Microsoft’s AI Agents: The Future or a Flop?

What we’ll cover today:

• 🤖 Are AI Agents the Next Big Thing?

• 💼 Some Jobs Will Disappear Because of AI.

• 🛠️ Prompt Engineering Matters More Than Ever.

• 🔗 The Event Roundup.

Are AI Agents the Next Big Thing?

At Ignite 2024, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella revealed a bold new vision for AI "agents."

These tools promise to:

• Handle complex tasks autonomously, like processing returns or fixing supply chain errors.

• Transition from simple chatbot prompts to fully autonomous systems.

• Boost efficiency in business operations and daily work.

But here’s the catch:

• Building and running these agents comes with sky-high costs.

• Critics argue that the technology’s ROI might not live up to the promise.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff didn’t hold back, delivering sharp critiques:

• He called Microsoft’s pivot “desperate rebranding.”

• Slammed its flagship Copilot as a “flop” that spills corporate data.

• Promoted Salesforce’s rival platform, “Agentforce,” as the better choice.

Still, Microsoft is betting on a future where every business deploys fleets of these AI agents.

Here’s the whole article

1.  Some Jobs Will Disappear Because of AI.

   

   Source: @RishadPremji (Twitter)

In this article, Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji addresses the transformative impact of AI on the job market, stating, "The reality is that some jobs will disappear because of AI." 

He highlights the critical need for reskilling and upskilling the workforce to adapt, ensuring employees stay relevant and businesses thrive amidst the inevitable changes brought by AI advancements.

Here’s The Article

2.  Prompt Engineering Matters More Than Ever.

   

   Source: @danshipper (Twitter)

This is a tweet from Dan Shipper. 

With over 54K followers on Twitter, Dan is co-founder and CEO of Every. Also, the host of the AI & I podcast

In this tweet, Dan mentions how prompt engineering matters more than ever. But it’s evolving into something totally new.

“I spent an hour talking to prompt wizard Jared Zoneraich, cofounder and CEO of Prompt Layer, about why the death of prompt engineering is greatly exaggerated. And why the future of prompting is equipping non-technical experts with the tools to manage, deploy, and evaluate prompts quickly.” He adds

Here’s The Tweet

1. Can Google Scholar survive the AI revolution?

This week, Google Scholar is the largest and most comprehensive scholarly search engine — turns 20 this week.

Some researchers say the tool has become one of the most important in science over the past two decades.

But in recent years, competitors that use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the search experience have emerged, as have others that allow users to download their data.

2. The AI for Science Forum: A new era of discovery.

The AI for Science Forum—co-hosted by Google DeepMind and the Royal Society—brought together the scientific community, policymakers, and industry leaders to explore AI's transformative potential to drive scientific breakthroughs, address the world's most pressing challenges, and lead to a new era of discovery.

3. Microsoft intros Azure AI Foundry for building AI apps.

While Microsoft's focus at its Ignite developer conference on Tuesday was on Copilot and AI agents, the cloud provider also devoted some efforts to providing an environment for developers to create AI applications.

On the first day of the conference, the tech giant introduced the Azure AI Foundry, a platform for developers to design, customise, and manage AI apps and agents.