Microsoft’s New AI Agents: Accelerating Sales & Revenue

The integration of AI into sales processes has accelerated so much over the past two years that technology firms are now competing across the world to deliver AI solutions that address persistent challenges in revenue generation.

Simultaneously, sales departments face mounting pressure to increase efficiency while managing expanding volumes of customer data and navigating complex buying journeys.

Sophie Gray, Head of Microsoft Business Solutions, Sales and Technical Sales, says that 70% of sales representatives' time is spent on non- sales tasks.

She says: “I know from speaking to my sales team how much they hate administrative tasks.

“It can take a huge amount of time for [sales] individuals to prepare for customer meetings and customer presentations.”

Now, bringing a new solution to close this gap between productivity and revenue growth, Microsoft has announced two new AI agents.

Through its Microsoft 365 Copilot platform, these agents enable users to interact with Microsoft applications using natural language commands.

With these new tools dedicated for sales organisations, Microsoft aims to help companies tackle lead qualification, meeting preparation and proposal development – areas that typically consume substantial time that could otherwise be dedicated to customer engagement.

How Microsoft 365 Copilot Sales Agent transforms contact management workflows

The first of these new tools, Sales Agent, converts contacts into qualified leads automatically.

This technology works continuously to expand sales pipelines by researching potential customers, arranging meetings and communicating with prospects.

For certain prospects deemed lower priority, the system can complete transactions without human intervention.

The agent also utilises information from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, which store customer data and interaction history, alongside company resources such as pricing documentation.

It additionally incorporates web data and Microsoft 365 information including email communications and meeting records to create personalised responses – allowing sales representatives to focus on high-value opportunities while ensuring smaller leads receive attention.

Furthermore, the system operates continuously, enabling prospect engagement outside standard business hours.

How Microsoft 365 Copilot Sales Chat delivers contextual sales intelligence to representatives

The second tool, Sales Chat, functions as an assistant throughout the sales process.

It extracts actionable information from CRM databases, presentation materials, meeting records and email communications to provide sales representatives with rapid access to critical information.

Users can interact with the technology using natural language queries such as “give me a list of deals that are at risk of falling through” or “what should I know going into tomorrow's meeting with this customer?”

The system is also capable of responding to requests like “help me create a plan to close this deal,” providing strategic guidance based on available information.

This means that the technology aims to reduce the time sales representatives spend searching for information, allowing them to dedicate more hours to customer engagement and relationship building.

The agents can also be configured to connect with company databases to ensure responses are accurate and relevant.

Both agents will be accessible through Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – connecting to Microsoft Dynamics 365, the company's own CRM platform, as well as Salesforce, a major competitor in the CRM market – enabling sales representatives to manage customer relationships without directly accessing their CRM systems.

Microsoft has announced both agents will enter public preview, where selected users can test pre-release software, in May.

Rob Smithson, Lead of UK Business Applications at Microsoft, said at the Microsoft AI Tour before the demo of these new agents by Sophie Gray, that: “The most successful organisations are the ones that are ready to grasp this specific agentic opportunity.”

Fortune 500 companies report efficiency gains with Microsoft Copilot implementation

Microsoft reports that nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies now use Copilot and organisations created more than 400,000 custom agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio during the previous quarter.

For instance, from using Copilot, Vodafone projects it will double or triple the number of proposal requests its sales team can process weekly.
Meanwhile, Campari reports an 18% reduction in marketing content production costs.

Richard Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of ANS, says: “We've seen tremendous growth since migrating from Salesforce to Dynamics 365 Sales.

“Our sales organisation has experienced an increase of 133% year-over-year revenue per head with 111% year-over-year growth overall.

“When we layered on Microsoft 365 Copilot, sellers realised 30 minutes of time saved per day, while pipeline generation has increased by 20%.”

Microsoft launches AI Accelerator programme to support CRM migration processes

To support customer transition to its AI solutions, Microsoft has also announced the AI Accelerator for Sales programme.

This program includes:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot – for sales teams through Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Prebuilt agents – to streamline common sales workflows, featuring the new Sales 

• Research Agent in Dynamics 365 Sales for data-driven strategic insights
• Custom agents – via Copilot Studio for tailored sales automation
• Model fine-tuning by Microsoft AI experts –  to align with organisational needs
• Dynamics 365 Sales – or end-to-end sales lifecycle management
• White-glove engagement  – with Microsoft AI specialists for personalised support
  This initiative provides participating organisations with access to Microsoft AI specialists who assist with migration from existing CRM systems and support sales team adoption of the new technology.

The programme includes personalisation services to adapt agent outputs to specific business requirements – and these fine-tuning capabilities ensure that AI tools produce results that align with company standards and practices.

Microsoft says the AI Accelerator for Sales will become available to participating organisations from 1 April.

“Our ambition is to empower every employee with a Copilot and transform every business process with agents,” summarises Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer at AI at Work at Microsoft.

“Today, we're announcing two new agents that apply this ambition to sales – the revenue engine for every business – that can be used right in the flow of work.”

Explore the latest edition of Technology Magazine and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Tech & AI LIVE.

Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.

Technology Magazine is a BizClik brand