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Microsoft announces Copilot Studio: A sales agent to prioritise leads and craft personalised outreach. A communications agent that will monitor supply chain performance. Customer intent and knowledge management agents that will resolve issues and disseminate best practices autonomously. These are some of the artificial intelligence-powered virtual employees Microsoft is unveiling in November under its Copilot Studio programme.

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'AI employees' are autonomous AI virtual assistants that can perform tasks without human intervention.

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In a blog post on Monday (Oct 21), the tech giant said the Copilot Assistants will be available for public preview next month on Copilot Studio. 

Copilot users can create and manage agents through Copilot Studio, part of Microsoft Dynamics 365 productivity applications.

It is like a Play Store of AI bots.

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Ten such virtual assistants will be launched in the first phase, the blog post said.

The Copilot bots can do simple inquiries as well as complex operations in sales, service, finance, and supply chain management.

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Some of these pre-built bots have already been adopted by big companies like McKinsey.

Microsoft itself has been using these agents internally to improve sales revenue, customer case resolution, and marketing conversion rates.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that AI agents can enhance productivity and reduce monotonous tasks.

“These tools are fundamentally changing outsourcing, increasing value and reducing waste,” he said.

The Copilot Studio will allow users, including those without coding skills, to build agents using Microsoft’s AI models, some of which are developed by OpenAI, which made ChatGPT.

Nadella called this a 'no-code way for you to be able to build agents'. 

Charles Lamanna, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, was dismissive when asked about the impact the Copilots can have on employment.

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Saying that the bots will help remove 'mundane, monotonous' aspects of jobs, Lamanna told The Guardian newspaper, “It’s much more of an enabler and an empowerment tool than anything else.” 

He compared AI tools such as agents to the arrival of personal computers decades ago.

“The personal computer didn’t show up on every desk to begin with, but eventually it was on every desk because it brought so much capability and information to the fingertips of every employee.

"We think that AI is going to have the same type of journey," he was quoted as saying.

(With inputs from agencies)