Copilot’s October update: Chat and Cowork in one place, and skills for everyone
November 2026
Microsoft published its October round-up for Microsoft 365 Copilot on 30 October. It is one of the bigger updates this year, and most of it rolls out through November, starting with Frontier, Microsoft’s early-access programme.
What changed
One Home. Chat and Cowork now sit together in one Home in the Copilot app, with a shared pane for agents, skills and connectors. It reached Frontier in October and is rolling out worldwide in November.
Skills in Copilot Chat. Skills move from Cowork into Copilot Chat, and people can create their own by describing them in plain language. Also rolling out in November.
More plugins for Cowork. Role-based plugins for Sales, Service, Education, Legal and Finance, plus OneNote and Planner plugins, and a task catalogue of things Cowork can do.
Autopilot. Microsoft describes it as an always-on, cloud-based personal agent. It is rolling out to Frontier in November.
For IT. Purview data loss prevention now covers Cowork, in public preview, and you can set retention rules for Copilot memory.
Who it matters for
Any business on Microsoft 365 Copilot. The screen your team opens is about to change, and more of what Copilot does is now acting, not just answering: drafting, filing and sending on someone’s behalf.
What we would do now
Tell your team before the new Home appears, so nobody thinks something has broken.
Decide who can create and share skills. A skill is a set of instructions everyone reuses, so a bad one spreads quickly. Start with a few people and a simple review.
Check your data loss prevention and retention settings cover Cowork and Copilot memory, before people start handing it bigger tasks.
Keep an eye on usage. Cowork tasks run on Copilot Credits, so the more people hand off, the more it costs. We wrote about that change when it landed in June.
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