The New Microsoft Copilot: Home, Code and Autopilot Explained

The new Copilot app puts Home, Code and Autopilot side by side. Image: Microsoft.

Microsoft announced a rebuilt version of Microsoft Copilot on September 25, 2026. The app now opens on three tabs. Home is where you ask questions and hand off work, Code builds small tools for you, and Autopilot is an agent that runs tasks in the background.

This is the work version of Copilot, the one tied to Microsoft 365 accounts. Almost everything arrives first through Microsoft’s early access program, called Frontier, and reaches everyone else later. Below is what each part does, when it lands, and what the new pricing means. If you want the basics of the Copilot app first, see our Microsoft Copilot for Windows guide.

Watch the New Copilot in Action

Microsoft’s launch video walks through Home, Code and Autopilot, showing a document built inside Copilot, a dashboard created from one sentence, and an agent following up on a project.

Home: Chat and Cowork in One Place

Home is the new starting screen. It shows your recent activity, suggests what Copilot can help with, and lets you pick up work where you left off. From one prompt box you choose how Copilot should handle the request.

Home, with the switch between Chat and Cowork under the prompt box. Image: Microsoft.

Microsoft says a later update will remove the choice altogether. You will state what you need and Copilot will send it to Chat, Cowork or Code on its own.

Office in Copilot: Word, Excel and PowerPoint Built In

The second big change inside Home is Office in Copilot. When you ask for a launch brief, a budget or a slide deck, Copilot now creates a real Word document, Excel workbook or PowerPoint file instead of a block of text you have to copy somewhere else.

The file stays live for your whole team. You can edit it next to the conversation, or @mention a coworker, and their changes show up as they type. Everything stays in sync with the regular Office apps, so you can open the same file in Word or Excel later without losing formatting.

Microsoft also listed updates inside the Office apps themselves. PowerPoint keeps decks on-brand automatically and applies custom templates. Excel shows exactly what changed when Copilot or a coworker edits a sheet, and suggests the best chart for your data. For more on what Copilot already does in these apps, read what Copilot can do in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Code: Build Your Own Tools Without Being a Developer

Code is the most unusual part of the announcement. You describe an app, tracker, dashboard or automation in plain words, and Copilot picks an approach and builds it for you. That can be a small widget that stays on your desktop, an interactive dashboard for exploring data, or an internal web app your team can share.

Code, asked to build a sales pipeline dashboard by region and stage. Image: Microsoft.

Code runs in a sandbox (a sealed-off space where the code cannot touch the rest of your system) and can be hosted inside your company’s own Microsoft 365 setup. Microsoft calls that hosting layer Copilot Managed Runtime. IT stays in control of it, while everyone else can share an app with teammates and connect it to live data.

Autopilot: An Agent That Keeps Working

Autopilot is a digital teammate. You give it a name, a role and a goal, and it goes to work: watching channels, following up on threads, running recurring tasks and picking a project back up days later without being asked.

Autopilot’s overview, with an agent named Dot running a supplier review and follow-ups. Image: Microsoft.

Microsoft’s example is a full supplier review. Autopilot builds the schedule and the plan, handles prep and meetings, and reaches out to people for updates. It shows up where people already work, in Teams, Outlook, chats and documents, so you can @mention it like a coworker. It works under the same permissions, audit logs and admin rules as the rest of Microsoft 365.

If you have used agents in Teams before, this builds on the idea we covered in our breakdown of AI agents in Microsoft Teams.

When Each Feature Arrives

Most of the new Copilot starts in preview. Here is the timing Microsoft gave for each piece.

How Copilot Pricing Changes

Alongside the new app, Microsoft split Copilot pricing into two parts. The idea is simple: everyday tasks stay on a fixed monthly price, and long-running agent work is paid for by use.

Microsoft’s announcement did not include credit rates. The full explanation is in its post on the Copilot pricing model.

Coming Next: Today and @Copilot in Teams

Microsoft’s second video shows Today, a daily view that lists what you missed and has drafts and schedule changes ready before you open it.

Today will sit inside Home and pull together mail, calendar, Teams threads, meetings and tasks. It does more than list them: the reply is already drafted and the forgotten follow-up is waiting to send. It enters private preview in Copilot in October 2026, with Outlook and Teams versions to follow.

@Copilot in Teams changes who Copilot works for in a meeting or channel. Instead of helping one person, it shares the context of the whole conversation with everyone in it. Ask why a decision was made and it pulls the background from earlier chats. Microsoft plans more details at Ignite, held November 17 to 20, 2026 in San Francisco and online. New to Teams? Start with our Microsoft Teams for Windows guide.

New Copilot FAQ

Sources and Official Links

More Windows software guides: Microsoft Copilot for Windows · Claude for Windows · ChatGPT for Windows · Gemini for Windows