Microsoft brings Copilot together in a single super-app: Code and Autopilot are on their way

With Autopilot, the user assigns the agent a name, a role and an objective; the agent, hosted in the cloud, can then work in the background without having to wait for a new message. Microsoft presents it as the next step beyond an assistant that only responds when asked. The extent to which it can act independently, and the controls in place over its actions, will be crucial for business use.

Providing context for these features is Microsoft IQ, the system through which the company aims to connect AI to people, documents and ways of working within the organisation. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are integrated more directly into Copilot conversations, whilst keeping files synchronised with traditional applications. In Teams, the assistant will be able to utilise the context and permissions of the chat or channel in which it is called upon.

Apps created by employees run on Microsoft servers, within the company’s Microsoft 365 environment. Identity management, permissions, data access, version control and monitoring are all already included. Previously, an app written by AI was just the start of the work for IT; now, the path to production is built in.

This also applies to code created using third-party tools, provided they use the Microsoft SDK. For IT departments, they explained, it is all about having a single dashboard. All apps, regardless of where they were created (Cowork, Code, Copilot Studio, external tools), appear in a single inventory in the admin centre.

Microsoft’s approach is ‘open build, managed run’: everyone builds wherever they like, but everything runs under the same rules. It is a response to the risk that ‘vibe coding’ might flood companies with apps that are out of control.

This is the trickiest part, and it’s the one that needs to be understood most clearly. The billing also changes. Microsoft distinguishes between everyday use, which is covered by a monthly licence per user, and the activities of more advanced agents, which are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The new services (Cowork, Code, Autopilot, the runtime and, from October, Copilot Studio agents) are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis, using credits. With Agent 365’s FinOps features, IT departments will be able to manage access and expenditure. The aim is to make AI available to the whole organisation; the real test for buyers will be to work out how much the agents actually cost once they start running non-stop.

Microsoft has turned the challenge set out by CEO Satya Nadella – to find its place in the agent economy – into a concrete strategy.

The AI model is no longer the product; it is a component. The value lies in what surrounds it: where the AI-created apps run, who manages them, and who generates revenue from them.

Microsoft is playing to its strengths: identity (Sign In), business data (Graph and Microsoft 365), IT management and Azure billing. These are all things that an AI lab cannot replicate quickly.

For example, Anthropic presents itself as both a partner and a competitor. The option to choose the model family makes Microsoft’s strategy clear: the models may change, whilst the value lies in the platform that manages them. The implicit message to Anthropic and other research laboratories is: ‘You will be suppliers; the customer remains mine’.

Anthropic, for its part, sells directly to businesses. OpenAI is pushing ChatGPT towards agents and the workplace (workspace agents, Codex). Microsoft’s advantage lies not in the model, but in its existing governance framework.

With Google, on the other hand, the competitive challenge is more similar. Google starts with the cloud and Workspace, whilst Microsoft builds on its dominance in productivity solutions for large enterprises. Here, success depends more on winning the trust of CIOs than on the quality of the model.

Apart from the costs, which we are not yet in a position to assess, there is the issue of app control. The code is portable, but governance and execution remain within the Microsoft environment. At a more strategic level, however, the Redmond giant’s advantage holds only as long as the laboratories agree to act as suppliers. If the model regains the upper hand, the balance of power will shift.