Microsoft Scout

Microsoft Scout is a desktop AI application for Windows and macOS that takes action on your behalf. It reads and writes files, runs shell commands, controls a browser, queries your Microsoft 365 data and works autonomously in the background. Launched on 2 June 2026, it is Microsoft's entry into the personal agent category alongside Gemini Spark and Meta Business Agent. You describe what you need in a chat conversation and Scout carries out the work, with your approval before sensitive actions. Scout combines local and cloud capability in a single desktop application. It edits and searches documents in your workspace, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and code files. It executes shell commands, builds, tests and scripts under a three-tier permission system. It automates browsers, navigating pages, filling forms and interacting with web applications. And it connects to Microsoft 365, working with Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. Two background modes run unattended: Heartbeat performs periodic check-ins every 15 to 120 minutes, and Automations run on a schedule or a trigger. Integration depth is unusual for a personal agent because most of it is local. Scout acts as a Model Context Protocol client, connecting out to tool servers such as filesystem, playwright and WorkIQ, and administrators can disable individual tool servers or permission kinds through Group Policy. Scout does not publish an MCP server of its own. It processes prompts and content through GitHub Copilot and inherits its model catalog, so the models available are whichever ones an administrator has enabled, spanning Microsoft and third-party providers including open-source models. Pricing: Microsoft Scout is a preview feature and Microsoft publishes no price for it. Access requires two separate gates that must both be completed. An administrator enables the Frontier program for the organization in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and a second gate enables the app on user devices through an Intune policy and an admin attestation. Every user also needs a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise seat, at $19 and $39 per user per month respectively. A GitHub Copilot license alone does not grant Frontier access, and Frontier access does not work without one. Usage-based costs for Frontier features are billed through Copilot Credits and vary by feature, role and subscription. The Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite at $99 per user per month bundles E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365 and Entra Suite, and is a convenient way to buy the surrounding Microsoft 365 entitlements, but it does not include the GitHub Copilot license Scout requires. Who Microsoft Scout is not for: teams that need a production-ready platform today, because Scout is prerelease software and Microsoft states that preview features may have restricted functionality and may not be released for general availability. It is not for organizations outside the Microsoft 365 and GitHub Copilot ecosystems, since both are hard requirements. Individuals cannot obtain it at all without IT involvement, as both access gates are administrator-controlled, and Gemini Spark is the closer comparison for a personal agent bought directly. And teams wanting a cloud-hosted agent should note that Scout runs on the user's own machine and acts on local files and shell. Current state Q3 2026: Microsoft Scout remains a Frontier preview and its documentation is marked prerelease. Availability is determined by Frontier enrollment rather than by a country list, and an organization's administrator controls whether Scout is enabled. Scout operates within a workspace directory and cannot reach files outside it without explicit permission, dangerous shell commands are blocked by default, and Microsoft does not validate custom skills that users create.