Microsoft to launch AI 'employees' that can perform business tasks

Microsoft is introducing autonomous artificial intelligence agents, or virtual employees, that can perform tasks such as handling client queries and identifying sales leads, as the tech sector strives to show investors that the AI boom can produce indispensable products.

- Dan Milmo

The US tech firm is giving customers the ability to build their own AI agents as well as releasing 10 off-theshelf bots that can carry out a range of roles including supply chain management and customer service.

Early adopters of the Copilot Studio product, which launches next month, include the blue-chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is building an agent to process new client inquiries by carrying out tasks such as scheduling follow-up meetings. Other early users include the law firm Clifford Chance and the retailer Pets at Home.

Microsoft is flagging AI agents, which carry out tasks without human intervention, as an example of the technology's ability to increase productivity - a measure of economic efficiency, or the amount of output generated by a worker for each hour worked.