Agent vs assistant: what's the difference?
An assistant answers a prompt - you ask, it responds, you decide what to do next. An agent takes a goal and works through the steps itself: reading sources, taking actions across your apps, producing an output, pausing for approval where needed. In Microsoft's world, Copilot in your apps is the assistant and comes with the licence; Cowork is the agent and is billed by usage. The word tells you which bill the work lands on.
The distinction is useful because it's a cost rule. 'Tidy this paragraph' is assistant work - free beyond the licence. 'Research this client and draft the proposal' is agent work - it spends credits for each step. Most people's first month with Cowork is spent learning which of their jobs are which, and the cheapest habit is pushing assistant-shaped work back to Copilot chat.
It's also a trust rule. An agent takes actions - sends, files, schedules - and Microsoft's design has it pause for approval on anything consequential. That pause is where a person stays accountable, which matters more in a law firm or an advice practice than the credit cost ever will.
No - Microsoft's Copilot Studio lets businesses build custom agents, and third-party agents exist. Cowork is the ready-made one inside Copilot for everyday knowledge work.
Per task, yes. Per outcome, often no: a heavy agent task that replaces an afternoon costs a few pounds.
The definitions are the easy part. Whether Cowork is the right spend is a different question.
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