The most important paragraph in Microsoft's announcement is almost at the bottom, and it is about money.
Everyday work - quick answers, drafts, summaries - stays on a fixed per-user licence. Everything long and agentic moves to usage-based billing: Cowork, Code, Autopilot, and frontier models like Astra and Fable. So the more the agent works, the bigger the bill.
Fact
The facts: on 25 September 2026 Microsoft introduced the new Copilot with three new capabilities. Home is the starting point where Chat and Cowork come together, and with Office in Copilot the full Word, Excel and PowerPoint are built into the app. Code lets anyone describe an app, dashboard, automation or workflow in natural language and have Copilot build it; it runs on the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot, works in a sandboxed environment and can be hosted within the company's tenant. Autopilot, previously called Scout, is a persistent, proactive cloud agent with a name, a role and a goal, its own identity, memory and workspace, which keeps working when the user is away. Home and Code start rolling out in the Frontier programme in the coming weeks, and Autopilot enters private preview at the end of the month. Microsoft also released Copilot Managed Runtime in preview and new cost management features under the name FinOps for AI. Everyday work stays on a per-user licence, while Cowork, Code, Autopilot and frontier models like Astra and Fable run on usage-based billing.
Who will write the software
Microsoft says that until now the unit of office work has been the file - document, spreadsheet, deck - and adds a fourth: a small app anyone makes for the task at hand. It sounds like democracy. In a big company it also sounds like hundreds of apps nobody in IT knows about.
Code comes with an isolated environment, and Copilot Managed Runtime, where these apps can live, is governed by IT. The fence is up on day one.
An agent that works while you sleep also bills while you sleep.
The FinOps section is the first thing to open, before the first Autopilot starts. Limits go in before the bill, not after it has arrived.
Official primary sources
The Official Microsoft Blog - Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, 25.09.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.