OpenClawafter its launch at the beginning of the year, has become one of the most popular AI personal assistant projects. Unlike traditional AI chatbots, which focus primarily on answering questions, OpenClaw is designed to perform tasks on behalf of the user, such as managing email, taking care of calendar activities, and interacting through messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram. It is not an AI model itself, but a kind of open source platform or ‘control layer’ that connects an AI model to your applications and services.
Microsoft now brings the OpenClaw concept to the workplace with Microsoft Scouta new autonomous personal agent available within the app Microsoft 365 Copilot and also as a desktop app for Windows and macOS. Scout has already begun to gradually roll out to users of Microsoft 365 FrontierMicrosoft’s early access program to test new and experimental AI features in Microsoft 365 and Copilot before they reach the general public.
As explained Omar Shahinecorporate vice president of Microsoft Scout, to The Verge, Scout It is ‘the first real personal assistant’ that Microsoft offers its customers. Unlike Copilot, which is integrated within Microsoft 365 applications, Scout is intended to function as an autonomous assistant always active and able to follow email, Teams chats, meetings and other elements of daily work to anticipate pending tasks. Instead of waiting for users to ask for help, the agent can Proactively take care of routine tasks based on the user’s work context. Scout is based on open source OpenClaw and Work IQ from Microsoft.
Work IQ is the technology that allows Scout combine data, memory and reasoning to better understand the user’s work context. It connects to internal data of the organization and personal data, such as SharePoint files, Outlook emails, and Teams meetings. It also creates a custom memory based on user preferences, habits and workflows. AI agents can use Work IQ to deliver better responses and customization to users within companies.
What Microsoft Scout can do
Microsoft has highlighted that Scout can help business users prepare upcoming meetings, identify and resolve agenda conflicts, and take care of routine tasks without having to enter more and more prompts. Here’s what Microsoft Scout can do:
- Work with your files– Create, edit and search documents in your workspace. Works with words, Excel, PowerPointcode files and more.
- Run commands– You can launch the system command console and run scripts, tests or builds, with a tiered permissions system.
- Automate browsers– Browse web pages, fill out forms, and interact with web applications using playwrighta tool that allows you to control the browser automatically.
- Connect to Microsoft 365– Manage your email, calendar, messages Teamsfiles OneDrive and meetings.
- Work autonomously– Runs in the background based on user-defined schedules or triggers.
- Delegate work– Launches specialized subagents for parallel investigation, code review, and complex tasks.
The use of OpenClaw as a base for Scout also raises security challenges. Microsoft claims that it runs this open source technology in an isolated environment and treats it as unreliable. Although Scout connects to Microsoft 365, the company maintains that access is mediated by your enterprise controls, such as Entra, Purview, and Defender, and OpenClaw does not directly access corporate data.
This announcement comes shortly after Gemini Sparkthat Google announced in the last I/Oyour developer conference. Gemini Spark is also a full-time personal AI agent that can proactively manage tasks and act on the user’s behalf, always under their direction. It is driven by Gemini 3.5 and the platform Antigravity from Google and can work in the background and connect with Google tools like Gmail, Docs and Slides.