Meet Copilot Cowork: Microsoft 365 Just Learned to Do the Work, Not Just Suggest It
If you have used Microsoft 365 Copilot before, you already know it can help you draft an email or summarise a document in seconds. There is now a bigger step available, and it is worth knowing about.
Microsoft has just made Copilot Cowork generally available to all Microsoft 365 Copilot customers worldwide. Where the Copilot you already know answers questions and drafts content, Cowork actually carries out the work itself, across your inbox, calendar, files, and Teams.
What Cowork actually does
Instead of asking Copilot one thing at a time, you describe an outcome you want, and Cowork works out the steps and gets on with it. In practice, that can look like:
- Drafting and sending emails, or clearing out and organising a messy inbox
- Scheduling meetings, and cleaning up a packed calendar around what actually matters that week
- Building Word documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint decks, and PDFs from scratch
- Posting updates in Teams channels and chats
- Pulling together research, briefings, and status updates from across your business’s own files and messages
It checks in with you before anything risky happens, like sending an email or changing a calendar invite, so you stay in control of what actually goes out.
What this means for your business
Cowork runs inside your existing Microsoft 365 environment, so it works within the same permissions and policies your business already has in place. It requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and usage is billed separately based on how much work Cowork does, so it is worth thinking through where it will genuinely save your team time before switching it on for everyone.
It is turned off by default. Your business decides if and when to turn it on, and who gets access.
Want to explore it?
If you are curious whether Cowork is a good fit for your team, or want a hand weighing up the licensing and cost side of things, get in touch with the Anvil support team. We are happy to talk you through it.
The Anvil Team