After a longer-than-planned break, Kevin McDonnell and Garry Trinder are back to catch up on the latest developments across the Copilot and extensibility landscape. The conversation starts with reflections on recent community events including Scottish Summit and Microsoft’s Fly with Copilot tour before diving into a packed set of Microsoft announcements.

The main focus is the evolution of the new unified Copilot experience, bringing together Home, Code and Autopilot into a single destination. Kevin and Garry explore what this means for users, developers and administrators, discussing the convergence of Copilot experiences, how Copilot Code relates to GitHub Copilot, and why governance is becoming a key part of the AI story.

They also take a deep dive into Hybrid Intelligence, local and cloud model execution, managed execution containers, and the growing importance of balancing performance, privacy and cost. The discussion continues into Agent 365 updates, new cost management capabilities, spending policies, plugin registries, skills, MCP servers and what the future of Copilot extensibility might look like as Microsoft shifts towards a plugin-centric model.

Finally, with Microsoft Ignite approaching fast, Kevin and Garry share thoughts on what to watch for, highlight a number of upcoming community events, and explain why the next few months could be some of the most significant yet for the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem. Along the way there are the usual detours into SharePoint, governance, dancing injuries, and perhaps a few more renames than anyone expected.

Links

Fly with Copilot - Global AI Community

Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot - The Official Microsoft Blog

Satya post on Infinite SaaS Factory - Post | LinkedIn

Building Windows for hybrid intelligence | Windows Experience Blog

Project HydraFusion: Frontier quality via multi-model orchestration - The GitHub Blog

What's new in Agent 365 - September 2026 | Microsoft Community Hub

Introducing the plugin registry - one place to discover and govern plugins for Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub

https://powerplatformconf.com/

https://ignite.microsoft.com/

ESPC26 | Conference | 30th Nov- 03rd Dec 2026 | Amsterdam - ESPC

The first episode after a quiet summer, and the thread running through all of it is cost and renames. Kevin opens with a confession: he spun up Cowork to write these very show notes, it ran out of budget overnight, and once he topped the budget up it burned through 2,381 credits, which
he puts at twenty to thirty quid for maybe a fifth of what he wanted. That story turns out to be the episode in miniature, because Copilot Studio GitHub Harness has gone generally available in August based on a usage-based credit model, and this time the meter runs while you are
still building.
Around that we have another rename and a flattened logo, Microsoft's FY26 Q4 results with over thirty million paid Copilot seats, a leaked memo saying the AI app group has to earn the right to exist, a proper argument about whether 43 minutes a day is still how we talk
about value, and a long run through the autumn events season. Plus AI slop, blue rings, and a festival planning app nobody asked for but made all the difference.

Links:

https://www.howmanyblueringsshouldihave.com/

https://amireallyadualawardmvp.com/

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/copilot-studio-blog/more-powerful-agents-and-workflows-for-autonomous-business-processes-introducing/4542969

https://microsoft.github.io/mcscatblog/posts/copilot-harness-cost-governance/

https://futurework.blog/2026/08/14/microsoft-copilot-app-one-app-new-name-new-icon-new-url/

https://robquickenden.blog/2026/08/copilot-unified-app/

https://office365itpros.com/2026/07/30/fy26-q4-microsoft-results/

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7490143154260701184-rlGF

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maryleenemeric_microsoft-microsoft365-copilotstudio-activity-7485892013830266880-rUJI

Events:

• https://ainativeworkplace.com/
• https://www.collabdays.org/2026-bletchleypark/
• https://www.scottishsummit.com
• https://espc.tech/conference/espc-2026

This week on The Copilot Connection, Kevin and Zoe dive into the growing impact of FinOps and tokenomics in the Copilot era.

From insights at Commsverse to real-world concerns, we explore how tools like Copilot and Cowork are shifting organisations from fixed licensing to consumption-driven models - bringing both opportunity and uncertainty.

The discussion focuses on balancing cost vs value, the importance of governance and guardrails, and why organisations must carefully pilot AI usage rather than roll it out blindly. They also highlight the challenge of helping users choose the right tool for the right task without driving up unnecessary costs.

Useful links:

• Cowork cost management overview — https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/usage-based-billing-manage-copilot-credits
• Cowork Cost Estimator -https://aka.ms/CustomerCoworkEstimator
• Cowork Adoption site - https://adoption.microsoft.com/en-gb/copilot/cowork/ai-user/
• Cost management demo - https://demos.microsoft.com/app/present/6694#/0/0
• An unsuspecting bill - https://www.reddit.com/r/copilotstudio/comments/1ueqedl/woke_up_to_a_47k_bill_after_deploying_one_copilot/
• More on unsuspecting bills - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peter-sabapathy-71a88145_a-post-on-reddit-this-week-described-someone-share-7475913687963467778-xsXa