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... Microsoft is reportedly planning to license AI agents like employees -- and charge accordingly.

The megacorp is considering a new Microsoft 365 subscription tier, informally dubbed E7, that would bundle Copilot and agent management tools as enterprises begin deploying AI agents alongside human staff.

According to Mary Jo Foley analyst at Directions on Microsoft, the proposed E7 plan would include Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent 365 -- a preview service designed to manage and govern AI agents across enterprise environments -- along components not currently incorporated in the Microsoft 365 E5 tier.

As AI agents function as digital workers, they need identities, email accounts, Teams access, and policy controls -- capabilities currently tied to user subscriptions.

Microsoft 365 E5 plus Copilot already covers most of this, but E7 would package those elements into a single SKU. ...