Microsoft Teases AI Agents as ‘Independent Users Within the Workforce’

TL;DR: Microsoft product roadmap reveals “agentic users” operating as independent enterprise workforce members with own identity, email, Teams access, and org chart presence. “A365” licensing expected via M365 Agent Store. Licensing expert Rich Gibbons warns about unpredictable consumption-based costs and rogue agent risks including sensitive data exposure and offensive messages.

Microsoft has teased what it’s calling “a new class” of AI agents “that operate as independent users within the enterprise workforce.” According to a Microsoft product roadmap document, each embodied agent has its own identity, dedicated access to organisational systems and applications, and the ability to collaborate with humans and other agents.

Agentic User Capabilities

“These agents can attend meetings, edit documents, communicate via email and chat, and perform tasks autonomously,” states the product roadmap. Redmond will sell these “agentic users” in the “M365 Agent Store” and make them discoverable in its Teams collaborationware tools.

Microsoft licensing specialist Rich Gibbons has seen additional documentation provided to M365 admins that mentions a license called “A365”—he thinks that’s a reference to a product called “Agent 365”—which states “Admins assign the required A365 license at the time of approval. No additional Microsoft 365 or Teams license is required.”

Microsoft MVP João Ferreira appears to have seen the same document and shared a screenshot of an Agent 365 management page. Ferreira says agents will have their own email address, Teams account, an entry in enterprise directories (either Entra ID or Azure AD), and even a place on the org chart. “They can participate in meetings, send and receive emails and chats, access enterprise data, and learn from interactions to improve over time,” he wrote.

Cost and Management Concerns

Microsoft’s documents suggest the agents will debut later in November. As the software giant’s annual “Ignite” conference kicks off next week, they may be one of the things Microsoft announces at the event. Ferreira said Microsoft will stage a “targeted release” of A365.

Gibbons has looked past breathlessly optimistic productivity and profitability pronouncements and tried to guess what they’ll cost to run. “Microsoft recently launched the Copilot Credit Pre-Purchase Plan (P3),” he wrote, noting that its base tier offers customers the chance to buy 300,000 credits.

The software behemoth is “moving more and more to a consumption based pricing model, which is inherently much harder to forecast for customer organisations. Here, where we’re going to have AI agents doings things off their own back—how are you supposed to predict usage/consumption in those scenarios?!”

Governance Challenges

“As well as the licensing and cost concerns, I am also wondering how an organisation manages these agents,” Gibbons added. “If they can join meeting and send emails/messages to people—what happens if they go rogue? It could be sending sensitive data to the wrong people, providing incorrect information, or it could be sending strange or offensive messages…how is that to be prevented, monitored, and acted upon?”

Looking Forward

Microsoft’s vision of AI agents as full-fledged workforce members with email, Teams access, and org chart presence raises fundamental questions about enterprise AI governance, cost predictability, and risk management. As consumption-based pricing models replace traditional licensing, organisations face challenges forecasting costs for autonomous agents whilst managing risks from potentially rogue AI behaviour.

The targeted November release will likely provide more details about Agent 365 capabilities, pricing, and governance controls at Microsoft’s Ignite conference.

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