Microsoft plans to provide its AI agents with licenses for Office and other programs just like regular users do.

How Microsoft Approaches Licensing of AI Agents

Microsoft has stated that when implementing AI agents in a company, they will be considered separate workstations from the perspective of software licensing. This means each agent will require its own license for Office or other software.

What the Microsoft Leader Says
- Rajesh Jha (executive VP, Microsoft Experiences + Devices Group) noted that AI agents will have:

- their own accounts;

- email addresses;

- separate software licenses.

> “All these materialized agents present an opportunity to increase the number of licensed workstations,” Jha emphasized.

Why Investors Are Concerned
The widespread deployment of AI agents could reduce the traditional revenue stream from licensing, which has been built on employee count. If a company with 20 employees buys 20 Microsoft 365 licenses, and each employee receives five AI agents, then reducing the staff to 10 people would still require paying for 50 workstations.

Possible Alternatives
- A flexible open‑platform payment model could attract users who disagree with per‑head pricing.

- If AI agents are viewed as an “extension” of a person, charging them for a full workstation seems unfair.

- On the other hand, if an agent is considered an independent employee, that approach has legitimacy.

Conclusion
The question of how exactly to evaluate AI agents in the licensing system remains open. Universal criteria need to be developed to balance the interests of companies and software vendors.