Microsoft revamps Copilot with new tools, support for frontier models

Microsoft is revamping its Copilot AI feature, introducing new tools and support for advanced models. The revamped Copilot is now divided into three sections: Home, Code, and Autopilot. Home serves as a new starting point for organizing and connecting meetings, documents, emails, apps, and agents. Copilot will initially be available through Microsoft's Frontier Program for businesses and individual subscribers, offering early access to features.

The Home section will include Office applications such as Teams, calendars, and Outlook. Users can ask Copilot to create slides, spreadsheets, or documents.

Code is designed to address AI coding capabilities, similar to ChatGPT's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code. Microsoft describes coding as a basic skill, comparable to writing a memo or modeling a budget. Code is built on the same technology as GitHub Copilot and operates in a sandboxed environment that can be hosted on the user's system. Microsoft's new Copilot Managed Runtime allows enterprises to host code within their own Microsoft 365 environment, managed by Microsoft.

Autopilot, a rebranding of Scout, is a semi-autonomous agent that users can name and assign tasks. It will autonomously complete recurring work, such as building schedules, handling meetings, and contacting others in an organization. All Copilot features utilize Microsoft IQ, which sets a business context for agents by providing a framework for AI usage within an organization.

Throughout the month, Microsoft plans to launch a plugin registry to add functionality, managed by IT administrators. The subscription license will provide Copilot in chat across Office, while the Auto mode will consider accuracy, speed, and cost to select the most appropriate model for various tasks. Organizations can use usage-based billing to choose which models to use based on cost.

Microsoft's chief marketing officer for AI at Work, Jared Spataro, highlighted the revamped Copilot's focus on long-running agentic capabilities and frontier models like Astra and Fable, all running on the UBB platform.