Microsoft is launching a new business unit called Microsoft Frontier Company, backing it with $2.5 billion and 6,000 engineers who will work directly inside client organizations. Judson Althoff, CEO of Microsoft’s commercial business, writes on the Official Microsoft Blog that the initiative goes beyond so-called forward-deployed engineering, aiming to be the largest outcome-driven engineering organization …
Microsoft has unveiled MAI-Thinking-1, its first in-house advanced reasoning AI model. Jay Peters reports for The Verge that the announcement came at Microsoft’s Build 2026 developer conference, alongside several other new models targeting image generation, transcription, voice, and coding. Microsoft describes MAI-Thinking-1 as its new “flagship” model and a “medium-sized model” that “matches leading models” …
Microsoft has introduced a new security framework designed to contain AI agents running on Windows devices. Called Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), the system lets developers and IT administrators define precisely what an AI agent is allowed to do — and enforces those rules at the level of the operating system kernel. Michael Nuñez reports for …
Microsoft Scout is an always-on AI agent that manages emails, calendar conflicts, and internal messages on behalf of office workers. Reece Rogers reports for WIRED that Microsoft announced Scout at its Build developer conference. Scout is built on top of OpenClaw, an AI tool that attracted early adopters in San Francisco at the start of …
Microsoft opens its annual Build conference in San Francisco this week, aiming to rebuild trust with developers at a moment of significant change. Tom Warren reports for The Verge that sources point to a packed agenda, including new AI models, a revamped Windows developer experience, and a so-called Copilot “super app.” Windows gets a developer-focused …
Microsoft is developing a single app that would bring together its various Copilot AI tools under one roof. Sebastian Herrera reports for Fortune that the software company plans to launch such a “super app” by the end of summer 2026. The app would combine GitHub Copilot, the Copilot chat function, the Copilot Cowork tool, and …
Microsoft has expanded its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot with new capabilities that allow it to take direct, multi-step actions inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Sumit Chauhan, President of the Office Product Group, writes that these so-called agentic features are now generally available and the default experience for subscribers. Previously, Copilot could answer questions but struggled …
Microsoft markets its Copilot AI assistant as a productivity tool for consumers and businesses alike. However, the product’s terms of use tell a different story. According to these terms, which were last updated in October 2025, “Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely …
Microsoft has announced Copilot Cowork, a cloud-based AI agent that can complete complex tasks across Microsoft 365 applications on behalf of users. Carl Franzen reports for VentureBeat that the tool is built using technology from Anthropic, the AI company behind the competing Claude Cowork product. Copilot Cowork forms the centerpiece of Microsoft’s “Wave 3” update …
Microsoft has released Phi-4-reasoning-vision-15B, a compact AI model that processes both images and text and can solve complex math and science problems. Michael Nuñez reports for VentureBeat that the 15-billion-parameter model matches or exceeds the performance of much larger systems while using significantly less computing power and training data. The model is available now on …