AI is becoming a bigger part of daily work at companies, and Microsoft is now looking at AI agents in a way that is similar to human employees. Speaking on an episode of the Possible Podcast, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the tech giant is figuring out how to manage and govern AI agents. As many AI agents are being used across the company, Microsoft wants to make sure they operate within limits. “You need to give them identities, you need to give them sandboxes, then you need to set policies to govern them,” Nadella said.
As businesses deploy more AI agents, managing them becomes increasingly challenging. Nadella shared his own experience of working with AI agents at Microsoft. He revealed that he often runs around 100 AI coding agents simultaneously. However, managing so many agents through chat-based interactions can be difficult. “The cognitive load on me managing this is so high,” he said, according to Business Insider.
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Microsoft has created a set of tools called Agent 365. According to Nadella, the platform includes Entra, which manages digital identities and network access products, and Purview, which the company uses to label data AI agents.
“I think security, containment, managability, and observability is the way we’re going to have confidence around these agents,” Nadella said.
The comments come just a few days after Microsoft’s Build conference 2026, where the company made several AI-related announcements, including new in-house AI models. At the event, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman also spoke about the company’s long-term approach to AI. Suleyman said Microsoft is working towards what it calls “humanist superintelligence” and wants to develop AI systems that support people instead of replacing them.
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“The type of AI we build really matters. We need an AI that places humanity first, that always prioritises human well-being and human progress,” Suleyman said. “This is the core philosophy and motivation behind our superintelligence efforts at Microsoft. It shapes everything that we do.”
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