Microsoft has announced it will release ten ready-made Copilot AI agents as part of its Dynamics 365 offering, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff deriding the solution as Microsoft in “panic mode”.
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The tech giant already has the no-code platform Copilot Studio available to customers that can be used to build customisable agents to automate various tasks.
In November, customers will be able to plug in Microsoft’s own AI creations, which Microsoft says will “accelerate business results” and “empower” teams. It has plans to add more agents next year.
Microsoft introduced the new agents in a recent blog post, also clarifying the business areas they will assist: “Today, we’re announcing new agentic capabilities that will accelerate these gains and bring AI-first business process to every organisation.”
“First, the ability to create autonomous agents with Copilot Studio will be in public preview next month.”
“Second, we’re introducing ten new autonomous agents in Dynamics 365 to build capacity for every sales, service, finance and supply chain team.”
Microsoft’s Autonomous Agents
According to Microsoft, the agents will allow customers to switch from legacy business apps to AI-powered experiences within Dynamics 365.
Examples of these AI agents include the Sales Qualification Agent, the Supplier Communications Agent, the Customer Intent Agent, and the Customer Knowledge Management Agent.
The Sales Qualification Agent finds leads, prioritises opportunities, and guides customer outreach with tailored emails and replies so that sellers can dedicate their time to high-priority, complex tasks.
The Supplier Communications Agent enhances the supply chain and reduces disruption by tracking supplier performance, spotting delays, and responding appropriately. As a result, procurement teams will not have to perform these time-consuming tasks.
The Customer Intent Agent and Customer Knowledge Management Agent work together to improve customer care teams, learning to resolve customer issues and generating knowledge articles to help scale best practices within the team.
Microsoft reassures customers that the agents it builds will be aligned with its core AI commitments regarding security, privacy and responsibility practices.
The Redmond-based corporation also shared some impressive results from its teams using Copilot and agents so far: “At Microsoft, we’re using Copilot and agents to reimagine business process across every function while empowering employees to scale their impact.”
“Using Copilot, one sales team has achieved 9.4 percent higher revenue per seller and closed 20 percent more deals. And thanks to Copilot, one team is resolving customer cases nearly 12 percent faster. Our Marketing team is seeing a 21.5 percent increase in conversion rate on Azure.com with a custom agent designed to assist buyers. And in Human Resources, our employee self-service agent is helping answer questions with 42 percent greater accuracy.”
Salesforce CEO Takes Swipe At Copilot Agents
Last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff criticised Microsoft‘s Copilot AI assistant as “disappointing” and “more like Clippy 2.0” than a “transformational experience”.
After Copilot’s AI Agents was announced, Benioff took another swipe at Copilot and its Agents solution. This seems particularly pertinent after Salesforce and Slack’s recent Agentforce launch, a similar (and rival) solution to Copilot Agents.
“Microsoft rebranding Copilot as ‘agents’? That’s panic mode. Let’s be real—Copilot’s a flop because Microsoft lacks the data, metadata, and enterprise security models to create real corporate intelligence,” Benioff wrote on X.
“That is why Copilot is inaccurate, spills corporate data, and forces customers to build their own LLMs. Clippy 2.0, anyone? Meanwhile, Agentforce is transforming businesses now. Agentforce doesn’t just handle tasks—it autonomously drives sales, service, marketing, analytics, and commerce. With data, LLMs, workflows, and security all integrated into a single Customer 360 platform: This is what AI was meant to be.”
