Microsoft Copilot probably isn't something you think about a lot, unless your company pays for you to use it at work. Microsoft has been fighting for consumers whose hearts and minds were quickly captured by other AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. The company's latest wave of agentic updates, announced Monday, is its sharpest weapon yet.

The biggest new feature is Copilot Cowork, built in collaboration with Anthropic. If you've heard of or used Anthropic's Claude Cowork, Microsoft's version will feel similar. Copilot Cowork can use information in your files, email and calendar to independently complete assignments, no human supervision needed. It can create spreadsheets, run reports and do research for you.

"Cowork is the new chat. It's the new way of interacting with AI," said Charles Lamanna, Microsoft president of business apps and agents. Instead of overseeing AI and chatting with it, we can now entirely delegate tasks to it like a fellow team member. "With chat, you're babysitting every step -- this is much more like 'fire and forget' with Cowork to get the job done."

For example, Lamanna said he used Cowork to analyze his meeting calendar for the next three months. The AI used his email and calendar history to understand what upcoming meetings may not be necessary for him to attend, and it pulled together its recommendations in an easy-to-view chart. After Lamanna reviewed it, Cowork declined some meetings, with AI-written meeting notes attached if needed. The AI's 40-minute "delightful and practical" process saved him and his executive assistant hours worth of time so they could focus on more important duties.

Cowork is rolling out now on a limited basis as it's a research preview concept. Microsoft also announced it will be making its AI agent platform, Agent 365, generally available on May 1. Agent 365 is a way for companies to oversee and manage all of the agents, or bots, that employees are using for their work. Microsoft itself has created more than a half-million AI agents using Agent 365, the company shared in a statement. New AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI will also be made available in Copilot. Smartly, the company isn't picking a side in the growing feud between the AI startups.

Read More: AI Isn't Human and We Need to Stop Treating It That Way, Says Microsoft AI CEO

Agentic AI at work

Agentic AI tools like the ones Microsoft is building are extremely popular for workers. Despite only being a research preview, Claude Cowork has garnered a lot of fans -- and sparked a lot of worry on Wall Street. Major tech stocks fell at the end of January as Anthropic's AI developments cast doubts on the future of work. 

New AI tools like Cowork, Claude Code and even OpenAI's Codex are becoming increasingly capable of replacing traditional software products, like the kind Microsoft is known for. So it makes sense that Microsoft would want to bring that agentic prowess to its own AI. Agentic AI has been a major area of focus for AI companies recently. OpenClaw, an open source agentic project that went viral this year, is one of many examples of why tech execs think 2026 will be the year of agentic AI.

Lamanna said that "the shape of what we do on a day-to-day basis will change," but AI ought to give time back to people to focus on high-value tasks. We're entering a new arc, going from having a human use AI to do a task quicker to delegating it entirely to an AI agent, he said.

As this tech becomes more available, there are a lot of questions about the best way to integrate AI into our work lives. Many workers are worried about having their jobs replaced by AI, fueled by AI-centric layoffs at Amazon and Block. For those who manage to keep their jobs, one study found that AI may actually make their work days longer and less enjoyable. Like any new tech, the implementation of AI will determine how effective it is -- and how much it actually helps you.