Microsoft has introduced two new preconfigured AI agents for sales teams.
Announced during its AI Tour in London, the AI agents aim to support salespeople “right in the flow of work”.
First is its “Sales Agent”, which researches leads, performs customer outreach and sets up meetings. It may also complete a sale “for some low-impact leads”.
Additionally, the agent pulls on data from the CRM, Microsoft 365 applications, and company resources – like price sheets and knowledge stores – to tailor its customer communications.
Next is “Sales Chat”, which helps sales personnel prepare for customer meetings by bringing them up to speed on their accounts.
In doing so, it ingests user prompts and utilizes insights from the CRM, pitch decks, emails, meetings, etc., to help bring them up to speed.
For instance, a salesperson may ask Sales Chat to “create a plan to help me close this deal” or “pinpoint which deals are at risk of falling through”. It will then respond accordingly.
Celebrating the release of Sales Agent and Chat in a blog post, Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer for Microsoft AI at Work, wrote:
Our ambition is to empower every employee with a Copilot and transform every business process with agents.
Both of these AI agents will help transform sales processes, as, according to Spataro, “Reps can nurture and close deals without even opening their CRM.”
Sales Agent and Chat will become available in May as part of a public preview. Users may then access them via Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat.
Finally, they won’t just connect to Dynamics 365 CRM systems; they’ll also be available on Salesforce Sales Cloud.
A New “Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales”
Alongside the two new AI agents, Microsoft announced a program for teams to migrate off legacy CRM platforms and leverage its sales stack.
Indeed, its new “Microsoft AI Accelerator for Sales” initiative will help businesses switch to Dynamics 365 Sales, utilize Copilot, and harness its pre-built AI agents.
Additionally, the tech juggernaut promises “white glove engagement” with support in creating custom agents in Copilot Studio and finetuning AI models.
The program will be open for applications from April 1, 2025.
The Big Copilot Numbers…
At its AI Tour in London, Microsoft also underscored the growing success of Copilot Studio, sharing new insight into how customers are utilizing the solution.
In doing so, the tech giant revealed that 160,000 organizations have already used Copilot Studio – as Charles Lamanna, Corporate VP of Business and Industry Copilot at Microsoft, teased last week.
Via the Studio, these organizations created 400,000 custom AI agents in the last three months, up over 100 percent from the previous quarter.
Microsoft confirmed these figures in an “Agents of Change” report, which it plans to delve deeper into during its AI Tour.
As Microsoft does so, it will spotlight dozens of examples of AI agents its customers are building.
Examples of Custom Agents Built on Copilot Studio
In a preview shared with CX Today, Microsoft highlighted several ways in which businesses are building AI agents to improve customer experiences.
For instance, consider ABN Amro and Virgin Money, which created customer-facing agents.
ABN Amro, one of the largest banks in the Netherlands, created individual agents to assist customers in unblocking debit cards, changing their withdrawal limits, and more.
Now, it supports over 2MN text conversations and 1.5MN voice interactions a year, automating 50 percent of customer interactions – as per Microsoft.
Meanwhile, Virgin Money is displacing its previous chatbot – which once lambasted a customer for using the word “virgin” – with Redi, built on Copilot Studio.
According to Microsoft, this has already handled one million conversations, boosted customer satisfaction “significantly”, and become “one of the bank’s top-rated service channels.
Outside customer service, ANS designed an agent to help sales teams prioritize key accounts, Lumen devised an agent that reduced research time for customer outreach by 96 percent, and Vodafone built an agent that streamlines responses to requests for proposals (RFPs).
The possibilities are endless with such an agentic AI platform, and Microsoft’s recent partnerships with enterprise tech giants – like SAP and ServiceNow – also highlight how agents from Copilot Studio automate processes that cross systems and departments.
The “Conventional Copilot” Lives On
Copilot is not only a hub for AI agents. It continues to act as a virtual assistant, helping employees in the flow of their daily work.
Microsoft has also revealed momentum here, with “usage intensity” from employees reportedly increasing 60 percent quarter-over-quarter.
Additionally, it claims customers that bought Copilot during its first quarter of availability have extended their seats by more than ten times – collectively – since.
In sharing such statistics, Microsoft fights back against continued criticism from a particular competitor, which has claimed that Copilot has “disappointed” customers.
