Microsoft to allow clients build AI agents for routine tasks

Microsoft has announced that it will allow its customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI investments.

The company is positioning autonomous agents — programmes that need little human interventions unlike chatbots — as "apps for an AI-driven world" that can handle client queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory, Reuters said.

Other big technology companies such as Salesforce have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetising the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI.

Microsoft said its customers could use Copilot Studio — an application that requires little knowledge of computer code — to create such agents in public preview from November. It is using several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the agents.

The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that can help with routine tasks ranging from managing supply chain to expense tracking and client communications.

In a demo, McKinsey & Co, which had early access to the tools, created an agent that could manage client inquiries by checking interaction history, identifying the consultant for the task and scheduling a follow-up meeting.

"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 personalised AI agent, and then they will use that Copilot to interface and interact with the sea of AI agents that will be out there."

Tech giants are facing pressure to show returns on their big AI investments. Microsoft's shares fell 2.8% in the September quarter, underperforming the S&P 500, but remains more than 10% higher for the year.

Some concerns have risen in recent months about the pace of Copilot adoption, with research firm Gartner saying in August its survey of 152 IT organisations showed the vast majority had not progressed their Copilot initiatives past the pilot stage