Microsoft rolled out Scout, an AI‑driven agent, to Teams users on June 2 as a limited beta.
Scout appears as a virtual colleague in chat and channels, offering to draft replies, schedule meetings, and pull data from linked apps. It runs continuously, so it never needs a “log‑in” window, and Microsoft is keeping the service free during the trial period. The rollout is limited to enterprise tenants that opt‑in via the Teams admin center; no pricing has been announced beyond the beta.
The feature differs from Teams’ existing Copilot tools, which require a command prompt and operate on a per‑request basis. Scout is designed to stay in the background, proactively suggesting actions based on conversation context. That could shift routine work from a manual step to an automated suggestion, but it also raises questions about oversight and data handling.
For now, Scout is another add‑on in Microsoft’s AI push, and its usefulness will depend on how well it integrates with the many third‑party apps already in Teams.