Your SharePoint agents have an expiry date. Here’s what to do about it

What happens to SharePoint agents in March 2027?

If anyone in your business has built an agent in SharePoint or OneDrive over the past year or so, there’s a date you should know about. Microsoft is retiring the .agent file format those agents are saved in, and after March 2027 they stop responding.

Nothing is broken today, which is precisely the risk. Existing .agent files carry on working until the end of March 2027, and there’s no automatic upgrade, so an agent without an owner will simply go quiet one morning and someone will raise a ticket asking why. The admin notice for this change describes the shutdown rolling out through April, so treat the end of March as the date to plan against, not the point to start.

What’s actually changing

Agents in SharePoint and OneDrive aren’t being retired, only the file format behind them. From mid-November 2026, creating an agent from SharePoint or OneDrive will use Microsoft Copilot Agent Builder, and it will no longer save a file to your site. You can still choose SharePoint and OneDrive content as the knowledge source. Those agents then sit in the wider Copilot ecosystem, so they can be used in the Copilot app and Teams as well as SharePoint, and administrators can manage them through Agent 365.

On SharePoint pages, upgraded agents will appear through a new Agent Chat web part, which Microsoft still describes as coming soon. That matters if you’re planning around it, because the page placement part of the story isn’t finished yet.

Four routes, depending on what the agent does

The sensible starting point is to ask what each agent does today, because that decides where it should go.

If it mainly answers questions about the content on one site, you may not need a named agent at all, because Copilot in SharePoint already does that. Set it as the main agent for the site and delete the old file. If it carries out a repeatable task on the site, such as drafting a document from site content or reviewing one against guidance, it’s a candidate to become a skill, using a conversion skill Microsoft says arrives in mid-November. If it’s a named expert that people use across SharePoint, Teams and Copilot, upgrade it with Agent Builder, using an upgrade button that appears in the same month. And if it was built in Copilot Studio as a custom engine agent and published to SharePoint, you don’t need to rebuild it, you publish it to the Copilot app so it can be placed on pages.

Licensing is worth a quick look at this point, because Copilot in SharePoint needs a Microsoft Copilot licence for the people using it.

The small print that catches people out

Permissions don’t simply follow the agent. A .agent file uses SharePoint file permissions, whereas an upgraded agent is shared at agent level, with people, groups and email addresses but not SharePoint groups. If the original was shared with everyone in the organisation, that carries over. Otherwise the upgraded agent is private to its creator until they share it again, and people also need access to the underlying content, not just the agent.

Usage history doesn’t transfer either, so analytics start from zero. In Teams, the agent has to be removed from the chat or channel and added again using a share link. Pay-as-you-go also changes, because the SharePoint Agents pay-as-you-go model only applies to .agent files, and upgraded agents follow the licensing model for agents in the Copilot app. If anyone is relying on unlicensed access today, check what that costs before you switch.

What I’d do first

Start with a list. Find every .agent file in SharePoint and OneDrive, then note who owns each one, who uses it, what it’s for and where people reach it from, whether that’s a page, Teams or the Copilot app. You’ll probably find some that nobody has opened in months, and deleting those is a perfectly good outcome. Then deal with the business-critical and widely used ones first, test the replacement with real users and familiar prompts, and only retire the old file once you’re happy. Deleted files go to the recycle bin, so there’s a safety net.

It’s a small technical change on paper, but it’s a decent test of whether your AI governance is real. Govern what matters, don’t slow what works. A simple inventory with a named owner against each agent is about as light as governance gets, and it’s what stops a Microsoft deadline turning into a surprise outage. Do you know how many agents your business has, and who’s responsible for each one?

Further reading

• Upgrade agents in SharePoint and OneDrive, Microsoft Learn: the official guide, including the upgrade steps and the permissions and sharing details. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/upgrade-sharepoint-agents

• MC1511052 Upcoming changes to Agents in SharePoint and OneDrive, mc.merill.net: an independent copy of Microsoft’s admin message, with the timeline and rollout detail. https://mc.merill.net/message/MC1511052

• SharePoint Agents Upgrade: What to Do Before March 2027, 2tolead: an independent consultancy’s practical take on the preparation steps. https://www.2tolead.com/insights/sharepoint-agents-upgrade-march

Frequently asked questions

What happens to existing SharePoint agents in March 2027?

Microsoft is retiring the .agent file format used by SharePoint and OneDrive agents. Existing agents will stop responding after March 2027. There is no automatic upgrade process, so organisations must inventory, review and upgrade their agents to the new Microsoft Copilot Agent Builder ecosystem before the shutdown rolls out in April 2027.

How will agent permissions change after the upgrade?

Upgraded agents do not retain SharePoint group permissions automatically. Instead, they are shared at the agent level with specific individuals, groups, or email addresses. Unless originally shared with the entire organisation, upgraded agents become private to their creator until reshared. Users also require permission to access the underlying knowledge sources, not just the agent itself.

What should organisations do first to prepare for the SharePoint agent retirement?

Businesses should start by creating a full inventory of all .agent files across SharePoint and OneDrive. Identify the owner, users, purpose, and access points for each agent. Unused agents can be safely deleted. Critical agents should be upgraded first using Microsoft tools, thoroughly tested with real users, and then replaced.

What are the four options for migrating existing SharePoint agents?

First, site Q and A agents can be replaced by Copilot in SharePoint. Second, task focused agents can be converted into skills. Third, named expert agents can be upgraded using Agent Builder to work across Teams and Copilot. Finally, Copilot Studio custom engine agents can simply be published directly to the Copilot app.

Are SharePoint agents being completely discontinued by Microsoft?

No, agents in SharePoint and OneDrive are not being discontinued, only the .agent file format is retiring. From mid November 2026, new agents will be created using Microsoft Copilot Agent Builder. These agents will integrate directly into the broader Copilot ecosystem, allowing them to be used across Teams, SharePoint, and the Copilot app.