Why Read?

Most business owners already know how to use Microsoft Copilot well. But, those very same people have no clue that sitting right inside their Copilot sits a brand-new, game-changing AI agent designed by Claude's Anthropic team...

This AI agent is called Microsoft Cowork.

This blog is going to tell you exactly what Cowork is, what it can do, and how you can get it quickly... so you don't need to look anywhere else.

Quickfire:  Your 5 Must-Have Takeaways:

• Cowork is the part of Microsoft 365 Copilot that goes ahead and completes your work for you (like generating PowerPoints, Excel sheets, Word docs and invoices), not just answering questions by texting.
• You can now allow Cowork to work across apps across Microsoft's Office 365 interface. This means it can access and work between your SharePoint, Outlook email, calendar and Teams Meetings.
• This exciting new AI runs on Claude, built by Anthropic, inside Microsoft. So you get a top AI model without your data leaving the business.
• Cowork is an Agent, not a GPT chatbot. It runs automatically behind the scenes (which is one of the key reasons we can't get enough of it). You prompt and simply wait for it to complete your list of tasks and hand over the deliverables.
• It is available now through Microsoft's Frontier programme, on a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
  
  

What is Microsoft Cowork?

Cowork is what we call an AI agent.

This is a type of AI that completes tasks all the way through for you. Where you can set it up to work through a task, leave for a meeting, and view your deliverables ready to claim upon your return.

Here at labdesk, some of the tasks we enjoy putting to work on include:

• Cleaning up and rescheduling your Outlook calendar.
  
  
• Building meeting materials from emails and past meetings or files.
  
  
• Researching deep intel on a topic and delivering results in a full Excel workbook.
  
  
• Drafting and sending emails in Outlook.
  
  
• Messaging people in Teams.
  
  
• Creating Word documents and PowerPoint decks.
  
  
• Building plans and competitive comparisons, and delivering them to your team.
  
  

Essentially your giving Cowork a goal via a prompt, and it makes a plan, draws on the information it has access to, and completes each step in turn.

It is smart too. Cowork will ask its own questions to clarify exactly what you want delivered during your conversation. 

What results are teams getting with Cowork?

Now this is something very exciting...

Cowork is still in its Frontier (Testing) phase after being released on May 1st 2026. Which means, because it is not yet a "complete" product outside of beta testing, businesses are finding out the incredible step-up using Claude X Copilot right now together...

There are no large-scale published results for Cowork specifically yet, as of 15th June 2026. Microsoft themselves commenting that they are "still early and moving fast." But what they have already seen from early Frontier users includes people orchestrating entire inbox workflows, conducting in-depth research across web and business sources, and producing finished documents that previously took hours of manual work.

To give you an idea of what the platform Cowork runs on is already delivering:

A pilot across 90 NHS organisations (the largest AI trial of its kind globally in healthcare) found Microsoft 365 Copilot saved staff around 43 minutes of admin time per person, per day.

NHS England's own Chief Digital Officer put a number on what that means: roughly 5 weeks of time back, per person, per year.

For a small 20-50 seat business, this could look like 100-250 weeks' worth of time saved, total accounting all employees using Copilot over 1 year...

Allegis Group, an organisation of 18,000 people, saved 150,000 hours and cut one internal process from 31 hours down to 13. Lloyds Banking Group rolled out Copilot to 30,000 staff and saw 93% daily usage within their organisation.

Remember, those results came from Microsoft Copilot before 2026's Cowork (Claude x Microsoft) existed.

For most businesses, the opportunity here is simple. The companies getting comfortable with Cowork now, while it's still quiet, will be the ones who know exactly how to use it at full power when it reaches general availability. This is one of those rare moments where being early is genuinely an advantage.

A word on Cowork from Mike Douglass, Director of labdesk

"Before Cowork, we helped a client build a Copilot-powered tender agent inside their Microsoft 365. It took over the repetitive, time-consuming parts of their personal tender process- like drafting, cross-referencing, formatting- and handed their team back a significant chunk of their week.

...The quality of what Copilot already produced was a step above what they had been putting together manually...and the outcomes reflected that. That client went on to win a 7-figure tender, with Copilot's optimised outputs playing a real part in how they presented and positioned themselves.

What was incredibly impressive is that was Copilot without Cowork. So now Cowork is here, we are talking about an AI that doesn't just give a hand and helps you draft, but automatically plans, coordinates and carries the work through from start to finish while you're not at your desk..."

Is Cowork only available inside Microsoft 365?

Yes.

Microsoft built Cowork with Anthropic, the maker of Claude. In Microsoft's own words:

"Anthropic integrated the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot."

So... the AI agent doing your work is the same Claude you'd use exclusively inside the Claude software. Which means one of the most capable models around now works securely inside your existing Microsoft environment...

Microsoft calls this its multi-model advantage. Cowork is not tied to a single AI. It picks the best model for the job, and Claude is a big part of why it is so capable.

For you, that means two things.

1. You get genuinely top-tier agentic AI. And you get it without signing up to another outside tool or sending your company data somewhere new.

2. Your biggest difference between using Cowork and Claude as a whole is that Cowork comes to you and your data already inside your business, rather than risking exporting your data outside to a separate Claude model.

What Cowork can't do:

• It cannot write, edit or deploy code (like using Claude Code).
• It cannot build apps, websites or software.
• It cannot work on tasks outside of Microsoft 365 (which keeps MC365 business data secure).
• It cannot access data outside of your existing Microsoft permissions.
• It cannot act without your approval on sensitive actions (requiring you to manually prove tasks like emails sent).
• It cannot connect to tools outside your Microsoft environment, such as Google Workspace, Slack, Obsidian or Notion.

How easy is Cowork to get for my team?

Very easy. Especially if you're already using Microsoft 365 for your team.

To use it today, you need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and access comes through Microsoft's Frontier programme, which gives early entry to its newest AI while it is still in testing.

Here's how to get started:

1. Have Microsoft 365 Copilot in place. Cowork runs on top of Copilot, so anyone who will use it needs a Copilot licence.
2. Join the Frontier programme. This is Microsoft's early-access route for its newest AI. Whoever looks after your IT enrols your organisation through the Copilot settings in the Microsoft 365 admin centre.
3. Switch Cowork on for your team. From that same admin centre, Cowork can be turned on for everyone, or rolled out to a chosen few first, which is a sensible way to start.
4. Open it and delegate. Once it is on, your team finds Cowork inside Microsoft 365, on desktop or mobile, and can start handing it tasks.

Most of the heavy lifting here sits with whoever manages your Microsoft setup, and it is largely a one-time job. For most businesses, the harder part is not switching Cowork on. It is deciding where to point it first!

Where does Cowork fit with the rest of your AI's?

It's handy to think of Cowork as the everyday AI at the centre of your Microsoft 365 workflows.

For most of the day-to-day work your team does inside Microsoft 365, writing, planning, researching and preparing, it's the tool we'd recommend they should reach for first.

That matters because of what it replaces. If your people are already using free AI tools on the side (see our Shadow AI blog), and most teams are, Cowork is the answer to that. It gives them an agentic AI built on Claude that is genuinely good to use, while keeping your business data inside your own business. One safe, capable tool that everyone uses beats a scattering of personal ones you cannot see.

Your Next Step After Cowork

Cowork is a highly capable tool. But like any AI, it is only ever as safe as the foundations you put under it. Access, data, security, and ways of working all decide whether Cowork is a trusted teammate across the business, or something people tiptoe around.

That foundation is what we help you build.

The easiest place to start is a free, tailored AI Readiness Conversation with a member of the labdesk crew. Together we look at how your team actually works today, where tools like Copilot and Cowork can save the most time, and what needs to be in place so they do it safely.

If it is useful and you want to go further, our Copilot Enablement and Readiness Workshop takes it end to end.

Over several sessions together, we:

• Survey how your business really runs (tools, tasks, meetings, focus time, ownership).
• Review your Microsoft 365 data and setup so Copilot and Cowork sit on solid, governed ground.
• Run a security and risk assessment across 17 core items, including identity, devices, sharing, sensitivity labels, governance and Secure Score.

You leave with clear findings, a simple picture of your current risk, and a phased roadmap from today’s foundations to being genuinely ready for AI. Written in plain English, not tech-speak, and yours to keep and act on however you like: run it in-house, hand it to your IT team, or have labdesk deliver it alongside you.

For most organisations, the business case is already there. In a 100-person company, a 20-seat Copilot pilot can deliver around £110,000 of time value per year on roughly £6,000 of licences… provided the foundations are right. The workshop makes sure the work you are already doing on Microsoft 365 counts toward that AI readiness at the same time.

And for qualifying projects, there is up to £1,000 of Microsoft funding available if you choose to move ahead.

If you would like your AI foundations in place before you roll tools like Cowork out to everyone, you can book your free readiness conversation here:

→  Copilot Enablement Workshop by labdesk - Drive Value with Microsoft Copilot AI (opens in new window)