Microsoft 365 Copilot "Wave 3" expands with more agentic AI control, eager to offload your most boring workloads

Yes, Copilot is still here, and Microsoft 365 (Office) is now expanding it with 'Wave 3'. If you missed the concept of its waves in the first place, they essentially refer to the batch rollouts of major features for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Wave 1 was the initial introduction of Copilot in Microsoft's Office apps, with the AI assistant first appearing in documents, emails, and presentations. Wave 2 expanded Copilot across Microsoft's ecosystem, introducing new collaboration tools like Copilot Studio and deeper integration across Microsoft 365.

Now Microsoft is moving into Wave 3, which allows users to build their own AI agents directly within Microsoft 365 apps to help with their specific daily workflows, alongside new capabilities in apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook (via Microsoft).

The company is also introducing Microsoft 365's premium 'E7' bundle — the "First Frontier Suite". It bundles the existing top-tier 'E5' enterprise subscription with advanced security, analytics, and compliance tools, alongside Copilot, and a new Agent 365 offering into one package.

What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3?

This update brings improvements to Copilot’s chat features, allowing users to easily modify documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and emails directly from the chat interface. Plus, Microsoft is introducing Work IQ, a new intelligence layer that uses an organization’s data, collaboration history, and internal content to help Copilot better understand the context of your specific workplace.

Copilot is also adding support for additional models, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT. Eventually, we'll see an introduction to Copilot Cowork, which is currently in preview, allowing AI agents to carry out longer, multi-step processes over time rather than responding to single prompts.

And finally, there's that new Agent 365 addition, which is essentially a management platform for organizations to monitor and govern their tailor-made AI agents. Agent 365 will release on May 1, 2026, and will cost $15 per user — that "Frontier Suite" E7 bundle will also launch on May 1, 2026, at $99 per user, including Agent 365, Microsoft Entra, Defender, Intune, and Purview.

🗨️ Will your business use these new Copilot additions?

Whether you like Copilot in Windows (Microsoft has at least eased off consumers and is no longer pushing it quite as aggressively), it's definitely here to stay on the Microsoft 365-led business side.

At least this latest software expansion could prove useful for some businesses eager to adopt agentic AI, potentially easing tedious, repetitive workloads and freeing up time for more important, human-driven tasks.

With all that said, let me know your thoughts in the comments, and make sure to take part in our poll below:

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