- 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.
Related
- Microsoft considers developing AI models to better control Copilot features
- Google Gemini’s best AI tricks finally land on Microsoft Copilot
- Microsoft announces major AI upgrade for Windows with smarter Copilot feature
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 Workspace is getting a bunch of new AI features, including a boost to Docs
- DeepSeek readies the next AI disruption with self-improving models
- I never use my Microsoft Copilot subscription. I still think it’s worth it
- Amazon’s AI shopper makes sure you don’t leave without spending
- Microsoft’s Bing adds a Copolit Search mode to rival Google AI Search
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
Apple turns 49 today, but Apple Intelligence is spoiling the party
Today marks the 49th anniversary of Apple’s founding. The Mac and iPhone maker was created on April 1, 1976 as a partnership between Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne (who backed out after a mere 12 days).
What started as a simple setup in Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage has gone on to become one of the most profitable companies in history. It’s created some of the most iconic and recognisable devices in the world and leads the way in phones, computers, smartwatches, and much more.
Read more
- Computing
Microsoft finally adds missing Copilot+ AI tools to Intel and AMD PCs
If you bought into the promise of a new AI-charged Copilot+ PC with the latest-gen Intel or AMD processor, and found a few tricks missing, the long wait is over. A handful of those Copilot+ features are finally expanding beyond machines with a Snapdragon X series processor inside.
It’s roughly been a year since Microsoft introduced the Copilot+ PC label, a new breed of computing machines that put AI performance at the forefront. For months, Qualcomm was the sole silicon supplier for such machines.
Read more
- Computing
Study says AI hype is hindering genuine research on artificial intelligence
A new AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence) study with hundreds of contributing AI researchers has been published this month, and the main takeaway is this: our current approach to AI is unlikely to lead us to artificial general intelligence.
AI has been a buzzword for a good couple of years now, but artificial intelligence as a field of research has existed for many decades. Alan Turing's famous "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" paper and the Turing test we still talk about today, for example, were published in 1950.
Read more
