Microsoft’s September 25, 2026 Copilot announcement, by Jared Spataro, reorganizes Copilot around three capabilities — Home, Code and Autopilot — and pairs the launch with a split billing model that every Alberta Microsoft 365 tenant should read before switching anything on.
What Microsoft published about Home, Code and Autopilot
Home is the new starting point where Chat and Cowork come together; with Office in Copilot, Word, Excel and PowerPoint create or update real, editable files from the same surface. Microsoft says a coming update will route work to Chat, Cowork or Code automatically. Code lets non-developers describe an app, tracker, dashboard, automation or workflow in natural language; it runs in a sandboxed environment, can be hosted within your tenant, and is powered by the same underlying technology as GitHub Copilot. Microsoft states Code is rolling out to Frontier at the end of the month with broad availability in the coming weeks, and will be in preview for Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers later this year. A new Copilot Managed Runtime hosting layer is in preview.
Autopilot is the renamed Scout agent. Per Microsoft, you give it a name, a role and a goal; it watches channels, follows up on threads, runs recurring work and picks projects back up days later without waiting for a prompt. It is cloud-hosted and lives in your tenant with its own identity, memory, computer and workspace, is built on Microsoft IQ, and shows up in Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents — where you can @mention it like a colleague, “with permissions, audit and governance behind it.”
“Autopilot, previously called Scout, is your digital teammate.”Jared Spataro, Microsoft — Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, September 25, 2026
How Copilot billing splits: USL vs usage-based billing
Microsoft frames spend in two lanes. The user subscription license (USL) is priced per user per month and covers everyday AI: Copilot in Chat and across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, model selection, and Auto routing. Microsoft’s Evolution of the Copilot pricing model post says the USL keeps fair-use limits, and heavy users who hit one can switch to Auto at no additional cost or move to credits.
Usage-based billing (UBB) with Copilot Credits covers advanced, handed-off work: Cowork, Code, Autopilot, new long-running agentic capabilities, and frontier models Microsoft names as Astra and Fable. UBB builds on the USL, which is required to access these capabilities. For enterprise customers, UBB services stay off until an admin creates a spending policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and Microsoft says nothing is billed before that. Admins can set tenant- and group-level budgets, user-level caps inside group policies, and threshold alerts.
| Lane | Covers | Meter | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| USL | Chat + M365 apps | Per user / month | Fair-use limits; Auto routing |
| UBB | Cowork, Code, Autopilot | Copilot Credits | Requires USL |
| UBB | Frontier models | Copilot Credits | Astra, Fable named |
| Control | Spending policy in M365 admin center | Off until an admin enables it | |
Cost management in Agent 365 now covers Code and Copilot Managed Runtime alongside Cowork and the Work IQ APIs, with Copilot Studio agents planned for October. End users can see credit usage, remaining balances and usage history inside Copilot. This desk does not quote CAD or USD credit rates — none are stated on these pages.
What Alberta operators should do before Autopilot lands
For Alberta firms already on Microsoft 365, Autopilot is the first Microsoft agent pitched as a standing teammate rather than a chat window — which makes it an AI automation Alberta decision, not just a licence toggle. Pick one recurring, low-risk loop (supplier follow-ups, weekly status chasing, meeting prep) and write down its objective and boundaries before the preview reaches your tenant. Because UBB is off until an admin writes a spending policy, decide the budget, group caps and alert thresholds first.
An agent with its own identity, memory and computer inside your tenant also belongs in a private AI security review: which channels it can watch, what it can send externally, and who reads the audit trail. If you want help mapping the first Autopilot or Cowork workflow to a budget, Opcelerate’s AI automation Alberta and AI consulting Alberta teams do exactly that — and the city desk keeps tracking the rollout at The Super Intelligence Times.
The guardrail
Private preview is not general availability, and “end of the month” and “coming weeks” are Microsoft’s timing, not a guarantee for Canadian tenants. The primaries do not state new per-user or per-credit prices, Canadian data residency for Autopilot, or which tenants join the preview. Autopilot is a persistent agent — not AGI — and it still needs a human owner, budget caps and audit review.