Microsoft launches Scout Autopilot for Microsoft 365

Microsoft announced broader testing of Scout Autopilot for Microsoft 365 at its Build conference. The agent is available to a select group of customers and organizations enrolled in the Frontier program after an internal beta.

Scout runs across Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams to schedule meetings, flag important messages, create calendar events and gather files relevant to a user’s tasks. Microsoft described Scout as an agent that can act autonomously on a user’s behalf and hold a distinct identity so multiple agents can operate with different rule sets.

Microsoft wrote Scout is designed to learn a user’s preferences and work patterns over time and to adjust its actions to align with individual priorities.

The company reported that internal trials exposed risks on desktop systems and that engineers adjusted the agent to balance security findings with ongoing task automation. Administrators will be able to validate that Scout instances comply with IT and security policies and to confirm agent identities through dedicated Entra entries.

Technical safeguards include application of Microsoft Purview for data protection policies, redaction of machine identity credentials from logs and diagnostics, and a requirement for human sign-off on actions the algorithm marks as sensitive. Microsoft noted the platform will be managed with the same administrative controls used for other first-party services.

Scout was built using OpenClaw, an open-source project created by Peter Steinberger. Microsoft plans to contribute upstream to OpenClaw. The blog post announcing the trial was authored by Omar Shahine, corporate vice president of Microsoft Scout, whose previous roles include work on Windows Live, OneDrive and Mac Office.

Organizations that want to test Scout must be enrolled in the Frontier program, enforce an Intune policy configuration, provide an opt-in attestation and hold an active GitHub Copilot license.

Microsoft highlighted functions that identify deadlines and automatically block calendar time, assemble materials related to a task and coordinate across Microsoft 365 apps to reduce manual switching between tools.