On September 25, 2026, Microsoft announced a new Copilot. It goes well beyond answering questions in a chat, expanding into building apps and carrying out work autonomously. The new features are Home, Code and Autopilot.
Home: the starting point for your work
Home is the starting screen of the new Copilot. It brings chat and collaboration (Cowork) together in one place and builds the capabilities of Word, Excel and PowerPoint into Copilot itself (Office in Copilot).
From Home, you can catch up on recent activity in work that spans meetings, chats, documents and email, get suggestions, and pick up interrupted tasks without switching apps.
Code: build business apps in natural language
Code lets people who are not developers build small business tools, such as dashboards, automations and workflows, in natural language. It uses the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, and what you build can run securely in an isolated environment inside your organization's tenant.
Autopilot: an autonomous digital coworker
Autopilot is a "digital coworker" that carries out work autonomously once you give it a role and goals. It keeps handling recurring tasks, following up on conversations and running complex workflows even while you are away. Autopilot runs continuously inside your organization's tenant, with its own dedicated identity, memory, computer and workspace.
Rollout schedule and pricing
- Home and Code will begin rolling out in the coming weeks through Frontier, Microsoft's early-access program (Code has been rolling out to Frontier since the end of September)
- Autopilot will expand to a private preview at the end of September, with a preview for Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers also planned for later this year
- The plugin registry has begun rolling out, with general availability planned within a few weeks
On pricing, Microsoft is introducing Auto, which automatically selects the model to use, along with usage-based billing for the use of Cowork, Code and Autopilot. It is also adding FinOps for AI features that let administrators set spending rules and review task outcomes, and let users keep track of their credit consumption.
CoAI's take
This announcement turns Copilot from an assistant that answers questions into something you can hand work off to. At the same time, because the use of Cowork, Code and Autopilot will be billed by usage, companies rolling it out will need to settle on usage rules and how to manage budgets in advance.
