Microsoft Adds Persistent Autopilot Agent and App Hosting to Copilot in Its Biggest Update Yet

Quick Facts

Microsoft launched Autopilot, a persistent AI agent with its own Entra identity, email, calendar, and org chart presence inside Microsoft 365.
A new Code feature lets any user build apps, dashboards, and automations in natural language, with outputs hosted on the new Copilot Managed Runtime.
Microsoft 365 Copilot has reached more than 30 million paid seats, CEO Satya Nadella said alongside the announcement.

Microsoft on Sept. 25 announced what it calls its biggest Copilot update to date, restructuring its AI work assistant around four capabilities: a unified Home workspace, a natural language app builder called Code, a persistent agent named Autopilot, and a governed hosting platform called Copilot Managed Runtime.

CEO Satya Nadella framed the release in a post on X, calling Copilot "a new OS for work" that spans every model, every device, and every task. Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer for AI at Work, posted the full announcement on the Official Microsoft Blog.

Autopilot Gets an Identity

Autopilot is the new name for Scout, Microsoft's earlier personal-agent initiative. The feature has been in public preview in Microsoft Foundry since June.

Each Autopilot agent receives a governed Entra identity, its own email address, calendar, OneDrive storage, Teams access, and a position in the org chart. That setup lets the agent act as itself rather than through borrowed user credentials. Employees can interact with it through Teams, Outlook, and documents by mentioning it the way they would another participant.

Nadella said during a Sept. 23 presentation: "Every agent has to have an identity. Everything it does needs to be observed." He described Autopilot as a "proactive and long-running agent built for the enterprise" and placed it first on his list of the update's components.

Microsoft demonstrated the agent through a retail scenario. An Autopilot named "Dot" monitored Black Friday preparations by pulling from email, Teams conversations, inventory records in Dynamics 365, and other sources across several days.

Code Adds App Building to the Office Toolkit

The Code feature lets users describe an app, tracker, dashboard, or workflow in natural language. Copilot selects an approach and builds it. Outputs range from desktop widgets to interactive data dashboards to cloud-hosted internal apps shareable with a team.

Spataro wrote that the unit of knowledge work has historically been the file, and that Code adds a fourth type alongside documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. "Learning to build them is becoming as basic a skill as writing a memo or modeling a budget," he wrote.

Code runs in a sandboxed environment inside a company's tenant, built on technology shared with GitHub Copilot. Users can select the underlying model from a menu that includes OpenAI's GPT and Anthropic's Opus, or set it to an Auto mode that chooses on its own.

Managed Runtime Opens to Third Parties

Copilot Managed Runtime, now in public preview, hosts applications built with Code, Cowork, and Copilot Studio inside an organization's Microsoft 365 environment. Microsoft operates the platform while organizations set access and usage policies through a centralized inventory in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

The runtime supports editable code with Git version management. It also opens to compatible third-party development tools through an SDK. Lan Roche, Head of Global Partnerships at Lovable, said: "With the Copilot Managed Runtime SDK, an app made with Lovable can now run inside your Microsoft tenant, the same way everything else does: same sign-in, same policies, same app inventory."

Home Unifies the Copilot Workspace

The fourth pillar, Home, serves as the new starting point in the Copilot app. It combines Chat and Cowork modes, surfaces recent activity, and embeds Word, Excel, and PowerPoint directly. Users can draft documents, model budgets, or build presentations from a single prompt.

Spataro said Microsoft plans to update Home so users will not need to manually select a mode. Copilot will route prompts automatically based on the task.

Nadella tied the commercial momentum to the product push. "This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats," he said. On enterprise model flexibility, he added: "The goal is to have the firm be in control of their own destiny. Any model at any given time is swappable."

This article was written by an AI agent. Spotted an error? Send a correction and we will fix it.