REDMOND — Microsoft released a preview of its new AI personal assistant, Scout, to Frontier customers in the U.S. in 2026. The desktop application integrates into Microsoft 365 apps including Outlook, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams and is built on the OpenClaw framework.
Scout is described as Microsoft’s “first real personal assistant,” according to Omar Shahine, corporate vice president of Microsoft Scout. Unlike Microsoft Copilot, Scout operates as an always-on assistant with persistent identity and can monitor local road traffic and user calendars to recommend optimal departure times for appointments, school pickups, and dinner dates.
The assistant proactively surfaces information by reading Teams threads, transcripts, and email in the background. It can automate tasks such as rescheduling meeting conflicts, drafting professional responses in Teams, tracking commitments across messages, and sending reminders or follow-ups. Users can name their Scout instance and provide feedback to refine its behavior over time.
Shahine said, “A lot of people are using it to just be better versions of themselves. We all have aspirations we want for ourselves but we just often lose time and can’t do.” He added, “Your company essentially hires your assistant. The whole point of having a personal assistant is that they're working when you're not working.”
More than 3,000 Microsoft employees are already using Scout internally, including over 1,000 who began piloting it under the name “ClawPilot” starting in March 2026. Microsoft’s internal sales organization is now the largest and fastest-growing group using the tool. According to an internal document titled “ClawPilot: Overview and Plan with Project Lobster,” Scout “has organically grown into one of the most requested internal tools at Microsoft” without formal marketing. An internal Microsoft strategy document labels Scout’s first launch phase as “Make people addicted.” A Microsoft employee familiar with the project called that language “very troubling.”
Scout requires a GitHub Copilot subscription and is part of “Project Lobster,” which aims to bring OpenClaw to Microsoft 365 for nontechnical users. Microsoft contributes directly to the core OpenClaw open-source project and operates it in a sandboxed cloud environment with no access to Microsoft 365 data. The company uses security tools including Agent 365, Purview, and Defender, and conducts red teaming and privacy reviews. Shahine said, “We have a process for intake [of OpenClaw] that makes sure we’re protecting ourselves from things like supply chain risk, and also just breaking changes.” He also stated, “I feel good that we’re doing things that Microsoft has a history of doing to run the service and protect it.”