Understand agents

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The availability of language models has led to the emergence of new ways to interact with applications and systems through digital agents. Agents are generative AI assistants that are integrated into applications often as chat interfaces. They provide contextualized support for common tasks in those applications.

Microsoft Copilot is an agent integrated into a wide range of Microsoft applications and user experiences. It is based on an open architecture that enables third-party developers to create their own plug-ins to extend or customize the user experience with Microsoft Copilot. Additionally, third-party developers can create their own copilot-like agents using the same open architecture.

Business users can use Microsoft Copilot to boost their productivity and creativity with AI-generated content and automation of tasks. Developers can extend Microsoft Copilot by creating plug-ins that integrate Copilot into business processes and data, or even create copilot-like agents to build generative AI capabilities into apps and services.

Agents have the potential to revolutionize the way we work by helping with first drafts, information synthesis, strategic planning, and much more. The goal of agent features is to empower people to be smarter, more productive, more creative, and connected to the people and things around them.

A screenshot of Microsoft Copilot in the Edge browser.

Levels of agent adoption

In general, you can categorize industry and personal agent adoption into three buckets: off-the-shelf use of Microsoft Copilot, extending Microsoft Copilot, and custom copilot-like agent development.

  • You can use off-the-shelf agents, like Microsoft 365 Copilot to empower users and increase their productivity.
  • You can extend Microsoft Copilot to support custom business processes or tasks, using your own data to control how Copilot responds to user prompts in your organization.
  • You can build your own agents to integrate generative AI into business apps or to create unique experiences for your customers.