At the Ignite 2024 event held on November 19, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about the company’s direction in the field of artificial intelligence. In particular, AI agents are a tool that attracts a lot of attention from large businesses.
AI companies are now aggressively promoting next-generation chatbots as tools of the future that can automate without human intervention.
What is AI assistant?
According to Microsoft, an AI agent is a software program that can interact with the environment, collect and use data to perform planned tasks. Its tasks include defining detailed goals and independently choosing the best actions to achieve results.
“Whether it’s prospecting, handling service requests, or tracking project deadlines, AI assistants can take on many tasks to help users focus more on strategic tasks,” said Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s chief communications officer, in a press release.
Additionally, Microsoft also launched Copilot Studio to help users customize the behavior of the AI assistant.
“They are built in Copilot Studio, can operate independently, plan and learn through processes without constant human intervention,” explains Charles Lamanna, Copilot’s vice president of business and industry.
However, the high cost of building and operating an AI assistant has made many investors skeptical about the feasibility of this project. In addition, the fact that many technology organizations exaggerate the “divine” benefits of artificial intelligence has also made investors more cautious before “putting down money”.
The New Beginning of AI
In October, Microsoft said it was preparing for a world where every organization would have a set of AI assistants to automate all of its daily tasks, explaining that these tools “can work around the clock” and minimize errors.
At Microsoft’s annual Ignite event, where it mostly showcases its latest updates for its enterprise customers, the emergence of AI assistants has caught the attention of every company. Currently, the large language models (LLMs) behind popular chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot all have their own limitations.
Therefore, the efforts of technology companies to build AI tools capable of automatically planning and reasoning are seen as a big step forward in this potential field.
But some customers have criticized Microsoft’s latest AI tool. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the launch of the AI assistant at this time was a hasty move.
“Microsoft rebranding Copilot as an AI assistant? This is clearly a panic move by the company,” said Marc Benioff.
Ignite 2024 has more than 200,000 registered attendees, with 14,000 attending live in Chicago (USA). At the ceremony, Microsoft will announce about 80 new products and features, mainly focusing on the Microsoft 365 Copilot toolkit and new security technologies.