Copilot Tasks turns chat into actions

This is the first Copilot feature that feels like Microsoft is seriously competing in the agent race, not just adding a chatbot skin to existing products.

• –Copilot Tasks runs with its own computer and browser, which puts it squarely in the computer-use and workflow-automation bucket.
• –Microsoft is leaning hard on consent and review before “meaningful” actions, which is the right safety posture but could blunt the wow factor if it gets too chatty.
• –The launch use cases are broad and consumer-friendly: email triage, travel booking, shopping, document generation, and recurring reminders.
• –The real product test is reliability, not demo polish; agents are only useful if they finish tasks predictably without constant babysitting.
• –For developers, this is another sign that the winning assistant layer is becoming action-oriented, stateful, and cross-app, not just better at answering prompts.