Microsoft adds slew of AI agents in Dynamics 365 Contact Center, Sales, Customer Insights

Microsoft launched real-time voice agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio and a set of new agents in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights.

The Microsoft news lands as hyperscale cloud players as well as SaaS companies are ramping up customer experience (CX) efforts with their agentic AI platforms. Microsoft's plan for its CX efforts is to integrate interfaces and provide context for its AI agents in the contact center, sales and insights portfolio.

Karan Nigam, D365 Customer Experience Marketing at Microsoft, said SaaS is transforming to an AI and agents era "where the software that was primarily built for human interaction needs to be re pivoted to be built for human and AI agents interaction."

In addition, Microsoft's AI agent cadence is designed to couple its platform and apps with a few AI-native front end and replace a bevy of pilots with a more integrated effort.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Researcher agent goes multi-model
• Microsoft launches new E7 suite to integrate AI agents, Work IQ
• Microsoft CEO Nadella: AI efficiency drive on deck
• Constellation ShortList™ Agentic Platforms of the Enterprise

Here's a look at the news:

Real-time voice agents are generally available in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Microsoft said it is supporting next-gen real-time voice models to extend traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Customers can talk in natural language without following pre-designed prompts and toggle between channels with context retained. Customers will be able to build customer voice agents in Copilot Studio and also choose from a set of prepackaged real-time voice agents.

Microsoft launched a series of agents in Dynamics 365 Contact Center. The agents include:

• Customer Assist Agent, which is generally available, is designed for high-volume requests across voice and digital channels with context maintained throughout. The Customer Assist Agent supports natural speech, interruptions and multiple language switching.
• Quality Assurance Agent, also generally available, evaluations both AI and human interactions and tracks quality, sentiment, compliance as well as resolution effectiveness in real time.
• Service Operations Agent, which is in public preview, enables enterprises to set up, configure and optimize contact center operations.

Microsoft also added four new agentic AI features in Dynamics 365 Sales designed to automate work, keep data current and create next best actions. Agentic AI additions include:

• Sales Opportunity Agent, which is generally available, takes insights across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 to continuosly surface research and risks, shifts in engagement and analyze actions.
• Operations Research in Sales Research Agent, also generally available, compiles pipeline, operational and financial signals in real-time for forecasting.

• Data Enrichment, generally available for Premium customers, and Recommended Actions, which is in public preview also for Premium customers, are designed to keep CRM fields like budget, contacts and close dates updated with next steps.
• Voice to CRM Notes for Outlook and M365 mobile applications are in public preview so sellers can update opportunities, log notes and surface context via natural language.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Contact Center now have Conversational Journeys generally available and enables marketers, service reps and sellers design multi-channel journeys. The voice-to-text support complements Conversational Journeys for phone interactions and SMS.

The upshot is that Microsoft is trying to thread the needle between using AI agents to optimize margins and find growth using its data fabric.

Constellation Research's point of view

Constellation Research analyst Martin Schneider said:

"Microsoft has been innovating around AI to optimize growth for sometime now. But these announcements are solid editions for a B2B sales organization looking to drive better outcomes out of every account. Microsoft is under selling its data enrichment capabilities because in reality this is insight enrichment because of the types of content and sources it pulls from.

These new tools give growth leaders the ability to better research every account to uncover hidden opportunities for more profitable growth. The Sales Opportunity Agent can be a real catalyst.

When you think about the fact that most Microsoft CRM deployments are integrated with Microsoft ERP systems, these agents can pull from a wealth of data as well as interaction data across third-party platforms. The end state is a far clearer view of an individual rep's path to quota or help create holistic growth plans for the entire organization.

And when you combined the outbound capabilities of their engagement agents, Microsoft goes far beyond simple lead qualification efforts in a B2B go-to-market motion and can unlock expansion opportunities."

Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller said:

"The focus for Microsoft with these AI powered additions is more about unifying the CX landscape instead of expecting organizations to find a path to growth on their own. For years, the segmented approach to “clouds” meant that individual solutions across customer experience demanded a champion to integrated across CX and a hope that AI will magically pull these random acts together. While some are spending time arguing over which SaaS tool is “dead” and what is going to take over CRM, the relationship and the customer have been lost to isolated point of management.

These new agents across both service are part of a larger shift from Microsoft Dynamics that actually brings us back closer to what CX leaders have wanted to do all this time: deliver service in a way that is faster and more efficient for the business and more effective and valued by the customer.

It also shouldn’t be minimized that Microsoft is trying to make all of this easier: Take the Service Operations Agent, which has been announced in public preview. It allows contact center leaders to set up, configure and continue to improve operations in a guided, conversational interface. In the same way Microsoft has empowered customers to shift from voice-based rage prompts (“AGENT!!!!”), customers and employees are invited into a true conversation. Instead of having to learn admin prompts and commands to force Agents to configure, contact center leaders can quickly get up and running…and back to what they do best: building relationships with customers through interaction and conversation."