A program manager is building a Copilot custom agent to draft compliance summaries that must cite current GDPR guidance and product docs, but the agent keeps answering from stale training data and missing recent updates. Which creation of a custom agent by adding web search to instructions best fixes freshness?

Enabling web search and instructing the agent to verify guidance with current sources and cite links addresses both problems: it reaches beyond stale training data and grounds summaries of GDPR guidance and product docs in current, auditable evidence. Instructing the agent to verify only product docs and cite links leaves GDPR guidance unchecked, so it does not meet the need for both source types. Asking it to verify current guidance but omit links can improve freshness, but removes the citations needed for verification and auditability. Restricting summaries to static files with citations may offer control and consistency, but uploaded files can become outdated and the instruction does not direct the agent to check current web sources. An exam caveat is that turning on search alone is not enough: instructions should specify what to verify and how to cite it. As a practical check, test the agent with a very recent GDPR update or product-doc change, then inspect the cited link dates and domains to confirm it retrieved and cited current material rather than relying on cached knowledge.