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Stage 5 · Autopilots

Always-on agents that work in the background. Give Autopilot (formerly Microsoft Scout) a role and a goal, and it keeps the work moving — watching, following up, and running recurring jobs without being prompted each time.

The shift: from "I run an agent when I need it" to "an agent runs for me." Stages 1–4 were all on-demand — you start a chat, call an agent, hand off a Cowork task, or build a simple agent. Autopilots flip the model: the agent is always on, picking work back up on its own instead of waiting for your next prompt.

Heads-up: Scout is now Autopilot · private preview

Microsoft renamed Microsoft Scout to Autopilot in September 2026, so not every tenant has it yet. What changed and what it costs ↓

When you're ready for this stage

You've got a job that shouldn't wait for you to start it — chasing updates on a thread, preparing for the week, keeping a tracker current, or following through every time a meeting ends. You've already felt the pull in earlier stages ("I keep re-running this Cowork task") and now the always-on version exists.

Going the wrong way?

Autopilot is a ready-made agent you direct, not one you engineer. If you need real actions against a system of record, custom logic, or org-wide publishing, that's Stage 6 · Copilot Studio. If a one-off, multi-step task is enough, stay in Stage 3 · Cowork. If you need a simple on-demand agent for you and a few teammates, that's Stage 4 · Agent Builder.

What you need

  • Access — Autopilot (private preview) or the Scout desktop app. Check if you can get it →
  • A recurring job it can own, with a goal and boundaries.
  • A budget OK — it runs on Copilot Credits, so your admin sets a spending limit.

Start here — if you only do three things

You can't fully drive this stage until Autopilot (or the Scout desktop app) reaches your tenant — so the first move is to find out where you stand, then line up the recurring job you'll hand off the moment it's switched on.

All walkthroughs

These walk you from learning what Autopilot is, to finding out if you can get it, to handing it its first always-on jobs. Each shows the rough effort and who it's for, so filter by role or time to find your starting point.

Meet the category

Get the naming straight — Microsoft Scout is now Autopilot, and Autopilots is this stage — before you turn anything on.

Get set up

Autopilot is in private preview — find out if you're eligible and what has to be true to switch it on.

Hand Autopilot an always-on job

Once it's on, give Autopilot a standing job and let it work in the background under your guardrails.

Skills in Autopilots

This is where the Skills Catalog meets always-on agents. A skill is a reusable, packaged capability you save once and reuse — and an always-on agent like Autopilot is something you can equip with skills so it can carry that task out autonomously.

  • A Cowork recipe (Stage 3) is a skill you describe and run on demand.
  • An Autopilot skill is that same instinct handed to an always-on agent: the capability Autopilot draws on to do the job in the background, without you starting it each time.

A few illustrative examples of what an always-on agent could be equipped with — the set is emerging and gated, so treat these as the shape of things rather than a finished menu:

  • Inbox & signal triage

    Autopilot watches for what actually needs you and surfaces it into one short daily brief, so the noise never reaches your desk.

    🧩 Skill · gated

  • Continuous customer-health watch

    The worst-first account-ranking recipe from Cowork, kept always-on so the list is never stale.

    🧩 Skill · gated

  • Meeting recap & follow-through

    Every meeting ends with a clean recap, owned actions, and drafted follow-ups waiting for your sign-off.

    🧩 Skill · gated

That's the honest scope today — the way you equip and manage Autopilot skills is still emerging and gated alongside the rest of the stage, so the catalog keeps the Autopilots skills lens scoped to what exists now and will grow as the capability does. See Skills Catalog → Autopilots.

About Autopilot

The background, for when you need it — expand any section.

What Autopilot is (and the Scout rename)

Autopilot is Microsoft's always-on agent. Per the September 2026 announcement, you give it a name, a role and a goal, and it goes to work — watching channels, following up on threads, running recurring work, and picking a project back up days later, without waiting for a prompt.

  • ★ Autopilot (formerly Microsoft Scout)

    A persistent, proactive, personal agent — first introduced as Microsoft Scout on June 2, 2026 and renamed Autopilot on September 25, 2026.

    How Microsoft describes it today:

    • Cloud-hosted — it keeps working while you're offline
    • Lives in your tenant with its own identity, memory, computer and workspace, grounded in Microsoft IQ
    • Shows up where you already work — Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents — and you can @mention it like a colleague
    • You set the objective and boundaries; it keeps you informed and in control

    ★ Always-on Private preview

    Read the announcement →

What the Scout desktop app documents today

Until Autopilot-branded docs publish, the Microsoft Scout docs are the concrete reference. They describe a Windows and macOS desktop app that:

  • Works across your files, shell, browser, and Microsoft 365 (mail, calendar, Teams, OneDrive/SharePoint, Lists, To Do) through Work IQ
  • Runs scheduled and condition-triggered automations and a periodic heartbeat check in the background
  • Uses skills — SKILL.md instruction files you write once and reuse (manage skills)
  • Asks for your approval before actions that send, share, or change things other people see
  • Is governed by admins through Intune / Group Policy (approval rules, allowed models, blocked tools)
  • Isn't available in GCC, GCC High, DoD, or sovereign clouds
Access and cost
  • Access: Autopilot is in private preview — ask your account team. The hands-on path today is the Frontier Scout desktop app: your admin turns on Copilot Frontier, deploys an Intune policy + attestation, and you need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license. Step-by-step: Find out if you can get Autopilot.
  • Cost: Autopilot is advanced AI on usage-based billing in Copilot Credits, on top of the Microsoft 365 Copilot license — your admin needs a spending policy first (USL vs. usage-based billing).
What makes an agent an Autopilot

  • Always-on

    Keeps working in the background — following up, re-checking, and picking work back up — instead of waiting for a prompt.

  • Its own identity and workspace

    Lives in your tenant with its own identity, memory and workspace, so what it does is attributable and auditable.

  • Directed by a goal, not a script

    You give it a role, a goal, and boundaries; it plans the steps and keeps you informed.

  • Governed — you stay in the loop

    Permissions, audit and governance sit behind it, and actions that affect other people wait for your sign-off.

The Autopilots category is where always-on agents live on this ramp. Today the one you'll meet is Autopilot itself; as Microsoft adds more, they'll join it here.

Borrow, don't build

Microsoft owns the authoritative, always-current word on Autopilot — what it does, how to turn it on, and where it's available. Link to these rather than restating preview details that change.

The full curated set for this stage lives in Resources → Stage 5.

Security at this stage

An always-on agent acts on your behalf, so governance matters more here than anywhere earlier on the ramp. Microsoft describes Autopilot as living in your tenant with its own identity, "with permissions, audit and governance behind it." The Scout desktop app asks for approval before actions that affect other people and lets admins restrict tools, models, and auto-approval through Intune. One caveat from its docs: model calls run through GitHub Copilot, so some Microsoft 365 protections (like data residency and retention) don't apply to that processing — read the Scout responsible AI FAQ before a pilot. See the full picture in Security & Governance.

Where this leads

Need an agent that does more than its ready-made job? When you need real actions against a system of record, custom topics, MCP tools, or org-wide publishing and governance, you've outgrown directing a ready-made agent and you're ready to build. That's the low-code destination.

Continue to Stage 6 · Copilot Studio →

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