As companies get more computer helpers, someone needs a list of them all and a way to switch off a bad one. Agent 365 is Microsoft's list and switchboard.
Agent 365 is Microsoft's control centre for AI agents. It keeps a registry of every agent in the organisation, lets admins approve, block or reassign them, and with the paid version adds monitoring, policy templates and security controls. It answers the basic question: what agents do we have, and who owns each one?
Agent 365 is the agent control plane (observe, govern, secure) built on the registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with Entra Agent ID for identity. Inventory, basic governance and rule-based lifecycle actions come with Microsoft 365 plans; policy templates, observability, tool access control, risk signals and Purview/Defender/Intune agent features need E7 or the Agent 365 subscription.
What it is
Microsoft describes Agent 365 as giving organisations "the ability to observe, govern, and secure the growing number of agents". Its service description calls it "a centralized control plane for AI agents" that works with agents built on Microsoft platforms and with third-party agents.
The centre of it is the agent registry in the Microsoft 365 admin center: a single inventory of agents in the organisation. Microsoft says it's converging the registry experiences that used to appear in several portals under Agent 365, with Microsoft Entra still providing the identity layer through Agent ID.
What comes with ordinary plans
This is the part I find most useful to know, because it changes what's possible without a new purchase. Microsoft's service description lists these as included with Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Business, Education and Frontline plans:
| Included with Microsoft 365 plans |
|---|
| An inventory of agents across the organisation in the registry |
| Basic governance actions: publish, deploy, block, delete, approve, assign to users or groups, reassign owner |
| Rules that automate lifecycle actions based on conditions |
| Syncing agents from external platforms into the registry |
Microsoft also says that viewing all agents doesn't need a specific licence, only an admin role such as AI Reader, which it recommends as the least-privileged option.
What needs E7 or the add-on
The same table lists features that need Microsoft 365 E7 or the Agent 365 subscription. They include policy templates, observability and monitoring of agent activity, tenant-wide control over which tools agents can use, and a range of Entra, Purview, Defender and Intune features applied to agents, such as conditional access, audit and eDiscovery of agent interactions, data loss prevention and insider risk management. The Risks column and Security tab in the registry also need E7 or Agent 365.
Agent 365 is sold as a standalone subscription and is included in Microsoft 365 E7.
Where it fits in a risk register
In Start a risk register from the decision inventory, every row needs an owner. For agents, the registry is the natural source of truth for who owns what. If an agent in the registry has no owner, or an owner who has left, that's a finding before any risk scoring starts.
The basic governance actions are also controls in their own right. Blocking an agent is the "stop" route for a misbehaving agent. Assigning an agent only to a named group is a way of limiting its reach while it's piloted.
A worked example
This example is illustrative. A 2,000-person organisation without E7 opens the registry for the first time and finds 140 agents.
| Finding | Count | Action using included features |
|---|---|---|
| Agents with an owner who has left | 12 | Reassign owner or block |
| Agents shared with everyone but used by fewer than 5 people | 35 | Reassign to a smaller group |
| Agents nobody in IT knew about, built in Agent Builder | 60 | Add to the decision inventory if they influence decisions |
| Third-party agents | 4 | Check contracts and data access |
None of this needs the paid features. The paid features would add monitoring of what those agents actually do, which matters most for the handful that make or shape real decisions.
What I'm still checking
Microsoft's feature table is detailed but changes often, and a note on the same page says Agent 365 meets FedRAMP High controls with final authorisation pending, which suggests the service is still settling. I'd re-read the table before any licensing decision.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn, Overview of Microsoft Agent 365, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Agent 365 service description, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Agent Registry convergence with Microsoft Agent 365, accessed 11 October 2026.
- Microsoft Learn, Manage agent registry in Microsoft 365 admin center, accessed 11 October 2026.