Microsoft is making significant moves in enterprise AI. On May 1, the Microsoft EC365/E7 suite will launch at US$99 per user per month. At the same time, Microsoft will introduce a research preview of Co-Pilot and Co-Work, developed with Anthropic, and expand its Agent 365 control plane.
E7 is the first new Enterprise license from Microsoft in about 10 years, unifying offerings like E5, Mac 365 Copilot, and Agent 365. The E7 suite is priced at $99 with Teams or $90.45 without Teams per user per month.
Meanwhile, Copilot CoWork arrives at a time when new products from Anthropic have shaken enterprise software stocks. Investors are concerned that Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI startups could undermine established software companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, IBM, and Oracle.
Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, told CRN that these new offerings present a big opportunity for managed security services providers (MSSPs).
Intelligence cannot scale without that trust, Jakkal said. It’s not just IT professionals (using AI). It’s not just classic developer teams using it. It’s business functions using AI and creating agents. That’s awesome. But we also see that without the right tooling, that’s a real risk.
E7 is launching just as Microsoft plans to raise prices for several application suites on July 1. The timing is significant, as Mike Wilson, chief technology officer and partner at Interlink Cloud Advisors in Mason, Ohio, told CRM that the price increase is justified by the added value Microsoft brings to its packages.
Wilson emphasized considering the price in light of technology’s value relative to human cost, stating that the value is clear.
Before E7’s reveal, Wilson said Microsoft must provide AI scaling tools. He noted Copilot Studio is key and highlighted Agent 365 as critical for governance.
Wilson noted that agents will be revolutionary and said Microsoft’s governance layer is a major advantage, crediting Microsoft for strong security and governance efforts.
Microsoft has shared data showing growth across its AI products. The number of paid Co-Pilot seats has more than doubled in the past year. In January, company executives said during the quarterly earnings call that Microsoft 365 Copilot now has 15 million paid seats.
The vendor has also seen daily active Copilot usage up 10-fold, and the number of MC365 Copilot customers with more than 35,000 seats tripled year over year. Manufacturing, retail, and financial services are among the industries leading Microsoft Agent adoption, according to the vendor.
Microsoft’s Security Business Protects 1.6 Million Customers and Leverages More Than 100 Trillion Daily Signals, According to the Vendor.
Microsoft’s upcoming E7 Suite
On May 1, Microsoft will launch the M365 E7 Frontier Worker suite, which integrates M365 E5, M365 Copilot, A365 Intra Suite, and enhanced features from Defender, Intune, and Purview. This combination aims to provide tools that work across spreadsheets and business platforms. According to Microsoft, IT and security staff will benefit from comprehensive observability and governance capabilities for enterprise-wide AI.
Microsoft says the $99 E7 suite is less than buying features separately—for reference, M365 Copilot is $30 and Entra is $12 ($9 for E5 holders) per user per month.
- And M365 E5 is $57 per user per month until July 1, when Microsoft will increase the suite by 5% to $60 per user per month.
- Without Teams, E5 is $48.45 per user, increasing to $51.45 on July 1.
M365 E3 is $36 per user per month until July 1, when it increases by 8% to $39. Without Teams, E3 is $27.45 until July 1, when it increases 11% to $30.45, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft Co-Pilot CoWork
Microsoft introduces Copilot Co-Work as part of the third wave of updates for Microsoft 365 Copilot. This enhancement builds on the original Copilot capability by adding built-in agent features, evolving the tool from a virtual assistant into one that can autonomously complete tasks.
Copilot Co-Work, developed with Anthropic, can manage entire workflows. For example, it can build presentations, assemble financials, and email a team to help a user get ready for a customer meeting. Microsoft is also creating ready-to-use plugins for different scenarios.
According to Microsoft, CoWork uses Enterprise Data Protection and the WorkIQ Intelligence layer to understand user work patterns, relationships, and organizational context. CoWork is currently being tested with select customers and will enter a research preview this month through the Frontier program.
Copilot can complete tasks in the background while workers do other things. According to Microsoft, it can interact with user email, documents, files, and data in Microsoft 365 without connectors, integrations, or data movement. Data never leaves the enterprise boundaries and doesn’t have to run locally on user devices; it instead stays in the cloud.
Alongside CoWork, this third wave of Microsoft Agent capabilities brings updates to M365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. For example, in Excel, users can ask Copilot to create pivot tables, update calculations, forecast cash flow, and more.
Microsoft says Copilot Chat will soon let users create and improve artifacts, build agents within tools they use every day, and enjoy other enhanced features.
Wave 3 also includes the addition of Anthropic’s Claude in mainline Copilot Chat for Frontier Program members, alongside the latest generation of OpenAI models, according to Microsoft. Copilot Chat also offers an auto-proctor to select the best-suited model for a job. Cloud has already been introduced in Researcher and Copilot Studio.
The Agent 365 Control Plane
Microsoft will make its Agent 365 control plane for AI agents generally available (GA) on May 1 for US$15 per user per month. Agent 365 serves as a centralized management suite for monitoring, governance, and security of AI agents, working in tandem with other E7 components.
Agent 365 was first available to Frontier members as announced at Microsoft Ignite 2025 in November. It provides a central place for agent monitoring, governance, management, and security throughout the organization.
Without a unified control plan, IT teams may not know how many agents exist, how they behave, who can access them, or what security risks they pose.
In 2 months, tens of millions of agents have appeared in the Agent365 registry by preview customers. According to Microsoft, the vendor itself uses A365 for visibility into 500,000+ agents across the company. So far, most agents have been used for research, coding, sales, intelligence, customer triage, and human resources self-service.
According to Microsoft, agents have produced more than 65,000 responses per day for employees over the past 28 days.
Starting May 1, A365 will offer general availability of features such as an agent registry and security policy templates for the whole tenant, which can be enforced in the Microsoft Admin Center during onboarding new agents. The registry includes:
- agents built into Microsoft products
- partner agents
- those registered through APIs
Users can also receive reports on Agent Performance, Adoption Usage, and an Agent Map and Activity Details, as per Microsoft, and use Intra to evaluate Agent Identity Risk.
Risk signal evaluation will still be in public preview on May 1 for most Defender and Purview capabilities, although a Defender Protection Enterprise public preview in April instead of May 1 is for Runtime Threat Protection. Investigation and hunting for agents that leverage the Agent 365 tools to get away, according to Microsoft.
With intra features in A365 becoming generally available on May 1, users can assign each agent a unique identity customized to their needs. They can also apply Trusted Access Policies, Identity Protection, and Conditional Access for agents, extending current policies for instant access decisions.
Access decisions can be based on risk. Microsoft Intune device compliance and custom security attributes for agents acting on behalf of users. Microsoft says the goal is to prevent agents from being compromised or misused by hosts and parties.
Source: Microsoft Unveils E7 Suite, Copilot Cowork In Enterprise AI Push
