Copilot Studio Agents are finally here, and Microsoft hopes the tech industry will adopt them

Microsoft 365 Copilot, the company’s AI assistant, is getting a significant upgrade with the arrival of new autonomous agents. According to the company, the agents can help ” accelerate lead generation and process sales orders to automate your supply chain.”

Autonomous agents are a new feature of Copilot Studio, the tool that allows businesses to build and train custom AI models. Microsoft says the new agents can “range from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous” and “will work on behalf of an individual, team, or function to execute and orchestrate business processes.”

Businesses can use Copilot Studio to build autonomous agents that connect to data in Microsoft 365 Graph, Microsoft’s company-wide data system, Microsoft Fabric, its metadata repository Microsoft Dataverse, and other third-party systems.

Announced earlier this year, Microsoft says the agents can be used for various tasks, including “accelerating lead generation and processing sales orders to automating your supply chain.” Microsoft claims that the agents are built with security in mind and can be managed by IT departments.

Agents in Copilot Studio, built by data engineers and business analysts, include guardrails and controls established by maker-defined instructions, knowledge, and actions. The data sources linked to the agent adhere to stringent security measures and controls — all managed in Copilot Studio. These include data loss prevention, robust authentication protocols, and more. Once these agents are created, IT administrators can apply comprehensive features to govern their use.

Microsoft is offering several autonomous agents as part of Dynamics 365, its enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management apps. Customers can use the agents to improve sales, service, finance, and supply chain processes.

In a blog post, the company says the agents can be used for tasks like lead qualification, supplier communications, customer intent, and knowledge management. Microsoft says it’ll add more agents to Dynamics 365 over the coming year, presumably including those developed by third parties.

AI-first business process in Dynamics 365 is a game changer for our customers, helping them advance their AI journeys and drive business value. AI is today’s ROI and tomorrow’s competitive edge. The new agents in Dynamics 365 will help our customers scale their impact and future-proof their organizations.

Microsoft says that the new agents in Copilot Studio will be available in public preview next month, while the agents in Dynamics 365 are already available to some customers.