Home
Enterprise
Tech

Microsoft Build 2025: AI Agent Usage Surges as Microsoft Promotes an “Agentic Web” Future

Sarah Johnson

Microsoft’s Build 2025 developer conference was a clear declaration: we're stepping into the era of AI agents, and their use has more than doubled in just one year. CTO Kevin Scott revealed that daily active usage of Microsoft’s AI agents has soared since Build 2024.

What Exactly Is an AI Agent?

In Microsoft’s vision, an AI agent is more than a chatbot—it’s a digital collaborator you can assign tasks to. These agents can reason, remember previous interactions, perform complex sequences of actions, and execute real-world responsibilities—such as troubleshooting website outages or coding features—all with minimal human intervention .

Key Innovations Announced at Build 2025

  1. GitHub Copilot as a Coding Peer
    Microsoft demoed an Azure SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) agent integrated into GitHub Copilot, enabling developers to delegate tasks like bug fixes or feature requests, evolving Copilot from an assistant to a peer.

  2. Open Agentic Web
    Satya Nadella introduced Microsoft’s vision of an open “agentic web”, where interoperable AI agents can work across Azure, Windows, Microsoft 365, and third-party platforms, fostering innovation and seamless integration.

  3. High-Profile Collaborations
    The keynote featured appearances by OpenAI’s Sam Altman—who introduced his Codex agent for developers—Elon Musk—discussing xAI's Grok integration with Azure—and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang—highlighting collective cloud-scale advancements.

  4. Copilot Tuning and Multi-Agent Orchestration
    Microsoft introduced Copilot Tuning, enabling enterprises to customize AI agents using their own data, and unveiled multi-agent collaboration tools like Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, which now supports thousands of AI models.

  5. Developer-First Tools
    Improvements across Windows AI Foundry, open-sourced WSL, .NET 9, and Visual Studio enhancements were announced—making it easier for developers to build, extend, and govern AI-powered agents.

Why This Matters

  • Productivity Boost: AI agents can take on routine tasks—like code reviews, site monitoring, or data research—liberating developers to focus on higher-level projects.

  • Enterprise Readiness: With over 230,000 organizations and 90% of Fortune 500 using Copilot Studio to build agents, Microsoft is positioning itself as the enterprise agent leader.

  • Economic Shift: As Scott explained, agent usage has exceeded expectations—and they’re getting cheaper and smarter fast.

A Vision Realized—What Comes Next?

Microsoft isn't just announcing features—it’s laying the groundwork for a future where daily interactions with intelligent AI agents are seamless and integrated. Whether coders, system admins, analysts, or knowledge workers, professionals will increasingly collaborate with digital peers—learning and scaling together.

But with this shift comes a responsibility to build transparent, secure, and ethically governed agents. Microsoft is laying groundwork with open standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agent identity systems.

Post a Comment