Microsoft expands AI strategy as it reveals new agent builder
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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) introduced the Azure AI Foundry, which helps businesses build their own artificial intelligence agents, as well as develop other AI applications, today at the Ignite conference as the software giant continues to expand its AI strategy.
“AI agents have huge potential to autonomously perform routine tasks, boosting productivity and efficiency, all while keeping you at the center,” said Jessica Hawk, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of data, AI and digital applications. “We’re introducing Azure AI Agent Service to help developers orchestrate, deploy, and scale enterprise AI-powered apps to automate business processes.”
The agents appear similar to a product introduced by Salesforce (CRM) in September called Agentforce. Palantir (PLTR) also helps enterprises build AI agents through its Artificial Intelligence Platform, or AIP.
Enterprise software companies continue to expand their AI offerings, and Microsoft has invested heavily in these endeavors.
“MSFT has started focusing on building an agentic world that translates into real-time business outcomes with organizations able to securely build, deploy, and scale AI agents that support multiple models with built-in enterprise-grade security as more organizations look to leverage AI for mission-critical applications across user ecosystems with improved quality and faster responses,” said Wedbush analysts, led by Daniel Ives, in an investor note on Tuesday.
“We believe this is the next step of the AI strategic vision for Microsoft and would not be surprised to see an accelerated M&A strategy to help drive this next software stack layer of its AI platform,” Ives added.
Wedbush maintains it Outperform rating on Microsoft and a hefty $550 12-month price target.
“Our thesis remains that the cloud and underlying Office 365/Windows ecosystem is going to comprise a larger piece of Redmond’s revenue going forward and will ultimately spur growth and margins into the rest of FY25,” Ives said.