The AI tools, some acting autonomously and others in concert with a worker, can complete tasks like researching and sorting through sales leads or updating a customer support ticket after a phone call.

Microsoft will allow businesses to start making their own autonomous artificial intelligence agents starting next month, taking the fight back to Salesforce, which introduced its own configurable agentic AI tools in September.

Salesforce has also touted the potential of AI agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetizing the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI.