Microsoft launched Agent 365 on May 1. If your team cannot explain what Agent 365 does and why clients need it, you are already behind.
Agent 365 is not a tool for building AI agents. Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry do that. Agent 365 is the governance layer for managing them. The distinction matters. One creates capability. The other enforces control. Control is exactly what MSPs get paid to deliver.
The Problem Already Exists in Your Clients' Environments
Right now, employees at your client sites build and deploy AI agents without telling IT. Those agents run with the full permissions of whoever built them, without approval, without audit trails, and without your knowledge. A junior employee with admin credentials builds an agent to automate purchasing approvals. Nobody reviews it. Nobody governs it. It runs.
Local agents installed on company devices outside IT and security visibility can read files, execute code, and act on a user's behalf, enabling access to sensitive data or risky operations without touching managed systems. That is the exposure. It is not coming. It is already there.
What Agent 365 Actually Does
Agent 365 assigns each AI agent its own Entra identity, applies Purview labels, governs runtime behavior through Defender, and extends Intune device management to local agents on Windows. Every agent in a client's environment becomes a managed, auditable entity with a unique identity, access controls, and a compliance trail.
If a managed agent exhibits malicious behavior patterns, such as attempting to access or exfiltrate sensitive data, Microsoft Defender can block the agent at runtime and generate alerts with rich incident context for investigation.
The platform extends cross-cloud agent discovery to AWS Bedrock and Google Cloud, which means governance coverage goes well beyond the Microsoft stack. Microsoft plans to expand local agent discovery to 18 agent types by June, including GitHub Copilot CLI and Claude Code.
Tony Ferrigno
The Managed Intelligence Opportunity
Every MSP reading this already manages devices through Intune, identities through Entra, and security posture through Defender. Customers no longer just need someone to talk about agents or automation. They need someone to help them deploy it, secure it, govern it, and prove it is working.
That is Managed Intelligence. It is the practice of applying the same operational rigor to AI agents that you apply to every other technology asset in a client's environment. Agent 365 gives you the tooling to deliver it. The MSPs who build this practice now will own it. The ones who wait will be catching up to firms that moved six months earlier.
The service model is straightforward. Audit clients' agent exposure, register and classify every agent in the Agent 365 registry, apply lifecycle governance policies, connect Defender for runtime protection, and add agent governance as a billable line item in your service agreements.
Agent 365 Numbers
Agent 365 is available standalone at $15 per user per month. Microsoft 365 E7, which bundles Copilot, E5 security, and Agent 365, runs $99 per user per month. Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) launch promotions run through Dec. 31, with a 10% discount at 10 seats and 15% off at 100 seats on annual terms. Every Business Premium and Business Standard client you manage today is a candidate for this conversation.
One 50-seat client at $15 per user adds $750 per month in recurring revenue before you add in your service margin. Do that math across your base.
What to Do This Week
Get your team trained on Agent 365 through Microsoft Learn. Run a discovery scan on your top five accounts to see what agents are already running. Then build a one-page Agent Governance offering you can put in front of clients before someone else does.
The window to lead this category is open. It will not stay open forever.
Tony Ferrigno is the Founder and Managing Partner of AiT Advisory Group, an AI strategy and go-to-market consulting firm built to help MSPs understand, position, and profit from AI. He is also the author of the AI for MSPs book series, created for MSP leaders who want practical guidance, real-world strategies, and a clearer path to building AI-driven growth.