Microsoft introduced a redesigned Copilot on September 25 with three main surfaces: Home, Code and Autopilot. Home brings Chat and Cowork together and embeds Word, Excel and PowerPoint so users can create or edit Office files without leaving Copilot.
Code turns prompts into tenant-hosted tools
Code is designed to build apps, trackers, dashboards, automations and workflows from natural-language instructions. Microsoft says it uses the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, runs in a sandboxed environment and can be hosted within a customer’s tenant. Code is scheduled to reach the Frontier program at the end of September, with broader availability in the following weeks and a Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro preview later in 2026.
Autopilot adds a persistent cloud worker
Autopilot, previously called Scout, is a cloud-hosted agent that Microsoft says can continue recurring work without an active prompt. It is designed to have its own organizational identity, memory, computer and workspace, with permissions, auditing and governance controlled inside the customer tenant. Microsoft plans to expand it to private preview at the end of September.
Microsoft also put Copilot Managed Runtime into preview as governed hosting for code built through Copilot. Reuters independently reported the product announcement and rollout timing, but no independent production benchmarks or security audit were published. The announcement therefore establishes the product plan and staged availability, not reliability, cost efficiency or safety under sustained enterprise use.