The Agent 365 Registry Will Help You Prevent Agent Sprawl…And It Is Free!

A Quick Pragmatic Agent 365 Overview

There is a lot of swirl around Agent 365 right now, and I get it. Microsoft introduced a new licensing tier that is forcing new budget conversations. You can add Agent 365 functionality for $15 per user per month, or upgrade users to the new E7 license at $99 per user per month. The E7 license includes all of your existing E5 functionality, the Entra suite, the premium version of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the full Agent 365 suite. That is a new investment, and a lot of organizations are understandably pausing to figure out whether they need it.

Here is a pragmatic breakdown of who might require an Agent 365 license. Any user who owns, manages, or uses an agent that acts and executes tasks on their behalf needs to be licensed. Simple human-to-agent interactions via declarative chat agents do not require a license at this time. So, if your organization is in exploration mode and your users are primarily kicking the tires on conversational agents, you may not need to rush into Agent 365 licensing for everyone.

Public Service Announcement -Don’t Miss Out On Free Agent 365 Functionality 

A lot of companies in the experimental stage may dismiss Agent 365 altogether. They figure they are not building advanced agents yet, or they do not have the security tools like Purview or Defender to take full advantage of the platform. So, they put Agent 365 on the back burner. Completely ignoring Agent 365 is a mistake. 

Even if you are not ready to invest in the advanced security and compliance capabilities, there is a valuable Agent 365 component you cannot afford to overlook: the Agent 365 Registry.

The best part? The Registry is free. 

The Registry gives your administrators two critical capabilities that you need right now, regardless of where your organization is in its agentic AI journey. 

1. Full Visibility Into Every Agent In Your Tenant: Agents are proliferating fast. Knowing what users are building, testing, and experimenting with is not optional. Taking inventory of the agents in your tenant lets you prevent shadow IT, identify duplicate functionality, and flag activity that might carry risk. This is not just Microsoft-built agents, either. The Registry even includes third-party agents, giving you a genuinely complete picture of what is running in your environment. 

2. Agent Lifecycle Management: Visibility alone is not enough. The Registry lets you act on what you see. You can identify orphaned agents (agents whose original owners have left or moved on), reassign ownership, and block, publish, or retire agents as needed. An agent’s usefulness will eventually run its course, and just like you would not leave accounts active for departed employees, you should not have stale or unmanaged agents lurking in your organization. 

Also, you didn’t misread my earlier statement– These Registry and lifecycle management capabilities are free and available to administrators in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center today.
You do not need to wait for a licensing decision.
You do not need to purchase Agent 365 to get started.
You just need to use what is already there. 

We will continue to work through Agent 365 with you. It will take some time as the details become known and understood. In the meantime, use the Registry! Get a handle on your agents now, before sprawl sets in. You will thank yourself later. 

Want to learn more about agents, Agent 365 governance, and the right licensing approach to keep your organization compliant?
Reach out to us at eGroup Enabling Technologies, and we will help you navigate the options, take inventory of your agents, and put the right controls in place. 

Get Control Of Agent Sprawl

Our team of experts can help you inventory Microsoft 365 agents, understand Agent 365 licensing, and build an actionable governance plan before agent sprawl creates risk.