Microsoft repackages Copilot into one app with Home, Code and Autopilot tabs, and puts coding tools in front of knowledge workers

The office worker who has never opened a code editor is about to get one bundled into the same window where they write documents. Microsoft today launched a redesigned Copilot app with three tabs, Home for chat and delegated work, Code for building small internal apps, and Autopilot for a persistent agent that keeps running when the user closes the laptop. Code and Autopilot both start in Microsoft's Frontier program in the coming weeks, and Autopilot enters private preview at the end of the month.

Microsoft announced the redesign on 25 September 2026 in a post by Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer for AI at Work. The Verge's Tom Warren also covered the launch the same day, and notes that Scout, the assistant unveiled at Build earlier this year, is being rebranded as Autopilot.

What sits in each tab

Home combines Chat and Cowork in one view, with a Today feature entering private preview in October that summarises missed emails, meeting requests and Teams threads. Chat handles quick asks. Cowork takes a larger task and runs it end to end, then hands back a result such as a customer briefing or a launch kit. Microsoft says a router coming later will pick Chat, Cowork or Code without the user choosing a mode.

Code is the surprise addition to an app built for knowledge workers. Microsoft says it is powered by the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, runs in a sandboxed environment, and can be hosted inside the company's Microsoft 365 tenant. The stated pitch is that anyone can describe an app, tracker, dashboard or workflow in natural language, and Copilot builds it and shares the result with the team as a cloud-hosted internal app.

Autopilot is the cloud successor to Scout, and Microsoft describes it as a persistent, proactive agent that keeps working when the user is not watching. It lives in the tenant with its own identity, memory and workspace, shows up in Teams and Outlook, and can be @mentioned like a colleague. Microsoft's example is Autopilot running a full supplier review, from the schedule to prep, meetings and follow-ups.

The billing split

Microsoft is also splitting Copilot billing in two. Everyday quick questions and drafting stay on a user subscription license, with a router called Auto choosing the model for each request. The new long-running agentic work, Cowork, Code, Autopilot and frontier models Microsoft names as Astra and Fable, run on usage-based billing so the customer picks models and matches cost to value. A new FinOps for AI set of tools in Agent 365, Insights and Copilot lets admins cap spend by group, route credit requests through approval workflows, and lets end users see remaining credit balances in the app.

The wider consequence is a change in who inside a company can spin up an internal app or set an agent loose overnight. The developer team's tools are now one click away from the Office user, at usage-based prices the finance team will meter. The plan Copilot Studio work runs on the same Copilot Managed Runtime, and Microsoft says the runtime opens to third-party and pro-code developers alongside the launch.

Source

• Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, Microsoft, 25 September 2026, by Jared Spataro.
• Microsoft thinks its new Copilot 'super app' will be as influential as Office, The Verge, 25 September 2026, by Tom Warren.