Beyond the hype: turning Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents into real business outcomes
Microsoft Ignite 2025 in San Francisco was an electrifying gathering that brought together over 30,000 tech professionals, business leaders, and innovators from around the globe. This year’s event set a bold tone for the future, spotlighting the transformative role of Copilot and agents in modern workplaces and unveiling a wave of advancements across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The energy on the ground reflected both the excitement and the urgency of this new era, making it clear: Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents are not just the future—they are redefining the way companies get work done today. As I spoke with partners and customers, I was inspired by how organizations are embracing these tools to unlock new ways of working and developing rich business solutions. I want to take a moment to reflect on some of my highlights from the event. Extend familiar management infrastructure to agents with Microsoft Agent 365 Over the last week, I heard time and time again how business leaders are embracing the Frontier Firm wave, steering their organizations toward partnering people with agents across every workflow. Thousands of agents are already automating business processes, and by 2028 IDC projects there will be 1.3 billion in circulation.* For enterprise customers, this will bring a massive new digital workforce to manage. As agents get added to every workflow and become more capable, some business leaders have expressed concerns about how to accelerate AI innovation securely. Microsoft Agent 365 turns this challenge into an opportunity. Operating as a control plane for AI agents, Agent 365 extends the existing infrastructure used to manage people to also manage agents, equipping them with the same apps, protections, and context. For IT leaders, Agent 365 gives organizations a single platform to deploy, govern, and organize agents, transforming them from isolated actors into an integrated part of business operations. Agent 365 helps protect and manage agents across the organization by unifying Defender, Entra, and Purview, and provides a single view of their entire agent fleet with the Microsoft 365 admin center. To ensure agents have the context they need to provide the most accurate results, Agent 365 connects Microsoft 365 apps and Semantic Index through WorkIQ. For organizations ready to take advantage of this unified foundation, Agent 365 will offer a robust ecosystem. For example, Microsoft agents like the new, fully autonomous Sales Development Agent; partner agents from Adobe, Cognition, Databricks, Genspark, Glean, Kasisto, Manus, NVIDIA, n8n, SAP, ServiceNow, Workday, and more; and open-source agents from Anthropic, Cursor, LangChain, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Vercel. For developers looking to build their own Agent 365-compatible agents, they can start with Copilot Studio or Microsoft Foundry. For deeper integrations, Microsoft Agent Framework or Agent 365 SDK enable unified discovery, governance, and collaboration across Microsoft 365. Simplify HR and IT support with the Employee Self-Service agent Another impactful way businesses are integrating agents into operational workflows is by replacing fragmented employee-support systems for HR or IT tasks. At Ignite, we announced the general availability of the Employee Self Service (ESS) agent, which brings AI-powered service delivery directly into Microsoft 365 Copilot to improve HR and IT employee support scenarios. Within Copilot, employees can ask questions, submit requests, and complete routine tasks in one trusted place without disrupting workflow. Natively built into Copilot Studio, the ESS agent provides a customizable foundation for intelligent employee service. It works with HR and IT systems such as Workday, ServiceNow, and SAP SuccessFactors and can easily be expanded through low-code extensions, connectors, and integrations with enterprise systems. Employees can tailor workflows, embed organizational knowledge, and adapt the experience to match their organization’s systems, resulting in a faster and more connected support experience. Frontier Firms in action: Turning AI innovation into business outcomes On Thursday, I hosted a panel session with leaders from several enterprise customers who are well on the path to becoming Frontier Firms: Sean Alexander, SVP, Connected Ecosystem, Lumen Tim Holt, VP, Health Answers Tech Lead & Architect, Pfizer Mona Riemenschneider, Head of Global Communications, GenAI, BASF John Whittaker, Director, AI Platform & Products, Ernst & Young Two themes emerged from our panel discussion. First, the most successful organizations are moving from experimentation to operationalization, developing agent-specific KPIs, governance structures, and more. These are not science experiments, but production tools already embedded directly into some of the world’s most complex enterprises. For example, Pfizer is leveraging Copilot Studio at scale with over 300 agents deployed across their organization, including a specialized agent that provides continuous manufacturing improvement with prioritized opportunities across the supply chain. Second, leaders on the panel emphasized that the future of work is human-led and agent powered. At Lumen, they’ve developed a declarative agent that synthesizes internal data, external filings, and real-time insights to generate tailored executive briefings, reducing cognitive load and surfacing the context needed to prepare for partner and customer meetings. At BASF Agricultural Solutions, they’re using a Copilot agent to transform global corporate communication efficiency. The Copilot agent streamlines the compilation of internal and external communication messages, efficiently and securely, resulting in significant time savings. "If 2025 was the year of the agent, then 2026 will be the year of the agents," said EY’s John Whittaker. “That’s where I think we’re going to see the consolidation of processes into far faster, more real-time, improved outcomes.” Learn how partners and customers are already unlocking new value with AI agents It’s exciting to see how our rich ecosystem of customers and partners are using Microsoft technology to create their own agents to solve real-world challenges, accelerate transformation, and scale human-agent collaboration. Ignite 2025 featured several Microsoft partners and customers who are building innovative agents, designed to work with Microsoft 365 Copilot to help save time, boost productivity, and accelerate business transformation. ADP - The ADP Assist agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot is purpose-built to support HR and will simplify payroll tasks by bringing key workflows into Copilot Chat and Microsoft Teams. Employees will be able to check time-off balances, review pay statements, and confirm direct deposit settings, all without leaving their flow of work. Blue Yonder - Blue Yonder Inventory Ops for Microsoft 365 Copilot automates demand forecasting using advanced machine learning and generates optimized, constraint-based supply plans covering production, distribution, and procurement to meet business objectives and enhance planner productivity. Freshservice - Freddy AI Agent now integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Copilot, bringing instant IT and support assistance into Word, Outlook, Teams, and more. This deep integration boosts adoption, eliminates context switching, and empowers employees to resolve issues effortlessly inside their everyday Microsoft 365 tools. monday.com - monday.com has integrated its MCP server with Microsoft Copilot both as a ready-to-use agent in the Agent Store and as a "Tool" for users to build custom agents on Copilot Studio. Users can now directly access their monday.com data, surface boards and items, or even update statuses directly within their Teams app or Microsoft 365. Sophos - Sophos Intelix will integrate real-time threat intelligence into Microsoft 365 Copilot, empowering IT teams and business users to check links and files, and make faster, more informed security decisions while democratizing enterprise-grade cybersecurity insights within everyday Microsoft 365 workflows. Wipro – Wipro has implemented Copilot-powered agents across sales, procurement, finance, and talent functions, enhancing knowledge access and decision-making to drive faster, more accurate, and consistent business operations. These aren’t the only incredible agents helping businesses. Thousands more are available in Microsoft Marketplace, where partners like the ones below are already reaching customers at scale. Shape the future of work with AI agents What inspires me most coming out of Ignite 2025 is seeing how customers and partners are already building the foundation of their Frontier Firms—people and agents working together to transform productivity and decision-making. This shift is no longer theoretical, it’s happening now across industries, powered by Copilot. To learn more about agents in Copilot and gain access to Microsoft resources, follow the links below. Check out recorded sessions from Ignite and watch demonstrations of agentic solutions from leading software companies Read about the exciting AI innovations for software developers who are building agents Start building agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio Get resources for building and customizing agents from the Microsoft 365 Dev Center and the AI Agents Hub *IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, 1.3 Billion AI Agents by 2028, #US53361825 and May 2025
