Microsoft Copilot Autopilot unveiled — an app rebuilt around 7% paid adoption
Microsoft unveiled a rebuilt Copilot app on September 25, 2026 that puts chat, agents, app-building and always-on agents in one place. It has three sections. Home combines chat with the Cowork agent. Code builds apps and tools from a plain description. Autopilot is an agent that carries out long tasks without a person watching, and is the new name for Scout, shown at Build in June. Word, Excel and PowerPoint now open inside Copilot, and heavy agent work moves to usage-based billing. Microsoft had 30 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats in July, about 7 percent of roughly 450 million commercial Microsoft 365 seats
The three lines
- What — Home (chat plus Cowork), Code (build apps by description) and Autopilot (unsupervised long-running agent, formerly Scout); Office apps inside Copilot
- Pricing — basic features stay on per-user licenses; Cowork, Code, Autopilot and frontier models move to usage-based billing with admin caps
- Why — 30 million paid seats in July, about 7% of Microsoft 365; a direct push against Anthropic's and OpenAI's workplace agents
Key questions
- What is Microsoft Copilot Autopilot
- **An always-on agent meant to keep working on long tasks without a person supervising.** | Item | Detail | |---|---| | Origin | the new name for **Scout**, shown at Build in June | | Job | long-running tasks with no human oversight | | Microsoft's pitch | "a digital teammate" (Jared Spataro) | | Availability | **private preview** from the end of September | | Billing | usage-based, by task scope and complexity | Chat Copilot answers when asked; Autopilot is pitched as something you hand a job to and it comes back finished. How long and how accurately it works on its own will only be clear once the preview begins.
- What changed in the new Copilot app
- **Scattered features were pulled into three sections.** | Section | Function | Timing | |---|---|---| | Home | chat plus the Cowork agent; resume recent work | coming weeks | | Code | describe an app, tracker or dashboard and it gets built (GitHub Copilot technology) | wider Frontier early access at end of September | | Autopilot | always-on agents | private preview at end of September | | Office | Word, Excel, PowerPoint inside Copilot | coming weeks for consumers and Frontier customers | Model choice is broad: OpenAI's GPT and Astra, Anthropic's Opus and Fable, Microsoft's own MAI and xAI models (GeekWire).
- How many people pay for Microsoft Copilot
- **30 million paid seats as of July 2026.** | Date | Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats | |---|---| | April 2026 | 20 million | | July 2026 | **30 million** | | All commercial Microsoft 365 | about 450 million | | Share | about **7%** | Ten million seats in three months is fast growth, but 93 of every 100 Microsoft 365 users still do not pay for Copilot. **Pulling everything into one app and putting Office inside it is designed to reach those 93.** Microsoft 365 cloud revenue was 100.3 billion dollars in fiscal 2026, up about 19% (GeekWire).
Microsoft has rebuilt Copilot again, and this time the center is not a chat box but a place to hand off work. The new Copilot app, unveiled on September 25, 2026, combines chat, agents, app-building and always-on agents. CEO Satya Nadella called it "a new OS for work."
1. What launched
| Section | What it does | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Home | chat and the Cowork agent on one screen; pick up unfinished work | coming weeks |
| Code | "build me a tracker like this" produces an app; runs on GitHub Copilot technology | wider early access at end of September |
| Autopilot | always-on agent for long tasks without supervision | private preview at end of September |
| Office inside | Word, Excel, PowerPoint open within Copilot | coming weeks |
| Subscriber preview | Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro | later this year |
Autopilot is not new: it is the renamed Scout, introduced at Build in June. Jared Spataro described it as "a digital teammate."
2. Why rebuild — the 7% problem
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot (April 2026) | 20 million seats |
| Paid Microsoft 365 Copilot (July 2026) | 30 million seats |
| All commercial Microsoft 365 | about 450 million seats |
| Conversion | about 7% |
| Microsoft 365 cloud revenue (FY2026) | 100.3 billion dollars, up about 19% |
Growth is fast, but 93 of every 100 Office users still do not pay for Copilot. Copilot began as Bing Chat in 2023 and has changed names and shapes several times. This redesign tries to give it one front door, pulling in the Office apps people already open every day.
3. Pricing and models — pay for what you use
| Layer | Covers | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Base | chat, Office integration | monthly per-user license |
| Usage | Cowork, Code, Autopilot, frontier models | metered, by scope and complexity |
Admins can cap spending through Agent 365 tools. Agents consume more compute the longer they run, and flat fees cannot absorb that, so heavy work moves to metering. It is the same problem Anthropic attacked from the other side the same week by locking in 11.6 billion dollars of CPU capacity from Akamai for running agents.
Users choose the model: OpenAI's GPT and Astra, Anthropic's Opus and Fable, Microsoft's MAI and xAI. Nadella said "My test of true independence going forward is for you to have a private eval that you can hill climb on and substitute a model." Microsoft is moving away from depending on OpenAI alone.
4. The competition
| Company | Workplace agents |
|---|---|
| Microsoft | Copilot Cowork, Autopilot |
| Anthropic | Claude Cowork, Claude Code |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT agent, Codex |
GeekWire framed the redesign as a head-on challenge to Anthropic and OpenAI. Microsoft's advantages are security, compliance and an installed Office base. OpenAI holds its developer conference, DevDay, on September 29.
5. What remains unconfirmed
- Unit prices for usage billing were not published.
- International launch timing and language support were not announced.
- How long and how accurately Autopilot works unsupervised awaits the preview.
- Seat counts are from reporting, not filings.
Sources
- GeekWire — Microsoft unveils all-in-one Copilot app, taking on Anthropic and OpenAI
- Gizmodo — Microsoft Thinks It's Finally Figured Out Copilot This Time
- PYMNTS — Microsoft Bundles Copilot Features to Challenge Anthropic and OpenAI in the Workplace
- Windows Report — Microsoft Officially Announces the New Copilot Super App