Why “Configure the Escalate topic” (E) is the correct choice

Copilot Studio’s native escalation mechanism – Within a Copilot‑powered Dynamics 365 Contact Center bot you define topics that control the dialogue flow.
- An Escalate topic tells the runtime to end the current bot session and hand‑off the conversation to a live agent (typically routed to a Teams or Dynamics 365 agent workspace).
- The handoff uses the built‑in Escalate action which automatically passes session context (e.g., transcript, customer‑ID) to the escalation channel without any custom code.
Seamless integration with the Dynamics 365 Contact Center platform – The platform expects the bot to surface an Escalate node when a customer explicitly requests human help.
- Configuring this node aligns the bot’s behavior with the out‑of‑the‑box “Live agent hand‑off” pattern required by the Contact Center service, ensuring the hand‑off is recognized by routing rules, queues, and reporting.
Preserves session context and security – The Escalate topic can pass the whole conversation transcript, bot state, and authentication tokens to the live‑agent workspace, so the agent sees exactly what the customer has discussed and can continue without re‑authentication.
- This is handled automatically; no extra APIs or custom connectors are needed.
Meets the requirement “respond to customer questions and hand off when the customer requests an escalation” –
- The bot can still answer questions via regular conversational flows (topics, entities, triggers).
- When the user says something like “I want to talk to a representative,” the bot evaluates that intent and switches to the Escalate topic, invoking the hand‑off action.

Why the other options are less suitable

A – Build an agent flow
- “Agent flow” is a design‑time term for the overall bot construction process, not a specific runtime feature that triggers a hand‑off. Relying only on this does not guarantee the correct escalation behavior.
B – Configure the Conversation Start topic
- This topic merely defines the opening greeting and initial prompts; it does not provide a mechanism for detecting escalation requests or transferring the session.
C – Configure a skill
– Skills are used in Dynamics 365 for talent or resource allocation, not for bot‑to‑agent hand‑off in a Copilot context. They have no impact on conversation routing.
D – Call a Microsoft Power Automate connector
– While a Power Automate flow could simulate an escalation, it adds unnecessary complexity, extra licensing, and latency. The platform already offers a native Escalate action that is more reliable and is the recommended best practice.

Technical implementation in practice (brief)

Add an “Escalate” node to the bot’s topic graph where the intent “escalate to agent” or a phrase like “talk to a representative” is detected.
Set the node’s action to Escalate to live agent; optionally populate hand‑off data such as customerId, conversationTranscript, and custom context variables.
Publish the bot to the Dynamics 365 Contact Center channel. When the condition is met, the runtime automatically switches the session to the live‑agent workspace, preserving all context.
Monitor hand‑off events through the Contact Center analytics dashboard to ensure escalation rates meet service level objectives.

References

Microsoft Docs: Escalate a conversation with a Copilot bot
Microsoft Docs: Guide to building Copilot Studio topics and hand‑off actions