3 Strategic Uses for Copilot Researcher Agent in Medical Affairs

By Patrina Pellett & Sarah Snyder 

Nearly 100% of our AI training clients have Microsoft Copilot. And almost 100% have access to a really powerful agent they never use: Copilot Researcher Agent. 

It’s the saddest thing because the Copilot Researcher Agent is like a graduate-level researcher whose only job is to run reports for you. You tell it what you want, it searches across dozens of sources, and it creates a detailed report on exactly that topic. 

But most Medical Affairs professionals don’t even know they have it or how powerful it is. That makes sense because most teams were handed Copilot and told to “use AI” without much guidance. 

So they use Copilot for the obvious stuff: 

 → Rewrite this email 
 → Summarize this doc 
 → Make this sound less angry  

But Copilot Researcher Agent is built for more strategic work. Like when you need to connect dots, compare evidence, identify patterns, and turn scattered information into something useful. This is huge for Medical Affairs because much of the job is “I need figure this out.”  

Most people just don’t know they have Researcher or even how to think about using it. Here are 3 strategic ways Medical Affairs can use Copilot Researcher Agent.  

1. Use Copilot Researcher Agent for MSL pre-meeting planning 

MSL pre-meeting planning is the easiest place to start with the Researcher Agent. Researcher is good at pulling together different sources. This is what can suck up MSLs' time: the KOL research rabbit hole.  

Researcher is perfect for helping MSLs stay focused when researching KOLs by pulling together a KOL overview document for the MSL to start from. It saves time by searching the internet and your internal data sources. Here’s where most folks mess up: 

They only enter the KOL’s name.  

The trick is to include what you are trying to accomplish and the shared goal in your prompt. Try this prompt to get personalized KOL reports to help understand what the KOL cares about, where the conversation could go, and how to add value. 

This saves time, but the bigger win is better meeting quality. 

2. Use Copilot Researcher Agent for Field Medical coaching 

AI is changing how leaders lead in Medical Affairs. Not because it replaces coaching, but because it helps leaders see patterns faster. 

Field Medical leaders already have tons of useful information sitting in coaching notes, email, the CRM, team’s chats, monthly reports, training expectations, and medical strategy documents. The problem is that MSL managers don’t have time to dig through all of it before every coaching conversation. 

Researcher can pull the important pieces together into a skimmable report. Think of it like everything you need to know about how the team is showing up, without having to open 27 different files. 

The trick is to ask for team-level coaching themes tied to the team’s goals, not a generic summary. You want Copilot Researcher reports to show where the team is strong, where opportunities are being missed, where follow-up could improve, and what individuals need. 

Using Researcher to build coaching reports is just one way that AI is helping managers show up better for their team.  

3. Use Copilot Researcher Agent for Medical Affairs SWOT analysis 

Who doesn’t love a good SWOT? They help Medical Affairs teams slow down, look at the landscape, and think through what actually needs attention. 

The problem is they can be wildly time-consuming to create. So most people don’t do them. 

The Researcher Agent was born to create the perfect first SWOT draft. It can pull together recent publications, guidelines, congress updates, competitor activity, field insights, advisory board themes, and internal strategy into a neatly packaged report.  Then it gives you a starting point your team can react to, refine, and pressure-test. 

Get a Medical Affairs Copilot Researcher SWOT prompt here. 👇

How to Start Using Copilot Researcher Agent in Medical Affairs 

Start with one high-value workflow your team already does. Pick something research-heavy, time-consuming, and strategically important. KOL prep is a great place to start. So is Field Medical coaching, SWOT analysis, congress planning, or launch readiness. 

The goal is to build one repeatable workflow that actually saves time and improves the quality of the work. That is how AI adoption happens in Medical Affairs. Not through random experimentation. Not through one-off prompts. Through practical workflows your team can reuse again and again.  

Bring these 3 strategic Copilot Researcher Agent deep research prompts to your team. Or book some time to bring an AI workflow optimization workshop to your team. We'd love to see how we can help!