Microsoft Ignite 2024, the company’s annual conference for developers and IT professionals, was held on Tuesday. At the event, the Redmond-based tech giant made several new announcements around Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, and its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Copilot. In the AI space, the company introduced new purpose-built AI agents that do not require programming and can directly perform certain tasks within Microsoft 365 apps. Additionally, a new Copilot Action feature was also announced which allows users to automate everyday repetitive tasks.

Microsoft Introduces New AI Agents at Ignite 2024

In a blog post, Microsoft detailed the new AI features and tools. The tech giant already has AI agents that can be interacted with via Copilot, and a Copilot Studio where users can build their own custom AI agents. But now, four new purpose-built AI agents have been introduced. The main difference here is that these agents are pre-trained and are skilled at performing enterprise-focused tasks with high accuracy and efficiency.

Among them, Agents in Sharepoint can find project details from an organisation database, summary meeting notes and memo, as well as find particular documents. Users can request a file or project details via natural conversation and a vague description of it. The tool also allows users to create and share custom agents to scope a specific type of content. This is now generally available.

The Facilitator agent in Teams can take real-time notes during a meeting and in chats, and the Project Manager agent in Microsoft Planner can automate plan creation and complete tasks. Both of these are available in public preview.

Another AI agent introduced at the event is the Employee Self-Service Agent. Available in Business Chat, it can answer common organisation-related policy questions, and complete certain HR and IT tasks such as applying for leave of absence or requesting a new laptop. This AI agent is available in private preview.

Finally, the Interpretor agent in Teams can provide real-time speech-to-speech interpretation during meetings. The AI agent can also simulate the user’s voice for a personalised experience. This is not available currently, and will be added in preview in early 2025.

Copilot Action Feature Announced

At Ignite 2024, Microsoft also announced several new features for Copilot. Among them, Copilot Actions will allow users to automate repetitive everyday tasks such as gathering inputs from coworkers, receiving a summary of action items at the end of the day, and more. Users can automate such tasks by setting up fill-in-the-blank prompts once. Once activated, the feature will complete the task every day without any manual intervention. This is available in private preview.

Copilot Action
Photo Credit: Microsoft

Apart from this, Copilot Pages is also getting a new feature dubbed rich artifacts. It can generate interactive flow charts, blocks of code, and more with simple text prompts. Copilot in PowerPoint is also getting a translation feature that can translate entire presentations into one of the 40 supported languages. Teams is also getting a quick summary feature, where users can upload a file in a chat and get a summary without having to open the file. All of these features will be available in public preview next year.