Microsoft Fires Back at Salesforce with More Autonomous AI Agents for Dynamics 365
Microsoft Fires Back at Salesforce with More Autonomous AI Agents for Dynamics 365
This blog analyzes Microsoft’s recent announcement to expand its autonomous AI agent capabilities within Microsoft Dynamics 365. This move is a direct response to Salesforce’s launch of Agentforce, its own platform for creating configurable AI agents. We’ll examine the implications of this development for both companies and the broader enterprise software market.
Why did Microsoft announce more Autonomous AI agents for Dynamics 365?
At its “AI Tour” event in London, Microsoft revealed that enterprises will soon be able to create their own autonomous AI agents within Copilot Studio. These agents, previously in private preview, will move to public preview next month, allowing more organizations to develop AI agents tailored to their specific needs. Furthermore, Microsoft is introducing ten new autonomous agents within Dynamics 365, its suite of customer relationship management (CRM) applications. These agents are designed to automate tasks in sales, service, finance, and supply chain management.
Analysis
The new reality is that with Digital Agents, any firm can make a competitive encroachment on another firm’s install base – which is what Salesforce attempting to do to Microsoft with Agentforce. Microsoft’s response to launch up to ten autonomous AI agents is a good way to fight back.
The new Agents are a counter punch to Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, setting the stage for intensified competition in the AI-powered Intelligent CRM market. The ability to customize and build AI agents without requiring extensive programming knowledge could be a game-changer for businesses looking to leverage AI’s power but lacking specialized AI development resources.
Autonomous Agents: Pricing will be a battle
At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce said that pricing for their Agents will start at $2.00 per conversation (list price is $2.95), which Aragon feels is too high. Microsoft, which tends to offer more value based pricing, and at $200 per month per tenant for 25,000 messages, this equates to $0.08 per message. If a conversation is 25 messages, then the pricing is roughly equivalent.
However, for Salesforce, only Enterprise and Unlimited customers have the ability to start using agents this week – as the GA date is October 25th for Salesforce.
What should enterprises do?
Enterprises should closely monitor the development of autonomous AI agents from both Microsoft and Salesforce. While the technology is still emerging, it holds the potential to significantly impact business processes.
Organizations should begin exploring potential use cases for AI agents within their own operations and evaluate the capabilities of both Microsoft and Salesforce’s platforms and others to determine which best aligns with their needs. The upcoming Aragon Globe for AI Agent Platforms 2025 will evaluate over 20 providers including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and many others.
Impact on the market
The introduction of autonomous AI agents is poised to disrupt the CRM and ERP markets. As these agents become more sophisticated, they could automate many tasks currently performed by human employees, leading to increased efficiency and potentially lower labor costs. This could force other vendors in the space to accelerate their own AI development efforts to remain competitive.
Bottom Line
Microsoft’s announcement to expand its autonomous AI agent capabilities is a response to Salesforce Autonomous Agents targeted at both Salesforce and Microsoft customers. Enterprises should closely monitor this trend and evaluate how they can leverage AI agents to improve their operations.
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