Microsoft has introduced autonomous agents designed to transform how businesses operate and scale their teams, ushering in an era of AI-first business processes that offers efficiency and productivity gains across various industries.
Autonomous agents are AI-powered entities that function like virtual employees to perform tasks and make decisions independently. These agents are designed to work alongside human team members and handle responsibilities from lead generation to supply chain management. They represent a significant development in AI, moving from simple chatbots to become sophisticated, self-directed assistants capable of complex problem-solving and task execution.
One of Microsoft’s announcement is Copilot Studio public preview that allows businesses to build custom agents tailored to their specific needs. The ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be available in public preview from this month.
The other announcement concerns 10 new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365 that are designed to enhance capabilities in sales, service, finance, and supply chain management.
Benefits for businesses
These autonomous agents increase productivity, save time and enhance efficiency. They also helping customer care teams handle high call volumes more effectively by learning from interactions to continuously improve service quality.
The Sales Qualification Agent lets sellers focus on high-priority opportunities while the AI handles lead research and prioritisation.
In supply chain management, the Supplier Communications Agent autonomously tracks supplier performance and respond to delays, minimising disruptions.
Microsoft’s own implementation of these technologies has yielded impressive results. A sales team achieved 9.4 percent higher revenue per seller and closed 20 percent more deals. Customer case resolution speed increased by nearly 12 percent. The marketing team saw a 21.5 percent increase in conversion rates on Azure.com using a custom agent. An HR self-service agent improved question-answering accuracy by 42 percent.
Microsoft envisions a future where every business will have a “constellation of agents” ranging from simple prompt-and-response systems to fully autonomous entities, all working seamlessly to execute and orchestrate business processes.
Entelechy Asia 