Topics in Copilot

 

What Are Topics in Copilot? A Simple Explanation

If you’re building a copilot using Copilot Studio (formerly Power Virtual Agents), Topics are the foundation of how your copilot understands users and responds intelligently.

At a high level, a Topic represents a user’s intent plus the conversation flow that should run when that intent is detected.

Topics: The Building Blocks of a Copilot

Whenever a user types a message, Copilot evaluates it against all available topics. Each topic contains example phrases that represent what the user might say. When Copilot finds the best match, it activates that topic and runs its associated conversation.

In other words:
User message → Topic match → Conversation flow

What Makes Up a Topic?

A topic is made of a few essential parts:

Trigger phrases define when the topic should start. These are example user messages like “check order status” or “create a new order.”

Conversation flow is the logic of the interaction. This is designed visually and can include asking questions, capturing user input, adding conditions, calling Power Automate flows, and returning responses.

Variables store information collected during the conversation, such as order IDs or customer names.

Actions allow the topic to interact with backend systems by calling Power Automate flows or APIs.

Types of Topics

There are two main types:

  • System topics are built-in (such as Greeting, Fallback, or Escalation). You can customize them but not remove them.

  • Custom topics are created by you to handle specific business scenarios like HR requests, IT support, or order management.

How Topics Work at Runtime

When a user sends a message, Copilot evaluates it across all topics and selects the one that best matches the intent. If no topic matches, the fallback topic is triggered to handle the request gracefully.

Topics Compared to Other Copilot Concepts

Topics control the conversation logic.
Entities extract useful data from user input.
Actions perform backend work like fetching or updating data.

Each plays a different role, but topics are what tie everything together.

Best Practices for Designing Topics

Keep topics focused on a single intent.
Use clear, distinct trigger phrases to avoid overlap.
Reserve generative answers for FAQs, not transactional workflows.

Final Thoughts

Think of Topics as smart conversation modules. They decide when a copilot should respond and guide how the interaction unfolds. Designing clean, well-scoped topics is the key to building reliable, enterprise-ready copilots.

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