- Microsoft unveils a host of AI-powered agents at Ignite 2024
- AI agents promise to solve even specialized business problems
- Microsoft Teams and Share Point among tools getting upgrades
Microsoft revealed a host of new AI-based agents it claims it will help users and businesses solve some of their most pressing problems.
At Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company revealed several new specialist agents working across domains. Microsoft 365 next door office software pillars such as SharePoint and Teams, as part of a first look at how technology can be transformative.
The company says the launch will see agents “take on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization to manage simple, mundane tasks as well as complex, multi-step business processes.”
AI Agents for Microsoft 365
Among the new agents is the employee self-service agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat), which can quickly provide answers to employees regarding specific HR and IT policies within their company. Users can get information from BizChat on anything from payroll data, vacation pay, requesting a new laptop to the IT department, and much more, all in one place.
Microsoft also revealed that users will be able to create and customize agents for its SharePoint collaboration platform to help them support daily tasks and processes. For example, an agent can be designed to learn more about a specific project or business area, with users able to ask it questions about specialized areas and share the answers in real time via emails, meetings and cats.
As for Microsoft TeamsThere is a new facilitator agent that the company says can provide more effective collaboration and communication by taking notes in real time, before sharing a summary of the most important information as the chat continues. There’s also a new interpreting agent that can translate up to nine languages at once during a Teams meeting, allowing participants to speak and listen in the language of their choice.
Finally, a new Project Manager agent is able to automate project management in the Microsoft Planner platform, either by creating an entirely new plan or by offering one of the pre-configured templates. The agent can then manage assigning tasks, tracking progress, and sending reminders and notifications to get status updates.
Build it smarter
Elsewhere, Microsoft also announced several updates for Copilot Studiothe platform used to create new agents.
In the future, users will now be able to create smarter autonomous agents that can take action on their behalf, such as replying to an email or saving a downloaded file, without having to seek help from the agent every time.
There will also be a library of agent templates for common business scenarios, helping users create an agent for the first time, alongside the existing range of customizations on offer.
Users will also be able to upload images to Copilot Studio, with agents able to analyze uploads and ask questions about images to gain additional context and information. Any unanswered questions can be answered by matching specific instructions to fill a knowledge gap causing each unanswered question, with the ability to add new sources over time and develop the intelligence of the agent.
Developers will also be able to create “full-stack, multi-channel trusted agents” using a new Agent SDK that brings together tools from Azure AI, Semantic Kernel, and Copilot Studio, and can be deployed across multiple channels , such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft. 365 Copilot, the web and other third-party messaging platforms.