AI Agent & Copilot Podcast: Microsoft, PwC Deliver Tools to Manage Proliferating AI Agents

Welcome to the AI Copilot Podcast, analyzing the latest AI Copilot and agent developments from Microsoft and its partners, delving into customer use cases, and exploring how AI plus Cloud helps customers reimagine business. In this episode, Tom Smith explores new agent management technology developments from PwC and Microsoft.

Highlights

Agents for Every Task (00:25)

A conversation last week with a Microsoft security exec reinforced a prediction I’ve heard frequently of late from vendors, partners, and even customers: There will be an agent for every task. When you focus on the potential of agents deployed to date, this does not seem like a hype-driven statement.

How to Manage All Those Agents (01:35)

But agents are proliferating: from a wide range of vendors, tied to a wide range of systems, performing a staggering array of functions. So,who’s going to manage all those agents, provide governance and oversight, protect the data they access, adhere to corporate compliance requirements, and much more?

PwC’s AI Agent OS (02:24)

To address this issue, PwC introduced what it calls the AI agent operating system to connect, scale, and manage agents in business workflows. PwC says AI Agent OS provides: a unified framework for building, customizing, integrating and orchestrating AI agents and tools; AI governance and compliance; functionality for AI agents to work together.

Microsoft Copilot Control System (03:35)

Then there’s the Microsoft Copilot Control System, which, according to Microsoft, helps customers secure, manage, and analyze their use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and agents across their organizations.

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It ensures end-to-end chain of compliance for all data passed to the foundation models that Microsoft customers use. It includes enterprise data protection (EDP), safety and governance controls built into the company’s Copilot infrastructure, and its Responsible AI services, helping organizations protect their valuable data from internal and external threats, enforce their security and governance requirements, and provide valuable insights into usage.

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