Microsoft, Salesforce Compete for Sales, Service Agents AI


A month after Salesforce announced it AI agent technology and its CEO Marc Benioff criticized Microsoft's AI effortsMicrosoft DESIGNATED 10 new AI agents that can take care of tasks like sales, finance and customer service.

AI agents are different from chatbots in one key way: they can act on behalf of an organization rather than simply reciting information. So they can help process orders, for example.

Related: Can anyone beat Microsoft in AI? Salesforce's CEO thinks his company can.

Technology has entered private preview since May and agents will become available in public preview next month, according to a press release.

Microsoft noted that McKinsey & Company is creating an AI agent to help onboard customers, with a pilot showing that the agent reduced admin work by 30%.

Microsoft's decision to take its AI agents public comes after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called Microsoft's Copilot AI “disappointing.” He compared his staying power to that of Clippy, an infamous office assistant Microsoft ended in 2007.

Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant that integrates with popular Microsoft products such as Word and Excel.

“I don't think Copilot will be around, I don't think customers will use it,” Benioff said earlier this month.

Microsoft, meanwhile, says two out of five Fortune 100 companies have used Copilot, meaning “tens of thousands of people” have interacted with it. Microsoft McDonald's counts AND biotech company Amgen like some of its AI clients.

Related: Microsoft AI CEO says almost all content online is fair game for AI training



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