Sources said that starting next month, Microsoft will allow customers to create their own AI agents to handle various tasks such as customer consultation and inventory management in response to the customizable AI agent launched by Salesforce in September.These agents will be powered by Microsoft's Copilot Studio, using an AI model jointly developed by Microsoft and OpenAI.

In addition, Microsoft will introduce 10 "autonomous agents" for the International Edition of Dynamics 365 to enhance the capabilities of sales, service, finance and supply chain teams. A public preview will be available in December and plans to be fully launched in 2025.

Thanks to its cooperation with OpenAI, Microsoft is actively injecting text and image generation and reasoning capabilities into software in the technology industry.

Since the beginning of 2023, Microsoft has concentrated on developing AI functions that require user prompts, such as Copilot deployed in products such as Word and Outlook.

In the next stage, Microsoft will focus on building AI agents that can automatically perform tasks, combining the reasoning capabilities of generative AI with existing databases and software to achieve functions that do not require human intervention.

Currently, software companies such as ServiceNow, Workday, HubSpot and SAP are also focusing on the AI agent field.

In May this year, Microsoft first released news of the AI agent and began making it available as a private preview in September.Starting in November, these agents will enter public preview status, and customers can start customizing and building their own AI agents.

At the "AI Tour" event held on Monday (21st), Microsoft used McKinsey and Company as an example to demonstrate how an AI agent works-by parsing an email, checking the interaction history, identifying task consultants and arranging follow-up links, and finally writing and summarizing the response.

Jared Spataro, vice president of modern work and business applications at Microsoft, said: "This technology can shorten delivery times by up to 90%, because it uses natural languages rather than programming languages, making it easier for companies to develop their own AI agents."”

Charles Lamanna, vice president of Microsoft's Business and Industry Copilot, said: "We hope that every employee can individually develop an AI agent for themselves on their Copilot, and then interact with other AI agents to improve work efficiency.”

However, Microsoft is not the only software provider wanting to profit from the "AI craze". Google and Salesforce are also fighting: Google is adding new features to the Workspace platform's Gemini, while Salesforce has launched its own AI products and Einstein Copilot.AI chip giants Nvidia, Google and Oracle have also announced AI agent projects.

Among them, Salesforce launched the Agentforce platform at the recent Dreamforce conference, allowing companies to build their own AI agents at an initial price of about $2 per conversation and will be fully launched at the end of this month.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff launched a barrage at Microsoft, calling its Copilot delivery "disappointing."Previously, he had also called on European regulators to investigate Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn, accusing it of violating competition rules.

Microsoft has not announced its own agent pricing, but Copilot Studio, a custom agent building tool, is included in the $30 monthly fee for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

On the same day, Microsoft also announced that it had reached a five-year agreement with the British government to provide its AI tools to public sector organizations through the Crown Commercial Service, and British public organizations will have access to the Microsoft 365 Productivity Tool Suite, the Azure Cloud Platform and Microsoft 365 Copilot.