Microsoft Revamps Copilot With Home, Code and Autopilot Capabilities

Microsoft has unveiled a version of Copilot that brings Home, Code and Autopilot into the app, turning it from a conversational AI assistant into a platform for building solutions and running longer tasks.

Microsoft said the new Copilot will connect the tools people use at work with capabilities for building, customising and scaling AI.

Home will serve as the new starting point for Copilot, bringing Chat and Cowork together. It will also include Office in Copilot, giving users access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint within the Copilot experience.

Microsoft said users can ask Copilot to create or update documents, spreadsheets, and presentations while keeping them editable and synced with Office applications.

Code will allow users to build apps, trackers, dashboards, automations and workflows using natural-language instructions. Microsoft said Code is powered by the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot and runs in a sandboxed environment.

“Describe an app, tracker, dashboard, automation or workflow in natural language, and Copilot chooses an approach and builds it,” Microsoft said.

Code will start rolling out to Microsoft's Frontier programme at the end of September, with broader availability planned in the following weeks.

Autopilot, previously called Scout, is built to operate as a persistent agent that can continue working without a prompt. Microsoft said users can give it a name, role and goal, after which it can monitor channels, follow up on conversations and run recurring tasks.

For example, Microsoft said Autopilot could manage a supplier review process, including creating a schedule, preparing meetings and following up with stakeholders.

“Autopilot is cloud-hosted, so it keeps working while you sleep or your attention is elsewhere,” Microsoft said.

Autopilot will expand to private preview at the end of September.

Microsoft is also introducing Copilot Managed Runtime, which provides infrastructure for running code inside an organisation's Microsoft 365 environment.

The company said the runtime lets applications connect to live data while IT remains in control. It will support apps built with Cowork, Code and Copilot Studio, as well as third-party and pro-code development.

Microsoft is also expanding Copilot’s access to business data through Microsoft IQ. Fabric IQ will bring data from Power BI's semantic models into Copilot, while integrations with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform will add business data and workflows.

The company is also rolling out a new plugin registry where Microsoft, partner and custom-built plugins can be managed from a single catalogue.

The company is introducing different billing models for conversational and agentic workloads.

Microsoft said user subscription licences will cover everyday Copilot use, including Chat and Copilot within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. An ‘Auto’ system will select models based on accuracy, speed and cost.

Long-running agentic features such as Cowork, Code and Autopilot, along with frontier models including Astra and Fable, will use usage-based billing.

Microsoft is also adding FinOps capabilities that let administrators manage AI spending, control model access and track usage across their organisations.

The company said users will be able to view credit usage, remaining balances and usage history within Copilot.

Microsoft also previewed Today, a new command centre that will bring together information from email, calendars, Teams conversations, meetings and tasks. It will enter private preview in October.

The company is also bringing shared context to @Copilot in Teams, allowing Copilot to use the context and permissions of a channel, group chat or meeting when answering questions and preparing follow-up work.