Copilot Cowork is now available in Frontier

Copilot Cowork has officially landed in Frontier for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) users. This release brings a more collaborative way for Copilot to work across apps, handling multi‑step tasks while keeping you in control.

With Copilot Cowork, tasks can span multiple Microsoft 365 apps, with clear user approvals along the way and built‑in progress tracking so you always know what’s happening. It’s designed to feel less like a single command and more like a coworker helping you get things done.

To use Copilot Cowork, users need to be enrolled in Frontier. It currently works with Microsoft‑built agents and uses Anthropic as a subprocessor. For customers in the EU, data boundary controls are in place to help meet regional compliance requirements.

The good news? No admin action is required to get started eligible users can simply explore the experience once Frontier is enabled.

When is this happening?

Copilot Cowork is already rolling out and is available today in Frontier.
General availability for all customers will be announced later—Microsoft will share details once it’s ready for broader release.

What this means for your organization

This update introduces a new way for Copilot to work alongside users—taking on longer, multi‑step tasks across Microsoft 365 apps while keeping people firmly in control. Think of it as Copilot stepping up from quick help to ongoing collaboration.

Who can use Copilot Cowork?

Copilot Cowork is available to:

  • Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) license
  • Users who are enabled for Frontier
  • English‑language users (for now)
Prerequisites and controls to be aware of

Before Copilot Cowork can be used, a few requirements need to be in place:

  • The tenant must be enrolled in the Frontier program
  • Microsoft‑built agents must be enabled
  • Anthropic must be enabled as a subprocessor (this is on by default)

For organizations based in the European Union (EU):

  • Anthropic is turned off by default to meet EU Data Boundary requirements
  • It must be explicitly enabled for Copilot Cowork to function
  • If Anthropic remains off, users may see Copilot Cowork listed but won’t be able to use it

Admins also need to be enrolled in Frontier to see Copilot Cowork listed in the Agent Inventory.

What users can expect

Once available, users can:

  • Install Copilot Cowork directly from the Agent Store in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app
  • Pin it to the left rail for easy access

From there, users can simply describe what they want to achieve—in plain, natural language—and Copilot Cowork will:

  • Create a multi‑step plan based on the user’s Microsoft 365 context
  • Coordinate work across apps like Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more
  • Continue working over time, with clear checkpoints and progress tracking

Importantly, Copilot Cowork never acts without permission. It will always propose actions first and wait for explicit user approval before doing things like:

  • Sending emails or Teams messages
  • Scheduling, declining, or rescheduling meetings
  • Editing, moving, or organizing files

Users stay in control at all times—they can pause, adjust, or stop execution whenever they want, and come back later to review progress.

Default behavior and governance

For eligible tenants, Copilot Cowork is enabled by default and respects existing Microsoft 365 permissions and policies. The only exception is where EU Data Boundary settings apply, which may limit functionality unless explicitly configured.

Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot – The Ultimate Game Changer

Today Microsoft is rolling out some major updates that truly reshape how AI shows up in everyday work. Here’s what’s new:

  • Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot
  • More model diversity, with Claude and next‑gen OpenAI models available starting today
  • Agent 365 becoming generally available on May 1 at $15 per user
  • Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite, also coming May 1, priced at $99 per user

Wave 3 is honestly the biggest shift I’ve seen in Copilot so far. It doesn’t feel like “AI that helps you write or summarize” anymore, it feels like Microsoft is moving Copilot into a true agent that can actually do work for you, not just respond to prompts. And this changes everything in how we’ll use Microsoft 365.

Frontier Transformation – What It Really Means

Microsoft is talking about “Frontier Transformation” but at its core, it’s actually simple: AI should help people achieve their highest goals — not just make processes a little faster.

Copilot Cowork – The game changer

The main highlight is Copilot Cowork, built together with Anthropic (the team behind Claude). What I love about it is that it can finally take on a whole piece of work, break it into steps, run those steps in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and keep you updated as it goes.

Not instantly, but over minutes or even hours.
So instead of: “Write a one‑page summary”
It becomes: “Prepare the full report, build the Excel analysis, create the PowerPoint, and draft the email to the team.”
And it actually moves this work forward across the apps we already use daily.

Edit with Copilot – In-app agentic editing

Another thing I like is that “Agent Mode” is gone.
It’s now simply called Edit with Copilot, and it works right inside the apps:

  • Word: turns your messy draft into something polished
  • Excel: actually builds formulas and charts (not just suggests)
  • PowerPoint: creates slides using your real templates and brand
  • Outlook: drafts or refines emails in the compose window

No more copy-paste. No more losing sensitivity labels. Everything stays governed and saved where it should be.

Work IQ – Copilot that “knows how you work”

Wave 3 also introduces Work IQ, which gives Copilot a deeper understanding of:

  • Your organization’s content
  • Your collaboration patterns
  • The apps and workflows you use
  • The context behind your requests

This is what helps Copilot choose the right model (Claude or OpenAI) depending on the task.

Multi‑model Copilot (Claude + OpenAI)

For the first time, Copilot becomes model-agnostic.
You’ll be able to pick or automatically use:

  • Anthropic Claude (via the Frontier program)
  • OpenAI models

A model selector is coming to Copilot Chat so you can choose which model works best, depending on the task.

New licensing tier: Microsoft 365 E7 “The Frontier Suite”

Microsoft also launched a brand new enterprise tier — their first in 11 years:
Microsoft 365 E7 (The Frontier Suite)

It bundles:

  • M365 E5
  • Copilot
  • Agent 365
  • Additional security + analytics tools

This shows how seriously Microsoft is betting on agentic AI becoming the new standard.

Rollout timeline

Wave 3 features are:

  • Already in research preview for selected customers
  • Expanding via the Frontier Program starting March 2026

With Wave 3, Agent 365, Work IQ, and the new E7 suite, AI is shifting from early experimentation to real, scalable, enterprise-wide value. Microsoft is not only imagining what AI could be it’s giving organizations the tools to build that future right now.

You can read more in the official Microsoft article here.