Microsoft is betting big on agent-centric generative AI. These AI-powered tools combine sophisticated models with customized scripts to automate simple repetitive tasks as well as complex multi-step business processes.

The agents presented at Ignite are likely to become an integral part of the way companies conduct their business. From processing data to managing complex workflows, agents aim to streamline operations and ease the burden of routine tasks.

According to Microsoft, the technology will allow employees to focus on more creative, strategic, and revenue-generating activities. This will free humans from the mundane tasks of today.

Of particular interest among the new agents for employees are the new self-service agents that make interacting with HR and IT easier. They not only answer questions as in previous systems, but also perform tasks and solve problems on your behalf.

Automation in the workplace is constantly evolving, dating back to the first computer or even further to the invention of the typewriter. Each leap has aimed to simplify work and allow employees to focus on more valuable, creative, and strategic tasks.

Microsoft's new AI agent takes this idea to a whole new level; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman predicts that AI will be “a super-competent colleague,” and this update makes it more accessible than ever!

These agents will be able to “work together with the people they work with.

These agents are more than just tools. They are proactive and designed to work with humans to take over complex workflows. They also adapt in real time to demand and need. And this is just the start for agents to become even smarter in the future.

In addition to employee self-service agents designed to simplify interactions between HR and IT departments, Microsoft has also introduced agents that address a variety of workplace challenges, such as improving meetings by taking notes in real time, summarizing information, and presenting it to the right people introduced.

One of the biggest challenges many people in the office face is getting information from SharePoint. With the new SharePoint Agents, the focus shifts to “actionable insights,” making it easier for employees to not only find files, but also create tasks based on their contents. [These updates point to a future where Agents don't just automate tasks, but actively improve collaboration and productivity, reducing friction in the workplace.

In addition, a new update to Copilot Studio makes building agents easier. This update will allow users to create agents that can perform actions without having to be constantly re-prompted. Agents simply run in the background, responding to e-mails, notifying when files are uploaded, distributing meeting notes, etc.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is one of the main reasons to pay $20 per month for a Copilot subscription. It allows users to quickly create content or analyze existing content within the office apps they use every day.

Copilot has also been upgraded with new “Copilot Actions,” tasks that can be delegated to Copilot to perform, such as updating status or creating weekly reports. These are templates that can be adapted or automated to trigger specific events.

You will also be able to use Copilot in Teams to analyze screen-shared content, so Copilot can see what you see and help you do more than analyze what you say. This will provide better reporting and action points from meetings.

Microsoft has also changed the way Copilot works with Excel, simply tell the AI what you need and it will create “customized spreadsheets” for specific tasks, such as project budgets or sales reports. AI even suggests ways to improve the spreadsheet and how to create it.

PowerPoint's Copilot has also been upgraded to make it easier to build entire presentations from documents that include high-quality slides, speaker notes, and animations.

And finally, a variety of new content creation features, updated Outlook email summaries, prompt galleries, and tools to help administrators better understand their networks will also be offered.

Microsoft is not alone in investing in technologies like Agent.

Now, the idea comes down to “ask once”: tell the AI what you need and it will do it. This is especially useful in software development, where you can ask the AI to examine your code, design tests, identify errors, fix them, and send you a report.

There are hundreds of tasks in the office that can be easily automated, some of which seem simple to automate but are actually quite complex. Generative AI makes it easier to automate even more complex ideas because it can just get on with it.

The language model that drives the agent allows it to think through requests and perform tasks in line with GPT-4o and the new o1 family of inference models. In the future, it will be possible to create a fine-tuned mini-version of itself to perform tasks in the controller.

At that point, we are approaching artificial intelligence. Altman says that this is when AI will be able to not only perform tasks for an organization, but also run the entire organization.