Microsoft unveils AI agents for business applications

Microsoft unveils new autonomous AI agents for its Dynamics 365 business applications, Todd Bishop reports for GeekWire. These agents are designed to autonomously complete tasks and oversee business processes. The announcement came during Microsoft’s “AI Tour” stop in London. Microsoft describes the agents as functioning like new apps in an AI-powered world, working on behalf …

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Arch-Function accelerates AI agents

Katanemo has introduced Arch-Function, a collection of open-source large language models (LLMs) designed for ultra-fast function-calling tasks essential for agentic applications in enterprises. According to reporting from VentureBeat, these models operate nearly 12 times faster than OpenAI’s GPT-4 and significantly outperform offerings from other competitors, while also providing substantial cost savings. Arch-Function builds on Katanemo’s …

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Decagon streamlines customer service with AI agents

Decagon, co-founded by Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas, has developed an AI-powered customer service system that handles routine tasks for companies like Notion and Duolingo. After a year of rigorous competition, Decagon’s chatbot consistently outperformed rivals in “bake-off” evaluations against tools from competitors like Salesforce. The startup has recently raised $65 million in a Series …

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OpenAI Swarm is a framework for AI agents

OpenAI has unveiled “Swarm,” an experimental framework for networks of AI agents, according to VentureBeat. Swarm allows developers to create interconnected AI networks that can communicate and solve tasks autonomously. The framework has potential applications in automating various business functions, from market analysis to customer support. However, it also raises ethical concerns regarding security, bias, …

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Salesforce gives more details on strategy for AI agents

Salesforce presents its vision for autonomous AI agents at Dreamforce 2024. CEO Marc Benioff explains that these agents will replace existing copilots and be based on a standardized platform. The company is focusing on its Agentforce product, which will deploy AI agents across various cloud services, writes Larry Dignan. The Salesforce platform and the Data …

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AI agents now in Slack

Slack is expanding its offering to include AI agents from third-party providers and customers. The new feature allows paying users to integrate AI agents from partners like Asana, Cohere, and Adobe, as well as their own agents, into the chat platform. Rob Seaman, Slack’s head of product, told VentureBeat that office workers are increasingly looking …

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Microsoft shows off Copilot Pages, other AI features for businesses

Microsoft is expanding its Office offerings with new AI features. A key innovation is “Copilot Pages”, a platform for collaborative work with AI. Users can work together on AI-generated content and enrich it with data from different sources. Microsoft describes this as an entirely new way of working that brings humans and AI together in …

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$24 Million in capital for “automated digital employees”

AI startup 11x.ai has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Benchmark. Founded in 2022, the company develops AI agents for process automation, which it describes as “automated digital employees”. 11x.ai focuses on sales, marketing, and revenue operations. The company is approaching $10 million in …

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Microsoft Windows Agent Arena introduced

Microsoft has unveiled a new platform called Windows Agent Arena (WAA) to test AI assistants in realistic Windows environments. This was reported by Michael Nuñez on VentureBeat. WAA offers more than 150 different tasks in common Windows applications and allows for parallel evaluation in the Azure cloud. Microsoft also introduced a new AI agent called …

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Salesforce unveils Agentforce: AI Agents for customer service and more

Salesforce has now officially unveiled Agentforce, a previously announced suite of AI-powered autonomous agents. These are designed to assist human employees in various business areas such as sales, marketing, commerce, and customer service. According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Agentforce represents the “third wave” of AI, moving beyond trending models and generative AI. At the …

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