Microsoft will allow businesses to start making their own autonomous artificial intelligence agents starting next month, taking the fight back to Salesforce, which introduced its own configurable agentic AI tools in September.

Microsoft says agents can save companies as much as $50 million a year or offer the equivalent value of 'adding 187 full-time employees' by automating business processes.

Microsoft, under CEO Satya Nadella, is adding new AI capabilities including AI agents that can complete tasks and oversee business processes autonomously.