Microsoft has announced another significant expansion of its AI capabilities with the introduction of autonomous agents designed to integrate more tightly into business operations.
Available in public preview, the agents are designed to let organizations use AI-powered automation to complete a variety of workloads, and can be customized from the company’s updated Copilot Studio platform.
Microsoft says that its agents can operate on behalf of employees to automate tasks, provide insights and streamline operations, with their uses being most anticipated in challenging industries like retail, finance and legal services.
Microsoft set to launch AI agents
Key to the success of Microsoft’s digital agents will be its upgraded Copilot Studio, which promises to combine personal, business and analytical data to help businesses build agents with greater control and transparency.
The enhanced Studio allows developers to tailor their agents according to different paths. By displaying underlying logic, such as key details, steps and systems involved, developers will have a deeper insight into an agent’s reasoning and context, helping them to tweak outputs and iron out bugs.
In light of the demand for maximum transparency surrounding AI tools, Microsoft has also added a new ‘Activity’ tab for workers to identify progress, blocks and trends in a complete log of past runs.
Announced at its recent Microsoft AI Tour event in London, the news was also accompanied by the release of 10 new prebuilt agents within Dynamics 365 to help sales, service, finance and supply chain teams. These agents will use some of the latest models, including the OpenAI o1 series, to handle complex tasks with little to no human intervention.
Acknowledging that artificial intelligence requires a specific and advanced skillset, Microsoft declared any company can become an AI-first company with agents helping plug the gaps where companies are struggling with ongoing talent shortages to help them remain unique – a competitive advantage that they should not lose.
It also added that security remains a priority, with robust data protection measures and governance tools in place.
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