Microsoft introduces AI agents to automate business processes

Technology giant Microsoft has announced that starting in November 2024, businesses will be able to build and manage autonomous Artificial Intelligence agents to handle routine tasks.

The new capabilities, available through Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, will allow clients to streamline processes in sales, service, finance and supply chain management.

In a blog post on Monday, the world’s second-most valuable company with a market capitalisation of $3.20 trillion, highlighted its move to make AI-first business processes accessible to all organisations.

“Today, we’re announcing new agentic capabilities that will accelerate these gains and bring AI-first business processes to every organisation. First, the ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be in public preview next month,” part of the post read.
The upcoming release will include ten new autonomous agents integrated into Dynamics 365, which will automate processes such as lead generation, sales order processing and supply chain management.

According to Microsoft, these agents will utilise data from Microsoft 365 Graph, Dataverse and other sources to support various operational needs, including IT help desks and employee onboarding.
With the shift from private to public preview, a broader range of customers will have the opportunity to leverage these new tools to enhance their critical business processes.
Microsoft also noted that several organisations are already leveraging these autonomous agents to enhance their operations.

Clifford Chance, McKinsey & Company, Pets at Home, and Thomson Reuters are among the early adopters.

Pets at Home, the United Kingdom’s leading pet care business, has created an agent for its profit protection team, enabling more efficient case compilation for human review, which could lead to significant annual savings, the company revealed.

It also added that McKinsey and Company are piloting an agent aimed at expediting client onboarding, reportedly reducing lead time by 90 per cent and administrative tasks by 30 per cent.

Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters developed a professional-grade agent to streamline its legal due diligence workflow, with tests indicating some tasks could be completed in half the usual time.