Management and maintenance of AI systems remains a challenge For many enterprises, especially with the potential for agentic spread exposing businesses to risky entry points.
Microsoft entered the observational arena with the launch of Agent 365 during its annual Ignite conference on Tuesday. It described Agent 365 as the control plane for AI agents, acting as an overview layer for enterprises running any agents. The company said the platform “provides a unified overview” through telemetry, dashboards and alerts to track every agent in use.
Agent 365 supports any agent, whether built on Microsoft’s platform or from a third party, including Adobe, Databricks, Cognition, and ServiceNow.
“Agent 365 marks a new chapter in how organizations build, secure, and scale their agents. It’s a shift from isolated experiments to enterprise readiness, where agents work as part of an integrated, governed, and productive system,” Charles Lamanna, president of Business Apps and Agents, Microsoft, said in a blog post.
what enterprises get
Microsoft 365 has five capabilities: registry, access control, visualization, interoperability, and security.
The first step in introducing observability functions in Microsoft 365 is to log agents that may be present, which will serve as a single source of truth. The company calls this registry Entra.
“This single registry tracks agents for every relevant role within your organization – IT, developers, security, and business leaders. And with the Agent Store, users can easily find the right agents for their role and workflow directly within Microsoft 365 CoPilot and Teams,” Microsoft said.
Access control will require agents to have a unique agent ID, allowing enterprise administrators to limit access as needed. Organizations can set policies that agents must follow, and the tool can respond by blocking agents who misbehave.
Agent 365 also offers a visual dashboard, allowing companies to see how their agents are connected, performance measurements, and follow-up on tasks.
For enterprises already dealing with agent proliferation, Microsoft’s approach stands out because it typically bundles a patchwork of add-on tools into a single, governed control plane. Most observability options today are either hidden features or separate platforms that add more complexity. Agent 365 treats agents as part of the stack, giving IT and security teams unified oversight at a time when it is increasingly necessary.
companies like datadogDynatrace and Splunk provide observability services for AI systems. Startup chronosphere Capabilities similar to observability were released, focused on debugging issues, and drop Too demonstrated one’s own observational abilities Tools for display.
Google also started offering an overview dashboard on its AI Agent Builder.
“As agents grow in number and sophistication, companies are facing a new kind of challenge: how to manage and operate agents responsibly and at scale without rebuilding the trusted systems they rely on,” LaManna said. “The clearest path forward is to manage agents the same way you manage people, using the same infrastructure, apps and security that power your business today.”