Microsoft unveils Copilot super app, targeting business users with AI agents

Microsoft has turned Copilot into something closer to a business command center than a chatbot. The new “super app,” unveiled Friday, folds chat, task help, coding, and a new Autopilot agent feature into a single front door for the company’s AI push.

The move is a reset. After years of shipping multiple Copilot versions that confused customers, Microsoft is now trying to make one app do the heavy lifting. It plugs into Office too, so a user can ask for help inside Excel or change a Word layout without jumping between tools. The company says the free version stays available, but the full set of features will sit behind Microsoft subscriptions or workplace licenses, with extra charges for the most autonomous capabilities.

Autopilot is the part that makes this feel more ambitious than a standard productivity update. Users can name an agent, give it a role and a goal, then let it handle things like project updates, deadlines, reminders, prep material, and outreach to partners. Microsoft is also pitching the coding tool to non-software engineers who want to build apps, dashboards, and internal tools. Most of these features are still in early testing, and Microsoft has not said when they will be broadly available.

The timing makes sense for Microsoft. Satya Nadella is trying to protect a business that depends heavily on productivity software while OpenAI and Anthropic push harder into enterprise deals. Microsoft says the new Copilot leans on models from Anthropic and OpenAI, and also taps xAI’s Grok models. The company is betting that tying AI directly to the tools businesses already pay for will be enough to keep Copilot relevant as agentic AI becomes more common.

Security is clearly part of the sales pitch, not an afterthought. Microsoft says Autopilot agents need explicit permissions, full audit logs, and human-set limits on autonomy. The Code tool runs in isolated environments, either local or cloud-hosted, to protect customer data and systems. That’s the pitch, anyway: AI that can do more, but still stays on a leash.

Microsoft is also promising more. A planned feature called Today would pull together email, calendar, Teams, and tasks, then help organize work, draft messages, propose schedule changes, and set up follow-ups. The company wants this to become an all-in-one productivity suite. Naturally, that phrase usually appears right before the bill arrives.