Microsoft will allow its customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI investments.
The company is positioning autonomous agents—programs that need little human intervention unlike chatbots—as “apps for an AI-driven world” that can handle client queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory.
Other big technology companies such as Salesforce have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetizing the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI.
Microsoft said its customers can use Copilot Studio—an application that requires little knowledge of computer code—to create such agents in public preview from November. It is using several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the agents.
The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that can help with routine tasks ranging from managing supply chain to expense tracking and client communications.
In a demo, McKinsey & Co, which had early access to the tools, created an agent that can manage client inquires by checking interaction history, identifying the consultant for the task and scheduling a follow-up meeting.
“The idea is that Copilot (the company’s chatbot) is the user interface for AI,” Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president of business and industry Copilot at Microsoft, told Reuters.
“Every employee will have a Copilot, their personalized AI agent, and then they will use that Copilot to interface and interact with the sea of AI agents that will be out there.”
Tech giants are facing pressure to show returns on their big AI investments. Microsoft’s shares fell 2.8% in the September quarter, underperforming the S&P 500, but remain more than 10% higher for the year.
Some concerns have risen in recent months about the pace of Copilot adoption, with research firm Gartner saying in August its survey of 152 IT organizations showed the vast majority had not progressed their Copilot initiatives past the pilot stage.
—Aditya Soni, Reuters
Inicia sesión para agregar comentarios
Otros mensajes en este grupo.
Two of the nation’s real estate titans are on a collision course.
Compass, one of the largest brokerage
A team of prominent AI researchers, led by Databricks and Perplexity cofounder Andy Konwinski, has launched Laude Institute, a new nonprofit that helps univers
YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson—aka MrBeast—is the face of the online video-sharing platform. He tops the platform’s most-subscribed list, with more than 400 million people following his exploits. On
Tesla deployed a small group of
Imagine you owned a bookstore. Most of your revenue depends on customers coming in and buying books, so you set up dif
For 13 years, Subway Surfers’ download rate has been consistent: about one million new installs every single day.
Half of those downloads come from users upgrading to new
Misbehavior on digital platforms can be tricky to manage. Issue warnings, and you risk not deterring bad behavior. Block too readily, and you might drive away your user base and open yourself to a
