The Copilot EXCEL Wiki agent is a purpose-built AI assistant designed to streamline the daily workflow of Excel designers. It centralizes knowledge, automates information retrieval, and proactively guides designers with actionable insights, references, and next steps—making them more efficient and up to date with Excel features and best practices.
The journey began with a simple directory of links—portals, files, presentations, Loop pages, Figma files—intended to help Excel designers quickly find resources. However, this approach was static, required heavy manual maintenance, and was dependent on others for updates. Recognizing these limitations, the vision evolved:
- Initial Attempts:
- Aggregated existing Wiki links and guidelines.
- Experimented with AI Notebook in Copilot (limited by reference cap).
- Tried grounding the agent on Loop workspace (blocked by compliance/features).
- Key Insight:
- Designers needed more than a directory—they needed an intelligent, context-aware agent that could answer nuanced questions, surface the latest resources, and reduce manual searching.
- Research:
- Conducted 1:1 and whiteboarding sessions with designers to gather real-world questions and expectations.
- Collected and categorized prompts into five main buckets (e.g., design craft, process, handoff, accessibility, onboarding).
- Pain Points Identified:
- Existing Wiki was hard to maintain, lacked excitement, and didn’t scale.
- Manual updates to SharePoint and Loop were tedious.
- Solution Evolution:
- Rebuilt the Wiki structure in SharePoint for compliance and scalability.
- Hard-coded tables, links, and authored how-to guides for key workflows (icon creation, bug bash, research, etc.).
- Iteratively fine-tuned the agent’s responses for clarity, relevance, and actionable output.
The Copilot EXCEL Wiki agent is designed to be:
- Helpful, Concise, and Actionable:
- Answers questions on design craft, process, handoff, accessibility, onboarding, references, collaboration, quality, research, telemetry, and impact.
- Source Prioritization:
- Curated Knowledge Bank (canonical files/pages).
- Enterprise sources: SharePoint/OneDrive → Figma → Teams/Loop → ADO → Calendar/Email (on request).
- Org-wide knowledge graph (Azure AI Search, Viva Topics).
- Evidence-Based Summarization:
- Summarizes only from retrieved evidence.
- Clearly states when information is missing or conflicting.
- Response Formatting:
- TL;DR summary.
- Numbered action steps.
- References table (Title, Owner, Last Updated, Link).
- Platform-specific notes (Win/Web/Mac/Mobile).
- Inline citations and proactive next steps.
- Tone & Style:
- Friendly, concise, and designer-centric.
- Uses bullets, tables, and short paragraphs for clarity.
- Efficiency:
- Reduces time spent searching for resources and guidelines.
- Automates repetitive knowledge retrieval.
- Consistency:
- Ensures designers access up-to-date, canonical information.
- Standardizes onboarding and handoff processes.
- Scalability:
- Easily integrates new knowledge sources and workflows.
- Lays groundwork for future automation (e.g., Figma API integration).
- Technical Barriers:
- Compliance restrictions on Loop workspace integration.
- SharePoint’s manual setup required creative workarounds.
- User Adoption:
- Continuous feedback loops with designers were critical.
- Iterative improvements based on real-world usage.
The next phase aims to make the agent even more proactive and context-aware:
- Figma REST API Integration:
- Direct access to Figma workspace, teams, files, and comments.
- Reduces manual updates and keeps design assets in sync.
- Personalized Daily Briefings:
- Agent responds to prompts like “How is my day looking like?” by aggregating emails, calendars, chats, meeting transcripts, Figma updates, and more.
- Provides prioritized actions, relevant files, and next steps—empowering designers to focus on high-impact work.
The Copilot EXCEL Wiki agent represents a leap forward in how Excel designers access, use, and contribute to organizational knowledge. By combining user-centered design, enterprise-grade knowledge management, and AI-powered assistance, it sets a new standard for efficiency and collaboration in design teams.
