Training Managers in the Age of Agents: What Managers Need to Learn
AI training is almost always designed with users in mind: how to formulate a request, how to verify a response, and what uses are permitted. This is necessary, but it leaves out a group of people whose roles are changing more significantly.
A manager won’t just be using an assistant. He will be responsible for agents he didn’t train, managing access he didn’t grant, and accountable for the work of a team whose tasks are now partly carried out by an automated system. These responsibilities are not covered by any training on the tool.
A responsibility that comes without being asked for
Management should be made aware of the mechanism before it takes effect.
Since Microsoft Agent 365 became generally available on May 1, 2026, each agent has an identity within Microsoft Entra, and that identity has a sponsor: a person responsible for decisions regarding its lifecycle and access. When that sponsor leaves the organization, Microsoft automatically transfers responsibility to their supervisor.
A manager may therefore find themselves responsible for an agent they have never seen in action, whose data scope they are unaware of, and whose purpose no one has explained to them. The transfer is automatic and will take effect as soon as the team responsible for building agents begins its work.
An organization that has not prepared its managers for this situation will see one of two common reactions: either a refusal to accept responsibility, or passive acceptance, which leaves the employee to operate unsupervised. Neither is satisfactory.
The Four Skills to Develop
Be able to describe an agent in three lines: what they do, what data they work with, and what happens when they make a mistake. A manager who can’t come up with these three lines for an agent under their supervision isn’t up to the job. This skill is rarer than it seems, and it can be learned in an hour.
Knowing how to evaluate an answer. Not understanding how the result was produced, but recognizing a result that is plausible yet incorrect. This is a professional instinct, and it is taught by example: showing a team five answers—two of which are incorrect but appear convincing—is more valuable than a general presentation on the limitations of the technology.
Knowing how to divide the work between human and automated processes. Which part of a task is delegated, which part is reviewed, by whom, and how often. This is a work organization decision that rests solely with the manager and no one else.
Knowing how to say no to an employee. Recognizing when automating a task will cost more than it yields, or will pose a disproportionate risk. A manager who doesn’t have the authority to refuse has no real responsibility—only a signature.
What Microsoft offers at no additional cost
Two resources are available without an additional license, and they remain largely unused.
Copilot Academy, at Viva Learning, offers a structured learning path focused on using Copilot. It is enabled by default and accessible to all users Microsoft 365. An administrator can restrict access to only those with a Copilot license, or make it available to everyone. License holders receive a monthly notification in Teams, which the organization can disable. The content is available in eight languages, and a company with a Viva license can replicate it to tailor it to its own business, replacing the suggested courses with its own.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is included with an Microsoft 365 and does not have access to the organization’s content. It serves as a training ground with no confidentiality concerns, helping users develop the habits of drafting and verifying content before granting access to internal documents.
Microsoft also notes that user training and education are the customer’s responsibility, even for a solution that is fully managed by the vendor. The responsibility for this skills development is not delegated to anyone.
Our Reading
Most AI training programs focus on how to write a prompt. This is the least enduring skill of all: it changes with every new version of the models, and it can be learned on your own through practice in just a few weeks.
Our recommendation is to focus training on judgment rather than on manipulation. Recognizing an incorrect answer, deciding what should be verified by a human, and rejecting inappropriate automation: these three skills never become obsolete, and they are not acquired naturally.
In terms of methodology, one format works better than the others and is inexpensive. A short session, using the team’s actual documents, led by someone from the business side rather than the IT department, featuring both failed and successful examples. General training on artificial intelligence builds awareness, not skills.
There is one scenario in which manager training is not a priority. If your organization does not build any agents and relies solely on the assistant built into the applications, the issue of accountability does not yet arise, and general awareness is sufficient. In that case, it is better to devote resources to supporting users. The right time to train managers is when the first agent is put into production by a business team.
One final point we’d like to make clear: training is no substitute for rules. A manager who has received training but lacks the authority to reject an agent—or the time to review one—will remain nothing more than a figurehead. Competence and authority go hand in hand; otherwise, neither is effective.
What to Do
- Make Copilot Academy available to all your employees, even before purchasing any licenses.
- Identify the managers whose teams are already building or using agents. They will be the first to take on this responsibility.
- Explain the automatic transfer of liability to them before it takes effect.
- Develop a short session based on each team's actual documents, led by the business side.
- Spend most of your time evaluating the responses, not formulating the questions.
- Explicitly grant these managers the authority to reject an agent and the time to review the agents under their supervision.
- Review the list of team leaders each time a team sets out.
Access to training resources does not require any complicated decisions and can be set up in just a few minutes of administrative work. What requires more preparation is the allocation of responsibilities among managers and the accompanying mandate. Lambert Consulting coordinates this allocation with the relevant departments, in line with employee governance and the commitments to be made to teams prior to a rollout.
Microsoft Sources
What an article Can't Know
An article describes what applies to everyone. What varies from one organization to another is the inventory: which applications, which accounts, and which pieces of equipment are actually involved in your organization. The inventory determines the scope of the effort, and it cannot be summarized on a single page.
You'll be speaking directly with the engineers who will be doing the work, not with a middleman. We'll respond within 24 business hours.
Check what is still true
Announced dates are sometimes postponed, products are renamed, and conditions change. The blog tracks these topics over time: when a rule changes, a new post announces it.
Search for a topic in the blogIn the same issue
Three articles on the same topic. The blog has 149 articles, all of which are freely accessible.