AI Agent & Copilot Summit 2026: Microsoft predicts agent-operated orgs as partners preach user adoption

Microsoft began the latest chapter in its AI journey with leadership changes and the launch of key elements of their enterprise story: Agent365, M365 Copilot updates, and the upcoming launch of Work IQ and Agent 365.

AI and its role in work is evolving, Microsoft partner director of product management James Oleinik told the audience at this week’s AI Agent and Copilot Summit 2026 event. Workers have been engaging with earlier generations of AI tools in ways that expected the person to push the work forward. But Oleinik sees workers in the near future becoming accustomed to delegating work to AI. The difference, he said, is that the apps doing the work won’t require traditional user interfaces. The paradigm of people in front of multiple app windows or browser tabs will become unnecessary as agents navigate between systems to complete work. Instead, he believes Microsoft 365 Copilot will become the center of a worker’s interaction with business systems:

Copilot is our one AI app. It is where we're transforming that knowledge work. It's the one app that employees log into to interface with AI and delegate work to their agents. And there are many of them. The agents are running the business, they're autonomous and driving the tasks seamlessly.  

Work IQ will be one of the key enablers of that Copilot vision by unifying data, files, user information, emails, other communication channels, and business systems. Dynamics 365 CE apps and Dataverse will be available through Work IQ first, but F&O apps are also planned soon, Oleinik said.