Microsoft’s 10 new AI agents strengthen the company’s lead in business automation

Microsoft made waves at Ignite 2024 with its announcement that 10 autonomous AI agents are now available for business use. Microsoft effectively declared that AI agents are ready for prime time – to achieve what others have yet to achieve.

Microsoft’s pre-built agents target core business operations – from CRM and supply chain management to financial reconciliation. While competitors like Salesforce and ServiceNow offer AI agent solutions in some limited areas, Microsoft has created a comprehensive agent ecosystem that extends beyond its own platform. The system includes 1,400 third-party connectors and supports customization across 1,800+ major language models. The scale of adoption is just as significant: 100,000 organizations are already creating or changing agents, Microsoft says, with deployment rates doubling last quarter — adoption numbers that dwarf those of competitors.

In my three-part video series with generative AI developer and expert Sam Witteveen, we explore what this move means for businesses, why Microsoft is emerging as a leader in agent AI, and how these tools can transform the way businesses manage workflows. Below, we break down the highlights and invite you to explore insights from the entire series.

The big takeaways

Microsoft’s release of these 10 AI agents shows that the company’s AI is moving from theoretical to practical, but Microsoft’s other statements about agents have other implications:

1. Pre-built enterprise value: Microsoft’s agents are preconfigured to handle specific workflows, unlike traditional toolkits that require extensive customization. Whether it’s qualifying leads or optimizing supply chains, these agents are ready to implement.
2. A decisive lead: By leveraging its ecosystem of productivity apps and customer reach, Microsoft is ahead of competitors like Salesforce, Google and AWS, offering solutions at scale.
3. Redefining Competition: Agents’ targeted capabilities, such as CRM lead scoring and time management, are challenging startups that previously dominated these niches.
4. The agentic AI vision: From pre-built agents to fully customized solutions, Microsoft’s ecosystem enables enterprises to create, modify and deploy agents seamlessly – lowering the barriers to adoption.
5. LLM models may no longer be the most valuable: Microsoft’s shift from “per token” to “per message” pricing—and toward “per outcome” value—signals a move beyond the raw output of language models.

But with competitors like Google, AWS and open source frameworks hot on their heels, Microsoft’s lead may not last forever. In the video series, we also talk about these alternative players and how Microsoft is differentiated from them.

See the series

In this three-part series, we take a deep dive into what Microsoft’s AI agents mean for business leaders. Watch now to learn:

• Part 1: The four biggest takeaways from Microsoft Ignite 2024.
• Part 2: How Microsoft’s 10 autonomous agents are covering important business workflows (and, by the way, could kill a lot of startups in the process that were launched to cover similar workflows).
• Part 3: How Microsoft stacks up against competitors like Google, OpenAI and AWS in the race for agent AI leadership.

See the entire series here: