Microsoft believes that in the future, people will rely heavily on AI programs, called AI agents, to do many tasks—like writing computer code or guiding users through their Windows computers. During its annual Build event in Seattle, Microsoft shared its vision of a world where these AI agents can make decisions and handle tasks for individuals and companies alike.
AI agents are smart computer programs that can work on their own or with little help. They can do things like transfer information between apps, book concert tickets, or even talk to other AI agents to get more complicated jobs done.
Scott Guthrie, a top executive at Microsoft, said, "We're seeing AI develop quickly, moving from simple ideas to useful solutions that really help businesses." He added that the goal is to make it easier for companies, developers, and startups to keep up with all the new AI technology as this "agentic web" of interconnected AI programs grows.
Already, about 230,000 organizations are using Microsoft's tools to create their own AI agents, and Microsoft expects that by 2028, businesses will have made around 1.3 billion of these AI assistants.
At the conference, Microsoft showcased some of these AI tools. For example, they introduced the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit to help developers build AI helpers for Office apps, a coding assistant called GitHub Copilot to help programmers write code, and new features letting AI agents connect directly with Windows apps.
Carl Brisco from the company Office Depot explained that his team is working on AI programs to help improve customer communication. These programs can suggest the best times for salespeople to reach out to customers based on past purchases, prices, and other data, helping sales teams focus on the most important calls.
Brisco said, “Having all that information shown in one place every day makes it easier for staff to see what they should do first—like calling customers who need attention—and helps prioritize their day.”
Microsoft is also developing a new tool called Copilot Studio, which lets people create multiple AI agents that can work together. For example, one AI can gather sales data, another can draft a proposal, and a third can schedule future follow-ups—all automatically communicating and working as a team.
Microsoft continues to invest heavily in AI, spending about $80 billion on building data centers and training new AI systems. However, the company is facing some challenges because demand for AI features is growing faster than they can handle, leading to slower performance at times.
In its latest financial results, Microsoft shared that AI contributed significantly to the growth of its cloud platform, Azure. While these investments are paying off, Microsoft expects to face resource limits for some time, which may affect how quickly new AI features are rolled out.
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