To strengthen its foothold in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, Microsoft has unveiled Copilot custom autonomous agents, with 10 explicitly pre-trained for its Dynamics 365 platform.
These AI-driven agents are built to automate intricate tasks and streamline various business operations, including sales, customer service, finance, and supply chain management. Microsoft aims to enhance productivity and simplify business processes across various industries by integrating these specialized tools.
What are Microsoft Copilot agents?
Microsoft Copilot agents are advanced AI tools designed to autonomously perform tasks by leveraging sophisticated language models and business data. According to Bryan Goode, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, these agents represent “the new apps for a world powered by AI.”
Developed through Copilot Studio, these agents will be powered by OpenAI’s latest generative AI model, OpenAI o1.
This new initiative from Microsoft comes just before the debut of Salesforce’s Agentforce, another platform aiming to transform the market with AI-powered agents. Both companies are positioning themselves to lead the growing AI-driven business automation space.
Salesforce: “Copilot agents are Clippy 2.0”
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has taken a jab at Microsoft, likening its new Copilot agents to “Clippy 2.0,” the animated assistant from Microsoft Office in the 1990s. Despite this critique, Microsoft stands firm, emphasizing that its Copilot technology is already widely adopted, with 60% of Fortune 500 companies using it.
Several companies have seen tangible benefits from Microsoft’s AI agents. For instance, Pets at Home developed a Copilot agent for its benefits protection team, leading to projected annual savings in the six-figure range. Similarly, McKinsey & Company implemented an agent to streamline their client onboarding process, slashing processing times by 90%.
Microsoft is set to roll out the public preview of Copilot Studio next month, enabling businesses to create autonomous agents capable of directly interacting with clients, managing cases, and updating knowledge bases.
This move showcases Microsoft’s technological advancements and signals a clear challenge to Salesforce as both companies compete for leadership in the AI-driven enterprise software space.
