Shares of Microsoft rose Friday and were on pace for their highest closing price in more than 10 months after the company introduced new capabilities for its artificial-intelligence assistant tool.
Microsoft stock advanced 3.2% to $513.77 on Friday and was on pace for its highest closing price since Nov. 4, 2025, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Shares of the tech giant had risen 4% this week.
Microsoft in a blog post Friday introduced new capabilities for CoPilot, its AI assistant, that will connect different tools to build, customize, and scale AI across work flows.
The company said CoPilot will now have a "Home" base where users can review meetings, chats, documents, and emails. Microsoft added that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will also be fully integrated through "Office in CoPilot.
"From Home you can ask CoPilot to draft a launch brief, model a budget, build a deck, or pick up a file your team is already working on, and it creates or updates a real, editable document, workbook or presentation - live for your whole team, not just you," Microsoft said.
The company also is introducing a "Code" capability to CoPilot to let users build their own solutions as issues arise. In addition, Microsoft said it was adding an "Autopilot" tool, previously called "Scout," to CoPilot which will be a "persistent, proactive and personal agent that keeps working even when you're not."
Microsoft said that the "Home" and "Code" features will start rolling out in the coming weeks and that "Autopilot" is expanding to private preview at the end of the month.
"We're reimagining Microsoft Copilot to enable work as it evolves and to help expand what every individual and every organization can accomplish in the flow of human ambition," Microsoft said.
The tech company has bet big on its cloud platform, Azure and CoPilot. Microsoft's capital spending reached $41 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter and $145 billion for the fiscal year and Wall Street thinks investors should brace themselves for heavier AI spending in fiscal 2027, which started July 1.
Wall Street, too, for months has been hyping up Microsoft's ability to grow revenue through Azure and CoPilot.
The latest sign of this excitement occurred earlier this week when Stifel analyst Brad Reback upgraded Microsoft to Buy from Hold with a new price target of $575, up from $530.
Reback said in the research note that Microsoft should be able to sustain revenue growth in the mid- to upper teens with Azure and CoPilot. The analyst added that Microsoft's operating expense efficiencies are supportive of stable operating margins, while its strong cash flows should limit the company's need for outside financing.
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