From Idea to AI Assistant: How to Design, Develop, and Implement Custom Topics, Entities, and Dialog Flows in Microsoft Copilot Studio

Today, virtual assistants and AI bots are handling the most time-consuming jobs. Compared to human counterparts, these virtual agents are more efficient and can handle unlimited tasks. Microsoft Copilot Studio provides you with a simple solution that reflects your brand voice and implements your topics, entities, and dialog flows.

Why Go Custom?

Microsoft Copilot Studio provides plenty of out-of-the-box tools.

Why you want a bot:

• Understand industry-specific language.
• Handle complex, multi-turn conversations
• Adapt to your unique workflows.

…you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and start customizing.

Design Your Conversational Blueprint

Before writing a single line (or clicking a single button), ask yourself:

• What is the user trying to accomplish?
• What’s the optimal way for the bot to help?
• Where might the conversation go off track?

Before pressing any button, sketch out the dialog flow. Identify key points of user input and decision branches.

Define Custom Topics

In Copilot Studio, topics are like conversation starters. A topic includes trigger phrases and a conversation path.

To create a custom topic:

1. Go to the Topics tab.
2. Click + New Topic.
3. Add a name like “Submit Expense Report.”
4. Populate it with trigger phrases like

• “How do I file expenses?”
• “I need to submit a receipt.”
• “Expense form, please.”

Pro Tip: Think like a user. Add slang, misspellings, and phrasing variations to make the bot more resilient.

Build Out Custom Entities

Entities help your bot understand real-world concepts, such as employee departments, product SKUs, or office locations.

Here’s how:

1. Navigate to Entities → + New Entity.
2. Give it a name like Department.
3. Add values:

• HR
• Marketing
• Engineering
• IT

4. Include synonyms so the bot recognizes

• “tech” → IT
• “eng” → Engineering

Custom entities make conversations more flexible and reduce confusion in user input.

Craft Dynamic Dialog Flows

Now for the fun part: building the dialog flow inside your custom topic.

Use Copilot Studio’s visual editor to:

• Ask questions (“Which department are you in?”)
• Save responses to variables (user department).
• Branch based on input (e.g., if user department = IT, route to IT form)
• Call Power Automate flows for backend processes (trigger emails, update records, etc.).
• Add message variations to keep things conversational.

Keep messages short. Add empathy. Think “assistant,” not “robot.”

Test, Break, and Polish

The test bot pane is your new best friend. Use it to simulate conversations, catch logic gaps, and refine triggers. Ask unexpected questions. Try edge cases. Misspell things. That’s how users behave in the wild.

Integrate with Microsoft Teams or websites.

• Publish to Microsoft Teams
• Embed in a SharePoint site or customer-facing webpage
• Connect it with Dynamics 365 or third-party services using Power Automate or Data verse.

Microsoft Copilot Studio isn’t just about building a bot; it’s about scaling empathy, automating knowledge, and meeting users.