Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft adds Autopilot and usage-based billing to Copilot
Microsoft said it split Copilot into Home, Code and Autopilot, made the new agent run in the cloud, and moved several features to usage-based billing.
- Microsoft said it had split the Copilot app into Home, Code and Autopilot and renamed the new agent Autopilot.
- The company said Autopilot was formerly Scout, was built on OpenClaw, and had its own cloud computer, workspace, storage and identity.
- Microsoft said Autopilot could be triggered in Teams, Outlook or documents and could monitor Teams channels, coordinate supplier evaluations or handle recurring tasks.
- Microsoft said Autopilot, Code and Cowork would move to usage-based billing, while the standard Copilot licence would cover chat and Office app integrations.
Microsoft said it had split Copilot into three sections: Home, Code and Autopilot. It said Autopilot was the former Scout agent and that it was built on OpenClaw.
The company said each Autopilot instance had its own cloud computer, workspace, storage and identity. It said the agent could monitor Teams channels, coordinate supplier evaluations and keep working when users were offline.
Microsoft said users could invoke Autopilot in Teams, Outlook or documents. Jared Spataro said it used Microsoft IQ to model how an organisation operated and included permissions, auditing and governance.
Microsoft said Code would let non-developers build apps, dashboards and automations in natural language, while Home would combine chat and collaboration and add a Today view for email, calendar, Teams messages and tasks. It said Autopilot, Code and Cowork would move to usage-based billing, and Nadella said Autopilot would eventually come to consumers.
Named in this story
People
- Jared Spataro
- described the agent’s permissions and governance features
- Nadella
- said Microsoft would eventually bring Autopilot to consumers
Companies
- Microsoft
- said it was changing Copilot and its billing model
- OpenAI
- was named as a source of one model Microsoft said it would use
- Anthropic
- was named as a source of one model Microsoft said it would use
Products and systems
- Copilot
- was split into Home, Code and Autopilot
- Autopilot
- was the new agent Microsoft introduced
- OpenClaw
- was the base technology Microsoft said Autopilot used
- Home
- was one of the new Copilot sections
- Code
- was one of the new Copilot sections
- Cowork
- was included in the move to usage-based billing
- Teams
- was a place Autopilot could monitor or be invoked
- Outlook
- was a place Autopilot could be invoked
- Microsoft IQ
- was the system Microsoft said helped Autopilot understand how an organisation worked
- ChatGPT Enterprise
- was used as the billing comparison for quota-based charging
- Astra
- was named as one of the frontier models for billing features
- Fable
- was named as one of the frontier models for billing features
How the source tells it
The register was promotional and company-led, with Microsoft’s own claims and future plans carrying most of the weight.
- vendor boosterism Microsoft’s capability claims were repeated without outside verification
- hype forward-looking market predictions and consumer-expansion talk framed the product update