Imagine yourself being on a vacation when a client requests an urgent presentation. With no time for research or design, it feels impossible. But what if AI could instantly create and deliver the perfect presentation, saving both your client and your vacation?
Welcome to the world of AI that not just works with you but also works for you. The recent announcement of Agents in Microsoft Ignite made it the talk of the business town.
With AI agents by your side, things get automated while you grab your favorite snack. An AI agent can tackle complex tasks, write and send emails to clients, schedule tasks, personalize business operations, manage inventory, analyze data and insights, and automate almost every aspect of business operations.
What is an AI Agent and Why is the world speaking about it?
AI agents can be your everyday companions, capable of making decisions autonomously without needing little or no human intervention. They can range from executing simple tasks to fully automating tasks, and workflows. They can think, act, get self-trained, and even know when to ask for help.
For example, ideally, when a customer reaches a call center, they must go through a lengthy IVR call or a question-and-answer authentication to get to the resolution. However, with agents by the side, call centers can handle the information gathering effectively and steer the conversation toward a promising resolution by reviewing the history of customer data and the possible scenarios. It also collaborates with human agents providing insights, suggesting solutions and summarizing an issue. Based on the customer responses and sentiments, it determines if it can resolve the query or forward it to the customer service representatives providing relevant details.
AI agents have grabbed more attention in the spotlight following their integration into Microsoft 365 at the Microsoft Ignite 2024 event, making more people curious about working them in action.
Agentic AI vs Generative AI – what’s the difference?
AI agents take the help of generative AI to perform various tasks autonomously on your behalf. They understand the context of tasks, plan workflows, and connect to external tools, technologies, and data to execute actions and achieve defined goals. While this might seem similar to what Generative AI does, Agentic AI’s ability to execute tasks without waiting for human intervention is the key differentiator.
For example, when asked, a generative AI assistant can show you the available quantity of a product and help you write an email for replenishment. But it cannot execute the process end-to-end. On the other hand, an AI agent can automatically initiate the replenishment process when the available quantity reaches a certain level as defined by rules, without waiting for you to ask. In this process, agents use generative AI capabilities to draft personalized emails to vendors.
AI agents function as layers on top of large language models, observing and collecting essential information, providing input to the model, generating the action plan and communicating it with the user, or acting independently.
Let’s see why AI agents are different from gen AI or other personal assistants.
Agents make intelligent decisions independently:
These aren’t just basic “if-this-then-that” bots. The AI agents act like experienced professionals who better know about their roles. They use advanced neural networks to orchestrate workflows, make judgments based on multiple factors, spot issues, and route inquiries to the right department, avoiding issues ahead.
They learn and adapt:
AI agents learn through machine learning and NLP. They learn from new situations, adapt to emerging patterns, and fine-tune their answers, making every interaction smarter.
They think outside of the box:
Unlike other chatbots that stick to rigid scripts, AI agents go a step further in handling curveballs. Have a unique situation? They’ll figure it out. Have unexpected questions? They answer them. This flexibility allows them to tackle various tasks while keeping interactions helpful and natural, ultimately providing richer customer experience.
They get the context right:
You no longer get frustrated with “sorry, I don’t understand it” responses. AI agents can understand the entire story from a conversation like a skilled human does. They remember previous interactions, understand nuanced queries and requests, and follow up with complex discussions without losing the thread. This allows them to navigate various processes, interpret queries, and respond to the queries with real-time cues based on situations.
How to use AI agents for work
You can have an agent for a specific purpose or have multiple agents working in harmony to handle a process end-to-end. Microsoft launched out-of-the-box agents across a few products, including Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat. These agents can have a direct impact on your work. For example, the employee self-service agent in Copilot Business Chat can answer employee questions and perform HR, IT-related tasks effectively.
You can ground these agents on specific datasets to acquire special knowledge and perform specific tasks autonomously. Using Microsoft Copilot Studio, you can also customize the agents, extend their capabilities, and integrate them with your line-of-business systems without requiring extensive coding expertise.
Let’s see how AI agents can transform the life of a knowledge worker by truly automating processes.
Life of a knowledge worker at work with AI agents
Let’s take an example of a day in the life of Emma, a warehouse manager before agents. Emma’s day typically starts with reviewing inventory levels, processing inbound shipments, coordinating with vendors, and handling last-minute hassles.
- She would manually check stock levels, compare them against demand, and identify shortages. This was time-consuming and error-prone.
- Coordinating with suppliers and tracking shipment statuses involved constant back-and-forth emails and phone calls.
- She would manually assign tasks to warehouse staff based on his understanding of their availability and workload.
- Generating performance metrics and identifying inefficiencies took days, often leaving her without actionable insights.
After deploying AI agents across their ecosystem, Emma is no longer bogged down by routine tasks. Let’s see how her day would unfold with agents by her side.
- As she starts her day, an AI agent sends her a report summarizing inventory levels, suggested reorder quantities, and flagged shortages, along with vendor details and optimal pricing. This helps Emma approve orders just in minutes, giving her extra time for team discussions.
- AI agents monitor inbound shipments autonomously, notifying her of any delays, suggesting alternate scheduling, and even sending automatic updates to the suppliers for faster issue resolution. This keeps Emma less worried about firefighting shipment delays and focuses more on warehouse-related tasks.
- Agents help schedule tasks such as unloading, picking, and packing based on staff availability and priority. This helps Emma have a bird ‘ s-eye view of operations and step in processes when necessary.
- With the help of AI agents, Emma can make informed decisions on critical processes such as adjusting stock locations, reorganizing pick paths, etc.
Before agents, Emma was juggling between tasks and pressed for time. With agents, she has more time to focus on the core, strategic aspects of her job without worrying about the routine tasks.
Key things to consider before the implementation of AI agents
The autonomous nature of the agents mandates few considerations before hitting the ground. Defining clear objectives and use cases helps plan the wise usage of the evolving tech and prepare the organization for a scalable future. Data accessibility and user access control play a key role in eliminating the over-sharing problems posed by AI agents’ implementation.
Integration with their existing systems and the room left for future customizations can’t be neglected in the plan for Agents. Create structured feedback-gathering mechanism to get the most out of Agents infinite potential.
Equip your team with the training required to work alongside agents seamlessly. Ironing out the resistance to change is key for every initiative. Above all, ethical and responsible AI considerations and the adherence to compliance ensure the protection of all sensitive data. After all, it’s always Data for AI and AI for data.
Conclusion:
Agents are bringing AI much closer to businesses and making a direct contribution to productivity and profitability gains. At Saxon AI, we offer DigitalClerx, a new frontier in the world of AI agents that takes complete ownership of the end-to-end delivery of business workflows. Having high volume repeated tasks or a growing need for automation? Want to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity? DigitalClerx can do it all! It is suitable for various industries and handles a variety of job roles. Reduce, automate, augment, and enhance your business processes with a seamless blend of AI, ML, RPA, analytics, and Cognitive automation with DigitalClerx.
Get started now.
