Microsoft Agent ActiveX Control lets you add interactive personalities to your application or Web site.

Microsoft Agent is a set of software services that supports the presentation of software agents as interactive personalities within the Microsoft Windows interface. Developers can use characters as interactive assistants to introduce, guide, entertain, or otherwise enhance their Web pages or applications in addition to the conventional use of windows, menus, and controls.

Microsoft Agent enables software developers and Web authors to incorporate a new form of user interaction, known as conversational interfaces, that leverages natural aspects of human social communication. In addition to mouse and keyboard input, Microsoft Agent includes support for speech recognition so applications can respond to voice commands. Characters can respond using synthesized speech, re-corded audio, or text in a cartoon word balloon.