New Microsoft Credential for Copilot Studio Agents (APL‑7008)

There’s finally a new credential for Microsoft Copilot Studio — the APL‑7008 Applied Skill: Creating Agents. I took it myself, passed, and in this video, I’ll share what you need to know.

We’ll cover:
What makes APL‑7008 different from certifications
The key skills you’ll be tested on
Where this applied skill fits into the bigger Power Platform certification path

Applied Skills are free, hands‑on labs with no scheduling, no proctoring, and no trick questions. If you want to prove your Copilot Studio agent skills or are looking for the next step after PL‑900, this is the credential to check out.

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Video SummaryAPL-7008 is the newest applied skill for Copilot Studio, designed for those who already have hands-on experience. It’s a practical, lab-based credential that tests your ability to build and deploy custom agents—no trick questions, no proctoring.Applied skills are free and flexible, making them a great way to build confidence. You complete them on your own time, and they focus on real-world tasks like configuring Gen AI, managing topics, and integrating with Dataverse.The lab experience was smooth and well-structured. I finished it in under an hour, thanks to clear instructions and a much-improved interface. While the scenario felt a bit simplified, it’s still a solid intro to Copilot Studio’s core capabilities.If you’re mapping out your Power Platform journey, start with PL-900 (Fundamentals), then take APL-7008 to specialize in Copilot Studio. From there, you can explore PL-200 or PL-400, and eventually PL-600—though that one might retire soon.Applied skills are perfect for product-specific expertise. Unlike broader certifications, they let you go deep into one area—whether it’s cloud flows, canvas apps, or Copilot Studio—so you can stand out with focused, hands-on knowledge.

For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!

Transcript

If you’re working with Microsoft Copilot Studio, you’ll be happy to know there’s finally a brand-new credential for it: the APL-7008 – Creating Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Since I use Copilot Studio regularly and even train others on it, I decided to take it myself—and luckily, I passed. Now, I can walk you through what the experience is like and whether it’s worth your time.

Here’s what we’re going to cover in this video. First, I’ll give you a quick overview of the APL-7008 credential. Then, I’ll share my personal experiences taking it and show you how it fits into the bigger picture of Power Platform certifications—especially if you’re wondering if this credential is right for you or what the next step is after earning it.

Okay, first things first. For those of you who are new to applied skills and wondering what the difference is between applied skills and certifications, well, first of all, they’re free. There’s no scheduling, no proctoring, and no trick questions. You just do the labs on your own time, from wherever you want. And they’re not proctored like certifications. Unlike broader role-based certifications, applied skills are tightly focused on specific products and real skills. This makes them really great for building confidence in a hands-on, lab-based, no-pressure way.

Now, let’s focus on the credential. To earn this credential, you’ll need to demonstrate that you can build custom agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio. This isn’t for total beginners—you should already have experience with Copilot Studio, Microsoft Teams, and the Power Platform. If you want to see the official details, I dropped a link to the Microsoft Learn page in the video description.

So, what skills do you need to pass this applied skill? You’ll start by building your initial agent. Then, you’ll need to learn how to manage topics and trigger phrases. From there, you need to know how to work with nodes, variables, and entities, set up generative AI, pull in data from Dataverse, and finally deploy the agent. So, it’s a full test of everything it takes to go from idea to a working solution.

You know what? Let’s go ahead and take a look at the full list directly on Microsoft Learn. This is the link you’ll find in the description below. It goes directly to the applied skill. If you’ve passed it, you’ll see your result right there on the page. But if you want to see the detailed study guide, scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find the study guide for applied skills, which will bring you directly to the guide for this specific skill.

So, what do you need to be able to do before you take it? You need to know how to build an initial agent—create and name a new agent, add a description, and configure Gen AI instructions. You need to know how to manage topics and trigger phrases—delete sample topics, disable default topics, create new topics, and create trigger phrases. You need to know how to configure nodes—add a “send a message” node, an “ask a question” node, an “ask with an adaptive card” node, a condition node, and a variable or topic management node.

You also need to know how to edit variable names and configure variable scope—whether they’re limited to a specific topic or usable across all topics in your agent. You need to be able to create and edit Copilot Studio closed list entities and reuse entities across multiple topics. You also need to know how to configure the Gen AI capabilities of Copilot Studio—such as adding a public website or a file as a knowledge source, configuring trigger priority for topics, and setting up Copilot content moderation.

You need to know how to retrieve data from Dataverse—create actions, call Power Automate flows, and configure inputs and outputs from your flow. You should understand what data to pass to the flow and how to use the data that comes back, including showing those outputs in a message. Finally, you need to know how to deploy the agent—save and publish it, and add it to one of the many channels that Copilot Studio supports, like Teams or the demo website. But of course, you should also know about other channels, such as SharePoint.

As you can see, it’s straight to the point and covers almost everything you need to do when creating an agent. I told you that I did it, so let me talk a bit about my experience going through this applied skill. Overall, I thought it was well done. The instructions were clear, everything matched the study guide, and I was able to complete it in under 60 minutes. You have more time than that, but I did everything—including scoring, reading, and preparing—in under one hour, which was pretty good.

Microsoft recently introduced a new applied skills interface, which was a huge improvement. It allows you to go full screen much more easily than before. But there are a few downsides. Again, this might depend on the specific lab I got, since I’m sure there are multiple variations out there. So, my experience might not be the same as yours. I found it a lot easier than some of the other applied skills I’ve done. I also felt that the scenario used wasn’t reflective of what people are doing with agents today. It felt overly simplified compared to what clients tell me they want to do with Copilot Studio. But overall, it was a great introduction to the core capabilities of Copilot Studio.

To make all this information easier to digest, let’s take a look at an infographic I created for Power Platform credentials. Let me open it here really quickly. Okay, there we go. And let me zoom in. By the way, if you like this infographic and want to look at it in detail, I’ll have a link directly to the image or a PDF version in the description below.

This infographic covers all the credentials. Of course, the beginner certification for Power Platform is the PL-900, Power Platform Fundamentals. If you don’t have any credentials for the Power Platform, this is the first one you should look at. After that, we have four intermediate-level certifications. There’s the PL-200, Power Platform Functional Consultant—no Copilot Studio in that one. Then there’s the PL-300, Data Analyst Associate, which is all about Power BI. The PL-400, Power Platform Developer, covers cloud flows, model-driven and canvas apps, and Dataverse—but again, no Copilot Studio. And finally, the PL-500, which is all about Power Automate desktop flows.

In addition to certifications, we also have applied skills. The cool thing is that while certifications like PL-200 and PL-400 cover many products, applied skills focus on just one or two. There’s one for cloud flows, one for canvas apps, one for model-driven apps (which also includes Dataverse), and now our new one for Copilot Studio. So, if you want to specialize in Copilot Studio at an intermediate level before going for the PL-600 (the expert-level certification), this is the only credential currently available.

Copilot Studio is also included in the PL-900. So, if you want to get Power Platform certified with a focus on Copilot Studio, I’d recommend starting with PL-900. That’s your entry point into the Power Platform portfolio. Then, go for the applied skill—Create Agents in Copilot Studio. After that, if you want to go further, you can look at the intermediate-level role-based certifications like PL-200 and PL-400. And finally, if you’re aiming high, you can go for the PL-600 Power Platform Solution Architect exam. But be careful—PL-600 might actually retire by the end of this year. Nothing is confirmed yet, but I do have a video about it in the description below, so make sure to check it out.

So, what do you think overall about the skills tested in this applied skill? Is it something you think you’ll go and try? Let me know in the comments below. And if you want to learn more about Power Platform credentials, make sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel. On your screen right now, you’ll see two videos I’m sure you’ll find interesting. I hope to see you in the next one!