What does OpenClaw mean to you? You may have heard it in passing on a news broadcast. Maybe you’ve dug a little deeper? Well, OpenClaw — an autonomous AI agent system that accelerated public awareness of autonomous AI agents has been the talk of inner tech circles and beyond since its launch in November 2025.
OpenClaw may have sounded like another experimental AI project when it first appeared, but within months, it had become the poster-child for a new category of software: autonomous AI agents capable of executing real tasks rather than simply responding to prompts. In fact, the founder of the project, Austrian developer  Peter Steinberger, was recently snapped up (clawed?) by OpenAI — you can read more about that here.
Now, it has been revealed that Microsoft is developing similar agent capabilities reminiscent of OpenClaw into Microsoft 365 Copilot. What are these features, and why not just use OpenClaw?
Digital Workforce
OpenClaw is an open-source framework that enables AI agents to use tools, access files, interact with websites, and autonomously complete goal-based tasks. Crucially, OpenClaw runs locally, which offers control and flexibility but lacks the governance, identity management, and compliance frameworks required by enterprises, making it less suitable for enterprise environments.
Now, Microsoft is reportedly developing OpenClaw-like functionality that could be a suitable enterprise tool, with the right security controls in place, by drawing on some of its existing agent tools. Those agentic tools include features such as Copilot Cowork, which can access and coordinate Microsoft 365 apps, and Copilot tasks, which handle tasks like appointment bookings.
However, these features are both cloud-based and don’t run locally, unlike the OpenClaw architecture. According to recent reports, Microsoft is likely to develop an agent platform that includes new features that mirror OpenClaw’s digital worker capabilities, accessible in an enterprise environment through Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Whether or not these features will be local, cloud-based, or a combination of both is yet to be determined, but Microsoft is reportedly experimenting with both options. We will have to wait until June for Microsoft’s annual Build conference to get more specifics on the product, as that is likely when they will release more information.
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Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, Microsoft is already pivoting towards agents that do more than answer queries. The company is evolving Copilot into an operating system for AI agents, with the clear goal of making these agents more active in enterprise environments. For that, robust security and accessibility are essential to enable this technology to be launched at scale.
While comparisons to OpenClaw in this proposed development are valid and clearly illustrate Copilot’s direction, I see another layer emerging. It’s a reinforcement of how Copilot functions on a day-to-day basis. We have already seen Microsoft dial back the entry points for Copilot, a strategic move to make the tool more focused and, in many ways, more relevant to users.
Now, if this agentic action layer is fully integrated into the system, as reported, we’ll see even greater refinement of the technology, which will significantly help determine its exact position and purpose within the enterprise.
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