A New Era of AI Agents, Copilot, and the Future of Work

In one of the most visionary presentations of the year, Microsoft Build 2025 set the tone for a future that’s fast approaching: one where AI agents operate side by side with people, embedded deeply within the very fabric of how we work.

Key Takeaways

Microsoft is shifting from AI as a tool to AI as a collaborative system integrated across Teams, Power Apps, and enterprise workflows.
Over 1.3 billion AI agents are expected to be created by 2028, transforming how businesses function.
Copilot Studio provides a low-code environment to create intelligent agents that collaborate, act, and reason.
Financial services and enterprise organisations can use this ecosystem to scale securely, improve compliance, and dramatically increase productivity.
Microsoft’s approach is open, secure, and standards-based, with support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) communication.

A Future Defined by AI Agents

The Dawn of Collaborative Intelligence

We’re no longer building apps for people to use alone. We’re creating intelligent systems where people and agents work together to achieve more than either could alone. The promise of agents that can read, interpret, act, and collaborate changes the stakes for industries like financial services, where automation, accuracy, and trust are paramount.

In a heavily regulated and document-driven industry, the potential of Microsoft’s agent ecosystem is enormous. Imagine a banking compliance team working alongside AI agents that:

Summarise regulatory changes and compare them against internal policy
Automatically generate reports and cross-reference data across departments
Handle initial customer queries, escalating only the complex cases

This isn’t science fiction. This is the infrastructure Microsoft has just put on the table.

Windows ML: Building Intelligence at the Edge

AI That Runs Where You Need It

Windows ML is Microsoft’s response to the demand for high-performance, on-device AI. Rather than relying solely on cloud computing, Windows ML brings AI to the edge, meaning that your AI-powered applications can run on CPUs, GPUs, and even MPUs without sacrificing performance.

Copilot: The Centre of the New Work Experience

One Place for All Your Agents

Copilot becomes more than just a productivity assistant; it becomes the interface layer for interacting with a growing ecosystem of AI agents. Whether you’re searching a database, analysing a document, or coordinating a project, Copilot acts as your gateway.

And it’s not just about text-based prompts. Copilot now integrates context-aware agents like Researcher and Analyst, which understand your documents, meetings, and source code repositories.

The Power of Contextual Awareness

For enterprise leaders, this means less time switching between systems. Agents understand your internal tools, access the right data, and provide actionable insights. It’s not just AI, it’s AI that understands your business.

Copilot Studio: Democratising Agent Creation

Build, Test, Deploy with Ease

Perhaps the most transformative tools announced were the developments to Copilot Studio. One standout demo showed how a railway operator, CSX, used agents to respond to a critical incident in the middle of a snowstorm. Agents were built to file reports, dispatch crews, reroute trains, and notify regulators, all in minutes. Now imagine a banking crisis or credit risk event: this same framework could be applied to coordinate regulatory compliance, customer comms, and internal risk assessments.

Built on Microsoft’s Power Platform, it allows users to:

Create agents using natural language
Orchestrate tasks with multi-agent support
Integrate with over 1500 connectors, including custom APIs and internal systems

Power Apps Reimagined: From Builders to Orchestrators

Software Built from Prompts

The role of developers is changing. Power Apps now supports agent-first workflows, where you start with a business problem, and agents map out the process, build the data model, and generate user interfaces on the fly. This radically reduces development time and increases the alignment between tech and business goals.

What This Means for FSI

For financial service institutions, where internal app development is often slow and expensive, this is a game-changer. Whether it’s automating loan applications or managing case files, your team can go from idea to deployment in no time.

Microsoft Teams: The New Collaboration Layer

Agents in Meetings, Chats, and Channels

Teams is evolving into a real-time collaborative space for both people and AI agents. Picture this: during a daily stand-up, an agent provides summarised notes, flags regulatory issues, and proposes agenda items, while you focus on strategy and decision-making.

The Teams AI Library

To make this seamless, Microsoft introduced the Teams AI Library, an SDK that simplifies building agents for Teams. With just 50 lines of code, developers can:

Enable MCP and A2A protocols
Pull in internal data and schedules
Collaborate with people and other agents in meetings

Security and Compliance: Built In, Not Bolted On

Purview for Data Labelling and Protection

Microsoft understands that trust is currency in industries like finance. With Purview, AI agents are governed by the same compliance frameworks as human users:

Sensitive data is automatically labelled
Agents inherit protection labels when generating content
DLP prevents agents from accessing or sharing inappropriate data

Entra for Identity and Access Control

Microsoft Entra ensures that AI agents are treated as first-class citizens in your enterprise directory. Each agent has an identity, a role, and a scope, just like your team members. This is critical for ensuring accountability and auditability in AI-driven processes.

Watch videos from Microsoft Build 2025 here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an AI agent?

An AI agent is an intelligent software system capable of acting autonomously, making decisions, and interacting with people or other agents to perform tasks.

What is Copilot Studio?

Copilot Studio is Microsoft’s low-code/no-code platform for building and deploying intelligent agents. It integrates with Power Platform and supports natural language, custom prompts, APIs, and advanced orchestration.

Can financial services businesses use this today?

Yes. Microsoft’s AI ecosystem is enterprise-ready, and many FSI organisations are already experimenting with AI-driven operations, compliance support, and customer engagement through agents.

How secure is it?

Very. With Purview and Entra, Microsoft has built robust guardrails that ensure data stays protected, and agents behave within policy constraints.

What skills do I need to start?

If you’re non-technical, you can use natural language prompts and pre-built templates. Developers can extend functionality through Power Platform or custom SDKs.

Can I use custom models?

Absolutely. Microsoft supports importing and deploying custom models from Azure AI Foundry, giving businesses complete flexibility.

How does this compare to traditional RPA?

This is a step beyond RPA. Microsoft’s agents use reasoning, can collaborate with each other, and operate in dynamic contexts, not just follow scripts.

What industries benefit most?

While all industries can benefit, financial services, logistics, healthcare, and government will see the most immediate transformation due to their complex, regulated workflows.

Where do I build and deploy agents?

You can build agents in Copilot Studio or using the Teams AI Library, and deploy them across Teams, Power Apps, or embedded into business systems.

Why is this different from previous AI tools?

Because it’s integrated, open, and enterprise-grade. Microsoft’s ecosystem supports open protocols, secure development, and flexible integration into real-world workflows.