Microsoft Agent 365 adds local agents

Microsoft said on May 1 that Agent 365 is now generally available for commercial customers, positioning the product as a control plane for governing AI agents across Microsoft and third-party environments. The launch included new preview capabilities tied to discovery, observability and security, including support for agents running locally as well as in the cloud. Microsoft said the additions are aimed at organizations trying to manage agent use across apps, endpoints and SaaS tools with existing admin and security workflows. ### Where do local agents show up in Microsoft’s announcement? Microsoft’s May 1 security blog said Agent 365 can use Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Intune for “discovery of agents and shadow AI” across “both local and cloud agents.” The same post said agents are now appearing not only in Microsoft 365 and Teams, but also as “a local autonomous personal AI assistant” or a SaaS agent connected to sensitive enterprise data. (microsoft.com) That language matters because Microsoft’s public materials frame local agents as part of the same management problem as cloud-hosted agents. Agent 365’s product page says the service is meant to manage agents “regardless of how or where they work,” while the documentation says organizations can manage agents “regardless of where these agents are built or acquired.” (microsoft.com) ### What exactly is Agent 365 controlling? Microsoft’s documentation describes Agent 365 as a centralized system to observe, govern and secure agents across an organization. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, admins can view agents, apply policies, control publishing and deployment, and govern what data, users and tools an agent can access. The company’s overview page says the product ties together Microsoft 365 admin center, Entra, Purview and Defender. (microsoft.com) Microsoft says those services provide lifecycle management, access control, data protection, threat detection and audit readiness for agent deployments. ### Why is Microsoft emphasizing governance and visibility? Microsoft’s May 1 post said agents can “invoke tools, access data, and interact with other agents,” which can create risks including data oversharing, tool misuse and over-privileged actions. (learn.microsoft.com) The company said the problem is not that agents exist, but that they can proliferate quickly across endpoints, apps and cloud systems outside the visibility of teams responsible for risk. (learn.microsoft.com) The Microsoft 365 admin documentation makes the same case in operational terms. It says governance is meant to ensure agents onboard intentionally, operate within guardrails, and remain managed from build through retirement, including rules to flag ownerless or risky agents. ### How does the local-agent piece fit enterprise deployment? (microsoft.com) Microsoft did not publish a separate broad product launch focused only on on-device agents, but its May 1 materials explicitly place local agents inside the Agent 365 management model. The company said Defender and Intune can discover local agents, and it described Windows 365 for Agents as a “secured, managed environment for agents to work in.” (learn.microsoft.com) That means the local-agent story is less about a standalone consumer assistant and more about enterprise control. Microsoft’s public pages consistently present Agent 365 as a way to extend existing Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Security controls to agentic systems at scale. ### What is available now, and what comes later? Microsoft’s Learn documentation says Agent 365 became generally available on May 1, 2026, for the commercial segment on a per-user basis. (microsoft.com) The product page lists Agent 365 at $15 per user per month with annual commitment, and Microsoft 365 E7 at $99 per user per month with annual commitment. (microsoft.com) Microsoft’s May 1 announcement also said some capabilities remain in preview, including features to discover and manage shadow AI agents and broader coverage for independently operating agents. The next public details are on Microsoft’s Agent 365 product page, technical documentation and Microsoft 365 admin center guidance for IT administrators. (microsoft.com) (learn.microsoft.com)