Microsoft splits Copilot into agents and usage-based billing

What Microsoft is shipping

Autopilot is designed to run continuously for business users. Each instance receives:

A user can start it by mentioning @ in Teams, Outlook or a document. The agent can then monitor Teams channels, coordinate supplier evaluations and handle recurring tasks without the user staying logged in.

Microsoft says Autopilot will use Microsoft IQ to understand how an organization actually works. Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s head of AI marketing, also pointed to permissions, auditing and administration as part of the system. Those controls matter because an always-on agent is not just a chatbot with more initiative: it needs a place to work and a record of what it did.

Code targets people who cannot develop software. They will be able to create applications, dashboards and automations using natural language. The feature uses the same technology as GitHub Copilot and runs inside the protected Copilot Managed Runtime.

Home will combine chat with collaboration. Microsoft plans to add Today, a dashboard that brings together email, the calendar, Teams messages and tasks. Closed testing for Today begins in October. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are now built directly into Copilot.

Copilot becomes a meter

Microsoft is moving Autopilot, Code and Cowork from fixed pricing to payment based on actual usage. The model resembles ChatGPT Enterprise after a defined quota has been exhausted. A standard Copilot license will cover only chat and integrations with Office applications.

That change follows Microsoft’s earlier decision to reduce the subsidy for AI usage built into flat-rate plans. For Office integrations, an automatic router will select a model for each request based on accuracy, speed and cost.

Microsoft will probably favor its own models because they are optimized for efficiency, but the announcement acknowledges that they do not match the quality of leading models. IT administrators will be able to decide which model families are available to particular user groups.

Usage-priced features will also call leading models, including OpenAI’s Astra and Anthropic’s Fable. Microsoft is adding FinOps-for-AI tools to help companies monitor their AI spending.

The more important shift is commercial rather than technical. A fixed Copilot license made experimentation feel predictable; an always-running agent makes activity itself part of the bill. My guess is that this will push IT departments to treat agents less like software seats and more like cloud workloads, with budgets and controls attached to individual tasks.

The announcement is quiet about the numbers that would make that model understandable: the price of a typical Autopilot workflow, the limits on its cloud computer, and how much model choice changes the bill. Without those details, “pay for what you use” describes the mechanism but not the risk.

From enterprise to consumers

Satya Nadella plans to release Autopilot for ordinary users over time. He points to more than 100 million consumers subscribed to services in Microsoft’s ecosystem. In the enterprise market, Nadella sees the market for agents as much larger than the market for cloud services. For consumers, he argues, agents could replace existing intermediaries.

Home and Code will arrive in the coming weeks through Microsoft Frontier. Autopilot will enter closed testing at the end of September. Code will become available later this year to Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers.

Microsoft is therefore testing two propositions at once: that an agent can remain active after the user disappears, and that customers will accept a bill that follows the agent’s activity. The first proposition is visible in the product; the second will determine whether Copilot becomes routine infrastructure or an expensive feature that companies keep tightly restrained.