Microsoft has announced plans to enable customers to build autonomous AI agents starting in November, aiming to leverage the expanding AI market.
These agents differ from traditional chatbots by requiring minimal human oversight, making them effective for automating tasks like handling client inquiries, identifying sales leads, and managing inventory.
Major tech players, including Salesforce, have highlighted the potential of AI agents to deliver substantial returns on the billions invested in AI technologies.
Microsoft announced that starting in November, customers will be able to utilize Copilot Studio, a dedicated application for creating autonomous AI agents. This tool aims to simplify the development process, allowing businesses to tailor AI solutions to their specific needs and automate various tasks effectively.
The AI agents will leverage a combination of Microsoft’s in-house AI models and those developed by OpenAI.
To facilitate easier adoption, Microsoft is introducing ten pre-built agents designed to assist with tasks such as supply chain management, expense tracking, and client communications.
In a demonstration, consulting firm McKinsey & Co. showcased an AI agent that efficiently managed client inquiries, matched them with the appropriate consultants, and scheduled follow-up meetings.
According to the Microsoft’s corporate vice president of business and industry Copilot, Charles Lamanna, stated that the vision is for every employee to have their own personalized AI agent, or Copilot.
This Copilot will act as the user interface for interacting with various AI agents, significantly boosting productivity and efficiency across tasks.
“The idea is that Copilot is the user interface for AI. Every employee will have a Copilot, their personalized AI agent, and they will use that Copilot to interface and interact with the sea of AI agents that will be out there,” Lamanna said.
Microsoft’s announcement of its autonomous AI initiative follows closely on the heels of Meta’s introduction of the “Self-Taught Evaluator,” a new AI model designed to minimize human input in AI training and evaluation
