Microsoft Overhauls Copilot with New Agent Capabilities, Calling it a "New OS for Work," Says CEO Nadella

The new Copilot app will consist of 3 tabs: "Home," "Code," and "Autopilot."

"Home" serves as the starting point, integrating Chat for questions and drafting with "Copilot Cowork," a task-delegation feature. Additionally, with "Office in Copilot," users can create editable Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly from Copilot and synchronize them with each respective application.

"Code" is a feature that enables users to build applications, dashboards, and automation workflows using only natural language instructions. Utilizing the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, it is accessible even to employees who are not developers. Built applications can be hosted and shared within a company's Microsoft 365 environment under the management of the IT department via the "Microsoft Copilot Managed Runtime" execution platform.

"Autopilot" is an agentic feature that adopts the open-source agent foundation "OpenClaw." Once a user provides a name and a goal, it autonomously performs tasks such as monitoring channels, checking project progress, and contacting relevant stakeholders.

New features will be rolled out in stages. "Home" and "Code" will begin deploying within the coming weeks through the "Frontier" early access program, while the private preview for "Autopilot" is expected to expand at the end of September. For individual users, a preview of "Code" is expected to be available to "Microsoft 365 Premium" and "Pro" subscribers within this year.

Pricing models will also be revised. While routine AI usage will be covered by the existing user-based subscription licenses (USL), a usage-based billing (UBB) model will apply to agentic functions such as "Cowork," "Code," and "Autopilot," as well as the use of frontier models like "Astra" and "Fable."

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Behind Microsoft's definition of Copilot as a "new OS for work" rather than just an assistant lies a shift toward a structure where AI integrally manages the flow from the start of a task to its execution.

First, "Home" consolidates everything from chat responses to task delegation and direct editing of Office files into a single screen. This allows users to carry out work while maintaining their task context on the Copilot platform, rather than switching between individual applications.

Furthermore, the "Code" feature allows non-developer employees to build custom company applications and automation workflows using natural language. Since these built workflows are hosted on the "Microsoft Copilot Managed Runtime" execution platform and shared within the organization, the role of AI shifts from performing individual tasks to serving as a platform where the organization's business workflows themselves are defined and expanded.

"Autopilot," which operates on this foundation, is built upon "Microsoft IQ," which understands an organization's actual business processes, allowing it to complete tasks autonomously without waiting for prompts. By handling everything from monitoring channels to resuming projects and contacting stakeholders, the mechanism is intended to operate like an OS that continuously processes processes in the background, rather than a "tool" that waits for human instructions.