Microsoft launches AI agents, deepens rivalry with Salesforce

Microsoft Corp. is launching a set of artificial intelligence tools designed to send emails, manage records and take other actions on behalf of business workers, expanding an AI push that intensifies competition with rivals like Salesforce Inc.

The Redmond, Washington-based software maker said Monday it would roll out 10 "autonomous agents" to complete tasks on behalf of people in areas such as sales, customer support and accounting. The agents will be available in "public preview," beginning in December and continuing through early 2025. Microsoft also said that Copilot Studio, which lets companies build their own agents, will soon get the capability to have those agents act on their own initiative. That will be released in a preview version next month.

The agents are like smartphone apps for the AI age, said Jared Spataro, who oversees Microsoft's workplace AI products. The AI tools, some acting autonomously and others in concert with a worker, can complete tasks like researching and sorting through sales leads or updating a customer support ticket after a phone call. 

"We have just found places where people spend tons of time and tons of money," Spataro said. "They tend to be tasks and processes that they wish they didn't have to do, but they have to do over and over again. There's high yield if we can essentially automate that."

Microsoft, thanks largely to its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, is at the forefront of the technology industry's effort to infuse software with the ability to generate text and images and display humanlike reasoning. Since early 2023, Microsoft has focused on AI features that require a prompt from the user — a prominent example being the company's Copilot, which it has deployed across Word, Outlook and other products.

The next phase is building agents — tools that can complete established tasks without human intervention by combining reasoning powered by generative AI with existing databases and software. ServiceNow Inc., Workday Inc., HubSpot Inc. and SAP SE are among the cadre of software companies now emphasizing AI agents.

Salesforce, the biggest maker of customer management software, spent much of its annual Dreamforce conference last month touting the new approach, saying its agents can handle tasks like customer service without supervision. Its tool — Agentforce — will become generally available later this month, with initial pricing of about $2 per conversation, the company has said. 

While promoting Salesforce's tools, chief executive officer Marc Benioff has also taken repeated shots at Microsoft's effort over the past few weeks. "When you look at how Copilot has been delivered to customers, it's disappointing," Benioff posted Wednesday on X.

Microsoft hasn't announced pricing on its agents, which will be added to the company's Dynamics 365 software. Copilot Studio, the custom agent-building tool, is included in Microsoft 365 Copilot, which it sells to business customers for $30 a month per user. 

"All the competitive positioning will really come down to who's really got product that real customers are using and what are they realizing," Spataro said.