Agents and skills: useful, with boundaries
Once people are comfortable with Copilot Chat, the next step is shared skills (approved, reusable instructions for common tasks) and agents (purpose-built assistants for a defined job). Both are most valuable when BMY decides the rules first.
Skills
Reusable, approved instructions
A vetted prompt for a recurring task — a customer reply in BMY's tone, a meeting summary format, a policy-check checklist. Everyone gets consistent output without reinventing prompts.
Agents
Purpose-built assistants
An assistant scoped to one job and one set of approved sources, such as an HR policy helper or a proposal drafter. Narrow by design, so it stays accurate and safe.
Proposed boundaries
| Boundary | Proposed rule |
|---|---|
| Who can build | A small group of named builders; everyone else uses approved agents and skills. |
| Data scope | Each agent is limited to specific approved sources. No agent gets broad access to mail, files or customer data by default. |
| Sensitive data | Defined "never paste or connect" list (customer PII, financials, credentials, legal matters) agreed with leadership. |
| Actions | Start read-only and draft-only. Anything that sends, deletes or changes records needs a human to approve it. |
| Ownership | Every agent has a named business owner, a purpose statement, and a review date. |
| Approval | Lightweight review before an agent is shared: purpose, sources, risks, test results. |
| Accounts | BMY sign-in only. Business-tier versions of other tools only for approved exceptions. |
| Review & retire | Quarterly review of usage and accuracy; retire agents nobody owns or uses. |
Suggested rollout
- NowEveryone on Copilot Chat with BMY sign-in; survey results identify power users
- NextAgree the boundaries above; publish 3–5 approved skills for common tasks
- ThenPilot one or two agents with named owners; review results before widening