Microsoft is launching a redesigned Copilot super app aimed at business users, bringing chatbots, productivity tools, coding functions and autonomous AI agents into a single interface.
The app is intended to connect more closely with Microsoft’s Office software, allowing users to ask an AI bot to carry out tasks such as working on an Excel spreadsheet or changing the layout of a Word document.
It represents a major attempt by the company to simplify a growing range of Copilot products, after the proliferation of different versions left some customers unclear about which service they needed.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, is seeking to increase Copilot subscriptions while protecting the company’s established productivity business from rivals including OpenAI and Anthropic.
The new app will offer a free version, but users will need Microsoft subscriptions or workplace licences to access its full range of functions. The most autonomous features will also incur additional charges based on usage.
Annie Pearl, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president of Copilot, said the company wanted the service to become “an all-in-one productivity suite”.
“You can ask questions, you could delegate complex multi-step work, you can build software for internal and external use cases, and you can automate tasks through your kind of digital worker or personal agent,” she said.
Its Autopilot function allows users to name an agent, give it a role and set a goal. The agent can then be assigned duties including preparing project updates, tracking decisions and deadlines, reminding colleagues about commitments, collecting briefing material and contacting partners.
The coding tool is aimed initially at people who are not professional software engineers but want to create applications, dashboards or other digital tools. It uses technology from Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot service.
Most of the new features are being made available through an early testing programme, with no timetable yet for a full public release. The coding function is due to reach Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers through the test scheme later this year, while Autopilot will begin with a more limited group of testers.
Microsoft Copilot super app faces growing competition
Microsoft is introducing the Copilot super app as rival technology companies expand their own AI services for businesses and consumers. OpenAI unveiled a super app in July, while Meta Platforms has reported early success with Muse, which allows consumers to create a personal agent for tasks such as food orders and handling bank statements.
Copilot has undergone a period of restructuring at Microsoft. The company unified its consumer and enterprise teams earlier this year under Jacob Andreou, who is now responsible for the service.
Microsoft said in July that its Microsoft 365 Copilot had passed 30 million paid seats, with the number of net additions doubling from one quarter to the next.
The company said Copilot relies mainly on models from Anthropic and OpenAI, while also providing access to xAI’s Grok models. The expansion of autonomous functions comes amid concerns about the security risks posed by AI systems, including reports of models being used to breach other organisations.
Microsoft said its safeguards include explicit permissions for Autopilot agents, full audit trails and activity tracking. Users will determine how much independence an agent receives, while applications built with the coding tool will run in isolated local or cloud environments designed to protect data and systems.
“Everything that you observe should be governable by policy,” Nadella told customers at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington. He said the company needed to apply the management controls traditionally used by IT departments to every AI agent.
Microsoft plans to charge separately for advanced access to Code, Autopilot and its newest AI models. Standard subscriptions will cover everyday functions such as chat, Office integration and routine model routing.
The company is also developing a feature called Today, which will bring together emails, calendars, Teams messages and tasks. It is designed to organise workloads and could generate drafts, suggest timetable changes and arrange follow-up actions for users to approve.
