One of the UK’s leading Managed IT service providers believes the latest Microsoft product introduction marks the biggest shift yet toward the ‘agentic AI’ era.
Intercity, which has offices in Birmingham, Bedford, Bolton and Nuneaton, is urging companies to understand what the E7 Frontier Suite will bring to their organisation before they follow the media fanfare and invest in technology they may not be ready for yet.
The new solution ultimately brings together Microsoft’s 365 E5 productivity and security, Copilot, Entra Suite (advanced identity), Agent 365 and Defender, Intune and Purview for security and compliance.
In short, it combines multiple Microsoft tools into one package and is designed for organisations that want to operate in the “agentic AI” era rather than simply experiment with AI.
“The first question business leaders need to understand is, ‘what is agentic AI?” explained David Keeling, Managing Director of Managed IT Services at Intercity.
“Most people today are familiar with AI tools like Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude. You ask a question, and they give you an answer. That, in a nutshell, is assistive AI.”
He continued: “Agentic AI goes one step further. Instead of waiting for prompts, an AI agent can takeactions, move through multi‑step tasks and operate across your systems on your behalf. Microsoft has already said that agents are becoming ‘deeply embedded’ in organisations.
“E7 signals a major shift in the way Microsoft expects organisations to move from using AI as a helper towards using AI agents that can take actions, manage workflows and support operational processes.”
Many organisations have proven AI can add value. Far fewer have proven they can run it safely, repeatedly and across the entire business.
The most meaningful addition in E7 is Agent 365. It acts as the control plane for AI agents, extending identity, access and security controls to nonhuman workers.
It will give organisations visibility of every agent running across the environment, identity and access governance through Microsoft Entra and deliver integrated security and compliance signals through Defender and Purview.
This is where organisations are most exposed today. Without proper governance, AI becomes harder to control as adoption accelerates.
David went on to add:“E7 is designed for enterprises and frontier firms investing heavily in AI and organisations planning to use AI agents, not just prompts.
“It will also have a significant impact on firms that need centralised AI governance and companies seeking to consolidate a growing stack of Microsoft add-ons.
“However, timing is so important here. It may not be the right moment for many management teams, who will follow the trend and invest in it when they’re not going to get the most out of it. Some examples include if you are still early in your AI journey, if you’re introducing Copilot in stages and if your governance is still maturing and there are no plans to run autonomous agents in the near term.”
Intercity has significant experience in helping companies, public sector organisations and charities to evaluate their AI readiness, ensuring safety is at the heart of everything you do.
The firm’s experts will work with management teams to ensure they have the right licensing in place, which helps maximise investments and efficiencies.
David concluded: “E7 will dominate the news cycle, but the smartest move is not to react. It is to assess and seek specialist advice from IT providers who fully understand all the solutions.
“For me, what it definitely shows is the clearest direction of travel yet for Microsoft.”
For further information, please visit www.intercity.technology or follow the company across its social media channels.