Microsoft is reshaping its Copilot AI assistant into a broader work platform, folding conversational assistance, app creation and persistent AI agents into a single experience.
The redesigned Copilot, announced September 25, introduces three central capabilities; Home, Code and Autopilot alongside deeper integration with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The goal, Microsoft says, is to make Copilot a unified environment for getting work done, rather than simply a place to ask an AI questions.
The rollout will happen gradually, starting with Microsoft’s Frontier early-access programme. Home and Code are expected to reach Frontier users in the coming weeks, with more specific timing for each detailed below; Autopilot follows a slower path into private preview toward the end of September.
Copilot gets a new home base
The redesigned Home experience is meant to become Copilot’s main entry point. Rather than separating conversational assistance from more complex delegated work, Microsoft is bringing Chat and Cowork into the same environment. Chat stays focused on questions, research and drafting, while Cowork lets users hand off larger tasks for Copilot to work through from start to finish.
Office functionality is also moving directly into Copilot. Users will be able to work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint from within the Copilot experience, with documents remaining live and synchronized with their corresponding Office applications.
A new Today view, meanwhile, will surface things users may have missed across email, calendars, Teams and tasks, along with draft actions they can review and send. That feature is scheduled for private preview in October.
Code turns Copilot into an app-building tool
Among the more significant additions is Code, which Microsoft is positioning as a way for people to build useful software without going through a conventional development workflow. Users describe an application, tracker, dashboard, automation or workflow in natural language, and Copilot generates it. The capability uses the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot and runs in a sandboxed environment, according to Microsoft.
The company is also previewing Copilot Managed Runtime, infrastructure for running AI-generated applications inside an organization’s Microsoft 365 environment intended, Microsoft says, to give organizations a more controlled way to host what Code produces.
Code enters Frontier at the end of September, with broader availability following in the coming weeks. A preview is also expected to reach Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers later in 2026.
Scout becomes Autopilot
Microsoft’s persistent AI agent has a new identity. The feature previously known as Scout, introduced at Build in June 2026, is now called Autopilot. Unlike a conventional chatbot that waits for a prompt, Autopilot is designed to keep working on tasks over time.
Microsoft describes it as a personal agent that can be assigned a name, role and goal one that can monitor conversations, follow up on threads, handle recurring work and resume projects later without a new prompt each time. It’s built to have its own identity, memory, computer and workspace within a user’s organization, and it can appear across Microsoft products including Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents. Microsoft has not said what permissions or oversight will govern its actions in practice.
Autopilot moves into private preview at the end of September. Microsoft has not announced a general-availability date.
Billing is changing for some features
The redesign also draws a clearer line between everyday Copilot assistance and its more demanding agentic capabilities. Standard features Chat, and Copilot inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams stay under the existing User Subscription License, with fixed per-user pricing.
More resource-intensive capabilities, including Cowork, Code and Autopilot, along with certain frontier models, will instead run on usage-based billing through Copilot Credits. That gives organizations administrative controls to manage spending and monitor credit balances and usage history.
Microsoft has not yet published pricing for individual agent tasks or specific credit scenarios, and it’s unclear whether list prices for Copilot Pro, Microsoft 365 Premium or Microsoft 365 business plans will change as a result.
Frontier first, general availability later
Most of the new features will debut through Frontier, Microsoft’s early-access programme for experimental Microsoft 365 AI capabilities. According to Microsoft’s support documentation, Frontier lets eligible users test new Copilot experiences before general release; access depends on subscription tier and, for business users, administrator settings.
That means the rollout won’t put all three capabilities in front of every Copilot user at once. Home and Code lead the early-access phase, while Autopilot stays in private preview — and Microsoft hasn’t set firm general-availability dates for any of them.
A broader definition of Copilot
The changes mark a shift in how Microsoft positions the product. Where Copilot was previously a conversational assistant layered on top of separate AI features scattered across Microsoft’s apps, the new design merges those experiences and adds software creation and persistent agents as core parts of the product itself.
Microsoft describes the direction as building a “new OS for work” its attempt to make Copilot the central layer through which people interact with the company’s productivity tools.
For now, though, the most ambitious pieces remain in preview. Exact usage-based pricing, broader availability timelines and consumer access to Autopilot are all details Microsoft has yet to spell out….See more