Copilot Cowork browser use – First Look – Vesa Nopanen – Future Work today

Cowork retains getting new superpowers, and this one is an enormous one: browser use. As an alternative of being restricted to what an API or a connector can attain, Cowork can now go and use a web site in your behalf — in your personal browser, with your personal sign-ins.

I in fact examined it out as quickly because it landed in our tenant, and I demoed it this week on the Microsoft 365 + Copilot Consumer Group Finland meetup. Let’s take a more in-depth look.

What browser use really is

The concept is easy, and that’s precisely why it’s highly effective. When Cowork wants a web site to finish a activity, it opens a hidden tab in Microsoft Edge and works there, when you keep within the Cowork dialog and comply with progress by means of chat updates and the aspect panel. Laptop Use functionality could be very highly effective, and it is a nice instance of that.

As a result of the tab runs in your Edge, it makes use of your current single sign-on, cookies and classes — the agent has precisely the identical entry to websites that you’ve if you browse by hand, no extra and no much less. Credentials, cookies and session tokens keep in your gadget.

So: no service accounts, no API keys, no “let’s construct an integration first”. For those who can attain the positioning in your browser session, Cowork can work in it too. That could be a lot of eventualities unlocked with zero integration work.

And it inherits your guardrails, which is the reply to the primary query each admin asks. Cowork drives your native Edge, so it inherits each website restriction your admin already enforces — net filtering, Conditional Entry, browser-management coverage and Microsoft Purview DLP. The agent has the identical attain you do, by no means extra.

Admin middle first – it’s off by default

Earlier than you go and do this, examine along with your admin. This one does not simply seem.

Tenant admins allow it from Copilot > Settings > View All > Cowork settings. Below Enable browser entry, the choice “Enable Cowork to make use of the Microsoft Edge browser to carry out duties on behalf of customers” should be checked — and the characteristic is disabled by default.

There are just a few extra bins to tick on the consumer aspect. Edge should be put in (it doesn’t have to be your default browser), it should be updated, and you might want to be signed in to Edge with the identical work or faculty account you utilize for Cowork. InPrivate home windows and visitor profiles don’t carry your sign-in classes, so browser duties can’t run there.

There’s a minimal Edge model requirement, and that quantity will hold transferring as Edge ships new releases — so quite than quoting it right here, examine the present one from Use the local browser with Copilot Cowork. In case your Edge is just too outdated, Cowork guides you to replace anyway. That Be taught web page can also be the place to examine all the opposite particulars — first-run consent, DLP behaviour, resuming interrupted duties.

The place you run it – and the brand new Copilot URL

Browser use works in Cowork on the net, in Microsoft Edge. Different browsers are “not but”, and the Copilot desktop app doesn’t help it — in the event you ask the desktop app to run a browser activity, it tells you that browser duties run in Cowork on the net.

And whereas we’re on the subject of the place to go: Copilot at work has a new URL — copilot.cloud.microsoft. The outdated m365.cloud.microsoft nonetheless works and redirects you mechanically (MC1454108), so nothing breaks — however the brand new tackle is the one to start out utilizing, and the one to place in your coaching materials and intranet hyperlinks.

The primary time Cowork desires to make use of the browser you get a consent discover within the dialog — choose I perceive and it received’t ask once more on that gadget.

The limitation you might want to plan round

Right here is the trustworthy caveat. Browser use runs solely whereas your browser session is lively. It’s your Edge, your session, your gadget — which is the entire safety mannequin, nevertheless it additionally means this doesn’t work in scheduled or automated duties working within the background. You’ll want to be there.

That limits issues considerably, and it’s the one factor I’d placed on the want checklist ( wink on the Cowork workforce!). A giant a part of the worth of Cowork is duties that run while you’re doing one thing else, and proper now browser use sits outdoors of that.

The excellent news is that Cowork doesn’t simply quit on the remainder of your request. It nonetheless completes each step that doesn’t want the browser — for instance it might probably pull receipts from Outlook and draft the road objects, after which let you know which step wants Edge.

Check 1: letting Cowork construct an agent in Agent Builder

This isn’t the state of affairs browser use was designed for, nevertheless it was means too enjoyable to not attempt.

I gave Cowork the total specs of an agent — and instructed it to go and create it in Agent Builder. And it did. It drove the UI, stuffed within the particulars and constructed the agent from my spec.

Is that this how you must construct brokers? In all probability not, no. But it surely was an effective way to see how effectively the agent handles an actual, trendy net app with a multi-step circulation — and it dealt with it.

And because the outcome, the agent was constructed, with appropriate information sources.

Constructing the agent took lower than 1000 credit.

I’m not saying that is the best way brokers needs to be constructed. It’s higher (and cheaper and quicker!) to learn to use Agent Builder, however this was a check I wished to do to see how Copilot Cowork browser use manages it. And I have to level out that this characteristic continues to be in preview, and after I tried to run this just a few occasions it didn’t succeed on all of these. For instance as soon as Cowork did not find the appropriate information supply, when in Agent Builder UI. The great factor is which you could take management off from Cowork and proceed constructing the agent your self.

Check 2: run the agent, then flip the output right into a report and an electronic mail

I requested Cowork to run that agent, take its output, flip it into an HTML report, and ship it out as an electronic mail. So: browser use for the half that solely exists in an online UI, after which Cowork’s personal expertise for the components it does natively.

That mixture is the precise story right here. Browser use just isn’t a separate characteristic you turn to — it’s another device in the identical activity chain. The online step feeds the doc step feeds the e-mail step, in a single dialog.

Utilizing a extra complicated agent by way of Cowork may make sense in some instances. Maybe the duty entails utilizing a number of brokers after which combining the data collectively.

Utilizing the only agent and creating the html report from the outcome took 241 credit on my check.

The place this earns its hold in actual work

The demos have been enjoyable, however the actual use instances are much less flashy and way more helpful:

• Info gathering from techniques which have an online UI and nothing else — portals, dashboards, associate websites, inner instruments behind sign-in.
• Utilizing apps on behalf of the consumer when there isn’t any API, or when the API exists however having access to it might be a three-month mission.
• Legacy and long-tail line-of-business apps, the place “let’s simply use the browser” beats ready for an integration that can by no means be prioritized. If this works relies upon in fact if Cowork can consumer consumer’s id and login within the third occasion system.

Each group has that pile of techniques that by no means made it into the automation story. This can be a means in — with out a single line of integration code.

And also you keep in management: for actions that submit private information or change one thing, Cowork reveals an approval card within the dialog so that you can approve or reject. If a CAPTCHA, an MFA immediate or an expired sign-in reveals up, Cowork pauses, brings the tab to the entrance and tells you within the chat what to do — and picks the duty again up if you’re completed.

So – must you flip it on?

Sure – in a check setting, after which go and check it. That is a type of options the place the worth relies upon totally on your setting: the extra web-only instruments you’ve, the larger the win.

Simply go in with clear eyes. Get the admin setting flipped, use Edge, hold your session open, and don’t plan any unattended automation round it but.

Work is altering. And it simply received lots simpler for our AI colleagues to make use of the identical instruments we do.

Have you ever already tried browser use in Cowork? What did you level it at? Let me know within the feedback!

Thanks to everybody on the Microsoft 365 + Copilot Consumer Group Finland meetup — nice questions and nice power as at all times. 🎩

If you’re fluent in Finnish, you may examine the Consumer Group assembly recording and Copilot Cowork demos there.

Revealed by Vesa Nopanen

Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen, Principal Advisor and Microsoft MVP (Microsoft 365 and Azure AI Foundry) engaged on Future Work at Sulava MEA.

I work, weblog and talk about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Loop, Azure, and different providers & platforms within the cloud connecting digital and bodily and other people collectively.

I’ve 30 years of expertise in IT enterprise on a number of industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen