the outcome you want to Copilot, which in turn will write the instructions in a way your new agent will understand.
Watch one take shape
In the episode Valerie creates a new agent that takes a big chunky document, extracts the key points and turns them into an outline for a team briefing or a social media post. We called it the Document Enabler Agent. Not the catchiest name, we know, but that’s the point: the name doesn’t matter. It’s just an example.
What matters is being clear about what you want done
and then telling Copilot.
Name it, describe it, paste the instructions, add a prompt, click create. Then test it. If it gives you too much, or not quite enough, you go back and tweak the instructions. Just don’t forget to save it. We’ve all been there.
Skills that will last
Why does this matter beyond one handy tool? Because this is exactly the sophisticated use of AI that KPMG and McKinsey keep pointing to, the kind that gets more bang for your buck. These aren’t here-today-gone-tomorrow features. So these skills will last.
Valerie Merrill is a training and development specialist, director of Merrill Consultants and a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute. She’s also someone I’m glad to call a colleague and a friend.
Your challenge this week
Open Copilot, pick a job you do all the time, and let Copilot Chat help you write the instructions. Name it after the job it does, so you’ll always be able to identify it quickly. Examples include…
Meeting Minutes Summariser
Policy Explainer
Report Outliner
Team Briefing Writer
But the list is only limited by your imagination and what you’re willing for AI to help with.
Remember the Jobscaping tips we covered in previous episodes - They will help you decide what to delegate to AI and what to keep to yourself.
It doesn’t have to be perfect first time. Have a play, tweak it, and see what you build. You might surprise yourself.
Catch up and follow along
Everything on the Hub is free, so if you’ve missed an episode you can catch up any time. Subscribing just means you’ll know when the next one lands.
Full show notes and the companion screens guide are below. The guide has screenshots of every step, so you can follow along even if you’re only listening: Build Your Own Agent companion guide
Next week
Valerie is on holiday next week, so I’m joined by Caroline Daniel whose LinkedIn post went viral overnight: and resulted in hundreds of thousands of hits and hundreds of downloads of a lead generator document she built with AI. She tells me exactly how she did it.
Listen in on your travels or whenever you need some AI inspiration.
Thanks for subscribing and stay Sovereign!
