Microsoft Unveils 10 Autonomous AI Agents, Revolutionizing Enterprise Automation

Microsoft Launches 10 New Autonomous AI Agents

Microsoft has announced the launch of 10 autonomous AI agents during its annual Ignite conference, signaling a significant advancement in enterprise technology. These agents, embedded within the Dynamics 365 platform, are designed to streamline workflows, minimize manual intervention, and enhance operational efficiency across critical business functions, including sales, customer service, finance, and supply chain management. This initiative positions Microsoft as a strong competitor in the rapidly expanding AI agent market, challenging both emerging startups and established industry players. Wouldn't it be great if during your workday where the most tedious, repetitive tasks on your to-do list are handled seamlessly without you lifting a finger. No more chasing down leads, reconciling accounts, or manually routing customer inquiries -- just time freed up to focus on the work that truly matters. For many businesses, this dream is quickly becoming a reality, thanks to Microsoft's latest announcement at its Ignite conference. With the launch of 10 new autonomous AI agents integrated into Dynamics 365, Microsoft is stepping up to tackle some of the most persistent operational headaches across sales, customer service, finance, and supply chain management. But these aren't just any AI tools -- they're designed to work independently, triggered by real-world data and actions, so you can spend less time managing processes and more time driving impact. If you've ever felt bogged down by inefficiencies or wished for smarter ways to streamline your business, you're not alone. Microsoft's new AI agents aim to do just that by automating the mundane and optimizing the complex. From qualifying sales leads to reconciling financial discrepancies, these purpose-built AI tools promise to transform how businesses operate by integrating seamlessly into systems many organizations already rely on. But how exactly do these agents work, and what makes them stand out in a crowded AI market? Let's dive into the details and explore how Microsoft is reshaping the future of enterprise technology. Microsoft's AI agents distinguish themselves by operating autonomously, unlike traditional AI systems that depend on user prompts or chat-based interactions. These agents are activated by data changes, user actions, or pre-defined conditions, allowing them to function independently. Fully integrated into Dynamics 365 -- a comprehensive suite for customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) -- these agents aim to automate repetitive tasks and assist smarter decision-making. This approach redefines enterprise operations by focusing on efficiency and precision. The agents' ability to act autonomously allows businesses to reduce reliance on manual processes, freeing up resources for strategic initiatives. By embedding these tools directly into Dynamics 365, Microsoft ensures seamless integration with existing enterprise systems, making adoption straightforward for organizations already using the platform. Microsoft's AI agents are tailored to address specific challenges within key business domains. Each agent is designed to tackle a particular pain point, offering targeted solutions that enhance productivity and decision-making. These purpose-built agents are designed to address specific operational inefficiencies, allowing businesses to achieve measurable improvements in productivity and service quality. Microsoft's AI agents share several core features that enhance their functionality and adaptability across industries. These characteristics make them a valuable addition to enterprise operations: These features collectively enable businesses to optimize operations, reduce costs, and improve decision-making processes, making the agents a powerful tool for enterprise transformation. Microsoft's introduction of autonomous AI agents reflects a strategic understanding of enterprise challenges and opportunities. By focusing on specific pain points in sales, customer service, finance, and supply chain management, the company is positioning itself as a leader in enterprise AI solutions. This move also highlights a broader industry trend: major technology companies are increasingly investing in AI-driven tools to address operational inefficiencies and foster innovation. The integration of these agents into Dynamics 365 underscores Microsoft's commitment to delivering comprehensive, scalable solutions for businesses. While the initial rollout targets core business functions, the potential for expansion into other domains is significant. Microsoft's extensive resources and expertise give it a competitive edge, allowing it to challenge niche startups and established players alike. By offering a unified platform for AI-driven automation, Microsoft is setting a new standard for enterprise technology. As the AI agent market continues to grow, Microsoft's proactive approach positions it as a frontrunner in shaping the future of business automation. These tools not only enhance operational efficiency but also empower organizations to adapt to evolving market demands, making sure long-term success in a competitive landscape.

Microsoft's 10 new AI agents strengthen its enterprise automation lead

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Microsoft made waves at Ignite 2024 with its announcement that 10 autonomous AI agents are now available for enterprise use. Microsoft effectively declared that AI agents are ready for prime time -- achieving what others have yet to accomplish. Microsoft's pre-built agents target core enterprise operations - from CRM and supply chain management to financial reconciliation. While competitors like Salesforce and ServiceNow offer AI agent solutions in some limited areas, Microsoft has created an extensive agent ecosystem that reaches beyond its own platform. The system includes 1,400 third-party connectors and supports customization across 1,800+ large language models. The scale of adoption is equally significant: 100,000 organizations are already creating or modifying agents, Microsoft says, with deployment rates doubling last quarter - adoption numbers that dwarf those of competitors In my three-part video series with generative AI developer and expert Sam Witteveen, we explore what this move means for enterprises, why Microsoft is pulling ahead as a leader in agentic AI, and how these tools may transform the way companies handle workflows. Below, we break down the highlights and invite you to explore insights from the full series. The big takeaways Microsoft's release of these 10 AI agents shows enterprise AI is moving from theoretical to practical, but Microsoft's other statements about agents have other ramifications: But with competitors like Google, AWS, and open-source frameworks hot on its heels, Microsoft's lead may not last forever. In the video series, we talk about these alternatives players too, and how Microsoft is differentiated from them. Watch the series In this three-part series, we dive deep into what Microsoft's AI agents mean for enterprise leaders. Watch now to learn:

Copilot Studio AI Agents: The Future of Business Automation

Microsoft has this month rolled out a wealth of new updates and showcase new features that will be coming to its range of products and its Ignite 2024 event. One of the products transforming the landscape of conversational AI is Copilot Studio, by offering a robust and versatile platform for creating, managing, and deploying AI agents. Microsoft Copilot Studio, a fantastic option in the realm of conversational AI, simplify the creation and deployment of AI agents but also enabling them with advanced capabilities to autonomously handle complex tasks. With its recent updates, this platform is setting new standards in AI quality, integration, and functionality, making it an invaluable asset for any organization looking to stay ahead in the competitive landscape. Copilot Studio features the ability to seamlessly integrate with existing systems and provide insightful analytics to fine-tune performance. Creating AI agents that can effortlessly pull data from your CRM, ERP, or SharePoint, making sure they deliver the most accurate and contextually relevant responses. And it's not just about chat -- these agents can now autonomously act on events, automating intricate business processes that once required manual intervention. This Software as a Service (SaaS) solution significantly simplifies infrastructure requirements, allowing rapid deployment of intelligent agents across a wide array of channels. Recent updates have substantially enhanced AI quality, introduced autonomous capabilities, seamlessly integrated with Azure AI, and added a new Software Development Kit (SDK) along with native voice support. Creating AI agents with Copilot Studio has been streamlined into a straightforward three-step process, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. These intelligent agents can connect with multiple data sources, including: This comprehensive data integration ensures that agents have access to a wide range of information, allowing them to provide more accurate and contextually relevant responses. Deployment flexibility is a key feature, allowing agents to operate seamlessly on platforms like Microsoft Teams. This versatility enhances accessibility and user engagement, making it easier for organizations to integrate AI-powered assistance into their existing workflows. Copilot Studio has undergone substantial improvements in its AI models, resulting in greater accuracy and relevance in responses. The platform now features improved SharePoint answer quality, making sure more precise information delivery when accessing SharePoint data sources. Additionally, new knowledge curation tools have been introduced to aid in the efficient management of information sources. These tools allow users to organize, prioritize, and refine the knowledge base that powers their AI agents, ultimately optimizing overall AI performance and user experience. Here are more guides from our previous articles and guides related to conversational AI that you may find helpful. One of the most significant advancements in Copilot Studio is the introduction of autonomous agent capabilities. Agents can now act independently on events, moving beyond simple chat responses to execute complex tasks and workflows. This feature allows for the automation of intricate business processes, significantly boosting operational efficiency and minimizing the need for manual intervention. Autonomous agents can: Copilot Studio offers built-in analytics tools that provide valuable insights into agent engagement and customer satisfaction. Users can monitor various metrics, including: These analytics assist continuous improvement of AI solutions by helping users understand how their agents are performing and where enhancements can be made. By analyzing these metrics, organizations can refine their agents' responses, optimize knowledge bases, and improve overall user experience. Copilot Studio now integrates effortlessly with Azure AI, providing users with access to Azure's extensive data resources and custom models. This integration supports a flexible pay-as-you-go billing model, offering cost-efficiency and scalability. By using Azure's capabilities, users can: The introduction of a new Software Development Kit (SDK) marks a significant step forward for developers working with Copilot Studio. This SDK supports code-first extensions and programmatic access, allowing developers to customize and extend Copilot's functionalities to meet specific business needs. Key features of the SDK include: These capabilities allow developers to enrich their applications with sophisticated conversational AI features, creating more interactive and intelligent user experiences. Copilot Studio has expanded its capabilities to include native voice interaction support. This feature integrates seamlessly with Dynamics omnichannel for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, facilitating natural and efficient voice interactions. The addition of voice support broadens the reach of AI agents, allowing them to: The fantastic impact of Copilot Studio has been demonstrated across various industries, with several high-profile companies benefiting from its implementation. Organizations such as HP, PayPal, and Holland America have successfully used the platform to enhance their business operations. These success stories span different sectors and use cases, including: Notably, EY has used Copilot Studio for legal research transformation, showcasing the platform's versatility in handling complex, knowledge-intensive tasks. These diverse applications underscore Copilot Studio's effectiveness in addressing a wide range of business challenges across multiple industries.

Microsoft unveils a whole host of new AI agents to solve even your trickiest business problems

Microsoft has revealed a host of new AI-powered agents it says will help users and businesses alike address some of their most pressing issues. At Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company unveiled several new specialized agents working across the Microsoft 365 suite alongside office software stalwarts such as SharePoint and Teams, as part of an initial look at how transformative the technology can be. The company says the launch will see the agents, "take on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization to handle simple, mundane tasks as well as complex, multi-step business processes." Among the new agents is Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat), which can quickly provide answers for employees concerning specific HR and IT policies within their business. Users can get information from BizChat on anything from payroll data, holiday allowance, requesting a new laptop from IT, and much more, all in a single location. Microsoft also revealed users will be able to create and customize agents for its SharePoint collaboration platform in order to help support everyday tasks and processes. For example, an agent can be designed to learn about a specific project or business area, with users able to ask the agent questions about specialized areas, and the answers shared in real time across emails, meetings and chats. As for Microsoft Teams, there is a new Facilitator agent which the company says can provide more effective collaboration and communication by taking notes in real-time, before sharing a summary of the most important information as the chat continues. There is also a new Interpreter agent which can translate up to nine languages at one time in a Teams meeting, allowing participants to speak and listen in the language of their choice. Finally, a new Project Manager agent is able to automate project management in the Microsoft Planner platform, either creating an entirely new plan, or offering one of a series of pre-configured templates. The agent can then handle assigning tasks, tracking progress, and sending reminders and notifications to get status updates. Elsewhere, Microsoft has also announced several updates for Copilot Studio, the platform used for building new agents. Going forward, users will now be able to build smarter autonomous agents, able to take action on their behalf, for example responding to an email, or recording an uploaded file, without having to prompt the agent each time. There will also be a library of agent templates for common business scenarios, helping users create an agent for the first time, alongside the existing range of customizations on offer. Users will also be able to upload images to Copilot Studio, with agents able to analyze the uploads and ask questions about the images in order to gain extra context and insight. Any unanswered questions can be solved by matching specific instructions to fix a knowledge gap at the root of each unanswered question, with the ability to add new sources over time and build up the agent's intelligence. Developers will also be able to build "full-stack, multichannel, trusted agents" using a new Agent SDK that brings together tools from Azure AI, Semantic Kernel and Copilot Studio, and can be deployed across multiple channels, such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the web and other third-party messaging platforms.

Microsoft reveals AI employees at Ignite -- agents will come to the workplace

Microsoft is betting big on generative AI, with agents taking center stage. These AI-powered tools combine advanced models with tailored scripts to automate not just simple, repetitive tasks but also complex, multi-step business processes. Unveiled at Ignite, agents are set to become an essential part of how companies operate. From processing data to managing intricate workflows, they aim to streamline operations and reduce the burden of routine tasks -- building on the previously revealed 365 agents. According to Microsoft, this technology will allow employees to focus on more creative, strategic, and revenue-generating activities. This will free humans from the mundane aspects of the modern workday. One of the more interesting of the new agents for employees is a new self-service agent that will make interacting with HR and IT much easier. It doesn't just answer questions like previous systems, this can complete tasks for you and resolve issues on its own. Automation in the workplace has been a constant evolution, dating back to the first computers -- or even further, to the invention of the typewriter. Each leap forward has aimed to simplify tasks and allow employees to focus on more valuable, creative, or strategic work. Microsoft's new AI agents take that idea and push it to an entirely new level. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's prediction of AI as a "super-competent colleague" feels closer than ever with these updates. These agents aren't just tools -- they are designed to be proactive and work with humans to take over complex workflows. They also adapt in real-time to demand and need. And this is just the start with agents set to get smarter in the future. Beyond the Employee Self-Service Agent, designed to simplify HR and IT interactions, Microsoft also introduced agents to tackle different workplace challenges such as improving meetings by having it take real-time notes, summarize information and present it to the appropriate people. One of the biggest angsts many people working in an office will have is getting information from SharePoint. With the new SharePoint Agents the focus moves to 'actionable insights', making it easier for employees to not only find files but create tasks based on their contents. These updates point to a future where agents don't just automate tasks but actively improve collaboration and productivity, reducing friction in the workplace. It will also get much easier to build agents with new updates to Copilot Studio. The update will enable people to create an agent that can perform actions without having to constantly re-prompt it. The agent will just work in the background including responding to emails, noting when a file is uploaded or distributing meeting notes. Microsoft 365 Copilot is one of the main reasons for paying $20 a month for a Copilot subscription. It gives you the ability to quickly create content or analyze existing content within the office apps you use every day. Copilot is also getting an upgrade including new 'Copilot Actions,' which are tasks you can delegate to Copilot to perform for you such as getting a status update or compiling a weekly report. They are templates that can be adapted and automated to trigger specific events. You will also be able to analyze screen-shared content using Copilot in Teams, so it can see what you see and help with more than just an analysis of what has been said. This will help it provide better reports and action points from a meeting. Microsoft is also changing how Copilot works in Excel, creating 'tailored spreadsheets' for specific tasks such as a project budget or sales report by simply telling the AI what you need. It will suggest how to improve and even create the spreadsheet. Copilot in PowerPoint is also getting an upgrade -- making it easier to build an entire presentation from a document with high-quality slides, speaker notes and animations. And, finally, there will also be a range of new content creation features, updates to email summaries in Outlook, a prompt gallery, and a tool to enable admins to better understand the network. Microsoft isn't the only company investing in agent-like technology, so why is the company going so hard on agentic AI? Well, the idea comes back to 'ask me once'. You tell the AI what you need and it makes that happen. This is particularly useful in software development where you could ask the AI to go through your code, design tests, identify errors, fix them and send a report. In the office, there are hundreds of tasks that could easily be automated and some that might seem easy to automate but are in fact fairly complex. Generative AI makes even more complex ideas easier to automate as it can just get on with it on its own. The language model powering the agent, along the lines of GPT-4o or even the new reasoning o1-family of models, allows it to think through the requirements and perform tasks. In future, it will be able to create fine-tuned mini-versions of itself to perform tasks with a controller. At that point, we will be getting close to artificial general intelligence. Altman says this is when the AI will not only perform tasks for an organization but could run the whole thing -- so even CEO jobs aren't safe.

Microsoft makes it easier for users to create AI agents in Copilot Studio

Autonomous agents are the next frontier of AI assistants. Microsoft is adding new capabilities to help you build and deploy AI agents. Microsoft has many Copilot offerings that cater to businesses' specific everyday needs. To give organizations more control over their AI assistants, Microsoft's Copilot Studio allows users to build and customize Copilots -- and the tech giant is bringing major upgrades to the experience. On Tuesday, at Microsoft Ignite, the company's annual developer conference, Microsoft made several upgrades to its Copilot Studio, allowing users to build capable agents more easily. One of the biggest standouts is the introduction of autonomous agents in public preview. Also: Microsoft's Copilot AI is coming to your Office apps - whether you like it or not Users can now create autonomous agents directly in Copilot. As the name implies, autonomous agents can perform tasks triggered by a series of actions from different tools, systems, and databases without human intervention, such as manual prompting, to carry out the work independently. For example, Microsoft uses the example of an email arriving, and the autonomous agent understanding how to respond and using generative AI to trigger a chain of actions that can carry out the corresponding business process, such as looking at the sender's details, checking inventory, responding accordingly, and closing the ticket. Also: Microsoft Copilot vs. Copilot Pro: Is the subscription fee worth it? "When people came out with the iPhone, we realized we could put apps on phones, and there was an explosion of people trying to build apps -- I see the same analogy now that, with these new agent-building capabilities, people are exploring the new apps and solutions that they want to build quickly," said Ray Smith, CVP of AI Agents at Microsoft to ZDNET. "Because it's powered by AI, it's much simpler to build these apps [agents]: you don't need to be a coder, you just kind of give instructions in natural language." Also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives To address concerns about agents going rogue, Microsoft acknowledges that the tools must come with robust enterprise protections, including data protection, encryption, and data loss prevention, with administrators also able to set strict security and access controls. Microsoft also announced its agent library in Copilot Studio, which is available in public preview. This library allows users to select from agents created from commonly used scenarios and autonomous triggers, helping businesses automate complex tasks more easily. Also: Microsoft introduces 10 AI agents for sales, finance, supply chain in Dynamics 365 Copilot Studio also has new multimodal capabilities, including audio, allowing organizations to embed the agents into their interactive voice system or create experiences that involve voice interactions, such as agents that can recognize speech or silence, and even handle interruptions. The quality of user agents in Copilot Studio will also be enhanced with the addition of third-party sources, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk. Microsoft says agents can pull knowledge from these sources and use optimized retrieval augmented generation capabilities for high-quality answers. Also: AI agents are the 'next frontier' and will change our working lives forever To help make experiences even more seamless, a new agent builder in Power Apps uses the knowledge of action already built into the apps to develop agents that can handle tasks automatically. Beyond Copilot Studio, the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK is now in public preview. Users can also access a simplified agent builder experience in Microsoft 365 Copilot, and you can find more details about the Microsoft 365 announcements in David Gewirtz's coverage for ZDNET.

Microsoft Unveils New Autonomous AI Capabilities within Copilot Studio

This new feature will be available in a public preview next month. At the Ignite 2024 conference, Microsoft unveiled new autonomous agent capabilities within Copilot Studio, which is set to enter the public preview next month. Microsoft announced that nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies now utilise Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-driven tool designed to boost productivity and streamline operations. Besides this, the tech giant's advancements in cloud computing and AI are significantly transforming customer experiences across various industries. Companies such as Lumen Technologies have reported significant benefits from integrating Copilot into their workflows, with Lumen projecting annual savings of $50 million. Honeywell equates productivity gains from Copilot to adding 187 full-time employees, while Finastra has reduced creative production time from seven months to seven weeks. In a strategic move aligned with Microsoft's AI innovations, BlackRock, a leading asset management firm, partnered with Microsoft four years ago to move its Aladdin platform to Microsoft Azure. Leveraging this foundation, BlackRock launched Aladdin Copilot, a generative AI-powered tool that delivers instant answers, enhances platform connectivity, and unlocks new efficiencies for users. BlackRock reports that the tool strengthens the Aladdin platform, improving intelligence and responsiveness, resulting in better productivity, scalability, and informed decision-making for its clients. BlackRock's commitment to Microsoft's ecosystem extends further with its enterprise-wide adoption of 24,000 seats of Microsoft 365 Copilot. About 60% of its user population actively uses Copilot weekly. Additionally, BlackRock recently transitioned its on-premise CRM solution to the cloud with Dynamics 365, citing the platform's native integration with Teams and Outlook as a critical factor in the decision. As per its latest blog, Microsoft also announced the release of Earth Copilot, its Earth imaging model in collaboration with NASA. This highly changes the landscape of space tech with Microsoft's entry for better customer experience in accessing complex data. These agents are designed to execute and orchestrate business processes, ranging from simple prompt-and-response tasks to fully autonomous operations. Microsoft also recently launched industry-specific AI models delving into all domains from enterprise to agriculture. In addition to Copilot Studio enhancements, Microsoft introduced ten new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365. These agents aim to build capacity for sales, service, finance, and supply chain teams and move organisations from legacy applications to AI-first business processes. Microsoft's strategic partnerships and AI-driven tools are reshaping the competitive landscape of cloud services. The company's collaboration with Oracle to run Oracle's database services on Azure simplifies the migration of on-premises Oracle databases to the cloud. This offers customers a seamless, fully integrated experience. Furthermore, Microsoft's focus on customer experience solutions emphasises the importance of personalised digital interactions. By leveraging customer experience platforms and CRM marketing tools, businesses can enhance customer support, access analytics to identify trends and gain insights to drive growth. The emphasis on autonomous agents and AI-first processes indicates a shift towards more efficient and innovative workflows in the corporate sector.

Microsoft publicly previews autonomous Copilot AI agents

They can learn, adapt, and make decisions - but don't worry, they're not coming for your job Ignite Microsoft has fresh tools out designed to help businesses build software agents powered by foundation models - overenthusiastically referred to as artificial intelligence, or AI. "Our vision is to empower every employee with a personal assistant via Copilot that allows them to tackle work's biggest pain points like meeting overload, overflowing inbox, designing sales decks in less time and with more business impact," comms chief Frank Shaw told media in a briefing. Copilot, in case you've missed it, is the term Microsoft has adopted to refer to its AI productivity software. Based on OpenAI's GPT-4 series of large language models, it provides a chatbot interface through which users can enter an input prompt (text, audio, or an image, depending on context) and receive some response. Microsoft 365 Copilot lets users tell Word to draft or edit text on whatever topic the chatbot can satisfactorily reproduce from its undisclosed training data, ask PowerPoint to create slides, or direct Excel to build a data visualization for a data set - among other things. The next step for the technology is AI agents - chatbots that perform a series of linked tasks based on instructions. Microsoft teased its autonomous agent capabilities last month at an AI event in the UK, and they have graduated to public preview. Agents represent a modern take on macros and workflow automation. The hope is that they can parrot human digital output well enough to pass inspection. "Whether it's sourcing sales leads, handling customer service inquiries, or tracking project deadlines, agents can do a lot of the heavy lifting so people can focus on more strategic tasks," explained Shaw. What separates agents from models, according to Microsoft Source writer Susanna Ray, is memory, entitlements, and tools. Memory lets agents perform a series of tasks that build on one another. Entitlements ensure the code has permission to access data and take action. And tools refer to the necessary glue code or applications. To realize its vision of software-directed action, Microsoft is introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot agents with predefined roles. These include: And if these templates fail to satisfy, Microsoft Copilot Studio provides a way to customize AI agent behavior. "Agents built in Copilot Studio can operate independently, dynamically planning and learning from processes, adapting to changing conditions, and making decisions without the need for constant human intervention," explained Charles Lamanna, corporate VP of business and industry for Copilot, in a blog post. "These autonomous agents can be triggered by data changes, events, and other background tasks - and not just through chat!" Copilot Studio includes templates for common agent scenarios that can serve as the basis for a customized version. It is also gaining support for voice-enabled agents, image uploading (for analysis by GPT-4o), and knowledge tuning - the ability to add new sources of knowledge to help agents respond to questions. Developers interested in creating agents can use the Agent SDK to access services from Azure AI, Semantic Kernel, and Copilot Studio. There's also an Azure AI Foundry integration that links Copilot Studio to facilitate connection to services like Azure AI Search and the Azure AI model catalog. Separately, there's a public preview of agent builder in Power Apps - Microsoft's low-code service for business apps. Sarah Bird, chief product officer for Responsible AI, noted in a blog post that extra safety considerations arise with autonomous agents - something said of robot agents too - and that Microsoft is focused on ensuring that they behave. She argued that the standard Responsible AI practices - including the Copilot Control System, intended to allow IT departments to manage data access for Copilot and AI agents - can mitigate risks. Microsoft's post on the subject observes that many agents include a human-in-the-loop check to make sure autonomous decision-making doesn't go off the rails. Nothing demonstrates confidence in automation more than a manual approval bottleneck. Those looking to get a sense of AI agents in the field may wish to consider the Hiring Assistant launched by Microsoft's LinkedIn subsidiary. The bot was deployed to lighten the burden on human resources professionals who have a hard time dealing with the deluge of job applications and other clerical chores - a situation exacerbated by automation and AI. ®

Microsoft Unveils 5 A.I. Agents as Big Tech Ushers Into the 'Agentic A.I.' Era

Microsoft is introducing five new A.I. agents to enhance different aspects of the workplace. After dedicating unprecedented resources to creating A.I. tools that require prompts from users, major tech companies are now moving on to the technology's next phase: "Agentic A.I.," as Silicon Valley calls it. The term describes A.I. agents that can take action and complete tasks without human oversight. At the annual Microsoft (MSFT) Ignite conference today (Nov. 19), the tech giant unveiled a slew of new A.I. agents across its Microsoft 365 suite, which encompasses desktop applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters "The best way to think about these are just as your teammates," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella of the new agents during a keynote presentation today. The lineup of specialized personal assistants includes the "Facilitator Agent," which will take real-time notes within Teams meetings and share follow-up summaries, and the "Project Manager Agent," which will work within Microsoft Planner to automate project management tasks like plan creation and task execution. Employees will also soon be able to rely on the "Interpreter Agent," an A.I. assistant that will provide real-time interpretation in up to nine languages to ease workplace communication. Microsoft's agent expansion follows last month's introduction of 10 autonomous agents within the company's business solution-focused Dynamics 365 suite. With capabilities that include communicating with suppliers, researching sales opportunities and understanding consumer intent, the agents are largely expected to operate without human intervention. Microsoft is also giving business the opportunity to create their own autonomous agents via an update to its Copilot Studio, an A.I. platform that allows users to build custom digital assistants. "Sometimes we mysticize these agents as things that take a lot of effort to build," Nadella said. "Our vision is that it should be as simple as creating a Word doc or a PowerPoint slide." Microsoft's push into "Agentic A.I." hasn't been without its challenges. As its focus tightens around A.I. agents, the company's rivalry has escalated with direct competitors like Salesforce, which in October released its own autonomous A.I. agents through its Agentforce platform. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff last month described Microsoft's agent pivot as "panic mode" in a post on X. A vocal critic of Microsoft's A.I. products, Benioff has also previously compared Microsoft Copilot to Clippy, the unpopular paperclip-shaped digital assistant released by the company in the 1990s. Despite its detractors, Microsoft says its repositioned A.I. position is guided by an overarching goal to empower users to make an impact with technology. "The trouble with artificial intelligence is that computers don't give a damn," said Nadella during Microsoft Ignite, quoting the late American philosopher John Haugeland. "But we do," added the Microsoft CEO, who noted that the company's A.I. tools will help drive business transformations and improve efficiency. "It's not about tech for tech's sake, but it's about translating it into real outcomes."

Microsoft CEO Talks AI Growing Pains, Developing a 'Tapestry of AI Agents'

Microsoft opened its annual Ignite conference in Chicago this week by focusing on AI agents, Copilot, and advances in its Fabric data platform and some security platforms. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella set the tone in his keynote by talking about how we are in the "middle innings" of AI and that we're going through a major platform shift toward AI. Three new capabilities combine to create this platform. First is a new universal interface that is multimodal, supporting speech, images, and video, both for input and output. Second is new reasoning and planning capabilities, in which we essentially have new neural algebra to help solve complex problems, such as detecting patterns or relationships among people, places, and things. Third, we have the ability for the models to support long-term memory and rich context and teach these models to use tools. Putting all those things together, "you can build a very rich agentic world defined by this tapestry of AI Agents, that can act on our behalf across our working life, across teams, business processes as well as organizations," Nadella said. Nadella talked about scaling laws, comparing the advances in AI performance to Moore's Law governing the performance of PCs. AI performance has been doubling every six months or so, he said, noting the recent debate about whether we've hit the wall in scaling. Nadella said it's important to remember that these are not physical laws, just empirical observations, and skeptics motivate people to focus on innovations such as model architecture, data regimes, or systems architecture. If anything, we are seeing the emergence of a new scaling law, showing how test-time or inference time has really improved with OpenAI's GPT-4o1 for open AI applications, he said. "Copilot is the UI for AI," he said. Ideally, every employee will have a Copilot that knows them, knows their work, helps their productivity, enhances work, and saves time. Copilot Studio will allow you to create agents that automate specific business processes, while IT departments will have systems that manage, secure, and measure these systems. "What 'lean' did for manufacturing, AI will do for knowledge work," according to Nadella. Over the past year, Microsoft has released more than 300 product updates to the various Copilots. Responses are now two times faster, and user satisfaction with the answers is up three-fold in the past year. Nadella highlighted a number of upcoming advances to the Microsoft 365 Copilot, including the ability in Teams for Copilot to be able to understand the information presented on screen; in Word to create a draft based on other documents; in PowerPoint to follow prompts to create a narrative of what you want and then create the presentation; in Outlook to prioritize the inbox; and in Excel to help build plans for strategic analysis. "What GitHub Copilot did for software developers, Copilot in Excel will do for data analysts," Nadella said. Perhaps the biggest new feature is Copilot Actions, which create multi-step templates for particular things you did to do. These include a facilitator agent in Teams, a project manager agent in Planner, an EmployeeSelf-Service agent to answer questions on policies from HR and IT, and SharePoint agents. You could also create your own agents in Copilot Studio. Last month, Microsoft unveiled 10 new agents for Dynamics 365; Nadella showed a demo of creating a field service agent. Many partners, including SAP, ServiceNow, and Adobe, are now creating their own agents that work with Copilot. In addition, Nadella rolled out a new tool called Copilot Analytics, including a dashboard and business impact report designed to correlate Copilot use with business outcomes. On devices, Nadella mentioned new Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm, AMD, and Intel and new applications like "Click To Do." But he focused more on the Windows 365 cloud PC offering, which includes a Windows app on Android, mobile application management, and a new tiny thin client called Windows 365 Link, due out next spring. For security on these devices, he mentioned a new Windows resiliency initiative, changes to low-level access for security vendors (to address the issue caused by a faulty update to Crowdstrike earlier this year), and Windows Hotpatching, which can deploy security updates without rebooting the system. Nadella also discussed Microsoft's Cobalt 100 general-purpose chip, which offers up to 50% improvement in price and performance; upcoming Nvidia Blackwell and AMD EPYC Azure HBv5 instances; and Microsoft's Maia inferencing chip now being available. Plus, he talked about other hardware improvements, including optical networking, a new security chip in Azure servers, and a Boost DPU (data processing unit) for networking. On the AI side, Nadella discussed how Microsoft's AI app platform will now be known as Azure AI Foundry, which now offers more than 1,800 AI models, including 20 new industry-specific models. He said it offers a new AI Agent Service, as well as new features in model experimentation and centralized management and governance controls. Use of OpenAI models on the platform has doubled in the past six months. In addition, there are a lot of data improvements, including a version of the SQL server now native to Fabric that works with the OneLake repository and some new vector index services. His presentation both started and ended with nods to security. At the show, Microsoft announced a variety of new security tools, including enhancements to Windows itself and the Purview governance tool, as well as an emphasis on Zero Trust. Later in the keynote, Rajesh Jha, EVP for Experiences and Devices, and others discussed improvements in Copilot in more detail, including some of the security enhancements, such as Windows Hello for Business, an increased emphasis on passkeys, administrator protection, backup of settings, and hot patching. Scott Guthrie, EVP of the Cloud and AI group, and his team discussed advanced in GitHub Copilot, including supporting multiple models in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio and an Advanced Security Copilot Autofix. He also talked about the Azure AI Content Safety service and built-in guardrails for your GenAI apps and gave a lot more detail on Fabric, including a discussion of the new SQL database within Fabric with RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) and vector support. Charlie Bell and Vasu Jakkal from Microsoft Security ended the day as it began with a nod to security, discussing new tools including Data Security Posture Management, Oversharing Controls for M365 Copilot, Insider Risk Management for M365 Copilot, and AI model governance. All in all, I didn't hear any breakthroughs, but it seemed packed with the kind of enhancements that may make AI agents and Copilots more practical in everyday business. Guthrie pointed out the huge number of options that organizations need to grapple with and how the complexity is only increasing. He said 93% of organizations now use three or more AI model providers and that 80% of early AI projects often fail to meet expectations due to this complexity. From where I sit, the big challenge for Microsoft - and for all the other providers of AI tools - is to manage or even hide this complexity for the user while still offering the management, security, and governance the tools require. The goal is to use the technology to perform tasks that result in real, measurable business value on a broad scale - and that's something that will require lots of little enhancements to reach a big goal.

Microsoft's AI Agents Will Soon Complete Complex Tasks Automatically

Teams is getting a Facilitator Agent that can automate certain tasks Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company's annual conference for developers and IT professionals, was held on Tuesday. At the event, the Redmond-based tech giant made several new announcements around Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, and its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Copilot. In the AI space, the company introduced new purpose-built AI agents that do not require programming and can directly perform certain tasks within Microsoft 365 apps. Additionally, a new Copilot Action feature was also announced which allows users to automate everyday repetitive tasks. In a blog post, Microsoft detailed the new AI features and tools. The tech giant already has AI agents that can be interacted with via Copilot, and a Copilot Studio where users can build their own custom AI agents. But now, four new purpose-built AI agents have been introduced. The main difference here is that these agents are pre-trained and are skilled at performing enterprise-focused tasks with high accuracy and efficiency. Among them, Agents in Sharepoint can find project details from an organisation database, summary meeting notes and memo, as well as find particular documents. Users can request a file or project details via natural conversation and a vague description of it. The tool also allows users to create and share custom agents to scope a specific type of content. This is now generally available. The Facilitator agent in Teams can take real-time notes during a meeting and in chats, and the Project Manager agent in Microsoft Planner can automate plan creation and complete tasks. Both of these are available in public preview. Another AI agent introduced at the event is the Employee Self-Service Agent. Available in Business Chat, it can answer common organisation-related policy questions, and complete certain HR and IT tasks such as applying for leave of absence or requesting a new laptop. This AI agent is available in private preview. Finally, the Interpretor agent in Teams can provide real-time speech-to-speech interpretation during meetings. The AI agent can also simulate the user's voice for a personalised experience. This is not available currently, and will be added in preview in early 2025. At Ignite 2024, Microsoft also announced several new features for Copilot. Among them, Copilot Actions will allow users to automate repetitive everyday tasks such as gathering inputs from coworkers, receiving a summary of action items at the end of the day, and more. Users can automate such tasks by setting up fill-in-the-blank prompts once. Once activated, the feature will complete the task every day without any manual intervention. This is available in private preview. Apart from this, Copilot Pages is also getting a new feature dubbed rich artifacts. It can generate interactive flow charts, blocks of code, and more with simple text prompts. Copilot in PowerPoint is also getting a translation feature that can translate entire presentations into one of the 40 supported languages. Teams is also getting a quick summary feature, where users can upload a file in a chat and get a summary without having to open the file. All of these features will be available in public preview next year.

Copilots will be everywhere in Microsoft Ignite announcement spree - SiliconANGLE

Copilots will be everywhere in Microsoft Ignite announcement spree Microsoft Corp. is going all in on agents as it expands its line of Copilots to take on unique roles handling mundane tasks as well as complex, multi-step business processes. Agentic artificial intelligence refers to AI systems that are designed to act autonomously, make decisions and take actions to achieve specific goals, using reasoning, planning, and adaptability to function with minimal human intervention. Gartner Inc. has picked agentic AI as a top strategic technology trend for 2025 and predicts that by 2028, one-third % of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% now. Microsoft is expanding the role of Copilots to take on some limited agentic capabilities, mostly within the confines of the Microsoft product suite. The new capabilities touch on nearly every office application. Agents in SharePoint will now empower more informed decisions grounded in specific SharePoint content. Users can create agents tailored to specific SharePoint files, folders or sites that support common business processes. Agents can be personalized with names and behaviors and shared. Available now, they follow existing SharePoint user permissions and sensitivity labels. The Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat will answer most common workplace policy-related questions and take action on human resources and information technology-related tasks. Now in private preview, it lets people retrieve benefits and payroll information, start a leave of absence and get assistance for Microsoft 365 products and services. A new Facilitator agent works within Microsoft Teams meetings to take real-time notes and share summaries of important information. An interpreter agent due early next year adds real-time translation to Teams meetings in up to nine languages, The Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams is getting new abilities to analyze meeting content as captured in screenshots. Users will be able to ask Copilot to summarize screen-shared content, consolidate the content of conversations and presentations and draft new content based on the entire meeting. The capability will enter preview in early 2025. In a preview beginning early next year, Teams users will also be able to get a quick inline summary of a file shared in a Teams chat without having to open and read the entire document. The Copilot respects the file's security policies, and summaries carry the same sensitivity label as the original file. The Project Manager agent now in preview will automate project management in Planner. It can automatically create a new plan from scratch or use a preconfigured template and then oversee the entire project, including the assignment of tasks, progress tracking, reminders and status reporting. Microsoft's Copilots aren't technically fully agentic but they're well on their way, said Jason Wong, a Gartner distinguished VP analyst. Gartner and others define AI agents as having the ability to plan, use tools and access a memory of interactions to support goal attainment. "Microsoft has announced a spectrum of AI agents from the simplistic RAG [retrieval-automated generation]-based tools as agents to more sophisticated autonomous agent entities that can make transactions," Wong said. "Right now, Copilot Studio agents are not quite at that sophisticated level without the need to dive deeper into Azure AI services to fulfill." Updates to Microsoft Copilot Studio, now in preview, are designed to help users create agents to take desired actions on their behalf without the need for continuous prompting. Autonomous agents can act in the background to respond to events like receiving an email or recording an uploaded file without human interaction. Copilot Studio will now include customizable templates for commonly used agent scenarios such as leave management, sales order and deal acceleration agents. For developers, a new agent software development kit now in preview helps them develop full-stack, multichannel agents that leverage services from Azure AI, Semantic Kernel and Copilot Studio. Agents can be deployed across multiple channels, including Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilots, websites and third-party messaging platforms. Developers will be able to access the Copilot Trust Layer to build agents grounded in Microsoft 365 data. Improved integration between Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, a service that enables developers to build and customize generative AI applications, adds custom search indices as a knowledge source via Azure AI Search and bring-your-own-model capabilities via the Azure AI model catalog. Developers will be able to access the Azure catalog of more than 1,800 AI models, many of them industry-specific, and make Azure AI Search available to large enterprises. Other enhancements to Copilot Studio include the ability to upload images to Copilot for analysis and questions about the content of the images. Microsoft also plans to add the capability for developers to voice-enable agents in customer facing scenarios in a feature now in private preview. It will also give developers improved capabilities to resolve unanswered questions by matching specific instructions to the root of an unanswered question. New sources such as documents and databases can be continuously added. With Microsoft 365 Copilot Actions, a set of customizable prompt templates now in private preview, users can delegate tasks such as obtaining status updates or agenda items from Teams to agents. Templates can be used when needed or triggered by events to gather information and present it in formats such as emails or Word documents. Copilot Actions are now in private preview. Copilot features are also being expanded across the Microsoft 365 office suite. In PowerPoint, Copilot features will help users create better presentations using Narrative Builder, which create a narrative based on document content, with branded designs, speaker notes and built-in transitions and animations. The feature will be available in January. Also in January, a Copilot will be able to translate an entire PowerPoint into one of 40 languages without changing the slide design. It will allow users to create presentations with their organization's images. By the end of the year, Microsoft Excel's new start experience will help users create a starter spreadsheet from scratch with headers, formulas and visuals. Updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook due by the end of November will enable users to ask it automatically to find the best time for two people to meet and draft an agenda based on details supplied about the meeting goals. Copilot Pages, a dynamic canvas in Copilot chat supporting multiuser AI collaboration that was announced in September, will get new features in early 2025 that support more content types, including code, interactive charts, tables, diagrams and math from enterprise or web data. Users will be able to create multiple new Pages in a single chat session or add content from multiple chat sessions to a single Page. Copilot chat prompts will be grounded in Page content as the page is updated, making subsequent Copilot responses more relevant. Microsoft Places, a flexible work schedule application that is now generally available, will leverage a Copilot to recommend when to go into the office based on scheduled in-person meetings, team guidance and collaborators' planned attendance from the unified calendar's Places card. It can also manage room booking for a single or recurring meeting through any changes, updates and conflicts, allow employees to update their location and see where coworkers are working. Administrators can analyze intended versus actual occupancy and utilization data to improve workspace efficiency. Gartner's Wong said AI agents shake up the workplace as they become common. "They will be embedded into applications, such as Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 applications, as new functions that standardize autonomous or semi-autonomous activities," he said. "More no-code tools are becoming available that let business users build agents, which will alter the digital workplace in terms of knowledge access and AI skilling." Microsoft 365 Administration Centers, which are central locations where they can attend to tasks like managing users, getting billing reports, checking activity reports and creating and managing Microsoft 365 groups, will get Copilot support for personalized summaries of trends and insights across an administrator's assigned areas as well as summarized notifications. In Teams, Copilot in MAC will summarize meeting reports and help troubleshoot call quality or other issues for specific users. The Copilot Control System will provide data protection, management controls and reporting to enable IT to measure the business value of Copilots and agents. The features will be available available early next year. A new Copilot Analytics dashboard will also help administrators measure the business impact of Copilots.

Microsoft brings "AI agents" to Outlook, Teams, and more | Digital Trends

Microsoft plans to roll out a slew of new features for its business-facing 365 Copilot products starting early next year, the company announced during its Microsoft Ignite 2024 event on Tuesday. 365 Copilot, which was rebranded from just Copilot in September, enables businesses to incorporate Microsoft Copilot generative AI into its Microsoft 365 family of apps (as well as in Teams) for a $30/employee/month subscription. Recommended Videos "We're accelerating our ambition to empower every employee with Copilot as a personal assistant and to transform every business process with agents built in Copilot Studio," Jared Spataro, CMO of AI at Work, wrote in Tuesday's announcement post. "We're adding new value to Copilot to tackle work's biggest pain points and help every employee scale their impact -- from automating repetitive tasks to managing your calendar." To start, the company is currently experimenting with new "Copilot Actions" that will enable users to automate tasks, such as setting the next day's action items, summarizing client meetings, or pinging co-workers for input on a project, using "simple, fill-in-the-blank prompts." This feature is currently in private preview. The company is also revamping its Copilot Pages (Microsoft's version of Canvas or Artifacts) so that users can prompt the chatbot to generate content, drawn from Microsoft Graph, and then share it with others in the company on persistent and updatable Pages. Expect to see that feature roll out to users in early 2025. AI agents in Outlook, Teams, and more Teams will be getting smarter as well. In a public preview coming in early 2025, Copilot will be able to "understand, recap, and answer questions" based on visual content shared onscreen in the chat. In fact, many of the 365 apps will gain added AI capabilities in the coming months. Copilot in Outlook will be able to scour both your calendar and your coworker's to automatically figure out what meeting time works best for both of you. That feature arrives at the end of this November. In PowerPoint, Copilot will be able to translate entire slide decks into one of 40 languages, without changing the overall design of each slide. There's no hard release date on that feature beyond that it arrives in 2025. Microsoft has also announced that it is drastically expanding its use of AI agents "to help scale individual impact and transform business process," Spataro wrote. The company released a series of similar autonomous agents last month aimed at sales, service, finance, and supply chain applications, and plans to augment those offerings in the new year, which "will give customers the competitive advantage they need to future-proof their organization." For example, Microsoft plans to release an Interpreter agent for Teams as a public preview in early 2025. It will allow users to audibly translate what they're saying in real time into a different language without changing the sound of their voice. Other agents will automatically take meeting notes and help manage projects in Microsoft Planner. The Employee Self-Service Agent, which is currently in private preview, answers new hires' common questions and helps them navigate HR and IT tasks. The company is also debuting new hardware in the new year. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced the forthcoming release of Windows 365 Link, "the first Cloud PC device purpose-built by Microsoft to connect directly to Windows 365 in seconds." It will act essentially as an access point where users can access a virtual Windows desktop in the Microsoft Cloud, rather than running everything locally. The Link is currently in public preview and is expected to retail for $349 when it hits select markets in April 2025.

Ignite 2024 introduces new AI agents and more for Microsoft 365 Copilot

It's announcement time for Microsoft Ignite 2024. Unlike the Redmond company's Build conference, which focuses mostly on developers, Ignite tends to be aimed at IT pros, decision-makers, and business leaders who are looking at enterprise, cloud, and IT management solutions. This year, as in years past, Microsoft has lit the flame on Ignite with a truly massive number of announcements. Also: OpenAI is working on a AI agent that can do tasks for you, like booking flights I'll focus on some of Microsoft's workplace efficiency announcements. The company is looking at using its Microsoft 365 Copilot, along with AI agents, to boost collaboration and productivity. We'll start by exploring some out-of-the-box AI agents that Microsoft is making available. Then we'll look at a broader view of the tools and updates Microsoft is offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot, including how AI can help improve automation and collaboration, and provide other organizational improvements. With that, let's dive in. This year, Microsoft is announcing a series of task-oriented, proactive, context-aware, and at least mostly autonomous agents for some of its most popular business offerings. Also: Businesses must reinvent themselves in the age of agentic AI Microsoft's classification of these agents as out-of-the-box implies that they are pre-configured and ready for use, without necessarily requiring a lot of customization and setup. This approach opens the door for businesses that don't have a stable of AI pros to help them deploy knowledge-based solutions. Rather than making this an open-ended solution that might leave executives feeling confused about where to begin, the company has outlined five specific domains where agents can be immediately deployed: As you can see, many of these agents can be easily deployed right out of the box, so you can derive business value right away. Next, we'll kick off a lightning round of a dozen AI-enabled automation, collaboration, and organizational improvements made possible with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Think of this feature as smart scripting with AI. You can automate (Microsoft calls this "delegate") repetitive tasks like pulling together updates or generating reports. Customizable prompts help tune the actions for each situation. In addition to analyzing and summarizing text and voice-based content in Teams meetings, Copilot will be able to analyze anything presented on screen and provide insights and summaries. If someone shares a file in Teams, Copilot will be able to summarize the contents. This feature is ideal for getting a quick real-time overview of substantial reports shared during meetings where you might not have time to read the whole thing. PowerPoint adds three interesting features using Copilot. Narrative Builder will essentially write your presentation if you give it a prompt and a starting file. Presentation translation does what its name suggests. Copilot will also now pull images from a shared corporate asset library, including those built in SharePoint. By the end of the year, Excel users will be able to use a Copilot prompt to ask Excel to craft a spreadsheet for them. Also: ChatGPT vs ChatGPT Plus: Is it worth the subscription fee? It's not clear whether this is a true generative AI function or more of a smart wizard -- after telling Excel what you want, "Copilot will suggest and refine a template." That description implies that, if your needs are pretty standard, Copilot will give you a nice spreadsheet. But if you need something particularly unique, there may not be a template available. Outlook will offer a smart meeting scheduler using Copilot to coordinate schedules among participants. The tool will also draft agendas based on prompts provided to the AI. Let's say you have a bunch of typed, handwritten, and voice notes in a section in OneNote. You can ask Copilot to organize those notes, interacting with the AI to produce a structured document based on those original concept assets. Microsoft's business website builder is getting some new Copilot features. With rich artifacts, Pages will be able to support new content types, including code and interactive charts. With multi-page support, users will be able to add multiple pages at once or pull in multiple chat sessions to create a page. With Ground on Page, Copilot will tune its responses to the page itself, updating as the page is updated. Finally, users will be able to edit and share pages on mobile devices. This is a fascinating product aimed squarely at the new reality of hybrid work. The tool is designed to help optimize team scheduling, meetings, and even building resource allocation. The idea is to help large teams coordinate work from home and in-office time, along with their associated meeting places. Also: I've tested a lot of AI tools for work. These 4 actually help me get more done every day The tool can recommend in-office days based on an analysis of everyone's calendars, manage room booking, allow team members to let other people know they're in the office, help find available meeting places, and even do occupancy analysis. So, I have to show you this oh-so-Microsoft product title: Microsoft 365 Copilot in Microsoft 365 Administration Centers (Copilot in MAC). Seriously, that's the product title. Separate from the wacky name, this Copilot tool is provided to admins to help them manage Microsoft 365, summarize updates, highlight trends, and troubleshoot problems. This tool is a dashboard that helps managers understand how their AI investment, particularly for Microsoft 365, is benefiting the organization. The tool tracks adoption rates and productivity improvements, among other metrics. Also: Google's new AI tool transforms dense research papers into accessible conversations Analytics produces reports, both out-of-the box analytics reviews and customizable reports to help explore AI's impact in specific segments of usage. If you want AI to have a solid ROI, this is the tool for discovering if it does. This is essentially a shared snippet library for Copilot AI prompts. The gallery enables users to share prompts that are particularly beneficial to the organization and tracks prompts that are effective. New features include agent prompt support and trending prompt lists. We hope you've enjoyed this lightning round of updates from Inspire. Stay tuned to ZDNET for the latest up-to-the-minute coverage of Inspire 2024, including even more coverage of Microsoft's big announcements.

Microsoft Ramps Up Automation in the Workplace With 'Copilot Actions' | PYMNTS.com

Microsoft is doubling down on workplace automation, unveiling new artificial intelligence (AI) features that let its corporate customers create customized digital workers for routine office tasks. The company announced Tuesday (Nov. 19) during its annual Ignite developer conference that its Microsoft 365 Copilot will include "Copilot Actions," allowing users to create automated workflows for routine tasks like meeting summaries and team newsletters. "With Copilot Actions, Microsoft is finally tying generative AI directly into the everyday workflows of the hundreds of millions of people who use Microsoft 365 every day," Rudina Seseri, the founder of Glasswing Ventures and a longtime investor in AI technology, told PYMNTS. "Tying the AI agent directly into specific, customizable tasks lowers the barrier to entry for enterprises seeking to leverage AI by enabling them to incorporate AI at a granular level." AI agents are autonomous software programs designed to perceive their environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals. They can operate in various contexts, from virtual assistants to complex financial trading or robotics systems. "Copilot Actions signals a new era where workflow automation becomes intuitive and widely accessible," Anbang Xu, founder of JoggAI, an AI-powered video platform, told PYMNTS. "Traditional automation tools often come with steep learning curves or require dedicated IT resources. By leveraging AI to simplify the process, Copilot Actions empowers employees to streamline their tasks independently, fostering a culture of self-sufficiency." Major companies have recently unveiled advancements in AI agent technology. Meta Platforms hired Clara Shih, Salesforce's former AI leader, to head its Business AI group, focusing on practical AI tools for enterprises. OpenAI reportedly plans an autonomous agent, code-named "Operator," set for release in early 2025, signaling its ambition to lead the autonomous AI sector. Meanwhile, Google is reportedly testing Gemini-powered AI agents with enhanced reasoning and contextual understanding aimed at expanding applications in enterprise environments. These developments highlight the increasing competition and innovation in leveraging AI agents to transform industries and streamline operations. "We recognize the immense ROI potential of Microsoft's new AI automation tools," Christian Lau, co-founder and chief product officer at Dynamo AI, told PYMNTS. "By reducing time spent on routine tasks, companies can expect substantial productivity gains. "Yet, to fully realize this potential, enterprises must prioritize responsible AI deployment. For example, our DynamoGuard offers custom guardrails that can be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Copilot, providing real-time moderation with 11 times lower latency and over twice the accuracy in detecting prompt injections compared to traditional methods." In other news announced at the conference, Microsoft unveiled numerous AI integrations and Windows updates. The Windows 11 taskbar will receive new "companions" featuring quick access to contacts, files and calendar appointments. The company introduced Windows 365 Link, a $349 mini PC designed for cloud streaming Windows, targeting businesses transitioning to virtual machines. On the collaboration front, Microsoft Teams will gain an AI-powered interpreter feature in early 2025, allowing participants to speak and listen in their preferred languages while simulating their natural voice. Security improvements include the Windows Resiliency Initiative, developed in response to the CrowdStrike incident that affected 8.5 million devices. Microsoft also announced Zero Day Quest, a hacking event offering $4 million in rewards for discovering security flaws in cloud and AI systems. Other announcements include Windows Hotpatch, which allows enterprise customers to install updates without rebooting; Microsoft Places, which coordinates office attendance; and Azure AI Foundry, a unified platform for organizations to manage their AI tools. The Microsoft 365 app icon will also be updated to match the Copilot branding.

Microsoft brings developers new tools for AI models and agents at Ignite 2024 - SiliconANGLE

Microsoft brings developers new tools for AI models and agents at Ignite 2024 Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of new artificial intelligence-powered capabilities for developers to build, customize and deploy autonomous AI agents and apps. Debuted at Microsoft's annual information technology professional conference Ignite 2024, Copilot Studio autonomous agents are now in public preview, enabling developers to build AI agents to perform advanced business logic tasks based on conversational workflows. Microsoft also introduced a number of major updates for Power Platform aimed at enhancing developer experience, security and governance of the platform, including AI agents. Microsoft initially debuted Copilot Studio at Ignite 2023 in early access and since then it has become a mainstay for organizations to build AI-powered applications, according to the company. "Over the past year, we've witnessed how reimagining business processes with Copilot and agents has revolutionized what we build, including intelligent apps and AI agents," said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of business and industry copilot at Microsoft. "Additionally, enhancing efficiency through automation and AI has fundamentally changed how we build, unlocking even more rapid low-code development." Agents built using Copilot Studio can operate independently of human oversight to dynamically plan, learn from processes, understand business logic, understand changing contexts and execute multi-step processes. Developers can quickly build AI agents using simple English-language prompts that explain their intents, goals and processes and provide them with the tools and third-party application interfaces and data they need to get the work done. AI agents can be triggered through conversational chats by asking them to take action or through changes in data or other external events such as changing inventory, incoming email or more. For example, a developer could customize an AI agent to produce weekly reports that summarizes team meetings, code participation and charts productivity, while also contacting individual team members to see how their personalized activity. Another agent could help a salesperson follow up on leads coming in from email by checking internal databases to surface network opportunities and help write replies quickly. Currently, Microsoft makes this simple with what it calls agent library, also in public preview, where users get a head start by choosing prebuilt agents based on common scenarios and triggers. This allows those agents to respond to signals across businesses to initiate tasks like those described above. To make this even easier the company has brought agent building into Power Apps, Microsoft's cloud-based tools for building business apps. Users with little or no coding experience can already use Power Apps to build applications using drag-and-drop features and prebuilt templates - and now they'll have the full power of autonomous agents at their fingertips as well. Under the hood, Power Apps uses an AI-enabled capability called plan designer, now in public preview, which allows users to describe their business processes in plain English. They can also provide diagrams, screenshots, other images and documents. It will then assist them in developing applications, AI agent automation and more without the need to start from a blank slate. Using the information given by the user, Copilot will design user roles and requirements, offer real-time suggestions and automation using the conversational interface and allow the user to guide the creation of the application at their own pace. That means users will be able to start with their own business context and logic and approach the problem like they would if they were working with a consultant to develop an application. Developers now have access to features that provide greater control over governance and security through the Power Platform Admin Center with Managed Security and Managed Operations. These new capabilities bring advanced threat protection, proactive alerts and disaster recovery to Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365. They also affect autonomous AI agent security and control. Microsoft also announced enhancements to evaluation capabilities for generative AI models in Azure AI Foundry, a new unified AI development studio for tools and services announced today, to allow developers to understand what their AI-driven applications are running on to make sure AI models remain accurate and trustworthy. Evaluating and benchmarking those AI models is an essential component to making certain that those models remain performant, accurate and secure. That's because generative AI applications can be error-prone, fall out of alignment with verifiable data, and become incoherent and hallucinate. Any number of things can go wrong with AI large language models and it's necessary to remain proactive in evaluating potential risks during development to prevent issues from causing trouble down the line. Evaluations have been expanded to allow AI engineers and developers to evaluate and compare models using business data. It's easy to use public data for comparison and benchmarks, but that still leaves many engineers wondering how models will perform based on a specific use case. Now, enterprise customers can use their own business context datasets and see how a model will perform in circumstances typical of their everyday use. That will allow them to contrast and compare different model customizations to evaluate changes when fine-tuning and developing for quality, safety and accuracy. Coming soon to public preview, Azure AI Foundry will provide risk and safety evaluations for images and multimodal content AI models produce. That way, enterprise customers can better understand the frequency and potential severity of harmful content in human and AI-generated outputs and come up with guardrails to handle it. For example, they can assess dealing with preventing an AI from producing images it shouldn't, such as violent images from text prompts, or violent text captions generated from images. The AI foundry provides AI-powered assisted evaluators to provide these evaluations at large scale, allowing organizations to grade and assess a large number of models at a time based on target metrics. Metrics could include generated outputs that could be hateful, unfair, violent, sexual and self-harm-related content. They could also be protected materials that represent security leaks or infringement risks. Having a guide to understand how a model will behave before fine-tuning or moving it up the development line provides AI engineers and developers a way to take steps such as using content filters to block harmful content or other guardrails. After making these changes, the evaluations can be rerun to check scores to see which models performed better and to decide which ones should be used.

Microsoft Is Introducing a Bunch of New 'AI Agents' in Office

Weeks after making its Copilot AI features free for Microsoft 365 (the successor to Office), subscribers in certain parts of Asia and Oceania (perhaps a precursor of things to come around the world), Microsoft announced at its Ignite conference today that it's now vastly expanding what Copilot and AI can do in its office apps. The juiciest of the new features center around new "AI Agents," essentially pitched as set-it-and-forget-it virtual coworkers who can help collaborate on and automate repetitive tasks. These could be anything from drafting up summaries of Teams meetings, helping answer IT questions, or even planning and assigning projects. While this isn't Microsoft's first go at AI Agents, with previous releases being more aimed at sales and finance, it drastically increases what they can do within Microsoft 365. If that all sounds a little enterprise focused, Microsoft's AI can also now use Copilot Actions, which are similar to AI Agents but considered separate, to help on an individual level. For instance, Copilot will soon be able to translate entire PowerPoint presentations across 40 different languages. Alternatively, upcoming versions of Excel will begin suggesting AI-baked templates to help you get started on a presentation. Not all of the agents Microsoft discussed today are available yet. One of the AI agents, a real-time Teams translator bot called Interpreter, is slated for next year. Microsoft will be adding available agents to Copilot Studio, currently an extra $200 charge on top of Microsoft 365, as they are ready, with a library for downloading agents currently in public preview. Developers are also able to create their own agents for 365, too, via an SDK that's also now in public preview. As for Copilot Actions, these are currently in private preview and will seemingly be available for everyone with a Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription (although Microsoft is mostly talking about them in an enterprise context). They are currently an extra $30 on top of the base Microsoft 365 subscription, assuming you don't live in one of the areas that just got access to Copilot in 365 for free. It's likely, given Microsoft's experiments with making Copilot free in Office in other markets, that pricing is set to change in the future, with AI simply becoming an expected fact of life within our productivity software as it gets cheaper to make. "Copilot will empower every employee to do their best work in less time, and focus on more meaningful tasks," Microsoft says. At the same time, it's not hard to see how having a bot that can assign tasks or answer benefits questions might make it easier for a company to save some cents on salaries, or at least expect more out of the project managers and HR representatives they do keep around.

Microsoft Wants Every Person to Have a Copilot, Every Business to Have an Agent

Individually, there were a lot of discrete announcements around Copilots and Agents at the Microsoft Ignite show this week, but until I started to see how they all fit together, I don't think I fully grasped the full extent of Microsoft's vision in this area. This is nothing short of making Copilot a primary place -- maybe the primary place -- where you do work on your computer, with Microsoft's Copilot calling multiple agents that will perform various tasks for you. Where this gets confusing is that there are multiple things called Copilot. There's the Copilot button in Windows, the Copilot button in the browser, and specific Copilots for individual apps, including Teams, SharePoint, and the standard Office 365 tools. Microsoft envisions business customers pulling up the Copilot app from an icon on the Windows dock or a dedicated Copilot button and doing their work from there. When a business user loads Copilot, you see Work and Web options; if you pick Work, you'll end up in what Microsoft informally calls Business Chat or Bizchat. In this view, Copilot has access to your personal email, Teams chats, and documents like SharePoint directories -- what the company calls the "Microsoft Graph." From there, you can ask Copilot to do various things for you; in many cases, this involves chatting with a specific agent -- either a general one produced by Microsoft or a more specific one your company creates -- to perform the required task. This is what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has in mind when he says, "Copilot is the UI for AI," and why, at several Ignite sessions, I heard people say: "Every person will have a Copilot and every business process will have an agent." Lars Johnson, General Manager of Collaboration Copilot, explained that Business Chat will be "the front door" for Copilot and agents. The goal is that you shouldn't have to go to all your applications to get things done. In this way, it will act as a "superapp." Copilot is to agents as the phone is to the apps that run on it, he said, and Microsoft's "secret sauce" here is to provide the connective tissue between the agents and the data you have in Microsoft applications, thus enabling the Copilot to be personalized to each user. For instance, Johnson described a scenario where you have an upcoming 1:1 meeting with one of your reports, and you want to create an agenda. You ask Copilot to look through your emails, chats, and documents that involve that report since your last meeting, produce a list of the three most important topics to discuss, and format it in bullet points to send to that report. You could edit the result and then copy it into an email. Or you could choose to edit it in Pages -- a collaborative space within Bizchat -- so that your colleague could edit it along with you. Getting Copilot to the stage where it really functions as this "superapp" will be an evolution, and it won't do everything, Johnson said. Individual tools like Word or Excel will still be necessary for more detailed work, but he pointed to some of the individual agents Microsoft announced at the show as examples of the kinds of things that agents could do: All of these are in various stages of preview, and I don't know how well they will really work, but they are quite interesting. Johnson noted that these agents may replace people in some cases; many companies hire people to do translations or meeting facilitation, for example. In that case, the agents may reduce costs and provide business value. He noted that there are probably hundreds of horizontal use cases where companies are spending money and time on processes that generative AI agents can do. While the company will be prioritizing those with the most ROI, it may take years to build out all these agents. In one of the sessions, Microsoft's Nicole Herskowitz, Corporate VP for Microsoft 365, showed off Copilot features, such as a new feature to prioritize emails in Outlook and to convert a document and turn it into a PowerPoint presentation. In that session, she noted that "innovation alone does not lead to transformation" and emphasized the importance of finding clear business value. Then Jeff Teper, President of Collaborative Apps and Platforms, showed off the facilitator, interpreter, and project manager agents, as well as new SharePoint Agents. Most interesting to me was a demo of an agent built by Wells Fargo that provided guidance as to whether a power of attorney is valid for a specific transaction. Ryan Cunningham, VP of Power Platform Intelligent Applications, went through how you could build such an agent using Power Platform. He said that normally, this would require the document to be sent to a lawyer for review, which takes 15 to 20 minutes while the customer is waiting; instead, the agent can do this quickly and very rarely would need a human to look at it. The agent is completely transparent about why it made the decision. Overall, this is said to save 25,000 hours of customer waiting time each week. Of course, the information these copilots have access to raises major management, compliance, and data loss prevention issues. At the show, Herain Oberoi, General Manager for Data Security, said that just as the move from monolithic applications running on-premises to the more modern cloud architecture of microservices, containers, and "DevOps" created new attack surfaces, so is the move to AI applications. To address these, he noted new tools for data security, governance, and compliance. For data security, he said that classification of data and rights to information remain important and are now extended to Microsoft 365 through the company's Purview Data Loss Prevention offering. Newer services include model security, where IT can set policies to vet and sanction which models can be used out of the 1,800+ that are now available on Azure. Safety systems are guardrails designed to look for bias and to prevent unacceptable content. (Oberoi said this is based on regulations, and Microsoft was trying to make this "non-contentious.") Purview is gaining a new posture management tool, which gives recommendations about things like the risk levels of different kinds of data. Most of these tools, he said, will be bundled into existing offerings, notably its Microsoft 365 E5 security and compliance package. Copilot Specifics At the show, Microsoft made several other Copilot announcements. The biggest and most in line with the vision is Copilot Actions, which lets you delegate tasks to Copilot. Examples include asking team members for status updates or agenda items, compiling weekly reports, or scheduling a daily email summarizing important emails and chats. Microsoft announced updates for each of the major Microsoft 365 applications. Copilot in Teams can now analyze screen-shared content, spoken words, and chat messages and summarize the content. Similarly, it can do that for files shared in Teams chat. Copilot in PowerPoint now includes a narrative builder that can take insights from a document and turn it into a presentation, including using branded designs from a template, creating speaker notes, and inserting transitions and animations. This is designed to create a first draft of the slides. It also will be able to translate a presentation into one of 40 slides that are informative and closer to presentation ready, and later be able to pull brand images from a shared asset library. In Excel, there will be a new start experience to make it easier to start building a spreadsheet by telling Copilot what you want to create. Copilot in Outlook will be shortly gaining the ability to schedule focus time or 1:1s and draft an agenda. (This is in addition to an option to prioritize your inbox, which is supposedly already being rolled out.) In OneNote, Copilot will be able to organize ideas from a combination of typed, handwritten, and voice notes and organize a section of notes. And the Copilot Pages canvas will be gaining more content types (including charts and diagrams, tables, and code), and be able to create multiple pages in a single chat session. Most of these are either in preview or set to be rolled out in the next few months. All in all, the overall vision -- that of a Copilot for every person and an agent for every business process -- is incredibly ambitious. It's a multi-year process that will require not only that Microsoft develop the main products and tools but that businesses develop entire fleets of agents and individuals will get used to having these agents perform specific tasks on their behalf. To do this, they have to believe in the accuracy, security, and governance of the tools. But more importantly, they will have to see real business value, starting very soon and continuing for years to come. Some people will find this vision compelling; others will find the concept of agents watching what you do and doing things for you dystopian. I suspect the road will be pretty rocky, but at least some of the concepts will become widely accepted. In any case, it will be fascinating to watch.

The Year Microsoft Built 'UI for AI'

The year 2024 was pivotal for AI in the workplace as Microsoft expanded its Copilot capabilities, shaping what CEO Satya Nadella termed 'the UI for AI'. From Copilot's debut in Microsoft 365 to the introduction of Copilot Actions, SharePoint Agents and Copilot Studio, this suite of AI tools redefined how users interact with technology, promising not just enhanced productivity but also the ability to offer personalised experiences at scale. Nadella's assertion claiming "Team Copilot can even be your project manager" reflects the company's vision of AI as an integral assistant, empowering individuals and enterprises alike. At the heart of Microsoft's Ignite 2024 announcements were enhancements to Copilot that allowed users to automate repetitive tasks and create custom AI agents tailored to specific workflows. These tools integrate seamlessly across Microsoft's ecosystem, including Teams, SharePoint and Planner. For instance, SharePoint agents provide contextual insights from stored content, while Teams Facilitator agents handle tasks such as real-time meeting transcription and translation in multiple languages, enhancing global collaboration. Emphasising the practical impact of these developments, Nadella said, "It's not about tech for tech's sake but about translating it into real outcomes." This philosophy aligns with Copilot Analytics, which helps organisations track performance metrics like sales and marketing trends, and Copilot Studio, where users can create bespoke AI workflows. The introduction of Copilot Labs and Copilot Vision provides additional resources for developers to experiment with generative AI and enhance their productivity across diverse scenarios. Copilot Vision integrates voice and vision capabilities, enabling multimodal inputs for tasks like interpreting visual data, generating contextual suggestions, and assisting with design workflows. This makes it particularly valuable for creative and technical projects. Alongside a redesigned interface that enhances accessibility and ease of use, Microsoft's collaboration with Inflection AI has further refined Copilot's responsiveness and adaptability. Microsoft also unveiled updates to GitHub Copilot, an AI coding assistant that now supports Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The new features also include support for coding in Hindi, aiming to make the tool accessible to a broader developer community. Expanding its reach beyond GitHub, Microsoft enhanced Windows Copilot, incorporating features like 'Recall' to assist users in revisiting previous interactions or workflows. The updates reflect Microsoft's broader vision of making AI an integral part of everyday computing experiences. Microsoft's AI agents are more than just tools for automation. They potentially embody a philosophy of personalisation and proactivity, a messaging unique to Microsoft. SharePoint Agents, for instance, allow users to customise AI assistants for specific files, folders, or sites while respecting established permissions. These agents can sift through organisational data to provide actionable insights, effectively transforming SharePoint into a dynamic knowledge hub. Similarly, facilitator agents in Teams and Interpreter Agents capable of real-time multilingual translation enrich collaboration by breaking down barriers in communication and decision making. The personalisation doesn't end there. Copilot Studio empowers users to create bespoke AI agents tailored to their workflows. These agents can perform autonomous actions like responding to events, managing sales orders, or executing routine IT tasks, all while adapting to user-specific needs. By granting individuals the power to mould AI as per their preferences, Microsoft blurs the line between AI as a utility and AI as a collaborator. The real-world implications of these innovations are already visible. Vodafone's deployment of Copilot AI virtual assistants has resulted in 45 million customer interactions per month, reducing call handling times by over a minute and saving the company an estimated $50 million annually. Such figures illustrate the "math that matters", a Microsoft representative highlighted, underscoring AI's role in optimising both cost and customer satisfaction. The emphasis on measurable ROI underscores Microsoft's approach to AI. By weaving productivity analytics into its solutions, such as with the forthcoming Copilot Analytics, companies can track how AI influences their KPIs. In the keynote, Nadella summarised this mindset by saying, "It's not about tech for tech's sake, but translating it into real outcomes." The keynote also highlighted Microsoft's partnerships with major players like Nvidia and AMD, underscoring the collaborative ethos in building AI infrastructure. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang lauded Copilot for improving productivity within Nvidia's operations and acknowledged the rapid development of the world's fastest AI supercomputer on Azure. This synergy between hardware innovation and software application reinforces Microsoft's leadership in AI development. In addition, Microsoft's advancements in custom silicon, such as the Azure Maia AI accelerator, promise to optimise performance and sustainability in AI processing, further bolstering Copilot's capabilities. These technological underpinnings ensure that AI tools are not just powerful but also scalable and secure. Despite its promise, Microsoft's vision for an AI-integrated workplace is not without challenges. Privacy and ethical considerations loom large as organisations adopt increasingly sophisticated AI tools. Nadella assured audiences that data protection remains a core priority, with Copilot following strict user permissions. Yet, as AI becomes more deeply embedded in personal workflows, maintaining trust will require ongoing vigilance. Looking ahead, the success of tools like Copilot hinges on their ability to balance automation with user control. Microsoft's introduction of Copilot Studio, where users can design their own AI agents, is a step toward democratising AI development. Nadella encapsulated this ethos and said, "Think of Copilot Analytics as a tool for all of us to change how work, workflow, and work artefacts are getting done." Microsoft's vision of Copilot as the 'UI for AI' is not just about enhancing productivity, it is about reimagining the workplace. By combining AI with user-friendly design, the company is building a future where AI is as integral to work as the internet once was. With its ambitious roadmap and strong industry partnerships, 2024 might indeed be remembered as the year Microsoft transformed how we interact with technology, making AI a trusted and ubiquitous assistant in the modern workforce.

Microsoft Just Revealed 5 New AI Agents to Help You Work Smarter

At its annual Ignite conference for IT professionals, Microsoft announced several new AI developments across its 365 ecosystem of software. Most notably, the tech giant unveiled a new lineup of AI agents, capable of taking actions, gathering intelligence, and assisting with work. Consumers will be able to use Microsoft's ready-made agents or customize their own. Unlike AI-powered personal assistants such as ChatGPT, agents in this context are designed to complete specific tasks alongside humans. For example, a "Financial Reporting Agent" could be designed to check your company's financial statements against the company's database to identify inaccuracies. Microsoft says that agents are now available in Sharepoint, the company's enterprise management platform. Instead of manually searching for information on Sharepoint, users can now simply ask an agent to surface the requested information. Plus, the agent includes citations, meaning users can quickly check to make sure the agent is accurate. Users can also create their own custom agents, determine what information they have access to, and share agents with their coworkers. The company also announced that it is developing an agent designed to assist employees with their workplace's key policies. The "Self-Service Agent" will be able to surface information about a worker's benefits and payroll information, and even take actions like submitting requests for time off.

Microsoft pitches AI 'agents' that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told customers at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday that the company is teaching a new set of artificial intelligence tools how to "act on our behalf across our work and life." AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organization will have a constellation of agents -- ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous." Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors." Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data. © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Microsoft Brings AI Agents To The Mainstream

For those people who want to create agents that go beyond the simple templates of the pre-built agents or Copilot actions, the company also offered up a range of new options. As exciting and impressive as the Generative AI (GenAI)-powered, prompt-driven, chatbot experience may be, the technological leap that many people have been waiting for is the move to AI-powered agents that can start performing actions on our behalf Bob O'Donnell is the founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a technology consulting and market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.

Microsoft Ignite 2024: The Biggest News In AI, Copilots, Agents

Microsoft Copilot Actions, AI agents inside SharePoint and a new Azure AI Foundry experience are among the big reveals. Microsoft Copilot Actions prompt templates. Artificial intelligence agents inside SharePoint. And a new Azure AI Foundry experience for designing and managing AI apps and agents. These are some of the biggest new products and updates the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant is revealing this week during its Ignite 2024 event. Ignite runs through Friday, with programming in person in Chicago and online. Microsoft had 200,000-plus people register for the event and expected 14,000-plus in-person attendees. [RELATED: Microsoft CEO: AI Provides 'On-Ramp' To Azure Data Services, Copilot Continues To Surge] In total, Microsoft revealed 80 new products and features across its product portfolio, a number of those focused on the emerging AI era. About 70 percent of the Fortune 500 use Microsoft's Copilot AI tool, according to the vendor. For every $1 invested, companies see a return of $3.70, with some of the highest returns reaching $10. Microsoft also said that about 600,000 organizations have used Copilot in Power Platform and other AI-powered capabilities, up fourfold year over year. Accenture, No. 1 on CRN's 2024 Solution Provider 500, is in the process of rolling out Microsoft copilots and agents to 100,000 employees, according to Microsoft. It has a commitment to deploy 200,000 more. AI looks to feature prominently for the vendor's 400,000-member partner ecosystem in 2025. In Microsoft's latest quarterly earnings call, Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said that the company's AI businesses should "surpass an annual revenue run rate of $10 billion next quarter, which will make it the fastest business in our history to reach this milestone." "When I talk about Copilot, Copilot Studio, agents, it's really as much about a new way to work," Nadella said on the call. "I describe it as what happened throughout the '90s with PC penetration. After all, if you take a business process like forecasting, what was it like pre-email and Excel and post-email and Excel. That's the type of change that you see with Copilot." Here are the biggest news items coming out of Ignite 2024 in AI and with Microsoft Copilot.

Microsoft pitches AI 'agents' that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024

CHICAGO (AP) -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told customers at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday that the company is teaching a new set of artificial intelligence tools how to "act on our behalf across our work and life." AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organization will have a constellation of agents -- ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous." Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors." Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data.

Microsoft pitches AI 'agents' that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024

CHICAGO -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is opening a company conference in Chicago with remarks that could set the stage for where it's taking its artificial intelligence business. AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organization will have a constellation of agents -- ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous." Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors." Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data.

Microsoft Pitches AI 'Agents' That Can Perform Tasks on Their Own at Ignite 2024

CHICAGO (AP) -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is opening a company conference in Chicago with remarks that could set the stage for where it's taking its artificial intelligence business. AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organization will have a constellation of agents -- ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous." Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors." Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Microsoft pitches AI 'agents' that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024

CHICAGO (AP) -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is opening a company conference in Chicago with remarks that could set the stage for where it's taking its artificial intelligence business. AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organization will have a constellation of agents -- ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous." Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors." Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data.

Microsoft debuts new M365 features including AI enabled Copilot Actions

At its Ignite event in Chicago, Microsoft introduced new M365 features, including Copilot Actions and M365 agents. Copilot is a personal assistant that empowers employees and transforms business processes via agents in Copilot Studio. These announcements expand on the autonomous agent capabilities revealed last month. Per their blog, nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365 Copilot. In terms of impact - Copilot saves Dow millions in shipping, helps 70% of Bank of Queensland users save 2.5 - 5 hours weekly, improves Eaton's documentation by 83%, and supports Accenture's large-scale rollout to 100,000 employees. Copilot Actions use AI to automate everyday tasks. This feature is currently in private preview. "With these actions, you can use CoPilot to reduce the amount of time you spend on repetitive every day tasks that you do...Actions are a very simple yet powerful way for you to scale what you do. So whatever was the thing that you had to do multi step, you just create one of these actions, and it just does it for you," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in his keynote address. Upgrades also include faster responses, triple satisfaction rates, and hundreds of new features tackling workplace challenges. Copilot Pages offers a dynamic collaboration canvas, enabling teams to create and share interactive artifacts like flow charts and code blocks (general availability in early 2025). Copilot in Teams can understand and summarise visual content from presentations and shared files, as well as file contents shared in chat, without needing to open them (public preview coming in early 2025). Copilot in PowerPoint will translate entire presentations into 40 languages while preserving slide design (generally available in 2025). Copilot in Outlook streamlines scheduling, helping users find focus time or arrange one-on-one meetings, and drafts meeting agendas (availability starting end of November 2024). Additionally, Themes by Copilot in Outlook, introduced earlier in November 2024, allows users to create customisable, dynamic email themes (now generally available). In addition, Microsoft 365 Copilot introduces agents like SharePoint for knowledge access, Teams Interpreter for real-time translations, and Employee Self-Service for HR tasks. Facilitator and Project Manager automate planning, while partners like ServiceNow and S&P Global expand Copilot's capabilities by enhancing efficiency. "The best way to think about these, are as just teammates. For specific role, with very specific permissions. For example, our project manager agent will help automate all of the key steps in a project management workflow. Create a new plan from scratch. It will help oversee what is happening across the project, task assignments, content creation, etc," added Nadella.

Microsoft rolls out new M365 features including AI enabled Copilot Actions

At its Ignite event in Chicago, Microsoft introduced new M365 features, including Copilot Actions and M365 agents. Copilot is a personal assistant that empowers employees and transforms business processes via agents in Copilot Studio. These announcements expand on the autonomous agent capabilities revealed last month. Per their blog, nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365 Copilot. In terms of impact - Copilot saves Dow millions in shipping, helps 70% of Bank of Queensland users save 2.5 - 5 hours weekly, improves Eaton's documentation by 83%, and supports Accenture's large-scale rollout to 100,000 employees. Copilot Actions use AI to automate everyday tasks. This feature is currently in private preview. "With these actions, you can use CoPilot to reduce the amount of time you spend on repetitive every day tasks that you do...Actions are a very simple yet powerful way for you to scale what you do. So whatever was the thing that you had to do multi step, you just create one of these actions, and it just does it for you," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in his keynote address. Upgrades also include faster responses, triple satisfaction rates, and hundreds of new features tackling workplace challenges. Copilot Pages offers a dynamic collaboration canvas, enabling teams to create and share interactive artifacts like flow charts and code blocks (general availability in early 2025). Copilot in Teams can understand and summarise visual content from presentations and shared files, as well as file contents shared in chat, without needing to open them (public preview coming in early 2025). Copilot in PowerPoint will translate entire presentations into 40 languages while preserving slide design (generally available in 2025). Copilot in Outlook streamlines scheduling, helping users find focus time or arrange one-on-one meetings, and drafts meeting agendas (availability starting end of November 2024). Additionally, Themes by Copilot in Outlook, introduced earlier in November 2024, allows users to create customisable, dynamic email themes (now generally available). In addition, Microsoft 365 Copilot introduces agents like SharePoint for knowledge access, Teams Interpreter for real-time translations, and Employee Self-Service for HR tasks. Facilitator and Project Manager automate planning, while partners like ServiceNow and S&P Global expand Copilot's capabilities by enhancing efficiency. "The best way to think about these, are as just teammates. For specific role, with very specific permissions. For example, our project manager agent will help automate all of the key steps in a project management workflow. Create a new plan from scratch. It will help oversee what is happening across the project, task assignments, content creation, etc," added Nadella.

Microsoft pitches AI agents that can perform tasks on their own

The move has been criticised by other tech companies who have branded Microsoft as being a "panic mode". In opening remarks to a company conference in the United States on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has set the stage for where the company is taking its artificial intelligence (AI) business. AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI (GenAI) chatbots as AI "agents" that can do more useful things on people's behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology's promise is overblown. Microsoft said last month that it's preparing for a world where "every organisation will have a constellation of agents - ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous". Microsoft elaborated in a blog post Tuesday that such autonomous agents "can operate around the clock to review and approve customer returns or go over shipping invoices to help businesses avoid costly supply-chain errors". Microsoft's annual Ignite conference caters to its big business customers. The pivot toward so-called "agentic AI" comes as some users are seeing limits to the large language models behind chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Microsoft's own Copilot. Those systems work by predicting the most plausible next word in a sentence and are good at certain writing-based work tasks. But tech companies have been working to build AI tools that are better at longer-range planning and reasoning so they can access the web or control computers and perform tasks on their own on a user's behalf. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's pivot. Salesforce also has its "Agentforce" service that uses AI in sales, marketing, and other tasks. "Microsoft rebranding Copilot as 'agents'? That's panic mode," Benioff said in a social media post last month. He went on to claim that Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, called Copilot, is "a flop" that is inaccurate and spills corporate data.

New Microsoft 365 Copilot Updates from Microsoft Ignite 2024

Microsoft Ignite 2024 unveiled a suite of new updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot, marking a significant leap forward in user experience, security, and collaborative capabilities. These enhancements are set to transform how organizations and individuals interact with their digital workspaces, using advanced AI and automation to boost productivity across the board. These updates are more than just incremental improvements; they represent a significant leap in how we interact with our digital workspaces. From integrating advanced SharePoint management into existing licenses to introducing intelligent agents that handle routine tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot is set to transform productivity. Whether you're looking to streamline your inbox, enhance document drafting, or assist more effective meetings, these new features offer a glimpse into a future where AI and automation work seamlessly together to empower you. Ready to dive into the specifics and see how these changes can transform your daily workflow? Let's explore the key announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2024. A standout announcement from the event was the integration of advanced SharePoint management features into the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. This strategic move eliminates the need for separate licensing, providing a more cost-effective and streamlined solution for organizations. The enhanced security features now baked into Copilot offer: By consolidating these features, Microsoft enables you to create a more secure digital environment without compromising on functionality or incurring additional costs. The introduction of pre-built agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot represents a significant leap in task automation and efficiency. These intelligent assistants are designed to handle a variety of common tasks, including: By offloading these routine tasks to AI-powered agents, you can reclaim valuable time for more strategic, creative endeavors. The agents learn from your interactions, continuously improving their ability to assist you effectively. Gain further expertise in Microsoft 365 Copilot by checking out these recommendations. Copilot Actions represent a significant advancement in how AI integrates with automation within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This feature allows you to: By using Copilot Actions, you can streamline decision-making processes and enhance overall productivity. The system's ability to understand context and execute multi-step tasks marks a new era in AI-assisted work. The enhancement of Copilot Pages with Loop components signifies Microsoft's commitment to fostering collaboration. These updates enable: This evolution in collaborative tools allows your team to work more cohesively, sharing ideas and information with unprecedented fluidity and efficiency. Each core application within the Microsoft 365 suite has received tailored enhancements to boost functionality and user experience: Teams: Now equipped with the ability to analyze shared screen content and provide summaries of file attachments in chats, Teams becomes an even more powerful hub for communication and collaboration. Outlook: AI-driven inbox prioritization and meeting scheduling features help you manage your time more effectively, making sure that important emails and events don't slip through the cracks. Word: Enhanced document drafting capabilities, including source suggestions and improved citation tools, elevate the quality and credibility of your written work. PowerPoint: The new Narrative Builder and multilingual translation features enable you to create more engaging, globally accessible presentations with ease. Excel: A revamped getting started experience simplifies the process of generating templates and scenarios, making data analysis more approachable for users of all skill levels. To ensure you can fully use these new capabilities, Microsoft has introduced the Copilot dashboard. This comprehensive tool allows you to: Additionally, the rebranding of Copilot Lab to Copilot Prompt Gallery provides a more intuitive platform for discovering and sharing effective prompts and use cases. The updates announced at Microsoft Ignite 2024 for Microsoft 365 Copilot represent a significant step forward in the integration of AI and automation into everyday productivity tools. By enhancing security, streamlining workflows, and providing powerful new capabilities across applications, Microsoft continues to empower users to achieve more in less time. As these features roll out, organizations and individuals alike will have the opportunity to reimagine their approach to work, using AI to drive innovation and efficiency in an increasingly digital world.

"Major platform shifts are in the air" -- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella outlines how Copilot is going to change everything about how you work

The CEO of Microsoft has highlighted how the company's Copilot AI platform is set to transform how people at all levels can work effectively and productively, particularly when it comes to AI agents. Speaking in his opening keynote at Microsoft Ignite, Satya Nadella declared "Copilot is the UI for AI, it's rapidly becoming an organising layer for work, and how work gets done...every employee will have a copilot that knows them, knows how they work." "Major platform shifts are in the air," he added, "I live for these." In a wide-ranging keynote, covering a huge range of new announcements and updates, Nadella introduces a number of Copilot-powered features for top Windows tools such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint and more. Copilot will be, "the end to end system for business transformation", Nadella declared, also unveiling upgrades to Copilot Agent Studio, which will allow users to create a new agent "in seconds" and integrate it into Copilot. "Sometimes we mysticize these agents as things that take a lot of effort to build," Nadella said, highlighting how a range of customers had already built third-party agents, "but our vision is that it should be as simple as creating a word document." Looking to the future of AI, Nadella, quoting US philosophy professor, John Haugland, noted, "the trouble with artificial intelligence is that computers don't give a damn - but we do." "That's what really grounds us," he stated, "amid all this rapid change, we remain grounded in our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, using this technology to make a difference for themselves, for their teams, and the world." "It's not about tech for tech's sake, but it's about translating it into real outcomes," Nadella added, "its transformational power as it drives growth in business, it improves efficiency and operational leverage." "As we enter this middle innings of AI, it's up to us to empower human achievement, " he added, "learning these skills will change people's lives - and in fact, it already has."

Microsoft Ignite reveals what the company has planned for its floundering AI tools

3 critical flaws that explain why AI will never live up to the hype Key Takeaways Microsoft emphasizes trust in Recall feature for privacy and security. New Copilot Actions aim to automate tasks, like translating presentations. Third-party APIs for Copilot allow developers to enhance images and improve app capabilities. ✕ Remove Ads When was the last time you used a Copilot-based feature? If you're anything like me, you likely booted it up the first time you saw it, played around with it for a bit, and then put it away and forgot about it. However, Microsoft hasn't given up on the AI assistant just yet. In the yearly Ignite event, the Redmond giant revealed more information about what it wants to do with Copilot, Copilot+, and Recall in the future. Who knows? Maybe this will be the moment Microsoft brings Copilot around. Related Microsoft Copilot: What is it, and how does it work? Is Microsoft Copilot the best AI chatbot available right now? Microsoft really wants people to trust Recall Alright, let's dive in with the most controversial feature; Recall. This was originally planned to be released alongside the wave of Copilot+ devices a few months ago, but it was delayed twice over because of issues with privacy. Now, Microsoft is taking to the Ignite stage to tell people that Recall is really trustworthy now, promise. ✕ Remove Ads Microsoft is reassuring everyone that Recall will arrive on new PCs disabled, and needs to be manually enabled by the user or an IT policy. This is a big step up from when we last saw Recall, which enabled itself without warning and began taking snapshots of people's desktops without them knowing. Microsoft also notes that Recall will use "additional layers of data encryption" and Windows Hello to help protect people's data. New tools are on the way for Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft also wants to focus on getting Copilot into the hands of employees and help them get their work done faster. This includes new "Copilot Actions" designed to help people cut out the boring work by automating tasks. ✕ Remove Ads Microsoft gives a few examples of how Copilot can assist in the workplace. For PowerPoint, Microsoft states that its AI can automatically translate entire presentations to target languages, which should help multinational companies a lot. Copilot can also generate a to-do list of all the things you need to do at the start of a workday and also create a newsletter to sum up what the company achieved in a specific week. Microsoft claims that Copilot can even find the ideal moment for two people to meet by checking the schedules of both and suggesting a time that works for both. Microsoft reveals third-party APIs for Copilot It seems that Microsoft is also opening up Copilot for third-party developers to use. This may actually work out well for the company, as developers can adopt Copilot's technologies into their own apps and potentially convince people that the AI assistant is worth their time and money. ✕ Remove Ads Here's what Microsoft is opening up for developers to use: Image super resolution: API increases fidelity of the image as well as upscaling the resolution of the image. This API can be used to enhance clarity of blurry images. Image segmentation: API enables separating foreground and background of an image, as well as removing specific objects or regions within an image. Creativity apps like image editing or video editing can easily bring background removal capabilities in their apps using this API. Object erase: This API enables erasing unwanted objects from the image and blends the erased area with the rest of the background. Image description: API provides a text description of an image. It all sounds exciting on paper, but these features are wholly dependent on companies and individuals adopting them. If Microsoft fails to do that, 2025 won't be the big break the company is looking for. However, at the very least, we can say the company is doing its best to make it happen. ✕ Remove Ads

Microsoft is Launching Copilot Actions to Automate Routine Tasks Using AI

You can fill in the actionable prompt to quickly create a Copilot Action. At the Microsoft Ignite 2024 event, the Redmond giant introduced Copilot Actions which uses AI to automate everyday repetitive tasks. The feature is not available for general consumers but it's aimed at business and enterprise customers. Copilot Actions allows Microsoft 365 Copilot users to create an actionable prompt that gathers information and automates the task for you. For example, you can use Copilot Actions to prepare a summary of the meeting and have it emailed to you. You can also use Copilot Actions to generate monthly reports by simply filling in the prompt. You can create many Copilot Actions and forget about them. It will work in the background and keep automating routine tasks for you. Apart from that, Microsoft is finally adding AI agents to SharePoint. In September, Microsoft announced Copilot Studio which lets you create AI agents. Moreover, Microsoft 365 Copilot users can translate presentations into 40 languages, but it's coming next year. Next, PowerPoint's Copilot Narrative Builder can create personalized presentations based on your company's template, speaker notes, and more. As for Excel, it will get a new experience that will bring templates, formulas, and fresh visuals. Microsoft is working to enhance Outlook and integrate Copilot to deliver a better meeting experience. It can help in finding a better schedule with your colleague and creating an agenda before the meeting.