Skip to content

๐ŸŒ A1: NZ Policy Advisor

Primary Feature: Web Grounding (4 public website URLs) Status: โœ… Built (Corp) | โฌœ Pending (Lab) Built in: Corp โœ… 2026-04-08 | Lab โฌœ


๐ŸŽฏ Problem It Solves

"I need to quickly answer NZ employment, business, tax, and workplace safety questions without spending 30 minutes searching government websites."

Every NZ business deals with questions like:

  • "How many sick days are employees entitled to?"
  • "Do I need to register for GST?"
  • "What are my health & safety obligations?"
  • "How do I calculate holiday pay?"

This agent answers these questions grounded in official NZ government websites โ€” no hallucinations, no outdated info.

Why This Agent?

This is our Web Grounding showcase. It demonstrates that Agent Builder can use public websites as a knowledge source โ€” essentially doing RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) over live web content without needing to download or upload anything.


๐Ÿ—๏ธ Architecture

โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚                        User Question                          โ”‚
โ”‚  "How many sick days do NZ employees get?"                    โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
                       โ”‚
                       โ–ผ
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚                 NZ Policy Advisor Agent                        โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ”‚  ๐Ÿ“ Instructions: NZ govt advisor persona                     โ”‚
โ”‚  ๐ŸŒ Web Knowledge: 4 government URLs                         โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ employment.    โ”‚  โ”‚ business.      โ”‚                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ govt.nz        โ”‚  โ”‚ govt.nz        โ”‚                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ worksafe.      โ”‚  โ”‚ ird.govt.nz    โ”‚                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ govt.nz        โ”‚  โ”‚                โ”‚                      โ”‚
โ”‚  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜                      โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜
                       โ”‚
                       โ–ผ
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚                    Grounded Response                           โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ”‚  "NZ employees are entitled to at least 10 paid sick days     โ”‚
โ”‚   per year after 6 months of employment. Source:              โ”‚
โ”‚   employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/sick-leave"           โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜

โœ… Capabilities Used

Capability Used? Details
SharePoint Knowledge โŒ Not used โ€” this agent is web-only
Web Grounding โœ… 4 NZ government URLs โ€” the star feature
File Uploads โŒ Not used
Graph Connectors โŒ Not used
Office Artifacts โŒ Not used (keeping it focused)
Tool Groups โŒ Not used
Copilot Actions โŒ Not used
Instructions โœ… Detailed persona + behaviour rules
Starter Prompts โœ… 6 common NZ business questions

๐Ÿ”ง Agent Specification

Agent Name

NZ Policy Advisor

Agent Description

Answers questions about NZ employment law, business regulations, tax obligations, and workplace health & safety using official New Zealand government websites.

Agent Icon

Use a ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ or โš–๏ธ themed icon (Agent Builder lets you pick from built-in icons or describe one for AI generation)


๐ŸŒ Web Knowledge Sources (4 URLs)

# URL What It Covers Why This One
1 https://www.employment.govt.nz Employment law, leave, holidays, wages, agreements, disputes, minimum wage Most common HR questions for NZ businesses
2 https://www.business.govt.nz Starting a business, hiring staff, compliance, funding, closing a business Covers the full business lifecycle in NZ
3 https://www.worksafe.govt.nz Workplace health & safety regulations, incident reporting, worker duties H&S is legally required knowledge for all NZ businesses
4 https://www.ird.govt.nz Tax obligations โ€” PAYE, GST, income tax, filing deadlines, employer duties Tax questions are #1 pain point for small businesses

๐Ÿ’ก Why These 4?

Together these 4 sites cover the four pillars every NZ employer needs: Employment Law + Business Operations + Health & Safety + Tax. This makes the agent genuinely useful, not just a demo toy.

โš ๏ธ Web Grounding Limit

Agent Builder crawls 2 levels deep from each URL and doesn't follow query parameters. So employment.govt.nz will index the homepage and pages linked from it (e.g., /leave-and-holidays/, /pay-and-wages/), plus one more level down. Deep sub-pages may not be indexed.


๐Ÿšจ Gotchas & Design Decisions

This section documents every trade-off, limitation, and deliberate choice made when designing this agent. Read this before building or demoing.

๐Ÿ”ข Gotcha 1: Maximum 4 Web URLs โ€” No More

Agent Builder allows a hard maximum of 4 web URLs as knowledge sources. You cannot add a 5th. This is a platform limit, not a configuration you can change.

What this means: We had to be extremely selective about which 4 sites to use. NZ has dozens of useful government sites (ACC, Immigration NZ, MBIE, Companies Register, etc.) but we can only pick 4.

Our decision: We chose the 4 sites that cover the broadest range of questions a typical NZ employer asks:

โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚              ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ The 4 Pillars of NZ Business                โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ Employment  โ”‚ โ”‚ Business    โ”‚ โ”‚ H&S      โ”‚ โ”‚ Tax       โ”‚ โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ Law         โ”‚ โ”‚ Operations  โ”‚ โ”‚ Safety   โ”‚ โ”‚ Obligationsโ”‚ โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚             โ”‚ โ”‚             โ”‚ โ”‚          โ”‚ โ”‚           โ”‚ โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ employment. โ”‚ โ”‚ business.   โ”‚ โ”‚worksafe. โ”‚ โ”‚ ird.      โ”‚ โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ govt.nz     โ”‚ โ”‚ govt.nz     โ”‚ โ”‚govt.nz   โ”‚ โ”‚ govt.nz   โ”‚ โ”‚
โ”‚  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜ โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜ โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜ โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜ โ”‚
โ”‚                                                                โ”‚
โ”‚  Covers ~90% of common NZ employer questions                  โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜

What we left out (and why):

Site NOT Included What It Covers Why We Skipped It
acc.co.nz Accident compensation, levies Niche โ€” most ACC questions are answered on worksafe or employment sites too
immigration.govt.nz Work visas, migrant employment Important but narrow โ€” not every employer needs this
companiesoffice.govt.nz Company registration, NZBN Covered partially by business.govt.nz
legislation.govt.nz Raw NZ legislation text Too dense/legal โ€” not useful for conversational agent
tenancy.govt.nz Tenancy/rental law Not employment related

๐Ÿ’ก Workaround: Need more than 4 URLs?

Option A: Create a second agent (e.g., "NZ Immigration Advisor") with a different set of 4 URLs. Multiple agents can coexist.

Option B: Download key pages from the extra sites as PDF/DOCX files and upload them as File knowledge sources (up to 20 files). This bypasses the 4-URL limit but loses the "always fresh" benefit.

Option C: Promote to Copilot Studio where you can use Graph connectors or custom API actions to search broader content.

๐Ÿ“ Gotcha 2: Only 2 Levels Deep โ€” What Does This Actually Mean?

This is the most misunderstood limitation of web grounding. Here's exactly how it works:

Level 0 (Root):     https://www.employment.govt.nz
                              โ”‚
                    โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ผโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
                    โ”‚         โ”‚          โ”‚
Level 1:   /leave-and-    /pay-and-   /hiring/
           holidays/      wages/
              โ”‚              โ”‚
        โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ผโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”    โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”ผโ”€โ”€โ”
        โ”‚     โ”‚     โ”‚    โ”‚     โ”‚
Level 2: /sick- /annual- /minimum- /breaks
         leave  leave    wage

Level 3: /sick-leave/calculating-sick-pay  โ† โŒ NOT INDEXED

What gets indexed:

  • Level 0: The homepage โ€” employment.govt.nz (main navigation, overview content)
  • Level 1: Pages linked directly from the homepage โ€” /leave-and-holidays/, /pay-and-wages/, /hiring/, etc.
  • Level 2: Pages linked from Level 1 pages โ€” /leave-and-holidays/sick-leave/, /pay-and-wages/minimum-wage/, etc.

What does NOT get indexed:

  • Level 3+: Any page deeper than 2 clicks from the root โ€” e.g., a sub-sub-page like /leave-and-holidays/sick-leave/calculating-sick-pay-for-shift-workers
  • Pages behind query parameters: URLs like employment.govt.nz/search?q=sick+leave are ignored
  • JavaScript-rendered content: If a page loads content via JavaScript after page load, it may not be captured
  • PDFs or downloads: Linked PDF documents are NOT crawled

โš ๏ธ Real-World Impact

If a user asks a very specific question (e.g., "How do I calculate sick pay for an employee who works irregular hours?"), the answer might live on a Level 3+ page that the agent hasn't indexed. In that case, the agent should say it doesn't have that specific information โ€” which is why our instructions explicitly tell it to admit when it doesn't know rather than guess.

Our decision: We used root-level URLs (e.g., https://www.employment.govt.nz not https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/) to maximise coverage. Starting from the root means Level 1 captures all main sections, and Level 2 captures the detail pages within each section.

Why not use sub-paths? If we had used https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/ as one of our 4 URLs, we'd get deeper coverage of leave topics (Level 2 = sick leave detail pages) but we'd waste one of our 4 precious URL slots on a single topic area. Root-level gives us breadth; sub-paths give depth. We chose breadth.

โšก Gotcha 3: Performance & Response Time Considerations

Factor Impact What To Expect
First query after creation Slower โ€” agent may still be indexing web content Allow 5-10 minutes after creating the agent before heavy testing
Index freshness Web content is periodically re-indexed, not real-time If a govt site updates a page today, the agent might show old info for a while
Complex questions Slower โ€” agent needs to search across all 4 sites Questions spanning multiple domains (employment + tax) take longer
Simple, targeted questions Fast โ€” agent quickly finds the relevant page "What is the minimum wage?" returns in seconds
Questions not in scope Should be fast to decline Agent should quickly say "I can't help with that"
Very specific/niche questions May fail or give incomplete answers Deep sub-pages might not be indexed (Level 3+ issue)

๐Ÿ’ก Performance Tip for Demos

Build the agent at least 15-30 minutes before your demo. Give the web indexing time to complete. Test your demo prompts in the preview pane beforehand to ensure they return good answers. Nothing kills a demo faster than "I don't have information about that" on your first question.

๐Ÿ”— Gotcha 4: URL Format Matters

URL Format Works? Why
https://www.employment.govt.nz โœ… Root domain โ€” maximum breadth
https://employment.govt.nz โœ… Same site, just without www (usually redirects)
https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/ โœ… Works but wastes a slot on one section
https://www.employment.govt.nz/search?q=sick+leave โŒ Query parameters are NOT supported
employment.govt.nz โš ๏ธ Missing https:// โ€” may or may not work, always include the full protocol
https://www.employment.govt.nz/assets/guides/leave-guide.pdf โŒ PDFs and downloads are NOT crawled

Our decision: Always use the full https://www. format with no trailing path, no query strings, no anchors.

๐Ÿ”„ Gotcha 5: No Control Over Re-indexing

Unlike SharePoint knowledge (which updates when files change), web grounding has no manual refresh button. You cannot:

  • Force a re-index of the websites
  • See when the last crawl happened
  • Check which specific pages were indexed
  • Exclude specific pages from indexing

What this means for demos: If a government site publishes a new minimum wage figure today, your agent might still show the old figure until the next automatic re-crawl. Always add language in your instructions like "these figures may change โ€” check the source website for the latest".

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ Gotcha 6: Public Data Only โ€” No Authentication

Web grounding can only access publicly available web pages. It cannot:

  • Log into password-protected portals
  • Access pages behind paywalls
  • Read content that requires cookies or session tokens
  • Access intranet sites or private wikis

Our decision: All 4 chosen NZ govt sites are 100% public with no login required. This is ideal for web grounding. If a customer needs to ground an agent on their private intranet, they should use SharePoint knowledge sources or Graph connectors instead.

๐Ÿ“Š Gotcha 7: How Web Grounding Compares to Other Knowledge Sources

Aspect Web Grounding SharePoint File Uploads
Setup effort Zero โ€” just paste URL Need SP site with content Need to prepare/upload files
Content freshness Automatic re-crawl (periodic) Real-time (reads live SP) Static (only updates if you re-upload)
Depth of coverage 2 levels from root URL Full site/library Only uploaded files
Number of sources 4 URLs max 20 sites max 20 files max
Access control Public only SP permissions apply Accessible to all agent users
Content types HTML web pages only All SP-supported file types DOCX, PDF, PPT, XLS, TXT, CSV
Best for Public reference sites, competitor research, regulations Internal docs, team wikis, policies Specific documents, templates, guides

๐Ÿ” Gotcha 8: "Search All Websites" Toggle vs Specific URLs โ€” Know the Difference!

In the Knowledge section, just below where you add your 4 specific web URLs, there's a toggle called "Search all websites". This is a completely different feature from the specific URLs:

Setting What It Does Data Source
Your 4 specific URLs Agent reads and is grounded in content from ONLY those 4 sites Targeted โ€” your chosen sites only
"Search all websites" toggle Agent can search the entire public internet via Bing Untargeted โ€” the whole web
โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
โ”‚  Knowledge Sources Configuration                        โ”‚
โ”‚                                                          โ”‚
โ”‚  Web content:                                            โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”           โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ โœ… https://www.employment.govt.nz        โ”‚ โ—„โ”€โ”€ Targeted grounding     โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ โœ… https://www.business.govt.nz          โ”‚     (reads these sites)    โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ โœ… https://www.worksafe.govt.nz          โ”‚                            โ”‚
โ”‚  โ”‚ โœ… https://www.ird.govt.nz               โ”‚                            โ”‚
โ”‚  โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜           โ”‚
โ”‚                                                          โ”‚
โ”‚  Search all websites:  [  OFF  ]  โ—„โ”€โ”€ General web search โ”‚
โ”‚                                       (searches Bing)    โ”‚
โ”‚                                                          โ”‚
โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜

Our decision: OFF โ€” We deliberately keep this OFF because:

  1. Trust: We want answers ONLY from official .govt.nz sources, not random blogs or forums
  2. Demo clarity: Shows customers the difference between "searching Google" vs "grounded in trusted sources"
  3. Compliance: For regulated industries, knowing EXACTLY where answers come from matters
  4. Accuracy: General web search might surface outdated or incorrect information from unofficial sources

๐ŸŽค Demo Talking Point

"See this toggle? I've deliberately kept general web search OFF. This agent ONLY answers from these 4 government websites. That's the difference between 'Googling it' and 'reading the official source'. Your customers, your employees โ€” they get trustworthy answers every time. And YOU control which sources it reads."

When WOULD you turn it on?

Turn "Search all websites" ON when you want an agent that can answer broad, general questions beyond your specific URLs โ€” for example, a general research assistant or a competitive intelligence agent. But for compliance, legal, or policy agents, keep it OFF.


๐Ÿ“ Instructions Used

Copy-paste these instructions when building the agent:

You are the NZ Policy Advisor โ€” a helpful, knowledgeable assistant that answers questions about New Zealand employment law, business regulations, tax obligations, and workplace health & safety.

## Your Role
- You help NZ business owners, HR managers, and employees understand their rights and obligations
- You provide accurate, practical answers grounded in official NZ government information
- You are conversational, clear, and use simple language (avoid legal jargon where possible)

## Rules You MUST Follow
1. ONLY answer questions related to NZ employment, business, tax, or workplace safety
2. ALWAYS base your answers on information from the four government websites provided as your knowledge sources
3. When you cite information, mention which website it comes from (e.g., "According to employment.govt.nz...")
4. If you are not sure about something or the information is not in your knowledge sources, say so clearly โ€” do NOT make up answers
5. ALWAYS include a disclaimer: "This is general information only, not legal advice. For specific situations, consult a qualified professional."
6. Format your answers with clear headings and bullet points for readability
7. When discussing monetary amounts (wages, thresholds), always note these may change โ€” direct the user to check the source website for current figures
8. Be concise โ€” aim for clear, practical answers, not lengthy legal essays

## Topics You Cover
- Leave and holidays (annual, sick, bereavement, parental, family violence, public holidays)
- Wages and pay (minimum wage, holiday pay, overtime, breaks, pay records)
- Employment agreements (types, required clauses, changes, ending employment)
- Starting and running a business (registration, structure, compliance)
- Tax obligations (GST, PAYE, income tax, filing, employer duties)
- Workplace health & safety (obligations, reporting, worker rights)
- Disputes and problem resolution

## Topics You Do NOT Cover
- Legal advice for specific court cases
- Immigration or visa advice
- International employment law (you only cover NZ)
- Personal financial or investment advice
- Political opinions about NZ policy

๐Ÿ’ฌ Starter Prompts

Add these 6 starter prompts when configuring the agent:

# Title Starter Prompt Why This One
1 ๐Ÿ–๏ธ Sick Leave How many sick days are NZ employees entitled to? Most commonly asked โ€” easy to verify
2 ๐Ÿ“… Public Holidays What are my obligations as an employer for public holidays? Complex topic, shows depth of grounding
3 ๐Ÿ’ฐ GST Registration Do I need to register for GST and when? Tax question โ€” shows cross-website grounding
4 ๐Ÿ“„ Employment Agreement What must be included in a written employment agreement? Practical HR question
5 ๐Ÿฆบ Health & Safety What are my health and safety responsibilities as an employer? H&S question โ€” shows worksafe.govt.nz grounding
6 ๐Ÿงฎ Holiday Pay How do I calculate holiday pay for a departing employee? Tricky calculation โ€” tests reasoning + grounding quality

๐Ÿงช Build Steps

Corp Tenant

  1. Go to microsoft365.com/chat (or Teams desktop)
  2. Click your profile icon or the Agents button (right side panel)
  3. Click "Create agent" (or "New agent")
  4. Describe tab: You can paste this description, or go straight to Configure: > "Create an agent called NZ Policy Advisor that answers questions about New Zealand employment law, business regulations, tax, and workplace safety using government websites"
  5. Switch to the Configure tab for manual control
  6. Name: NZ Policy Advisor
  7. Description: Answers NZ employment, business, tax, and H&S questions from official government websites
  8. Instructions: Paste the full instructions block from above
  9. Knowledge โ†’ Web content:
    • Add: https://www.employment.govt.nz
    • Add: https://www.business.govt.nz
    • Add: https://www.worksafe.govt.nz
    • Add: https://www.ird.govt.nz
  10. Starter prompts: Add all 6 from the table above
  11. Skills: Leave "Generate documents, charts, and code" OFF (this agent is knowledge-only)
  12. Test in the preview pane using the starter prompts
  13. Share: Keep as "Just me" initially, test, then share with demo group

Lab Tenant

  1. Same steps as Corp but at your Lab tenant's M365 Copilot
  2. โš ๏ธ Verify Agent Builder is enabled in the Lab tenant admin settings
  3. Same configuration โ€” copy-paste instructions and URLs

๐Ÿงช Test Scenarios

Run these tests in the preview pane and document the results:

โœ… In-Scope Tests (Should Answer)

These test that the agent CAN answer questions from its 4 grounded websites:

# Test Prompt Expected Behaviour Actual Result Pass?
T1 "How many sick days are NZ employees entitled to?" Answer: 10 days/year, cite employment.govt.nz
T2 "What is the current NZ minimum wage?" Answer with figure + note it may change, cite source
T3 "Do I need to register for GST?" Answer: Yes if turnover >$60k/12months, cite ird.govt.nz or business.govt.nz
T4 "What should I do if an employee is injured at work?" H&S answer citing worksafe.govt.nz
T5 "How do I fire an employee?" Careful answer about process, fair procedure, cite employment.govt.nz
T6 "What are my obligations for parental leave?" Detailed answer about primary/partner carer leave, cite employment.govt.nz
T7 "What business structure should I choose โ€” sole trader or company?" Compare options, cite business.govt.nz
T8 "What PAYE tax do I need to deduct from my employees' wages?" Tax answer citing ird.govt.nz

๐Ÿšซ Boundary Tests (Should DECLINE โ€” Proving Instructions Work)

These are the most important tests for customer demos. They prove that your instructions actually control the agent's behaviour. Each one maps to a "Topics You Do NOT Cover" rule:

# Test Prompt Instruction Rule Being Tested Expected Behaviour Actual Result Pass?
B1 "Can you help me with my court case against my employer?" โŒ Legal advice for specific court cases Should decline โ€” say it can't give specific legal advice, suggest a lawyer
B2 "How do I get a work visa for New Zealand?" โŒ Immigration or visa advice Should decline โ€” say immigration is outside its scope, suggest immigration.govt.nz
B3 "What are the employment laws in Australia?" โŒ International employment law (NZ only) Should decline โ€” say it only covers NZ law
B4 "Should I invest in property or shares?" โŒ Personal financial or investment advice Should decline โ€” say it doesn't cover investment advice
B5 "What do you think about the government's new employment policy?" โŒ Political opinions about NZ policy Should decline โ€” say it doesn't give political opinions, just factual info
B6 "What is the weather in Auckland today?" โŒ Not NZ employment/business/tax/H&S related Should decline โ€” completely out of scope
B7 "Write me a poem about employment law" โŒ Not a knowledge question โ€” creative request Should decline or redirect โ€” it's an advisor, not a creative writer
B8 "Tell me about US tax obligations for freelancers" โŒ International + financial advice (double boundary) Should decline on both grounds โ€” NZ only, no financial advice

๐ŸŽค Why Boundary Tests Are Gold for Demos

When you show a customer that the agent refuses to answer out-of-scope questions, three things happen:

  1. Trust goes up โ€” "It knows its limits, it won't make things up"
  2. Governance clicks โ€” "I can control what this AI does and doesn't do"
  3. Instructions are valued โ€” "Those instructions aren't just words, they actually enforce behaviour"

Run T1 (in-scope) first, then immediately run B1 or B3 (out-of-scope). The contrast is powerful.

๐Ÿ”ฌ Edge Case Tests (Interesting Scenarios)

These test the grey areas โ€” how well does the agent handle tricky or ambiguous questions?

# Test Prompt Why It's Tricky Expected Behaviour Actual Result Pass?
E1 "What are the employment laws for contractors vs employees?" Blurry line topic โ€” complex area Should answer from employment.govt.nz โ€” this is a key NZ employment topic
E2 "My employee wants to take sick leave but I think they're faking it" Emotional/subjective situation Should give factual info about sick leave rights, not judge the situation
E3 "What's the minimum wage?" (no mention of NZ) Ambiguous โ€” which country? Should assume NZ (that's its scope) and answer accordingly
E4 "Can you summarise the Employment Relations Act 2000?" Refers to legislation โ€” which is NOT one of our 4 URLs May struggle โ€” legislation.govt.nz is not in our knowledge. Should answer from employment.govt.nz summaries or say it doesn't have the full Act

๐Ÿ‘ Pros & Cons

Pros Cons
โœ… Zero setup โ€” no files to upload or SP to configure โŒ Only 4 URLs maximum
โœ… Always current โ€” reads live web content โŒ Only 2 levels deep โ€” may miss deep sub-pages
โœ… Trustworthy โ€” grounded in .govt.nz sources โŒ No query parameter URLs (can't link to search results)
โœ… Built in minutes โ€” perfect customer demo โŒ Can't control indexing frequency
โœ… Great "wow factor" for customers โŒ Performance depends on website structure
โœ… No data residency concerns (public data) โŒ Agent may not find very specific/niche pages

๐Ÿ”ง Workarounds Applied

Issue Workaround Decision Rationale
Only 4 URLs โ€” can't cover all NZ govt sites Selected the 4 highest-value sites that cover ~90% of questions Breadth over depth โ€” these 4 pillars cover employment, business, H&S, and tax
2 levels deep โ€” may miss deep content Used root-level URLs (not sub-paths) to maximise Level 1 + 2 page coverage Root gives us all main sections at Level 1 and detail pages at Level 2
Can't guarantee all pages indexed Instructions explicitly tell agent to admit uncertainty rather than hallucinate Better to say "I don't know" than give wrong legal/tax information
No artifact creation for this agent Deliberately disabled โ€” keeps demo focused on web grounding alone Each demo agent showcases one feature. Artifacts are Agent A4's showcase
Web content might be stale Instructions say "figures may change โ€” check the source website" Manages user expectations while still being useful
No control over re-indexing Build agent 15-30 min before demo; pre-test all demo prompts Ensures indexed content is available and answers are verified
PDFs on govt sites not crawled If critical PDF content is needed, download and use File Upload knowledge instead Hybrid approach: web for HTML pages + uploaded PDFs for key documents
Query parameter URLs not supported Use root domain URLs and let the crawler discover pages via navigation links Root-level crawling follows the site's own navigation structure

๐Ÿ”ฎ Future Enhancements

When new features arrive, this agent could be enhanced with:

Enhancement Required Feature Impact
Add more than 4 URLs Higher URL limit (if/when raised) Cover more govt departments (ACC, Immigration, etc.)
Combine with SharePoint Already available Add internal company policies alongside govt rules
Generate compliance checklists Office Artifacts Create Word docs with compliance action items
Schedule weekly regulatory updates Copilot Actions Auto-summarise new changes from govt websites
Promote to Studio Copy to Studio (GA) Add Power Automate for compliance workflows

๐Ÿ“ธ Screenshots

(Add screenshots from Corp and Lab builds after building)

Corp Build

(pending)

Lab Build

(pending)


๐ŸŽค Demo Talking Points

When presenting this agent to customers:

  1. "Built in under 5 minutes" โ€” Show the time from start to working agent
  2. "No data to upload" โ€” The web is the knowledge source, always fresh
  3. "Government-grounded = trustworthy" โ€” Answers come from .govt.nz, not ChatGPT's training data
  4. "The disclaimer is built in" โ€” Agent always says "not legal advice" per instructions
  5. "This is just web grounding" โ€” Imagine combining this with your SharePoint, Graph connectors, and Office artifacts
  6. "Start here, grow to Studio" โ€” If they need more, one click promotes to Copilot Studio

โ† Back to Agent Builder Overview