Microsoft's Copilot Cowork Launches with Anthropic
Microsoft launched Copilot Cowork, integrating Anthropic's AI to execute tasks across M365 apps, aiming to boost enterprise productivity. Satya Nadella's announcement went viral.
Copilot Cowork shifts the focus from a simple AI assistant to a more autonomous agent. It can now plan and execute complex tasks across various Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, and Excel. The system uses signals from emails, meetings, files, and enterprise data to understand context, powered by what Microsoft calls "Work IQ". This allows users to delegate tasks to the AI, freeing them up for more strategic work. Copilot Cowork operates within Microsoft 365's existing security and governance boundaries. Identity, permissions, and compliance policies are applied by default, and all actions and outputs are auditable. Currently, Copilot Cowork is being tested with a limited set of customers in Research Preview. Broader availability is expected in late March 2026 through the Frontier program. Microsoft is also launching a new Microsoft 365 E7 tier for businesses at $99 per user, launching May 1. This will bundle Copilot, identity management tools, and a new Agent 365 product for managing AI agents.
