Quickly, your coworkers in Microsoft Groups may not all be human. Scout, an always-on AI agent introduced at Microsoft’s Build developer conference on Tuesday, can undergo your work messages, calendar, and e mail inbox to automate duties, reschedule assembly conflicts, and draft professional-sounding responses.
Microsoft roughly constructed an enterprise agent on prime of OpenClaw, the AI instrument that riveted San Francisco’s early adopters at the begin of 2026. Scout is designed particularly to be an assistant for workplace of us, who can ship instructions straight in Groups as if the agent was a carbon-based coworker.
Scout is a part of Microsoft’s bigger, agent-first transformation, automating how information staff use software and inserting AI assistants into each day workplace interactions. “Your organization basically hires your assistant,” says Omar Shahine, the newly appointed company vice chairman of Microsoft Scout. “The entire level of getting a private assistant is that they are working if you’re not working.” So, whilst you’re munching on some Doritos and gossiping subsequent to the workplace merchandising machine, Scout is busy blocking calendar time for subsequent Tuesday’s all-hands assembly and producing speaking factors primarily based on latest messages.
Microsoft is launching this function with a small group of consumers, with the hope of increasing entry quickly. As well as to the Groups integration, Microsoft is additionally testing a desktop app for Scout. This app is rolling out right now to subscribers who’ve opted for “frontier” function entry, and it presently requires customers additionally to have an lively GitHub Copilot subscription.
If customers inform Scout their objectives and preferences, the bot can proactively assign duties. For instance, Shahine informed Scout at all times to defend dinnertime with the household, so at any time when a gathering was proposed on his calendar throughout that point, the agent would flag it and robotically counsel rescheduling choices to your colleagues.
Courtesy of Microsoft
With entry to your e mail and messages, the AI agent can try duties tailor-made to your workload. Shahine requested Scout to comb via all his knowledge and make a continuously up to date listing of each time somebody makes a promise to him in addition to each time he makes a dedication to another person. Then, Scout can ship reminders to you about open tickets and draft follow-up plans.
Anybody who experiments with Scout ought to anticipate some tough edges as Microsoft iterates on this agent. Shahine says his Scout—nicknamed Sebastian—despatched an e mail the different day. “It was only one large run-on sentence, no formatting.” It’s essential to discover a stability of what duties you are feeling comfy automating away and what wants to occur beneath your direct supervision.
Shahine nonetheless sees Scout as finally being a boon to all information staff, particularly those that aren’t as technical and wouldn’t really feel comfy working an agent via the terminal. “Internally our gross sales group is most likely the largest and quickest rising group that is utilizing this,” he says.
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