If you’ve been anywhere near Microsoft 365 news lately, you’ll have heard the term agentic AI thrown around like confetti at a wedding. Microsoft’s latest addition to the Copilot family is Copilot Cowork – and unlike the Copilot you’re used to asking questions in a chat box, this one actually rolls up its sleeves and does the work with you.
So what is it, how is it different, and – most importantly – what can it actually do for you on a Tuesday afternoon when you’re drowning in emails? Let’s take a look…
So what IS Copilot Cowork?
Think of the Copilot you already know as a really knowledgeable colleague you can ask questions. Copilot Cowork is more like a digital co-worker – one you can delegate to.
Instead of a single question-and-answer exchange, Cowork can reason across your organisational information, plan out multi-step tasks, coordinate actions across your Microsoft 365 apps, and help you get complex bits of work over the line. You give it a goal, some context, and tell it what a good result looks like – then it gets on with it, checking in with you along the way.
It’s the difference between asking “what were the key points from last week’s project meeting?” and saying “pull together a project status report from the last two weeks of meetings, emails and Teams chats, flag anything that’s at risk, and draft it as a one-pager I can send to the steering group.”
How is it different from ‘regular’ Copilot?
- Conversational AI (classic Copilot) answers questions and generates content when you ask, one prompt at a time.
- Agentic AI (Copilot Cowork) works towards a goal – it can plan, break work into steps, use multiple sources, and iterate on its own output before presenting it back to you.
You’re still very much in charge though. Cowork drafts, plans and suggests – you review, refine and approve. Human oversight is baked in, which is exactly how it should be.
Practical examples – where Cowork actually earns its keep
Here are a few everyday scenarios where Cowork genuinely shines:
The Monday morning catch-up
“Summarise everything I missed last week – meetings, emails, Teams chats – and give me a prioritised list of actions.” Cowork pulls it all together from across Microsoft 365 and hands you a briefing instead of you spending your first hour trawling through threads.
The project status report
Rather than you manually collating updates, Cowork can analyse recent documents, meeting notes and messages, then draft a status report with actions, decisions, risks and next steps – ready for you to sanity-check and send.
The stakeholder briefing
Got a big meeting tomorrow? Ask Cowork to research the topic, pull relevant documents from SharePoint and OneDrive, and create an executive summary so you walk in prepared rather than winging it (we’ve all been there…).
The research task
Need to understand a new topic or compare options? Delegate the legwork – Cowork can gather information, synthesise it, and present the pros and cons in whatever format you specify.
The routine busywork
Coordinating schedules, following up on actions, preparing recurring reports – the multi-step, tedious stuff that eats your afternoon – is exactly the kind of work Cowork can help plan and streamline.
A word on security and permissions (the important bit!)
Regular readers will know I bang this drum a lot: Copilot – including Cowork – can only work with information the user already has access to. If your SharePoint permissions are a mess (and if you haven’t read my warning about default sharing settings, go and do that now!), an AI co-worker will happily surface content you’d rather it didn’t.
So before you unleash Cowork across your organisation, get your information governance in order – sensible permissions, sensible sharing policies, and a bit of housekeeping go a long way. You might also want to check out my post about ensuring your Microsoft 365 tenant is ready for Copilot.
Getting the best out of it
The secret to great results from Cowork is the same as delegating to a human: be clear about what you want. Define the goal, provide the context, point it at the right source material, and tell it what the output should look like. Then review what comes back, refine your instructions, and iterate. Rubbish instructions in, rubbish results out – it’s not magic, it’s delegation!
Want to learn how to work with your new digital co-worker?
We’ve put together a practical, hands-on Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork course – 3 hours, no fluff – covering how Cowork works, how to prompt and delegate effectively, and how to apply it to real business processes like reports, research, meetings and project support.
We run it live online (join from anywhere in Australia or beyond) at AU$290+GST per person, with a 10% discount when you register two or more participants – and private sessions are available for teams of five or more. Check out the upcoming dates here – your new co-worker is waiting to meet you!