At the 2026 Build developer conference, Microsoft officially launched its new AI assistant, Scout. Built on the OpenClaw framework — which took the AI world by storm earlier this year — Scout brings unrestricted, agentic AI capabilities into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Positioned as an always-on intelligent agent, Scout features a persistent identity and personality that actively adapts to user needs. According to Omar Shahine, Microsoft’s VP of Scout, this marks the first time Microsoft has delivered a true personal assistant experience to its users.
Scout is deeply integrated with core apps like Outlook, OneDrive, and Teams, and comes pre-loaded with skills for calendar management, meeting agenda drafting, and more. However, Shahine emphasizes that the real value lies in the skills users can create themselves — meaning Scout is highly extensible and can be personalized through its open framework. As part of a broader wave of AI announcements at Build, Scout was unveiled alongside the Project Solara hardware initiative, Copilot updates, and a new reasoning model.
