Microsoft Unveils AI Agents to Automate Business Tasks, Intensifying Rivalry with Salesforce
In a significant development that’s set to shake up the world of artificial intelligence, Microsoft has announced the launch of a new set of AI tools designed to automate various business tasks, such as sending emails and managing records. This move intensifies the company’s competition with rivals like Salesforce, a prominent player in the customer management software space.
Microsoft, a Redmond, Washington-based software giant, revealed on Monday that it would roll out 10 "autonomous agents" starting December, which will be available in public preview until early 2025. These agents are designed to complete tasks on behalf of people in areas like sales, customer support, and accounting. The company’s Copilot Studio, a platform that enables businesses to build their own agents, will soon gain the capability to act on its own initiative, with a preview version set to be released next month.
According to Jared Spataro, who oversees Microsoft’s workplace AI products, the AI tools are akin to smartphone apps for the AI age. Some of these tools will operate autonomously, while others will work in tandem with human workers. They can handle tasks like researching and sorting through sales leads, or updating customer support tickets after phone calls.
The idea behind this move is to automate time-consuming and mundane tasks that businesses typically outsource or allocate a significant amount of resources to. As Spataro puts it, "We’ve found places where people spend a ton of time and money. They tend to be tasks and processes that they wish they didn’t have to do, but they have to do over and over again. There’s high yield if we can essentially automate that."
Microsoft has been at the forefront of the tech industry’s push to infuse software with human-like reasoning capabilities, thanks largely to its partnership with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Since early 2023, the company has focused on developing AI features that require user prompts, including its Copilot tool, which has been deployed across various Microsoft products like Word and Outlook.
The next phase of Microsoft’s AI strategy is to build agents that can complete established tasks without human intervention by leveraging generative AI, along with existing databases and software. Other major software companies, including ServiceNow, Workday, HubSpot, and SAP, are also placing emphasis on AI agents.
Interestingly, Salesforce, a major player in the customer management software space, recently touted its own approach to AI agents at its annual Dreamforce conference. According to the company, its Agentforce tool can handle tasks like customer service without supervision and will be available later this month, priced at about $2 per conversation.
Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, has also been vocal about Microsoft’s AI efforts, taking to X (formerly Twitter) to express disappointment with the company’s Copilot offerings. However, Microsoft’s Jared Spataro remains confident, saying, "All the competitive positioning will really come down to who’s got product that real customers are using and what are they realizing."
Microsoft has not yet announced pricing for its AI agents, which will be integrated into its Dynamics 365 software. On the other hand, Copilot Studio, the custom agent-building tool, is included in Microsoft 365 Copilot, which costs business customers $30 per user per month.
The launch of Microsoft’s AI agents marks a significant development in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. As the tech giant continues to push the boundaries of what AI can do, it will be interesting to see how the competition unfolds in the months to come.
