By Aditya Soni

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) will allow its

customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents

from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming

technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI

investments.

The company is positioning autonomous agents - programs that

need little human intervention unlike chatbots - as "apps for an

AI-driven world" that can handle client queries, identify sales

leads and manage inventory.

Other big technology companies such as Salesforce ( CRM )

have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some

analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to

monetizing the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) said its customers can use Copilot Studio - an

application that requires little knowledge of computer code - to

create such agents in public preview from November. It is using

several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the

agents.

The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that

can help with routine tasks ranging from managing supply chain

to expense tracking and client communications.

In a demo, McKinsey & Co, which had early access to the

tools, created an agent that can manage client inquires by

checking interaction history, identifying the consultant for the

task and scheduling a follow-up meeting.

"The idea is that Copilot (the company's chatbot) is the

user interface for AI," Charles Lamanna, corporate vice

president of business and industry Copilot at Microsoft ( MSFT ), told

Reuters.

"Every employee will have a Copilot, their personalized AI

agent, and then they will use that Copilot to interface and

interact with the sea of AI agents that will be out there."

Tech giants are facing pressure to show returns on their big

AI investments. Microsoft's ( MSFT ) shares fell 2.8% in the September

quarter, underperforming the S&P 500, but remain more

than 10% higher for the year.

Some concerns have risen in recent months about the pace of

Copilot adoption, with research firm Gartner saying in August

its survey of 152 IT organizations showed the vast majority had

not progressed their Copilot initiatives past the pilot stage.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)