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Microsoft will make autonomous AI agents available next month for Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365 users, according to a post Monday.

This means that those who have Copilot Studio, Microsoft’s platform that lets you create your own custom Copilot, can create their own autonomous agents that can perform tasks or provide information. Microsoft’s business platform, Dynamics 365, will also offer 10 different pre-built autonomous agent options to deploy within an enterprise.

The 10 agents include a “sales qualification agent,” a “supplier communications agent,” a “customer intent agent,” and a “customer knowledge management agent.” The latter two agents are designed to work with customer service representatives and provide links to existing help articles.

Microsoft Copilot Studio costs $200 per month for 25,000 monthly messages, but users can create their own custom AI agents across multiple channels at this rate. Microsoft 365 Copilot with AI agent creation costs $30 per month, but requires an annual commitment.

Copilot has already been deployed in other companies and employees could otherwise perform work. Microsoft says this is a huge win for businesses and “empowers” ​​staff.

“Honeywell equates productivity gains to adding 187 full-time employees,” Microsoft said of the company’s use of Copilot, a statement that suggests the use of AI could enable businesses save money by having fewer staff.

If you give Copilot access to your company’s internal accounts and data, Copilot’s autonomous agents can help you with everything from IT help desk to employee onboarding and act as a personal concierge for sales and service.

While adding AI agents to company IT, HR and administrative departments could allow existing staff to do their jobs more quickly, it could also mean that companies may no longer see the need for as many employees and lead to job losses when fewer employees do more. AI models can also hallucinate, leading to made-up or incorrect responses – a problem Microsoft is trying to solve by using AI more.

Using AI to complete tedious tasks at work may be a good thing for some, but AI more broadly has already led to job losses and could continue to do so. A report from Goldman Sachs last year predicted that AI could increase global GDP by 7%, but that 300 million people could lose their jobs over the next 10 years as a result.