🤖 AI Agents & Agentic AI¶
Status: 🔜 Coming soon
Goal: Understand the hottest buzzword in AI — what agents are, how they work, and how Microsoft's agent strategy fits in
Why This Matters¶
"Agents" is the #1 AI buzzword of 2026. Every vendor has an agent story. As a Copilot Solution Engineer, you need to explain what makes Microsoft's approach different.
Planned Topics¶
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| What is an AI agent? | Autonomous AI that plans, reasons, and takes actions (not just chats) |
| Agents vs chatbots vs copilots | The spectrum: reactive → proactive → autonomous |
| How agents work | Planning, reasoning, tool use, memory — the agent loop |
| Agentic frameworks | AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, CrewAI, LangGraph — what they are at a high level |
| Multi-agent systems | Multiple agents collaborating — ties to Copilot Studio multi-agent |
| Tool use & function calling | How agents use tools (MCP, APIs, plugins) — connects to your MCP knowledge |
| Microsoft's agent strategy | Agent 365, Copilot Studio agents, Azure AI agents — the full picture |
| The competition | How OpenAI, Google, Anthropic approach agents differently |
☕ Café Analogy¶
A chatbot is like a waiter who takes your order and brings food. A copilot is like a waiter who also suggests dishes based on what you like. An agent is like a restaurant manager who notices you're running low on stock, orders supplies, updates the menu, and trains the new waiter — all without being asked.