Actually Building Agents, Not Just Talking About Them
A hands-on Amplify workshop at Kangan Institute
Earlier this week, Dan spent the morning at Kangan Institute running a hands-on Copilot Agents workshop, and it was genuinely a good one. Around 25 people jumped into Copilot Studio, laptops open, experimenting, building, breaking things, fixing things, and slowly watching their ideas turn into something real.
This session was part of Kangan’s Amplify program, and they chose to dedicate a chunk of their hours specifically to Agents. Credit to the Kangan team for choosing depth over speed, and giving themselves the space to learn the process properly. The brief was simple: don’t sprint through ten half-baked agents, build one great one.
What we focused on
The workshop centred on understanding what actually makes a useful agent: clear triggers, solid grounding, smart actions, and predictable outputs. Dan broke down the process step by step, then walked the team through building an agent from scratch that solved a real problem inside their organisation.
What was built
The agent created during the session focused on streamlining a repetitive internal process that usually required jumping between multiple systems and tracking down the right documentation. With the new agent, the workflow becomes much faster, with information pulled together automatically and the output generated in a consistent format every time.
It’s the kind of small but meaningful improvement that saves teams hours over a week and builds confidence in what AI can do when it’s grounded in real business context.
Where the learning happened
People asked great questions, pushed the tech, tested the limits, and tried ideas they’d been wanting to explore but never had the time or space for.
By the end, they’d done exactly what they set out to do: one agent ready to be deployed across the business, plus a handful of solid ideas taking shape. A small session with a very real outcome, and a team confident enough to build the next ones themselves.
Dan brought Adrian, James B. and Jemma along for the day to help out and witness the usual Studio cycle unfold. Adrian summed it up perfectly, saying it was “super cool to actually get a couple of hours in Copilot Studio and give the tech some real time”, and it paid off.
A look behind the scenes
After the workshop, the Kangan team took us on a quick tour of what they’re building in Cremorne. Between the 3D printing setup, the robotic hands, and the full car simulation on display, it’s clear they’re doing some impressive work — and even more clear why they’re investing in AI capability.
A fun day, a great team, and one very successful Amplify workshop.
If your team wants to get hands-on with Copilot and actually build something useful, Amplify’s a good place to start.
