Microsoft Employee Self-Service Agent

Microsoft Employee Self-Service Agent is an AI assistant that handles staff HR requests. Staff check leave, pay and benefits, update personal details and raise HR tickets in Copilot chat. It connects to Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow. Staff with a Copilot licence can use it. For everyone else the average price is 15 cents a question.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 5 Oct 2026 Last updated 5 Oct 2026

It suits organisations whose staff already use Microsoft 365 Copilot

In one line

It lets staff check leave, pay and benefits, update personal details and raise HR requests, all in Copilot chat.

Buy it if

Your staff already use Microsoft 365 Copilot. Your HR records sit in Workday or SAP SuccessFactors. You want one assistant that reads and updates them.

Do not buy it if

Your staff work mostly in Teams, because the Teams app has open issues. Also hold off if nobody can answer the sensitive conversations it hands over.

Price

Employees with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence can use it. Without a licence, the average cost is 15 cents a question.

It answers HR questions and updates HR records inside Copilot

Employees can check their leave balance, update their personal email and pull up pay and benefits. They can also raise an HR request, all in one chat. Microsoft built the assistant on Copilot. It answers from the knowledge sources you add and the connections you set up to your other systems. Managers can review their team’s data and service anniversaries. They can also update details for the people who report to them.

With SAP SuccessFactors, employees can get their base pay, company code, cost centre, hire date and service anniversary. They can also get their employee ID, job details, position number, preferred name, email and national ID. They can update veteran information, race and ethnicity, an emergency contact, a phone number, an email and a preferred name.

With the older Workday connection, the assistant reads base pay, company code, salary range, cost centre and service anniversary. It can get, add and update phone numbers. With ServiceNow, it reads and creates tickets. Microsoft also supplies ready-made packages for Workday, ServiceNow and other systems. Each package holds the connections, conversation topics and template settings your IT team starts from.

Employees reach it in Copilot chat, and on the Microsoft Copilot app for iOS and Android.

Decide who handles the sensitive conversations. The assistant has a topic that tries to spot questions about discrimination, harassment, abuse, unethical behaviour and retaliation. It is off by default. When it fires, the employee sees a message. The message says consulting a professional is the best way to get help. It asks them to contact a representative, and the conversation ends. Name that representative before you switch the topic on.

Our guide to AI HR assistants covers how the rest of this market handles sensitive questions.

Early results show up to 31% fewer support tickets

Microsoft reports early results of up to 31% fewer support tickets and a 25% rise in response accuracy. A support ticket is a request that reaches your HR or IT team. Response accuracy measures how often the assistant’s answer is right. Ask for the customer and the method behind each figure before you put either one in a business case.

Connectors cost nothing extra and questions do not train its core AI

The links to Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow cost nothing extra

The Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and ServiceNow connections come at no additional cost. You still need your own licences for those systems.

Questions and answers do not train Microsoft’s core AI models

Prompts and answers are not used to train the core AI models behind Copilot. Neither is the company data it reads from Microsoft 365.

The emotional topic does not profile anyone

The assistant has a topic for emotional conversations. It does not infer mental health conditions, store emotional states or profile users.

It suits companies whose staff already use Microsoft 365 Copilot

If your staff already hold Microsoft 365 Copilot licences

Employees with a Copilot licence can use the assistant once IT has switched it on.

If your HR records sit in Workday or SAP SuccessFactors

The assistant reads and updates fields in both. It also works with ServiceNow for HR tickets. Check the exact fields in the section above against what your employees ask for most.

If you want a big, named reference

Microsoft rolled the assistant out to more than 200,000 of its own employees. Its HR, IT and facilities teams used it internally before the public launch. Engie, a company of about 100,000 people, has deployed it and is testing it.

Only Copilot chat works today, and IT must set it up first

It works only in Copilot chat for now

The assistant currently works only in the Copilot chat channel. The Teams app has open issues. If your staff live in Teams, ask when that channel is fixed.

The rollout comes in waves

Microsoft launched the assistant on 18 November 2025. Access is reaching customers in waves, so your company may not be in the first wave.

Your IT team has to set it up first

IT admins configure and switch on the assistant in Copilot before any employee can use it. It runs as a custom assistant built in Copilot Studio, which is Microsoft’s tool for building AI assistants. Plan IT time as well as HR time.

Licensed staff can use it, and everyone else costs about 15 cents a question

You pay for this assistant through Copilot. Once IT admins set it up, an employee can use it with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. An employee without a licence can use it through Copilot Chat and pay with Copilot Credits. Credits are Microsoft’s pay-as-you-go balance. The average cost is 15 cents a question.

Work out your own bill before you sign. Take the number of employees without a licence and the questions each might ask in a month. Multiply by 15 cents. Then ask Microsoft whether you can cap the total.

You could also build the same steps on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Eight questions for the demo

  1. How many questions will our staff ask each month, and what will that cost without a licence? Good answer: A written monthly estimate at 15 cents a question, and a clear answer on whether we can set a cap.
  2. When will the Teams app work properly? Good answer: A date in writing, and a credit if it slips.
  3. Which wave is our company in, and when does access start? Good answer: A named month, written into the order.
  4. Can we switch the harassment safeguard on from day one, and send those employees to a named person? Good answer: Yes. We can switch it on before go-live and route employees to a person we name.
  5. Who at Microsoft or at our company can read what an employee typed in a sensitive conversation? Good answer: A short list of roles, with a stated retention period for the chat.
  6. Which Workday connection should we use today, and which fields can it change? Good answer: The current connection, with a full list of the fields it reads and writes.
  7. Which customer and which method sit behind the up to 31% fewer tickets and the 25% better accuracy? Good answer: A named customer, a start date and the method behind each figure.
  8. In which country is our employees’ data processed and stored? Good answer: A named country, and a line we can give an employee who asks.

Alternatives to Microsoft Employee Self-Service Agent

If Microsoft comes off your shortlist, look at Moveworks, Leena AI, Workativ and Wisq Harper. If your HR system is Workday or SAP, the vendor builds its own assistant too. See Workday Self-Service Agent and SAP Joule.

Buying nothing is also a choice. Staff keep asking HR by email or phone, and nothing new needs IT time. Our market guide covers when that makes sense.

Sources Everything about Microsoft’s assistant comes from Microsoft’s own documentation and announcement.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/overview · Microsoft Learn, Employee Self-Service Agent overview · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/prerequisites · Microsoft Learn, prerequisites and licensing · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/customize · Microsoft Learn, customising the assistant and its topics · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/rai-faq · Microsoft Learn, responsible AI FAQ · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/known-issues-limitations · Microsoft Learn, known issues and limitations · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/workday · Microsoft Learn, the Workday connection · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/employee-self-service/sapsuccessfactors · Microsoft Learn, the SAP SuccessFactors connection · read 2 Oct 2026
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy · Microsoft Learn, Microsoft 365 Copilot privacy · read 2 Oct 2026
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-copilot-blog/announcing-general-availability-of-the-employee-self-service-agent-in-microsoft-/4469413 · Microsoft Tech Community, general availability announcement, 18 November 2025 · read 2 Oct 2026
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-copilot-blog/announcing-general-availability-of-the-employee-self-service-agent-in-microsoft-/4469413 · Microsoft Tech Community, price per question without a Copilot licence · read 2 Oct 2026