Microsoft shares rise 4% after major Copilot update targets office tasks

Market Jump

Shares of Microsoft rose 4% on Friday on the Nasdaq stock exchange, reaching $517.48 after the company revealed its largest update yet to its Copilot assistant. The share price increase gave a strong push to the S&P 500 index and puts Microsoft on track for its first weekly gain in four weeks.

New Features

CEO Satya Nadella called the updated app a new operating system for work that connects different AI models and workplace tasks. The app now centers around three main new tools named Home, Code, and Autopilot. Home brings chat tools together and embeds Word, Excel, and PowerPoint inside Copilot. Code lets users build simple apps and dashboards using everyday text prompts. Autopilot can work in the background to monitor channels, follow up on chats, and handle recurring jobs. The company also added a feature called FinOps for AI to help corporate clients track and manage their spending on artificial intelligence tools, according to Jared Spataro, chief marketing officer for Microsoft AI at Work.

Background

Microsoft spent the last six months working on this engineering update to expand Copilot beyond simple chat functions and compete with rivals like ChatGPT and Claude. The new version rolls out today through the Frontier program, focusing heavily on corporate clients even though individual users can still use it. Microsoft shares have gained 38% over the past three months, pushing the stock's year-to-date performance up by 6.80% despite earlier volatility caused by world events and bond yields.