Autonomous agents: a new evolution of apps

Copilot Studio and Power Automate had a baby!

You may have heard or read about Autonomous Agents that you can create in Copilot Studio, but maybe like it was for me at first glance, you don't understand what this new kid on the block is really about. Is it all hype, or is it yet another Microsoft rebranding? 

My way of explaining in simple words what this new concept is about:

Take the level of ease that Copilot studio and its AI capabilities have revolutionized the creation of interactive bots.

Bring this into an automation world, where Power Automate has led so many organizations to depend on.

Mix that all together and you get Autonomous Agents to whom you provide:

• knowledge (or skills if you prefer)
• actions defining what they can do
• triggers that say when they kick in

and voilà!

How did we get here?

When I learn a new concept I want to explain to others, I always try to link it to something we already know. This time around, the connection is with floor cleaning!!

Play along with me, and then tell me if that makes sense for you too.

Brush off the floor - Manual data capture

In the early days when we wanted to gather information about a task, we'd most likely use pen and paper. Tedious work, with potential issues when reading the information back later on - handwriting being what it is. Just like cleaning the floor with chiffon, you may miss spots or don't have an overall perspective.

Broom the floor - Capture information in Excel

Use a vacuum cleaner - Use an app to transform data

Automatic robot cleaner - use Copilot/AI to decide on data

Speed through time, up to just 2 years ago or so, and the 'real' AI revolution has started. After many years of tough evolution, we now are in an era where we can use AI to reason over data and leverage large-language models on top of infrastructures that democratize these capabilities and are changing the way we build end-user solutions. It's not cloud-first, it's not mobile-first, it's now AI-first. Copilots are helping us in our day-to-day work, providing us with accelerators and guidance. But just like the automatic robot cleaners, that reasons over the floor surfaces and that is launched on a schedule or by a user request, copilots are just a companion at this point.

Robot cleaner detects a hole and calls for repair - use agents to act by themselves

About me

I'm Éric Sauvé MCT & MVP, aka ZePowerDiver, Power Platform practice lead, solution architect, and consulting service director at XRM Vision. I'm a Power Platform enthusiast and speak in Power Platform and Dynamics CE related conferences.

You can reach me on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zepowerdiver
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZePowerDiver
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zepowerdiver.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ZePowerDiver
Blogger: https://www.zepowerdiver.com/
Github: https://github.com/ZePowerdiver/

Keep on Diving!