Microsoft (MSFT) continues to find ways to monetize its massive investments in artificial intelligence with an ever-expanding range of software offerings for businesses and consumers. The company’s latest effort is what it calls autonomous agents and comes as Wall Street prepares to scrutinize tech companies’ AI spending and growth.
At the AI Tour event in London on Monday, with keynotes from CEO Satya Nadella and chief marketing officer of Copilot at Work Jared Spataro, Microsoft announced that the new software will be available for public preview next month.
Essentially custom AI apps that can perform specific tasks for employees in enterprises, autonomous agents are meant to free up employees’ time for other projects. Microsoft pointed to companies like McKinsey & Company and Britain’s Pets at Home that have used their own agents to reduce time-consuming work, including data entry and processing customer proposals.
Users can build their own autonomous agents in Copilot Studio using what Microsoft calls low-code or no-code instructions. Basically, you give the autonomous agent a purpose, such as sorting incoming email requests for service.
From there, you tell the agent, in natural language without coding, what to do with the email, the type of information to extract from the message, and what to do if data is missing or otherwise unavailable. You can then attach various files and documents describing how you handle customer data and then put the agent to work.
Microsoft also gave employees the ability to intervene and monitor the agent’s work to ensure its accuracy, as well as address any hallucinations or errors introduced by the AI itself.
Microsoft’s autonomous agents are part of a broader effort to capitalize on and realize returns on its investments in AI, including its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
In its most recent quarterly report, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company spent $19 billion on capital expenditures, including finance leases, most of which came from AI and cloud-related needs. In total, Microsoft spent $55.7 billion on capital expenditures in fiscal 2024. That’s an increase from $31.9 billion in 2023 and $29.2 billion in 2022.
The company says that 2.1 million users currently use Copilot every month through Microsoft business applications, a number that the tech giant is keen to increase. The company is betting heavily on its AI-powered Copilot platform to generate revenue from companies looking to take advantage of the software to improve overall employee efficiency.
In the fourth quarter, Microsoft said its cloud services, including its AI platform, generated $36.8 billion of the company’s total revenue of $64.7 billion, up 21% year over year.
But Microsoft is far from the only business software vendor looking to cash in on the AI boom. Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Salesforce (CRM) are trying to get their piece of the AI pie, with Google continuing to pack more features into its Gemini for Google Workspace platform and Salesforce rolling out its own AI offerings and Einstein Copilot.
With earnings season in full swing and AI hot on Wall Street, companies like Microsoft and its rivals will have to show they can continue to attract more customers to their AI services or risk a backlash from investors.
Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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