On September 23, Microsoft released a new mode for Copilot in Microsoft 365 called Cowork, available on the web, Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. The difference from regular chat: instead of asking questions step by step, you describe the outcome you need, and Copilot gathers information from emails, meetings, chats and files on its own, works across several apps at once, and hands back a near-finished result for you to approve or correct. The work stays under the same security and privacy controls the organization already has.
Why it matters for a small business
For a company without an IT department, the gap between "a chat that answers questions" and "an assistant that carries a task through to the end" is exactly the time you, as the owner, spend pulling information from ten places before writing a report, a proposal, or a meeting summary.
If your company already uses Microsoft 365 and Copilot, it's worth checking with your provider whether the new Cowork mode is included in your current license or requires a separate plan — the source doesn't say. It's most useful for tasks that today take hours of gathering information from different places: putting together a proposal, summarizing a meeting, checking a contract before you sign it.
Source: Microsoft Learn
