Microsoft Announces Launch of Autonomous AI Agents Next Month; Salesforce Under Pressure
2min read Microsoft will enable businesses to create their own autonomous artificial intelligence agents starting next month, potentially posing a significant threat to Salesforce, which is fully focused on building its own AI agents now.
At its "AI Tour" event in London on Monday, Microsoft announced that organizations will be able to create their own autonomous agents within Copilot Studio, available in public preview next month.
These AI agents can act as virtual workers, capable of performing a series of tasks without supervision. They represent a significant evolution from large language model-based AI chat interfaces, offering a more seamless and integrated user experience. Companies like Clifford Chance, McKinsey & Company, Pets at Home, and Thomson Reuters are already developing autonomous agents to boost revenue, reduce costs, and scale their impact.
In addition to the new capabilities in Copilot Studio, Microsoft will also introduce 10 new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365, the company's suite of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management apps.
Salesforce saw shares down 1.5% before the market, as Microsoft shares down 0.5%.
Jared Spataro, Microsoft's corporate vice president of modern work and business applications, demonstrated an AI agent developed at consulting firm McKinsey during the event. The agent was shown parsing an email to understand its content, checking its history, mapping it to industry-standard terms, identifying the appropriate person in the firm to handle the next step, and then writing and summarizing a response.
Spataro noted that the firm developed its AI agent using human language rather than programming languages, making it accessible and intuitive. He demonstrated how an autonomous AI agent could handle a customer service request by collecting contextual data on an order, comparing the issue with other common product problems, and then sending a follow-up email.
"We're excited about this because of the business value it can drive," Spataro said, adding that McKinsey found it could reduce lead time by up to 90%.
Microsoft's focus on AI agents presents a challenge to Salesforce, which unveiled its AI tool last month. At its annual Dreamforce showcase in San Francisco, Salesforce introduced a new platform called Agentforce, allowing enterprise organizations to create their own AI agents.
Zahra Bahrololoumi, Salesforce's CEO of U.K. and Ireland, recently criticized the copilot model of AI assistants, suggesting it does not adequately serve enterprise needs. "I think we won't see so many copilots for enterprise AI activity," she said. "I'm not saying copilots won't exist for other purposes. But in the context of enterprise, for autonomous enterprises to be able to plan, execute and take action — you're no longer in Copilot there."
Separately, Microsoft announced a five-year deal with the U.K. government to provide public sector organizations access to its AI tools. Through an agreement with the Crown Commercial Service, the procurement agency of the U.K. government, Microsoft will offer public sector organizations access to its Microsoft 365 productivity tool suite, the Azure cloud platform, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
