Plan - Questions and Answers tools for Teams Phone Agent

  • Applies to: Microsoft Teams

Note

Teams Phone Agent is currently only available to customers in the Frontier Public Preview program.

Need help configuring Teams Phone Agent? Book a session with us: Teams Phone Agent Frontier Public Preview Support Sessions

Help shape the product by filling out our feedback form or by sending us an email

This article is for IT pros and Teams administrators who want to learn about the Questions and Answers tools feature for Teams Phone Agent.

Knowledge bases

A knowledge base is a structured repository of information (articles) designed to help users find answers, solve problems, and understand systems or processes. It typically includes:

  • FAQs and troubleshooting guides
  • How-to articles and tutorials
  • Product documentation
  • Standard operating procedures
  • Support and feedback mechanisms

Knowledge bases can be for internal or external use. They often support AI-driven tools like chatbots, Copilot agents, and virtual assistants.

In Teams Phone Agent, knowledge bases are called Questions and Answers tools.

Teams Phone Agent Questions and Answers tools

A Teams Phone Agent Questions and Answers tool is a collection of articles, a knowledge base, from various sources.

Each Questions and Answers tool should only contain answers specific to the types of questions that callers ask based on the phone number they called.

If a Questions and Answers tool is generic in nature, then Teams Phone Agent responds with generic answers.

Important

Teams Phone Agent doesn't store a copy of the articles that make up the Questions and Answers tool. It maintains an abstract representation of the knowledge derived from them.

Supported document types

During Frontier Public Preview, Teams Phone Agent Questions and Answers tool articles support the following local file types:

  • JSON, XML
  • PDF
  • TXT, CSV
  • DOC, DOCX (Microsoft Word)
  • XLS, XLSX (Microsoft Excel)
  • PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint)
  • ZIP (of any of the supported file types)

Each Questions and Answers tool may contain a maximum of ten files, totaling no more than 5 MB in size.

The overall size of the ZIP file is still restricted to 5 MB in size; the expanded file sizes can be larger.

Tip

Remember to update your Questions and Answers tools as documents are updated so that Teams Phone Agent can continue to provide the most up-to-date information to callers.

Supported web pages

During Frontier Public Preview, Teams Phone Agent Questions and Answers tool articles support public facing web pages (URLs):

  • Teams Phone Agent does not crawl the website. Only the specific page referenced by the URL is used. Links on the page are not followed.
  • Highly interactive pages requiring user input are not suitable.
  • Pages requiring authentication are not supported.
  • Intranet pages that are only accessible within an organization are not supported. All pages must be public facing.

During Frontier Public Preview, web pages will NOT be rescanned/refreshed automatically.

Best practices

  • Acronyms: All acronyms should be defined within the document.
  • Single Language: Files should be in a single language that matches the language that Teams Phone agent is configured for.
  • No complex formatting: No complex or nested tables, no pivot tables in Excel.
  • No videos or images: Documents shouldn't contain macros, videos, or graphics as these objects are ignored.
  • No sensitivity labels: Documents must not have sensitivity labels, require passwords to open, or include restrictions from security policies. Anyone must be able to open the files.
  • Avoid conflicting information: Ensure articles in a Questions and Answers tool contain no conflicting information, as conflicts can cause Teams Phone Agent to provide incorrect responses.
  • No Workflows: The articles used in Teams Phone Agent Questions and Answers tool should not contain any type of workflow instructions to Teams Phone Agent.

Licensing requirements

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