TL;DR: Microsoft has pushed out the next major round of Copilot updates across Microsoft 365, and this one marks a real shift. Earlier versions helped you draft, summarise and create. Wave 3 starts handing Copilot actual jobs to do, through custom AI agents, direct in-chat editing across Word, Excel and Outlook, and a new context layer called Work IQ. A more advanced feature, Copilot coworker, is being tested for multi-step tasks that run with minimal input. None of this is dangerous if it's managed properly, but it does mean businesses need a plan for how these tools are used and controlled.
If you use Microsoft 365 day to day, you'll have noticed Copilot hasn't stayed still since it launched. Microsoft releases these updates in batches it calls "waves", and the latest one has just landed. Unlike the last couple of rounds, this one changes what Copilot is for rather than just what it can do.
Up to now, Copilot has mostly been about assistance. Drafting an email, summarising a long document, putting together the bones of a presentation. Genuinely useful, but every step still needed you at the wheel. Wave 3 pushes Copilot further into taking on parts of the work itself.
Building your own agents
The headline feature is the ability to create custom AI agents inside Microsoft 365. These are small, purpose-built assistants that handle one specific job. Set one up to manage a repetitive admin process, keep a folder structure tidy, or follow a fixed set of rules for an internal task, and it can get on with it without you checking in at every stage.
For a business our size, that's the kind of thing worth testing on a low-risk process first. Somewhere it can save real time without creating a headache if it gets something wrong.
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Working inside the conversation
Copilot's chat has also become more capable. You can now edit documents, spreadsheets, emails and presentations straight from the chat window itself, rather than making a change in Copilot and then switching over to the file to apply it. Small change, but it removes a step people were tripping over.
Work IQ: more context, less generic output
A new layer called Work IQ is designed to help Copilot understand how your business actually operates. It draws on your organisation's data, communication patterns and internal content so the responses it gives are shaped around how your team actually works, rather than a generic answer that needs editing before it's useful.
Microsoft is also broadening the AI models sitting behind Copilot, bringing in technology from more than one provider. You won't notice the mechanics of that day to day, but it should mean the system keeps improving at a faster rate.
Copilot coworker: still in testing, worth watching
Further out, Microsoft is trialling something called Copilot coworker. Where an agent handles one defined task, this is aimed at longer, multi-step processes. Instead of asking for help with a single request, you'd hand over something more involved and let it run through several stages on its own.
It's not generally available yet, but it's a clear signal of where Microsoft wants this heading.
Management and oversight
With Copilot doing more on its own, Microsoft is also rolling out tools to help businesses keep an eye on what these agents are actually doing, how they're being used, and how they connect into the rest of your systems. That oversight matters. The more autonomy you hand Copilot, the more you need visibility over what it's doing with it.
If you'd like a hand working out which of these updates are worth using in your business, and how to keep them properly controlled, get in touch with the team at Pro-Networks. We work with businesses across Chester, Wrexham, North Wales, the Wirral and the wider North West, and this is exactly the sort of change we help clients plan for before it becomes a problem rather than after.