What’s coming to Microsoft Copilot in 2026: features, agents and a new era of AI productivity

Microsoft Copilot has already transformed the way we work, but 2026 is shaping up to be its most ambitious year yet. 

At Microsoft Ignite and through recent announcements, Microsoft has revealed a wave of new features and intelligent agents that will redefine productivity across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365. Here’s a look at what’s on the horizon. 

New autonomous agents for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 

For Business Central users, Copilot is evolving from a reactive assistant to a proactive partner.  

The Payables Agent – which is already simplifying vendor invoice processing by extracting data from attachments, matching invoices to purchase orders and posting transactions – will soon include confidence-based prioritisation for invoice changes and fully automated payables workflows. 

And new for 2026, the Expense Management Agent will automate expense categorisation, reconciliation and approval routing to reduce manual finance admin and improve compliance. Meanwhile, the Fulfilment Agent will speed up order processing across sales and inventory to make supply chains more efficient and combat delays. 

MCP server integration is coming too, ideal for Business Central users hoping to build custom agents without heavy technical investment. 

An integrated experience, even for free Copilot users 

Until now, Copilot Chat has largely been a standalone experience – but in early 2026 that changes dramatically. Microsoft is embedding Copilot directly into core apps, even for users on the free tier. This means you’ll be able to interact with Copilot inside Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint without needing a paid license. 

Outlook gets context awareness

Copilot will move beyond single thread reasoning to understand your entire inbox, calendar and meetings. Imagine asking, “What decisions are pending before my 10am meeting?” and getting a concise summary of emails, tasks, and related context. It’s like having your own, built-in executive assistant.

Agentic Word, Excel and PowerPoint 

Word, Excel and PowerPoint will all introduce Agent mode, enabling Copilot to create and refine content using web data and referenced files within the apps themselves. Meanwhile, specialised agents in Copilot Chat will help you create polished reports, data-driven presentations or complex spreadsheet analysis, with multi-step workflows and the ability to ask clarifying questions to ensure accuracy. 

Specialised agents and governance with Agent 365 

One of the most exciting developments is Agent 365, Microsoft’s new platform for managing AI agents across the ecosystem. This governance dashboard will let businesses monitor and configure agents in Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio and beyond. It introduces Entra Agent ID, giving agents first-class identities for better security and compliance. 

Agent 365 will also give agents use of tools human users are already familiar with. From creating dashboards in Power BI to carrying out tasks within Word, Excel and other Microsoft 365 software, this powerful tool will play a big part in embedding agents seamlessly into work life to help boost productivity and creativity. 

Context-aware intelligence 

Another major upgrade is Work IQ, a new intelligence layer that makes Copilot and its agents context-aware by default. Instead of relying solely on prompts and connectors, Work IQ combines organisational data, workflow memory and inference to predict next actions. This means Copilot will proactively surface insights and recommendations, reducing the need for manual queries.  

AI-powered development 

Developers aren’t left out of the Copilot revolution, as Visual Studio 2026 and GitHub Copilot introduces several AI-driven enhancements. Cloud Agent Preview will offload repetitive coding tasks like UI clean-ups, refactors and documentation updates, while improved semantic code search will only make it easier to find relevant snippets in large repositories. 

AI-powered development is a complicated and fast-moving topic. You’ll hear more from us on this topic in an upcoming episode of Tecman Talks AI. 

The big picture: Copilot as your strategic partner 

2026 marks a turning point for Microsoft Copilot. It’s no longer just a helpful chatbot – it’s becoming a deeply integrated, context-aware platform powered by intelligent agents. From drafting documents and managing inboxes to optimising code and automating business workflows, Copilot is fast becoming an indispensable part of daily work. 

Are you ready for the future of AI productivity? We’re here to help you explore the features that would have the biggest impact on your business. You can keep up with our video series, Tecman Talks AI, for handy hints and tips on how to use Copilot to its full potential or chat to one of our experts if you’d like some help kickstarting your AI journey.