Microsoft will soon let its customers use artificial intelligence “agents” that canhandle multi-step tasks without human supervision, either for a customer’s internal needs or for the products they offer to their own customers, CEO Satya Nadella said Tuesday at a company event. Tasks include handling customer service questions, booking travel reservations on behalf of customers, and one type of agent can automate the way corporate IT departments process and respond to help desk tickets, the company said. The new features are part of Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, which lets businesses or developers cobble together new capabilities on top of Microsoft’s OpenAI-powered Copilot chatbot. The Information previously reported that Microsoft was planning to unveil new agent-like AI tools.
The announcement reflects Microsoft’s efforts to make its AI-powered software more useful to businesses in order to convince customers to move beyond experimentation and begin spending more heavily on the products. Microsoft charges $200 per month for companies to run a chatbot they’ve built in Copilot Studio, with additional charges once they or their customers exceed 25,000 messages to the bot. Microsoft hasn’t revealed exactly how much revenue its Copilot products have generated, but said last month that AI sales were growing revenue in both its Azure cloud business and the unit that includes its Office software. Other firms including Google, OpenAI, and Meta have said that they’re working on various versions of agents that can automate complex tasks.