Microsoft has announced a significant evolution in agent capabilities: MCP Apps (Model Context Protocol) and the OpenAI Apps SDK are now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot chat. This update moves beyond simple text-based conversations, allowing agents to render rich, interactive UI experiences directly within the chat interface.

From Conversational to Interactive

Traditional AI agents primarily provide information. With the integration of MCP Apps, agents can now present:

• Rich Visualizations: Tables, forms, heat maps, and dashboards.

• Specialized Surfaces: Graphic design tools (Adobe Express, Canva), diagrams (Figma/FigJam), and maps.

• Embedded Media: Video previews for training and learning resources (Coursera).

These experiences are rendered securely in a sandboxed iFrame, enabling users to complete complex workflows—such as updating a CRM or designing a marketing flyer—without switching applications.

The Power of Work IQ

The new MCP apps are grounded in Work IQ, which provides the necessary context from an organization’s meetings, emails, and data. For example, an agent can automatically match travel receipts from an email and update an expense report using an interactive form rendered right in the chat.

Key Launch Partners

Several partners have already deployed interactive agent experiences, including:

• Figma: Generate employee onboarding workflows.

• monday.com: Manage project records and tasks.

• Coursera: Explore learning tools and watch course previews alongside your work.

• Adobe Express: Create social assets using natural language.

Developer Opportunities

This opens a new frontier for building "declarative agents." Microsoft has provided several ways to get started:

1. M365 Agents Toolkit for VS Code: Easily add MCP servers to your projects.

2. GitHub Copilot CLI: Scaffolding for fully deployed agents, complete with authentication and rich widgets, using natural language prompts.

3. Flexible UX Modes: Developers can choose between Inline mode (lightweight widgets) and Side-by-side mode (immersive workspaces for complex editing).

The Microsoft 365 Agent Store will see a wide rollout of these partner experiences by mid-April. Developers can find quick-start samples and documentation on the mcp-interactiveUI-samples GitHub repository.

This is a major milestone for those interested in Agentic RAG and Knowledge Graphs, as it provides a standardized way to connect AI models to enterprise tools and data via a secure, interactive interface.