Just a couple of days prior to this post being written, Microsoft announced plans to introduce new Employee Self-Service Agents via Microsoft 365 Copilot beginning in 2025. The AI-powered agents are already available to a limited number of customers by way of a private preview. Microsoft plans to launch them for general availability during the second quarter of 2025.

What does it mean to your organization and your IT solutions? If you are already on board with Microsoft 365 and Copilot, it means your organization's employees could be given access to a number of self-service options powered by AI-equipped agents Microsoft says are more accurate than ever.

Employee Self-Service Has Been Sketchy

Over the years, automated employee self-service has been sketchy. It has also been quite limited due to the inherent limits of natural language processing (NLP). But with advancements in both NLP and AI, Microsoft believes its employee self-service agents are ready for prime time.

With the agents accessible through MS 365 and copilot, employees will be able to:

• ‍Interact with HR – Employees will be able to retrieve benefits and payroll information without direct help from HR employees. They will be able to schedule vacations, inquire about leaves of absence, order new equipment, and even get MS 365 assistance.‍
• Personalized Data – Agents are capable of retrieving personalized data for each employee. The data can relate to benefit details, PTO status, and more.‍
• Access Policies – Employees in need of policy guidance will be able to use AI-powered self-service to look for specific policy language or gain access toa policy in its entirety. The agent will be able to respond in context.‍
• Ticket Management – From a support standpoint, employees will be able to use the agents for ticket management purposes. Opening new tickets and checking on existing ones will be possible directly through an agent.‍
• Task Performance – The self-service agents will even facilitate certain tasks being performed by employees. Employees will be able to update team information, modify HR profiles, submit requests for transfers, and more.

Microsoft says the new self-service agents will connect to a wide range of current HR and IT systems. Using connectors built by Microsoft engineers themselves, the software will easily integrate with other platforms.

As for performance, Microsoft claims a 25% increase in accuracy for HR related tasks. A surprising 316% increase in self-help success has been reported for IT inquiries.

Licensing Remains to Be Seen

While we are tremendously excited whenever we learn about upgrades to Microsoft IT solutions, we are not sure how all of this will work out in terms of licensing. Microsoft licensing can be straightforward for companies with minimal needs. Likewise, it can be quite complex when organizations have equally complex needs.

The assumption is that accessing self-service agents through Microsoft 365 and Copilot will be covered under existing licenses, at least in the short term. But again, we don't know for sure. Rest assured that Opkalla will keep an eye on things on behalf of our clients.

Help With All of Your Apps and Licenses

Microsoft is still accepting requests to join its preview program. You can find a link in the post we linked to at the beginning of this piece. In the meantime, note that Opkalla can help you with all your Microsoft products and their license management.

We are experts in Microsoft 365, Azure, Copilot, Teams, and Entra. We can be your one-stop partner for all things Microsoft related. Contact us to learn more about how our services can streamline your IT solutions and manage them all in one place.