Microsoft announced today a major expansion of its artificial intelligence tools with the “Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 Spring release,” introducing new AI “agents” designed to function as digital colleagues that can perform complex workplace tasks through deep reasoning capabilities. In an exclusive interview, Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer of Experiences and Devices at Microsoft, told VentureBeat the company is building toward a vision where AI serves as more than just a tool — becoming an integral collaborator in daily work. “We are around the corner from a big moment in the AI world,” Chennapragada said. “It started out with all of the model advances, and everyone’s been really excited about it and the intelligence abundance. Now it’s about making sure that intelligence is available to all of the folks, especially at work.” The announcement accompanies Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, a comprehensive research report based on surveys of 31,000 workers across 31 countries, documenting the emergence of what Microsoft calls “Frontier Firms” — organizations restructuring around AI-powered intelligence and human-agent collaboration. At the center of Microsoft’s vision are two new AI agents named Researcher and Analyst, powered by OpenAI’s deep reasoning models. These agents are designed to handle complex research tasks and data analysis that previously required specialized human expertise.

Full report : Microsoft launches new OpenAI-powered AI agents, Researcher and Analyst, designed to function as digital colleagues, available via its Agent Store.