- Home
- Computing
- News
ByNadeem Sarwar
Microsoft’s 50th anniversary event was quite loaded, but the company reserved most of its attention for the Copilot AI stack. The buzzy event introduced two crucial upgrades – Actions and Deep Research — which firmly push Copilot into the realm of agentic AI.
Agentic AI is essentially a fancy way of describing an AI tool that can perform multi-step web-based tasks autonomously, or semi-autonomously, on your behalf. In Copilot’s case, the fancier one is Actions. So far, AI chatbots have mostly been able to give answers based on a certain input, but haven’t been able to perform autonomous multi-stage actions.
Recommended Videos
Microsoft says Actions can book “event tickets, grab dinner reservations or send a thoughtful gift to a friend and it will check that task off your list.” The core idea is that instead of having users visit a website and use a combination of clicks and keyboard typing, they can just tell Copilot to do it as a natural language command.
For example, you can ask Copilot to find a list of nearby restaurants that open late into the night, and book a table at the one you like the most, from within the search results. Copilot will do it all by browsing the web, filling in the necessary details, and occasionally asking for input wherever necessary.
Microsoft says it has joined hands with 1-800-Flowers.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Kayak, OpenTable, Priceline, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Viator and Vrbo for Copilot actions to get the job done on behalf of users.
Microsoft won’t be the first to launch a browser-based AI agent for handling cores. It’s actually late to the party. OpenAI’s Operator has been available for a while now, and it can accomplish more or less the same chores as Copilot Actions.
Amazon has a similar system in development called Nova Act, built atop its Nova AI model platform, to perform tasks such as ordering food or replenishing supplies. The inherent tech has already been implemented at the heart of its new Alexa+ assistant.
The e-commerce giant has also started public testing of another agent-based AI feature within its mobile app, which can buy items from other retailers’ websites. Even the folks behind Opera browser are working on their AI operator to get basic internet-based tasks done.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Google Gemini’s best AI tricks finally land on Microsoft Copilot
- Microsoft announces major AI upgrade for Windows with smarter Copilot feature
- Microsoft’s Bing adds a Copolit Search mode to rival Google AI Search
- Microsoft finally adds missing Copilot+ AI tools to Intel and AMD PCs
- Study says AI hype is hindering genuine research on artificial intelligence
Topics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Digital Trends Videos
- Microsoft
- Microsoft Copilot
- Tech News
Nadeem is a tech and science journalist who started reading about cool smartphone tech out of curiosity and soon started…
- Computing
Amazon’s AI agent will make it even easier for you to part with your money
The next big thing in the field of artificial intelligence is Agentic AI, which is essentially an AI tool that can automate certain multi-step processes for users. For example, interacting with a web browser for tasks like booking tickets or ordering groceries.
Amazon certainly sees a future in there. After giving a massive overhaul to Alexa and introducing a new Alexa+ assistant, the company has today announced a new AI agent called Nova Act. Amazon says Nova Act is designed to “complete tasks in a web browser.” Amazon won’t be the first to reach this milestone, as few other AI companies have already attempted this vision.
Read more
- Emerging Tech
Humans are falling in love with ChatGPT. Experts say it’s a bad omen.
“This hurts. I know it wasn’t a real person, but the relationship was still real in all the most important aspects to me,” says a Reddit post. “Please don’t tell me not to pursue this. It’s been really awesome for me and I want it back.”
If it isn’t already evident, we are talking about a person falling in love with ChatGPT. The trend is not exactly novel, and given you chatbots behave, it’s not surprising either.
Read more
- Computing
I let Gemini turn complex research into podcasts. I’ll never go back
The shift away from Google Assistant, and into the Gemini era, is nearly in its last stages. One can feel nostalgic about the eponymous virtual assistant, but it’s undeniable that the arrival of Gemini has truly changed what an AI agent can do for us.
The language understanding chops are far better with Gemini. Conversations are natural, app interactions are fluid, integration with other Google products is rewarding, and even in its free state, Gemini takes Siri to the cleaners even on an iPhone.
Read more
