Microsoft introduces new AI model for making quick automated decisions
What's the story
Microsoft has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) system, Microsoft-Decision-1, to make quick automated decisions. The move is part of the tech giant's strategy to offer cost-effective and specialized AI tools for enterprise workflows. The new model is specifically designed to handle tasks like sorting incoming queries, routing system requests, verifying data, and managing autonomous agents.
Unique approach
Decision models vs traditional LLMs
Unlike traditional large language models (LLMs) that focus on conversational text, decision models such as Microsoft-Decision-1 are designed to evaluate defined options and produce direct, structured metrics.
These can be consumed by software programs without any human intervention.
Achint Srivastava, VP of Software Engineering at Microsoft's Office of the CTO, said decision-scoring systems are a new category aimed at overcoming latency bottlenecks in software automation.
Performance metrics
The new model is built on a 9-billion-parameter base
Microsoft-Decision-1 is built on a 9-billion-parameter base model (Qwen3.5-9B) and has been post-trained by Microsoft engineers.
In benchmark tests across nearly 150,000 blind evaluations, it showed the highest accuracy among all models evaluated while running at roughly 35 times the speed of flagship text models like ChatGPT's GPT-6 Sol.
The model also showed stability against prompt manipulation with internal evaluations showing only a 1.3% change in decision output when requests were paraphrased or option orders were re-sorted.
Practical use
Microsoft-Decision-1 is already in use across several internal teams
Several internal teams at Microsoft have already started using the model to streamline operations.
For example, Xbox Research used the tool to categorize over 10,000 player reviews into structured categories, achieving a 14x speed increase over previous setups.
The Microsoft Copilot team also used it for quality assurance checks on interactive agent responses, working up to 100 times faster than previous configurations.
Developers can access Microsoft-Decision-1 through Microsoft Foundry, with plans to expand its reach via OpenRouter.