Microsoft turns Copilot into a workplace AI hub

Microsoft has redesigned Copilot as one app for chat, coding, and AI agents, bringing its consumer and workplace versions closer together and aiming the product more squarely at companies. The new Home area combines quick conversational help with Copilot Cowork, which can be assigned longer tasks and return a finished draft, analysis, or other work product. A Code section lets non-programmers build simple tools and automations, while the always-running agent previously called Scout is being renamed Autopilot and is meant to keep work moving in the background. The shift reflects Microsoft’s bet that its advantage in AI will come less from winning the personal chatbot race and more from embedding AI in the documents, data, permissions, and workflows businesses already use; the features are initially rolling out through previews.