AI agents in action: Microsoft Copilot gets its own version of Claude Cowork

Microsoft Co-pilot This probably isn’t something you think about much, unless your company is paying you to use it at work. Microsoft is struggling for consumers whose hearts and minds have been quickly captured by other AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. The company’s latest wave of proxy updates, announced Monday, is its sharpest weapon yet.

The biggest new feature is Copilot Cowork, which was designed in collaboration with Anthropic. If you have heard or used anthropy Claude CoworkMicrosoft’s version will be similar. Copilot Cowork can use the information in your files, email, and calendar to complete tasks independently, without the need for human supervision. It can create spreadsheets, run reports, and do research for you.

“Cowork is the new chat. It’s the new way to interact with AI,” said Charles LaManna, head of agent and business applications at Microsoft. Instead of supervising and chatting with the AI, we can now completely delegate tasks to it like a fellow team member. “With chat, you can monitor every step – it’s very much 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 its email and calendar history to understand upcoming meetings that might not be necessary to attend, and compiled its recommendations into an easy-to-view chart. After Lamanna’s review, Cowork declined some meetings, attaching AI-written meeting notes if necessary. The “delightful and practical” 40-minute AI process saved him and his executive assistant hours of time so they could focus on more important duties.

Cowork is now being rolled out on a limited basis as it is a research preview concept. Microsoft also announced that it will make its AI agent platform, Agent 365, available to the public on May 1. Agent 365 is a way for companies to supervise and manage all the agents, or bots, that employees use in their work. Microsoft itself has created more than half a million AI agents with Agent 365, the company shared in a statement. New AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI will also be available at Copilot. Smartly, the company doesn’t choose a side In growing disagreement Among startups in the field of artificial intelligence.

Read more: AI is not human and we need to stop treating it that way, says Microsoft AI CEO

AI agent in action

Agent AI tools, such as those made by Microsoft, are very popular among workers. Although it is only a research preview, Claude Cowork He gained a lot of fans – and aroused Lots of anxiety on Wall Street. major Technology stocks fell At the end of January, AI developments at Anthropic cast doubt on the future of work.

New AI tools like Cowork, Claude Code Even OpenAI is increasingly capable of replacing traditional software products, such as the kind Microsoft is known for. So it makes sense that Microsoft would want to bring this ingenuity to its AI. Agent AI has been a major area of ​​focus for AI companies recently. OpenClaw, an open source proxy project Which spread this yearis one of many examples of why technology executives think so 2026 will be the year of agentic AI.

“What we do on a daily basis will change,” Lamanna said, but AI must give people enough time to focus on high-value tasks. “We are entering a new arc, where we move from a human using AI to do a task faster to completely delegating it to an AI agent,” he said.

As this technology becomes more available, there are a lot of questions about how best to integrate AI into our working lives. Many workers are worried Replacing their jobs with artificial intelligencefueled by AI-focused layoffs in Amazon and roadblock. For those who manage to keep their jobs, one study found that AI may actually do just that Making their work days longer and less fun. Like any new technology, the application of AI will determine how effective it is – and how much it actually helps you.