Microsoft has announced a public preview of its agentic AI.
Announced at Microsoft Ignite 2024, the preview will allow customers to test pre-configured agents and envision how to build their own via Copilot Studio.
Microsoft's autonomous agents combine different types of AI – including generative AI (GenAI) – to mechanize tasks without a human in the loop.
Copilot still acts as a virtual assistant. However, autonomous agents add another layer to that strategy, completing tasks with human oversight but without human input.
"We're helping every organization scale that impact on ROI by transforming business processes with agents built-in Copilot Studio," confirmed Frank X. Shaw, Chief Communications Officer at Microsoft.
"This means that over time, organizations will have a constellation of agents from simple, prompt and response to fully autonomous."
He continued: "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.
It's our vision to empower every employee with a copilot and a team of agents working with them and on their behalf.
As part of Microsoft’s vision, those autonomous agents may collaborate to automate more complex processes that cross departments.
To equip users with the tools necessary to build such flows, Microsoft plans to evolve Copilot Studio into a comprehensive agentic AI toolkit.
At Ignite, it shared several of the steps it has already taken to develop that toolkit.
The New Copilot Studio: Knowledge Improvements & Azure Integrations
First, Microsoft has added connectors to third-party CRM systems – including Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk – so autonomous agents can access new data sources.
Copilot Studio users can also leverage the latest GPT models, optimized Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) strategies, and advanced knowledge-tuning capabilities.
Those knowledge-tuning capabilities support use cases like a service agent autonomously handling customer contacts. How? By spotlighting the knowledge sources the agent is using, identifying improvement opportunities within them, and isolating which user questions remain unanswered.
Moreover, Microsoft now enables companies with large data stores in Azure to use those as a base to ground their agents and optimize performance.
As the final Azure-related addition, the tech juggernaut is making its Azure AI model catalog – which includes 1,800+ AI models – available inside Copilot Studio. There, companies can customize and finetune many of these models to again enhance the performance of autonomous agents.
Summarizing the evolution of Copilot Studio, Martin Schneider, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, stated: "As Microsoft and other similar providers continue with such a rapid pace of AI innovation, users need a centralized console to get a better handle on the latest AI features, but also a place to better manage which AI tools they are currently using.
Copilot Studio offers not just a more user-friendly interface for creating AI-powered experiences, it also enables users to better monitor, maintain, and optimize various AI use cases in a more safe, secure and centralized manner.
However, Microsoft didn’t just stop at adding knowledge improvements and Azure AI integrations…
The New Copilot Studio: Enabling Multi-Modal, Analytical, & Everywhere Agents
One fascinating addition to Copilot Studio is the ability to build agents that augment voice applications, like a contact center IVR.
As such, users can develop agents that autonomously serve customers over voice. However, a service team may also create an agent that gathers customer information before a live agent interaction. Both agents may have their places.
