Copilot Cowork
Microsoft 365's long-running agent: one request, and it works through Outlook, Teams, Excel and your company's files.
By Microsoft · launched 2026-03-09 · last checked 2026-11-01
Why 4: it takes a goal, plans the steps and carries them out across Microsoft 365 in the cloud, continuing when your laptop is off, but runs per task rather than continuously.
What it does. Announced on 9 March 2026 and built "in close collaboration with Anthropic" on the same harness as Claude Cowork, it takes a goal such as preparing a meeting pack, plans the steps and carries them out across Microsoft 365, running in the cloud so tasks continue when your laptop is off. It became generally available on 16 June 2026, running on Anthropic models, and absorbed the computer-use feature from Microsoft's Researcher agent, which was retired on 1 July.
Where it falls short. Each task's price depends on model use, tool calls and run time, so costs are hard to predict; Microsoft's claim that it is 30–40% cheaper than Claude Cowork comes from its own testing. Web browsing was limited to the Frontier programme at launch.
What it can do
Incidents
- None logged.
Closest fiction
Severance — The work happens on a floor you never visit; you see only the output.
Related work & office agents
- Reclaim Reclaim.ai · autonomy 4/5
History
- 2026-11-01 Added to the index.
Sources
- Microsoft unveils Copilot Cowork agents built on Anthropic's AI and E7 AI product suite as it seeks to calm investor concerns about AI eating SaaS Fortune, 2026-03-09
- Copilot Cowork is now generally available Microsoft, 2026-06-16
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: Computer Use moves from Researcher in Frontier to Copilot Cowork (MC1420902) itelio (Microsoft Message Center archive), 2026-07-08
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