Have you ever arrived at work in the morning and found that so much had piled up overnight that you did not even know where to start? Unread emails, overlapping meetings. Microsoft has come up with an answer: an agent that handles all of this for you, even while you are having dinner with your family. Microsoft is introducing Scout. This is not just another chat assistant, but an autonomous agent in a new category that Microsoft calls “autopilot.”
Omar Shahine, a long-time Microsoft employee, built his own AI assistant in his spare time using the open-source OpenClaw framework. He named it Lobster. Lobster had its own Apple ID, operated through iMessage, and Shahine communicated with it as if it were a real person. The assistant managed family logistics, sent reminders, and Shahine gradually added eight more sub-agents.
When he presented it to Microsoft’s internal AI team, he ended up with a new job: bringing OpenClaw to Microsoft 365. The project was given the code name Lobster, and the result is Scout. Jakob Werner, a Microsoft developer who was working on an OpenClaw-inspired desktop application at the same time, followed a similar path. Internally, it was called Clawpilot. Within a few weeks, thousands of Microsoft employees had downloaded it.
How to use Scout
Scout does not become part of your workflow as a new panel in an application. It joins Teams directly as a participant in a group chat, reads emails in Outlook, reviews your calendar, and browses files on OneDrive and SharePoint. It is not a feature at the edge of your screen, but a colleague with its own identity in Microsoft Entra that acts on your behalf.
What exactly does it do? It schedules meetings across time zones without requiring you to open your calendar. It blocks out time in your schedule ahead of upcoming deadlines. It alerts you to a stalled discussion that is beginning to turn into a problem. It generates briefing materials before an important meeting. And if you tell it to protect your evening family time, it automatically reschedules meetings that interfere with it.
Shahine named his Scout Sebastian. One day, Sebastian sent an email. It was one large paragraph without any formatting. These things happen. Shahine mentions it because this is a preview, not the final product. Scout also learns over time. Microsoft calls this Work IQ. The system tracks who you work with, which projects are active, and where decision-making is stalled. The more you work with it, the better it understands what is important to you.
The weakness Microsoft is addressing
OpenClaw has gained fame, but also a reputation as an agent that occasionally loses control. One agent, for example, began behaving erratically in a researcher’s email inbox.
Scout therefore operates with limited access permissions that are always tied to a specific task. Sensitive login credentials do not appear in logs or diagnostic data. Before taking sensitive actions, Scout waits for user approval. IT administrators determine what it can access and what it is allowed to do.
The system also includes a so-called “policy conformance system,” which continuously checks whether Scout is acting in accordance with the configured rules. Each such check leaves its own audit trail. This is an attempt to reassure companies that are wary of allowing an autonomous agent into their operations.
Availability
Scout is currently being rolled out in two waves. Since June 2, the desktop application has been available to users who are part of Microsoft’s Frontier program and also have an active GitHub Copilot subscription. This is experimental access for those who want to test the latest features before everyone else.
Access for a limited group of customers is expected to arrive this June, with the full cloud version following in October. Scout will be offered as an add-on to Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 subscriptions; exact pricing has not yet been announced.
Meanwhile, Google has launched Gemini Spark, which is focused more on personal use. Microsoft is betting on the workplace. Shahine says sales teams have shown the greatest interest in Scout. These are less technically proficient people who have never opened a terminal and simply want to have an agenda prepared for a two-hour meeting without having to think about it.
Sources: microsoft.com and thenewstack.io
