Microsoft is merging its consumer and workplace Copilot assistants into one corporate-focused product after a six-month engineering effort, leaving the personal-chatbot market to OpenAI, Google and Meta, Bloomberg reported on 25 September.
Key points
- The redesigned Copilot brings workplace tools, coding and autonomous agents into one app.
- Subscriptions or workplace licences unlock the full range of features; the most autonomous tools carry usage-based charges.
- Microsoft said in July that Microsoft 365 Copilot had surpassed 30 million paid seats, with quarterly net additions doubling.
- Most new features are entering early testing, with broader access to Autopilot dependent on testers’ assessments.
Andreou brings Copilot teams together
Microsoft gave business and technology leaders a preview of the redesigned assistant at an event in Seattle earlier in September. The new product takes design elements from the former home-use version. Its focus is the workplace, rather than the marketing effort that had positioned Microsoft as a provider of personal AI assistants.
Chief executive Satya Nadella combined the consumer and enterprise Copilot teams earlier in 2026 under Jacob Andreou, who now leads Copilot, Fortune reported. Microsoft had released several versions of the assistant, creating confusion among customers, and its consumer version had struggled to attract a mainstream audience. The redesign brings functions previously spread across its products into a central app.
The corporate focus puts Microsoft alongside OpenAI and Anthropic, which are also pursuing enterprise customers. OpenAI unveiled its own super app in July. Microsoft’s offering is tied to Office tools: users can ask it to work on an Excel spreadsheet or alter a Word document. Charles Lamanna is Microsoft’s executive vice president of Copilot, agents, and platform.
Microsoft 365 Copilot passes 30 million paid seats
Microsoft said in July that Microsoft 365 Copilot had exceeded 30 million paid seats and that the number of net seats added had doubled quarter over quarter, Fortune reported. Those seats are the existing subscription base for the workplace product as Microsoft directs the broader Copilot app towards corporate use.
The redesigned app has a free version, while users need a Microsoft subscription or workplace licence for its full set of tools. Paid seats cover functions including chat, Office integration and standard model routing. Microsoft also plans usage-based charges for Code, Autopilot and access to its newest, most capable AI models. Both individual users and enterprise customers face those additional charges when they use the applicable capabilities.
Autopilot enters restricted testing
Autopilot is designed to let users give an agent a name, a role and a goal, then assign it work such as compiling project updates, tracking deadlines and preparing materials. Annie Pearl, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Copilot, told Fortune that the app is intended to let users delegate multi-step work and build software as well as ask questions. Its coding feature is aimed at people who are not software engineers.
Most new features are rolling out through an early-test programme. Microsoft has not set a date for general availability. The coding tool shares its underlying technology with GitHub Copilot and is due to reach Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers through that programme later in 2026. Autopilot will have a more restricted test phase, with a wider rollout dependent on how users rate the tools.
Pearl said Copilot relies mainly on models from Anthropic and OpenAI, with access to xAI’s Grok models as well. Microsoft says Autopilot agents require explicit permissions and are subject to audit logs and tracking. The company says people control how much autonomy an agent receives, while software built with the Code tool runs tasks in isolated local or cloud-hosted environments.
