Microsoft customers will from November start to build autonomous AI agents as part of efforts to leverage the growing tech sector amid rising competition.
This comes as Microsoft is also looking at fending off competition from peers Salesforce, which introduced its own configurable AI tools last month. Microsoft revealed the development at its AI Tour in London where the tech giant promised businesses an opportunity to start building their own AI assistants for customizing.
Microsoft AI agents to function as virtual workers
Microsoft initially announced the AI agents in May, which had previously been made accessible in private preview. However, the agents, that can function as virtual workers will move into public in November, as more businesses can start building their own agents.
AI agents are seen as a significant evolution in large language models (LLMs) from chat interfaces, creating an experience that blends seamlessly into the ground.
Now, with this initiative, Microsoft is positioning autonomous programs that require little human intervention unlike chatbots as “apps for an AI-driven world” that can respond to client queries, identify sales leads, and manage inventory.
Peers in the big tech industry like Salesforce also believe in AI agents and touted their potential. Analysts believe these tools may be useful in providing tech firms with an easier way to monetize the billions of dollars in investments in the AI industry.
For Microsoft, the company indicated that its customers could utilize Copilot Studio – an application that does not need a lot of knowledge of computer code to create such agents in public preview in November.
The tech giant also revealed that customers can use in-house models and those by OpenAI for the agents.
Microsoft introduces 10 ready-for-use agents
According to a Reuters report, Microsoft is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that can help with routine tasks, such as managing supply chains, expense tracking, and client communications.
One of its customers, McKinsey & Co already had access to the tools. In a demo, the company created an agent that manages client inquiries through checking interaction history, identify the consultant for that particular task, as well as scheduling a follow-up meeting.
During that demo, an agent, according to CNBC, the agent was shown as it explored an email to find out what the communication was about. The agent checked its history, mapped it to industry-standard terms, and found the right firm to take the next step.
“The idea is that Copilot (the company’s chatbot) is the user interface for AI,” Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of business and industry Copilot at Microsoft, told Reuters.
“Every employee will have a Copilot, their personalized AI agent, and then they will use that Copilot to interface and interact with the sea of AI agents that will be out there.”
Lamanna.
Microsoft is under pressure after concerns have been raised in recent months over Copilot adoption. Research firm Gartner in its August survey of 152 IT organizations revealed that most of them had not moved their Copilot initiatives past the pilot stage.
The tech giant’s share price fell 2.8% in the quarter to September, but it remained 10% ahead for the year.
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