Microsoft Targets Enterprise AI With New Copilot Coding and Agent Tools

Microsoft is bringing new capabilities in its Copilot app, including a coding tool and an always-on AI agent. With the new Microsoft Copilot, the tech company is looking to entice more of its Office 365 users to pay for the advanced tools. The Copilot redesign is a shift in the company’s AI strategy as it targets enterprise AI, which is currently dominated by Anthropic. 

What New Features Has Microsoft Added to Copilot? 

Microsoft said its updated Copilot app comes with three new capabilities. The first tool is a revamped “Home” which combines Cowork and Chat. The second feature is “Office in Copilot,” which brings Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into the AI assistant’s experience. 

“Now you can get to real work fast: no broken formatting, no stray versions, no rebuilding the context in another app. You can ask Copilot to draft a launch brief, model a budget, build a deck, or pick up a file your team is already working on, and it creates or updates a real, editable document, workbook or presentation, live for your whole team,” Microsoft said in a blog post. 

The third feature is “Code”, which allows users to build apps, dashboards, and other software using natural language prompts. The new tool is supported by the same technology that powers GitHub Copilot. Microsoft will make “Code” available to early-access customers this month. Pro and 365 Premium subscribers will be able to preview it later this year.

Microsoft Revamped Scout, Launched it as Autopilot 

Microsoft has also introduced “Autopilot," which is a revamp of the “Scout” AI agent launched in June this year. With “Autopilot”, users can create custom agents to handle tasks and communicate through Teams and Outlook. 

Microsoft said the Copilot autonomous agent brings its own identity in the company directory and can be assigned specific permissions that users can manage and control.

"I think it's been very hard for many organizations to bring agents into ⁠the enterprise because of security, compliance, and governance concerns. So we've worked to make sure that we were building this in a way that would really ‌ be able to be used in the enterprise,” Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Copilot Product, Annie Pearl, said as cited by Reuters. 

Microsoft also introduced cost-management tools to help employees track AI-related costs as businesses seek to control rising expenses from rapid AI adoption.

Why Microsoft’s New Copilot App Matters

Microsoft controls a significant share of the software market with its Office app products. However, Copilot, which is its flagship AI product, has not taken off. Out of its 450 million Office 365 enterprise clients globally, less than 7% have signed up for the AI product. 

Enterprises increasingly prefer products that combine multiple capabilities, such as those offered by Anthropic and OpenAI. But until now, Microsoft has offered its 365 Copilot AI assistant for knowledge-based tasks separately from its coding tool, GitHub Copilot.