Microsoft Certified – Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect Expert (AB-100)

Learning plan

About 80 hours of focused study, split into 5 phases. Pick your weekly pace and the timeline adjusts.

Estimated finish: 8 weeks

What the exam covers

Source: official exam guide. Weights can change, so check before you start.

Before you start

• To earn the Expert certification you also need one qualifying associate cert, such as AI-103, AI-300, AB-620, PL-200, PL-400, MB-230 or MB-310. The full list is on the AB-100 exam page
• Working knowledge of at least one Dynamics 365 app plus Power Platform environments and solutions
• A Copilot Studio trial or a Power Platform developer environment for the hands-on parts

1. Weeks 1–2 · 18 h

   AI strategy, ROI and build-vs-buy

   • Apply the AI adoption process from the Cloud Adoption Framework (strategy, plan, ready, govern, manage) to a business scenario
   • Decide when to extend Microsoft 365 Copilot, use a prebuilt agent, build in Copilot Studio, or go code-first in Microsoft Foundry
   • Build an ROI and total cost of ownership case for an agent that automates a real process, including licensing and model consumption
   • Assess grounding data for accuracy, relevance, timeliness and access, and decide when a fine-tuned small language model or a model router is justified
   • Describe the parts of an AI Center of Excellence and what a governed prompt library contains

   Use: AB-100 study guide · AB-100T00 Architecting agentic AI business solutions · Cloud Adoption Framework for AI

2. Weeks 2–4 · 20 h

   Designing agents in Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365

   • Choose between task, autonomous, and prompt-and-response agents for a scenario
   • Design Copilot Studio topics with fallback, and decide between classic NLU, CLU and generative orchestration
   • Extend agents with connectors, prompt actions, agent flows, Model Context Protocol servers and Computer Use
   • Design Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service and Contact Center, including connectors for Copilot in Sales
   • Apply the Power Platform Well-Architected Framework to an intelligent app workload

   Hands-on: In a Copilot Studio trial, build an agent grounded on a SharePoint site or uploaded policy PDFs, with generative orchestration on, one custom topic with a fallback, and one MCP or connector action. Test it with five prompts and note which ones trigger the action.

   Use: Microsoft Copilot Studio documentation · Extend Copilot Studio agents with MCP · Power Platform Well-Architected

3. Weeks 4–5 · 12 h

   Prebuilt agents and multi-agent orchestration

   • Propose Microsoft 365 agents and Copilot for Sales or Service for given business scenarios
   • Orchestrate AI features in Dynamics 365 finance and supply chain apps, including adding knowledge sources to in-app help
   • Design a multi-agent solution that spans Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio and Foundry, using A2A or MCP between agents
   • Know which Power Platform AI features (AI hub, AI prompts, generative pages) fit low-code makers

   Use: Microsoft Foundry documentation · Microsoft 365 Copilot documentation

4. Weeks 6–7 · 20 h

   Deploy - ALM, testing, monitoring and governance (largest domain)

   • Design ALM for Copilot Studio agents, connectors and actions with solutions, environment strategy and pipelines, and for Foundry Agent Service and custom models
   • Define test metrics and validation criteria for agents and custom models, and design end-to-end tests across several Dynamics 365 apps
   • Monitor agents with analytics and telemetry, triage user feedback and tune topics or prompts
   • Design security and governance for agents - access controls on grounding data, data residency, audit trails for model and data changes
   • Identify prompt injection and other AI vulnerabilities and their mitigations, and review a design against responsible AI principles

   Hands-on: Package the Copilot Studio agent from phase 2 in a solution, move it from a dev environment to a test environment as a managed solution, and review its analytics after ten test conversations to find the topic with the lowest resolution rate.

   Use: Power Platform ALM documentation · Foundry observability and evaluation

5. Week 8 · 10 h

   Practice assessment and case-study review

   • Take the free AB-100 practice assessment and map misses to plan, design or deploy, weighting deploy (40–45%) highest
   • For three sample business cases, write a one-page architecture that names the platform, agent type, ALM path and governance controls
   • Practise scanning Microsoft Learn quickly, since it is available during the exam

   Use: AI Skills Navigator practice assessment · Microsoft exam sandbox

You're ready to book when…

• Given a business scenario, you can pick Microsoft 365 Copilot extensibility, Copilot Studio or Foundry and defend it on cost, control and time to value
• You can describe the ALM path for a Copilot Studio agent from dev to production, including environments and managed solutions
• You can list the controls that stop an agent from leaking or acting on data it should not reach
• You score 80% or higher on the official practice assessment twice

Exam tips

• The skills outline was updated on October 14, 2026. Check that your study materials match the current study guide, not the earlier version.
• Passing AB-100 alone does not award the Expert title; you need one of the listed associate certifications as well.
• Microsoft Learn is available inside the exam, but extra time is not added, so use it only for specific lookups.