Microsoft introduced a new class of AI agent – “Autopilots” – that operate on a user’s behalf in a fully autonomous way at the Build conference opening keynote Tuesday. It also introduced the first Autopilot agent, called Scout, which is powered by OpenClaw technology.
Autopilots highlighted a broad range of AI software introductions, which also featured an app that brings OpenClaw into Windows, along with enterprise-grade controls.
There were also a series of hardware product introductions — to be outlined in a followup analysis — including AI-optimized Windows systems that enable developers to conduct development at the edge on local systems, as well as new form factors for delivering AI functionality.
Putting Tasks on Autopilot
To understand the objectives of Autopilot, consider the spectrum of existing AI technology: Copilots await prompts from a user, operating in a reactive way. Copilot Cowork operates in a semi-autonomous way. Autopilots represent a higher level of autonomy; they’ll take action on a user’s behalf, without prompting or invocation.
“We can think of autopilots as enterprise-grade Claws. These are autonomous, long-running agents with full enterprise compliance that run in your tenant. Autopilots can have a name, personality, custom connectors, context, and memory,” said Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in his Build keynote.
According to AJ Ansari, Microsoft AI expert and COO of DSWi, Scout “handles all the stuff that quietly eats your morning before you have had a chance to do anything useful.” This includes coordinating multi-time-zone meetings, flagging upcoming deliverables, spotting stalled projects or decisions.
Scout uses Microsoft’s WorkIQ for context. It operates in Teams and Outlook for conversations, OneDrive and SharePoint for managing files, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers for a standards-based method of tapping into enterprise systems and data. Scout has its own Entra identity so its work is always attributable to a known entity. Admins can set policy rules and observe what the agent is doing as work progresses.
“You can go to the Copilot app and Scout is the one that comes by default, but you can build more of these autopilots, and that’s the future of what we think of as the Copilot ecosystem,” Nadella said.
Scout is available today to customers on Copilot Frontier.
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OpenClaw Enterprise Controls — In Windows
OpenClaw lives locally on a computer and acts as a digital assistant on a 24/7 basis; it has raised significant enterprise security concerns for reasons including broad permissions to access systems and data and its overall level of autonomy. Broad adoption since its launch in November 2025 has contributed to these security concerns.
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger appeared at Build to discuss the new OpenClaw Windows Companion App, which will sandbox the tool to keep the user’s data and system safe while multi-step workflows execute. The app has extensive detail on systems participating in the user’s OpenClaw and the user’s sessions. Users can configure the folders and files that OpenClaw has access to.
“You can totally run OpenClaw inside your company now and we even made the harness itself a plugin,” Steinberger said (audience cheers indicated the level of interest and usage in OpenClaw). “You can bring your own copilot, Codex, whatever you already trust, and your rules come right with it. And then you put OpenClaw on top of it, you get persistent memory, heartbeats, and you get a call right inside Slack or Teams.”
A related launch for AI governance at Build was Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), a new policy layer that will allow developers and IT administrators to describe agent containment requirements once and rely on Windows to enforce them with its native controls. MXC support the OpenClaw on Windows agent runtime. “You can pick the right containment option for the workload and Windows will enforce it via MXC…this becomes pretty critical as you think about deploying agents at scale on your Windows desktop,” Nadella said.
GitHub and IQ Advances
The Build keynote also featured rollout of the desktop-native GitHub Copilot app for agentic development connected to the widely used coding platform. Developers can use the app to orchestrate multiple agent sessions in parallel and keep changes moving while Copilot handles execution. Existing sessions stay with developers and each session has its own branches, files, and conversations. GitHub Copilot App is available in preview.
“This app is your home base for development and operations on your computer,” said Cassidy Williams, senior director, developer advocacy at Microsoft.
Microsoft added to its expanding Microsoft IQ context layer (already including WorkIQ, Fabric IQ, and Foundry IQ) with the introduction of WebIQ, which will give developers access to the best, most current Web content as they’re building agentic systems. WebIQ is an AI-first web search stack that’s model-agnostic and MCP-native. WebIQ “plugs right into any agent runtime — it has web, news, images, video — so agents can ground responses in fresh, verifiable content; WebIQ meets all of the three key criteria: It’s best in class in quality, it’s best in class in speed, as well as in cost,” Nadella said.
AI Model Expansion
Microsoft introduced seven new AI models from its MAI research organization; those models span thinking, image, voice, coding, and transcription.
Perhaps most compelling was its collaboration with the Mayo Clinic on a frontier AI model specific to healthcare, leveraging a trove of data from the high-profile healthcare leader. By collaborating on this model, Microsoft and the Mayo Clinic are setting out to “tackle something that has eluded healthcare for a long time: trusted, scalable solutions,” while applying a patient focused lens to the massive Mayo Clinic dataset, said Gianrico Farrugia, Mayo Clinic President and CEO.
Related Microsoft AI Analysis:
- Governance Tools Ensure AI Agents Play Within the Rules at Runtime
- How Agent 365 and WorkIQ Redefine Business in the AI Era
- Microsoft Extends Reach of Copilot Cowork to Mobile Devices and New Data Sources
- Agent 365: The Platform That Keeps CIOs in Charge as Agents Proliferate
Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent about this analysis
