Microsoft rebuilding Copilot

Microsoft is rebuilding Copilot around software that can keep working in the background and carry out tasks, not just answer prompts. (theverge.com) The Verge reported that Microsoft is testing OpenClaw-like features inside Microsoft 365 Copilot for business customers, with the goal of making the assistant run more continuously on a user’s behalf. TechCrunch, citing The Information, reported the same push and said Microsoft confirmed the work is aimed at enterprise use with tighter security controls than the open-source OpenClaw model. (theverge.com) (techcrunch.com) At the same time, Microsoft has started stripping the Copilot name from some Windows 11 features. Yahoo Tech reported that Notepad now uses the label “writing tools,” while some Copilot buttons in Windows apps have been reduced or hidden even though the underlying artificial intelligence features remain. (tech.yahoo.com) An agent is software that does a job after you set a goal, like a junior staffer who keeps working after the meeting ends. Microsoft has already been moving Copilot in that direction: on March 25, 2025, it introduced Researcher and Analyst for Microsoft 365 Copilot, two reasoning agents that can pull from work files, meetings, chats and the web. (microsoft.com) Microsoft made those agents broadly available on June 2, 2025, and said licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users could run up to 25 combined queries per month. That gave the company a way to test whether customers wanted Copilot to do more than draft text and summarize meetings. (microsoft.com) The company is now running one of its biggest real-world trials with Publicis Groupe. Microsoft and Publicis said on April 8, 2026 that Publicis will roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than 114,000 employees globally as part of a wider partnership built around “agentic” marketing tools. (news.microsoft.com) VoIP Review described the Publicis deployment as a global test of whether Microsoft 365 Copilot can hold up at enterprise scale, and Marketing Dive reported that Publicis is also naming Azure its preferred cloud provider under the deal. The size of the rollout gives Microsoft a large customer base to measure whether these agents save time without creating new security or reliability problems. (voip.review) (marketingdive.com) The rebrand inside Windows and the expansion inside Microsoft 365 point in different directions on purpose. Microsoft appears to be toning down the Copilot label in consumer-facing apps while putting more autonomous features into the paid workplace product where administrators, budgets and compliance controls already exist. (tech.yahoo.com) (theverge.com) (techcrunch.com) What happens next is likely to come into clearer view at Microsoft Build, which Business Standard reported is scheduled to start on June 2. By then, Microsoft will need to show that a Copilot which acts more like an employee than a chatbot can be useful enough for companies to trust it with real work. (business-standard.com)