Tag Archives: Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft Scout

Microsoft announce Microsoft Scout, the first in a brand-new category of always-on autonomous Agents known as Autopilots.

Rather than solely relying on user prompts, this installable desktop AI application leverages Work IQ to learn your work habits and preferences over time. It works independently in the background, interacting with your Microsoft 365 data to do things like proactively flagging important meetings, or keeping an eye on your inbox and Teams for any outstanding decisions that are waiting on you.

Whilst an always-on Agent might sound like a privacy risk, Microsoft emphasise the security and compliance controls available. Scout has its own Entra identity, ensuring that any actions it takes remain within your organisational permissions. It can only view sensitive files or perform actions that you’ve explicitly approved, and its activities are fully auditable.

Licensing wise, you’ll need to be licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Intune, as well as GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise for additional token-based billing based on usage. Installation also requires specific system prerequisites and enrollment in the Frontier Preview Program, which is Microsoft’s early-access platform for experimental software.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/43Biayu and check out the Learn documentation for installation details: https://bit.ly/4xw3zBQ.

Work IQ API is generally available

Microsoft have announced the general availability of Work IQ API from 16 June 2026.

Work IQ has been around for a while, providing the intelligence system that connects Microsoft 365 Copilot to an organisation’s internal Microsoft 365 data such as emails, chats, and documents that are exposed via Microsoft Graph. The news is the access to the Work IQ API external interface that lets developers build custom AI Agents outside the standard Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem, while providing those Agents access to the same insights you’d get with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Consumption-based charges apply based on app and Agent Work IQ API calls, and on grounding in Microsoft 365 data. A static charge per call applies, paired with a variable cost based on the complexity of the request. Microsoft have introduced a new Cost Management Dashboard in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center to help IT admins review and manage charges and spend. Work IQ API usage is paid for using Copilot Credits, and no separate licence or SKU is required. The usual purchasing options apply: Pay-As-You-Go, Copilot Credits Capacity Packs, Copilot Credit Pre-Purchase Plan, or an Agent Pre-Purchase Plan.

Find the customer announcement here: https://bit.ly/44h1WL1, the partner announcement (with some useful resources) here: https://bit.ly/4vaBZsh, an article with pricing scenarios here: https://bit.ly/3QgQETR, and extra details in a partner-only FAQ here: https://bit.ly/4ebpnv7.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business in the Product Terms

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is added (at last!) to the June 2026 Product Terms.

This rather belated addition follows the 1 March, 2026 launch of the SMB flavour of Microsoft 365 Copilot, which, as you’d expect for a Business license, has a cap of 300 users. This June update gives us information about the availability (just CSP) and the licensing prerequisites – you can buy Microsoft 365 Copilot Business for users already licensed with Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, or Teams Essentials.

You can check out the Product Terms update here: https://bit.ly/4amhBMq.

Microsoft 365 E7

After much speculation, Microsoft 365 E7, also known as The Frontier Worker Suite, is official, with a GA date of 1 May 2026. It builds on Microsoft 365 E5 by adding Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, and the Entra Suite. With a standard monthly price of $99, three promotions are planned in May to coincide with the launch, offering discounts of between 10% and 20%. In line with the other Microsoft 365 licences, E7 will be available both with and without Teams.

Complementing the announcement, we’re provided with a raft of resources. The Microsoft 365 E7 Launch Kit is particularly useful, containing a Partner FAQ that’s well worth a read.

You can download this here: https://bit.ly/3MZo6g2 and find the launch announcements here: https://bit.ly/4s8ln39 and here: https://bit.ly/40Z1aAE.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available in GCC-High

Microsoft announce that Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available in GCC-High. This follows availability for GCC in December 2024 and for DoD in August 2025. Federal agencies in GCC-High who purchase via the OneGov agreement with Microsoft announced in September 2025 can take advantage of significant discounts, including the opportunity for Microsoft 365 G5 users to use Microsoft 365 Copilot at no additional cost for up to 12 months.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4apTUno.

Copilot License Details Diagnostic

If you’re rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot you might find the Copilot License Details Diagnostic useful. Released in August 2025 it validates whether users are properly licensed to access Microsoft 365 Copilot by performing a series of checks.

Find out more in this article: https://bit.ly/3JVPHwA.

New Microsoft 365 Copilot offerings for education

It’s been two years since the release of Microsoft 365 Copilot, and now Microsoft reveal for the first time that there will be a discounted variant for education. Just like the corporate offering, it will include natural language chat, integration with the Microsoft 365 Apps, reasoning across work data, and access to custom and pre-built Agents grounded in your chosen data and files. It will be released in December, 2025 at $18 per user per month, compared to the corporate pricing of $30 per user per month.

The announcement also reveals two other offerings: “Teach” and “Study and Learn”. Teach is (perhaps unsurprisingly) aimed at teachers, giving them an Agent to create lesson plans and help draft teaching resources. Study and Learn is targeted at students, allowing them to tailor and customise learning exercises and activities. These Agents will both be incorporated into the current education offering in the coming weeks at no extra cost.

Find out more here: http://bit.ly/42NPHFy.

Copilot in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Microsoft announce that Copilot is now available in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center for administrators to ask natural language questions as they tackle unfamiliar tasks. As long as an organisation has purchased 1 licence of Microsoft 365 Copilot, anyone with access to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center can use Copilot in this way.

Find the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/4ie2d73.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (February 2025) Power Platform Licensing Guide with useful new tables on page 19. These give extra information on how messages are billed in Coplot Studio and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, in particular the new Tenant Graph grounding for messages.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/42IxZUQ.

GA of Microsoft Places

Microsoft announce that Microsoft Places is now generally available. This new technology is based on Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot and is designed to help users have a better experience when they’re working from their office – by making it easy to coordinate in-person gatherings or to sync up spontaneously with colleagues also working from the office on a particular day. From a licensing perspective there are three tiers of features: core, enhanced, and additional. If you’ve got Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, Office 365 F3/E1/E3/E5 or Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5 licence then you have access to the core features, although you’ll also need a Teams licence if it’s not included in your plan. The enhanced features are available through a Teams Premium Add-on licence, and the additional features need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence too.

You can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4eIoUgX with lots of visionary information as to what Places might do for you, and the more pragmatic Learn documentation here: https://bit.ly/4i3m8ph.