On September 25, 2026, Microsoft announced the new Copilot. Not another feature, but a reorganization of the entire Copilot app: Home, Code and Autopilot come together in one experience. At the same time the commercial model changes: the fixed license stays for everyday use, heavy agent work is billed per use.
In this article we lay out what changes, what Autopilot (formerly Scout) actually is, and what your organization should watch out for, especially on cost.
One Copilot, three parts
Microsoft wants you to pick the right tool for each task without switching apps. The new Copilot therefore consists of three parts:
| Part | What it does | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Chat (questions, lookups, drafts) and Cowork (delegate work and get a finished result back) in one place, with Word, Excel and PowerPoint built in | Frontier, coming weeks |
| Code | From an idea in plain language to an app, dashboard, automation or workflow | Frontier from end of September, broader after |
| Autopilot | A persistent, proactive cloud agent that keeps working when you're not | Private preview from end of September |
Home: Chat and Cowork together, with Office inside
Home becomes the new starting point. Chat is for quick questions and first drafts, Cowork for work you delegate and get back as a completed result. New is Office in Copilot: Word, Excel and PowerPoint are built right into the app. Copilot creates and updates real, editable files that stay live for your whole team.
If you already know Cowork, you'll recognize the principle. Also read our explainer on what Copilot Cowork is.
Code: build without being a developer
Code runs on the same technology as GitHub Copilot, but is meant for every knowledge worker. You describe what you need and Code turns it into an app, dashboard or automation. It runs in a sandboxed environment and can be hosted inside your own tenant through Copilot Managed Runtime, Microsoft's new hosting layer (now in preview). The same foundation supports apps built in Cowork and Copilot Studio.
Autopilot: the AI teammate that keeps working
Autopilot is the new name for Microsoft Scout, which we covered in detail in June. The concept has shifted, though. Scout was a desktop app, Autopilot is cloud-hosted: a digital teammate with its own identity, memory and workspace inside your tenant. You give it a name, a role and a goal, and it goes to work: watching channels, following up on threads, running recurring work. You reach it with an @mention in Teams, Outlook, chats and documents.
Autopilot works within the permissions and boundaries your organization sets, with audit and governance behind it. It is expanding to a private preview at the end of September.
The new cost model: fixed plus variable
This is where the biggest change sits for most organizations. Microsoft splits Copilot into two layers:
- User subscription license (fixed): the foundation for everyday use. Chat and Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. A new capability, Auto, picks the best-suited model for each request, weighing accuracy, speed and cost.
- Usage-based billing (variable): for Cowork, Code and Autopilot, long-running agent work and the latest frontier models. You pay per use with Copilot Credits.
In practice: the more your team uses the most powerful parts, the higher the bill. For Copilot Business, that variable layer is also on by default from November 2, 2026 for new licenses through CSP. What that means is covered in our article on Copilot Credits from November 2.
FinOps for AI: control over the bill
To keep those variable costs manageable, Microsoft introduces FinOps for AI. It lets you:
- Set budgets, limits and policies, also at scale through an API.
- Decide per group of users which model families are available. That also shapes which models Auto can pick.
- Let users see how many credits they have used and how many remain.
Cost management now extends beyond Cowork and the Work IQ APIs to Code and Copilot Managed Runtime. Support for Copilot Studio agents follows in October. How to set this up today is explained in our article on Copilot Cowork cost management and billing.
So the tooling is there. The real question remains: does the usage deliver more than it costs? We wrote about that earlier in Copilot Cowork: an extra colleague, not an extra cost.
Platform: Microsoft IQ and a plugin catalog
Under the hood, Microsoft is also extending the platform:
- Microsoft IQ grounds Copilot in context from your entire Microsoft 365 environment. Work IQ (preview) extends that to systems such as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
- Fabric IQ brings context from your data, including Power BI models, into Chat and Cowork. It is generally available now.
- A new plugin registry brings Microsoft, partner and your own plugins into one catalog, so governance and publishing are centralized.
Availability: through the Frontier program
The new Copilot is rolling out through the Frontier program, Microsoft's early access program. New capabilities arrive continuously. If you want to be early, Frontier participation is the route. If you'd rather wait until capabilities are generally available, now is the time to get your governance and cost management in order.
What does this mean for your organization?
Three things to start on now:
- Set up cost management before you open up Cowork, Code or Autopilot broadly. Configure a monthly limit, per-user limits and alerts.
- Decide who gets what. Not everyone needs Code or the most expensive models. Choose deliberately per group.
- Think about agent governance. An Autopilot with its own identity that acts on its own calls for clear permissions, Purview policies and oversight.
How Universal Cloud helps
We guide organizations along the whole route: from licensing advice and Frontier access to cost management, governance and adoption. That way you use the new Copilot where it adds value, and stay in control of what it costs.
Explore our Microsoft Copilot solutions or contact us for a no-obligation consultation.
