Microsoft announced a new Copilot experience on September 25 built around Home, Code and Autopilot. The three names describe different ways to work: asking and delegating in Home, building small applications in Code, and assigning ongoing work to Autopilot. Access is staged. Microsoft says Home and Code will reach its Frontier early access program gradually, while Autopilot will expand to private preview at the end of September.

The big change

  • What changed: Microsoft is bringing chat, delegated tasks and application building into one Copilot experience. Home combines Chat and Cowork; Code adds a way to create tools from natural language. The announced rollout starts with Frontier users.
  • Why it matters: A worker could move from asking for an answer to commissioning a task or building a small internal tool in the same product. That is Microsoft's proposed workflow; the announcement does not measure how well people complete those tasks.
  • What to watch: Access and cost will determine how organizations use these features. Microsoft places Cowork, Code and Autopilot under usage based billing, and Autopilot is still headed for private preview rather than broad release.

Home combines chat and delegated work

Home is the proposed starting point for Copilot. It brings Chat, for conversational requests, together with Cowork, which Microsoft describes as a way to delegate a task and receive a completed result. Microsoft also says users will be able to create or edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in Copilot while keeping them synchronized with the Office apps. These are product descriptions from Microsoft, not results from an independent test.

Home is due to begin rolling out through the Frontier program over the coming weeks. The September 25 announcement gives no date when every eligible customer will have the redesigned Home experience. A separate feature called Today, intended to organize activity across mail, calendar and Teams, is scheduled for private preview in October; it should not be confused with the initial Home rollout.

Code is for small apps and automations

Code lets a user describe an app, tracker, dashboard, automation or workflow in natural language and have Copilot build it. Microsoft says it uses technology underlying GitHub Copilot, runs in a sandboxed environment and can host the result within an organization's tenant. Copilot Managed Runtime, the hosting foundation Microsoft describes for these apps, is already in preview, according to the company.

Microsoft's regional summary groups Home and Code into a gradual Frontier rollout over the coming weeks. Its more detailed announcement says Code will roll out to Frontier at the end of September, followed by broad availability in the coming weeks. It also says Code will enter preview for Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers later this year. None of those statements makes Code generally available on the announcement date.

Autopilot has a narrower access path

Microsoft describes Autopilot, previously called Scout, as a cloud hosted agent that can continue work between prompts. The company says it can follow conversations and recurring tasks, with its own identity, workspace and organizational permissions. Those are announced capabilities; the post does not supply independent performance results or a date for broad access.

Autopilot is set to expand to private preview at the end of September. Microsoft also says Cowork, Code and Autopilot run under usage based billing, while its subscription license covers everyday Copilot interactions. The announcement does not give a per task price for the new capabilities. Organizations considering the features will need to check each release's access and set controls for usage and spending.

Sources & further reading