The Copilot app is evolving into one consolidated experience in what Microsoft has coined the “next era of Copilot”.
The new version of the interface for Microsoft’s AI solution combines Home (Chat and Copilot Cowork powered by Office), Code (lets users build their own business solutions powered by the same tech as GitHub Copilot) and Autopilot (a proactive personal AI agent that works in the background in the cloud).
If that last one sounds familiar, it’s because Microsoft has continued its tradition of renaming products, with Autopilot being the new name for Microsoft Scout.
The move opens a broader conversation about security and governance, as well as how agents are developed and deployed.
What can we expect to see with this new Copilot?
Within the Home tab, you’ll be able to access Office in Copilot, which brings Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into the app. This means creating and updating real, editable files that stay live for the whole team. You can also @mention a teammate and their edits show up as they make them, with everything staying in sync between Copilot and the Office apps.
Code will be the first port of call for turning ideas using natural language into business apps, dashboards, automations, and workflows, with Copilot Managed Runtime providing the governed hosting infrastructure to run and share them inside Microsoft 365.
Microsoft’s answer to ‘vibe coding’ allows users to create anything from a persistent desktop widget for quick reference to cloud-hosted internal apps to be shared with a team. Code runs in a sandboxed environment and can be hosted securely within your tenant.
We covered news about Scout when it was first announced, but now Microsoft is branding this ‘Autopilot’, describing it as “a cloud-hosted digital teammate with its own identity, memory, and workspace that takes on work and keeps it moving within the permissions and boundaries of an organisation.”
Autopilot exists inside your own tenant, and because it’s built on Microsoft IQ, it understands how your business works. You can even @mention it like a colleague, with permissions, audit and governance behind it.
Tracking AI investment
As part of this announcement, Microsoft also explained how Copilot subscriptions set the foundation for value across Microsoft 365, with the ability to automatically select the best model for the job. For more advanced and emerging features (such as long-running agentic work in Cowork, Code, and Autopilot) usage-based billing comes into effect.
Gavin Nixon, Director of Strategy 365, said: “Our job as Microsoft Partners is to educate businesses on which users and situations require usage-based capabilities, helping them to predict usage before it can scale.”
FinOps for AI will offer another way to govern costs across Microsoft 365 experiences, including Code and Copilot Managed Runtime, with support for custom agents built in Copilot Studio coming in October.
Gavin added: “With this new feature, admins can set which AI models are available to different groups of users, and staff can see how much capacity is left before reaching a limit. Since more advanced models usually require more Copilot Credits to complete multi-step processes, this is a great way of being able to keep a closer eye on which ones are being used the most.”
This broader cost management will also cover Agent 365, Code, Copilot Managed Runtime and agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio.
INSIGHT
Cowork is used for a collection of tasks which you delegate to return a completed result, like a customer pitch deck, briefing document or launch kit. Soon the new Copilot will route the work to Chat, Cowork or Code – whichever capability is right for the job. You can find out more about Cowork in our blog series below:
What can Copilot Cowork do? Real use cases
Breaking down the buzzwords
Alongside the evolved Copilot, Microsoft has introduced Microsoft IQ and Microsoft Copilot Managed Runtime.
Microsoft IQ grounds Copilot in your business data across Microsoft 365, and Work IQ (in public preview) extends that to the systems that run the business, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. It helps to connect systems, knowledge, workflows, and business context to build Copilot and agent experiences tailored to your business.
Copilot Managed Runtime (in public preview) is Microsoft’s enterprise platform for hosting, securing, governing and managing AI-built applications inside a Microsoft 365 tenant, so builders can focus on creating apps while IT retains control.
It supports apps built in Cowork, Code, and Copilot Studio. The new plugin registry (generally available by the end of the month) brings Microsoft, partner, and custom-built plugins into one catalogue, simplifying governance, publishing, and discovery.
Those signed up to the Frontier program (early access to preview AI features) can try out the new Copilot now.
