Copilot Cowork, Code and Autopilot: what they are and what is in AB-730

Home. Microsoft describes it as the new starting point in Copilot, where Chat and Cowork come together in one place, with access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Chat is the instant, conversational part: quick questions, lookups, creating a draft. Cowork is for work you delegate: you define the task and Copilot runs it end to end to return a completed result.

Code. Meant for anyone to create small, purpose-built solutions to get a job done, described in natural language. It runs in a sandboxed environment and, according to the announcement, is powered by GitHub Copilot technology.

Autopilot. Microsoft calls it a digital teammate: you give it a name, a role and a goal, and it works proactively, including recurring tasks, without being prompted each time.

As for rollout, the announcement places Home and Code at the end of September 2026 within the Frontier program, and Autopilot in an expanded private preview by the end of the month. The announcement also distinguishes between the per-user license, which covers Chat and the Office apps, and usage-based billing for agentic work (Cowork, Code and Autopilot). We do not quote prices because they change and are not exam material.

The AB-730 study guide dated 20 October 2026 adds a new area within the agents domain: perform business tasks by using Microsoft Copilot Cowork. Its objectives are to describe how Cowork helps carry out multi-step business tasks, understand how Cowork uses skills to complete parts of a task, recognize security considerations and known limitations, delegate a piece of work to Cowork and a prebuilt skill, and review Cowork's plan, progress and results.

In addition, in the fundamentals block, one objective asks you to understand when to use Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, when an agent and when Cowork. That is exactly the distinction the new Copilot puts on its Home screen: asking and exploring (Chat) versus delegating a whole piece of work (Cowork), with agents as the third route for specialized tasks.

Code and Autopilot are not in the 20 October guide. Microsoft announcing them does not mean they are on the exam: study guides are updated with a date and a change log, and until they appear there you do not need to study them for AB-730. It is worth knowing what they are, though, so you do not confuse them with Cowork in a scenario question.

For Cowork, the source is the Microsoft 365 Copilot documentation on Microsoft Learn and the 25 September post on The Skills Hub Blog, which points to the AI at Work playlist in AI Skills Navigator: Copilot modes, AI FinOps basics (usage, cost and value) and how agents are evolving with Copilot Studio.

If you sit AB-730 before 20 October, the current three-domain outline applies, without Cowork. If you sit after, the new four-domain one. We explain it step by step in AB-730 changes on 20 October 2026, and you can practice with the AB-730 questions.

If you administer Microsoft 365, Cowork also appears in the AI services domain of AB-650, the new Microsoft 365 and AI services administration certification. We cover it in AB-650: the successor to MS-102.