It's been another busy week for the customer experience and service space, with big announcements from Microsoft's Ignite 2024 event, a substantial acquisition from Salesforce, and another significant announcement unifying CCaaS and CRM solutions.
Here are extracts from some of our most popular news stories over the past seven days.
Microsoft’s Autonomous Agents Are Now Available In Public Preview
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.
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 (Read on...).
Microsoft & SAP Make Copilot & Joule Co-Operative
Microsoft and SAP have confirmed plans to integrate their virtual assistants.
Having initially been teased during SAP Sapphire in June, the integration also featured as a key talking point at Microsoft Ignite 2024.
Indeed, during the event, the companies are running demo previews of the integrated offering.
The collaboration will allow customers to use either the 365 Copilot or Joule as their predominant virtual assistant across integrated Microsoft-SAP environments.
Meanwhile, it will also combine their capabilities.
As such, users may complete tasks and access insights and data across both SAP’s and Microsoft’s platforms, without switching between applications.
For example, Microsoft 365 users can use Copilot to access SAP tasks and data, while SAP users can leverage Joule to integrate Microsoft 365 information and workflows (Read on...).
Salesforce Completes Its Own Company Acquisition, Ignites Ownership vs. Partnership Debate
Salesforce has completed the acquisition of Own Company.
