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Microsoft Adds ROI Tracking for AI Agents, Expands Copilot in Forms
Microsoft is rolling out new capabilities aimed at showing orgswhether artificial intelligence agents deliver measurable value while expanding how employees use Copilot to create and analyze surveys.
The company this week detailed ROI for agents in Microsoft Foundry, a private preview capability designed to connect an agent’s operating costs with business outcomes. Separately, Microsoft announced an upgraded Copilot experience in Microsoft Forms that brings the familiar Microsoft 365 Copilot chat interface directly into forms and quizzes.
Together, the announcements reflect Microsoft’s broader effort to move enterprise AI beyond isolated prompts and experimental deployments. The Foundry feature is aimed primarily at developers and IT leaders responsible for evaluating agents, while the Forms update brings more agent-like actions into an application used by business users.
Microsoft said ROI for agents "translates the cost of running an agent into the business value it creates." The feature tracks metrics such as task completion rates, time saved and cost efficiency, displaying operational costs and business results together in the Foundry portal or through an API.
Organizations can compare different agent versions, monitor daily trends and examine individual traces associated with poor results. Microsoft said the information can help stakeholders "justify investment and prioritize what to improve next."
The capability addresses a growing challenge for organizations moving AI agents into production. Although developers can track token usage, latency, errors and other technical measures, those signals do not necessarily show whether an agent saves employees time or completes enough work to warrant its cost.
ROI for agents builds on Microsoft Foundry’s tracing, evaluation and monitoring capabilities. The company introduced the feature at Build 2026 in June and said it is available in private preview. Microsoft has not announced when it will become broadly available.
On the productivity side, Microsoft is adding what it called "seamless integration with a Microsoft 365 Copilot chat experience" to Microsoft Forms.
Users will see a Copilot button in the lower-right corner when creating or opening a form or quiz. Opening the chat pane grounds Copilot in the current form, allowing it to review questions, recommend structural changes, edit settings and analyze submitted responses.
For example, users can ask Copilot to identify missing questions, reorganize sections or flag settings that conflict with a survey’s intended purpose. Copilot can also make bulk changes, such as replacing a placeholder throughout a form or marking multiple questions as required.
The updated experience adds support for basic branching logic, custom thank-you messages, closing dates and follow-up questions about survey results. Microsoft said the analysis features are intended to provide "clear insights and actionable takeaways," although users should continue reviewing branching configurations before distributing a form.
Existing capabilities, including Draft with Copilot, question rewriting and quiz answer explanations, will remain available.
The new Copilot experience in Forms is rolling out worldwide to customers with Microsoft 365 Copilot commercial licenses. Consumer Copilot subscribers will continue using the previous Forms experience for now, Microsoft said.