What Is the Microsoft Frontier Suite?

Key Takeaways

• Microsoft Frontier Suite (Microsoft 365 E7) is the tech giant’s latest innovative product designed for businesses to go “next level” as they integrate AI into daily processes.
• E7 is designed for a “human-led, agent-operated” enterprise and is built around the concept that AI agents are key participants in how work gets done and aren’t simply a tool people use to assist in tasks.
• Tens of millions of registrants have appeared in the Agent 365 registry within the first two months of Microsoft Frontier previews, indicating how quickly E7 is gaining traction.
• Agent 365 is the primary component that makes E7 meaningfully different from businesses investing in E5 plus a Copilot add-on, since Frontier is all-inclusive.
• Copilot Cowork is a new feature that entered research preview through the Frontier program in March 2026 and is rolling out to Frontier Suite customers, though full broad availability across all E7 seats is still in progress.
• Predictions indicate there will be a whopping 1.3 billion AI agents in circulation by 2028, but most organizations don’t have adequate controls; E7 can help solve this issue.

As Microsoft consistently releases new products to empower businesses, one of its newest, the Microsoft Frontier Suite, is positioned to be another game-changer.

Formally dubbed by the company as Microsoft Frontier Suite, this product is Microsoft 365 E7, the first new enterprise licensing tier introduced since Microsoft E5 was launched in 2015. This latest subscription-based product became available on the market on May 1, 2026 and delivers an answer to the specific problem modern businesses face: How do you package and govern an enterprise environment where AI agents are working alongside human employees at scale?

Many factors, such as security and compliance, must be factored into today’s complex business environments. In this post, we’ll cover what Microsoft Frontier Suite actually is, what components are featured in it, what makes it different from Microsoft E5 and why Microsoft built E7 at this time.

What Components are Bundled in Microsoft Frontier Suite?

Microsoft has dubbed its new E7 product as a “Frontier” to represent the future – meaning AI agents will be central to business operations now and in the future. This is the first new Microsoft 365 enterprise tier to be released by the company in over a decade. Microsoft bundles four prominent components in its innovative 365 E7 product, including:

• Microsoft 365 E5. The foundation of the product and ceiling since its initial release in 2015, and, as the core, includes the full suite of enterprise tools, along with Defender and Purview.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot. A product that is AI for work, offering businesses the ability to put intelligence directly into apps and workflows they use; it’s grounded in the knowledge of Work IQ, the intelligence layer within Microsoft 365.
• The Microsoft Entra Suite. This component empowers workers to securely use all apps and AI because Entra enforces continuous, adaptive identity and provides network access controls.
• Microsoft Agent 365. The key feature of Frontier, Agent 365 serves as the “control plane” for AI agents, giving enterprises a straightforward ability to manage everything within their ecosystems.

Priced at $99/user/month, in addition to managing software features like E5, what makes it really intuitive is that E7 has the capacity to manage both human employees and autonomous AI agents. Additionally, as another difference, you may notice Copilot is now bundled in with the suite rather than priced as an optional subscription add-on. Since so many utilize Copilot, many businesses may find this feature appealing.

What Makes E7 Different from E5?

Microsoft describes the Frontier Suite as being designed for a “human-led, agent-operated” enterprise. Its new productivity suite is built around the idea that AI agents are steadily becoming participants in how work gets done. They are not just tools workers use to help them get tasks completed. E7 is designed to support enterprises integrating AI to work across the entire business, not just for certain departments or tasks. Siloing is a thing of the past with this suite.

This is a notable change because Frontier accounts for the fact that AI agents now shoulder a significant amount of work and have become an integral part of how actual work gets done in modern businesses. Nowadays, the types of technologies utilized have migrated from automation to agentic AI and this trend is only going to become more commonplace.

How Does Agent 365 Fit in Frontier?

Agent 365 is the core management component that makes E7 meaningfully different from E5; along with a Copilot add-on, it now becomes all-inclusive in a singular product. Furthermore, Agent 365 functions as a governance and security control plane for AI agents, extending Entra, Purview and Defender policies to AI agents the same way they apply to human users, ensuring your business has all its bases covered.

As a result, enterprises will no longer need to invest in ad-hoc experimentation with AI; they can confidently move forward as they leverage AI to be integrated as a central component in their operations, empowering AI to take action rather than simply generate content. This will alleviate burdens on humans and help work get done more quickly with the same vital oversight humans get. As a result, businesses can rest assured that their AI agents will receive the same governance as their human counterparts.

Important to note: Agent 365 does not build or run AI agents; it is solely the control plane and compute for agent execution is handled separately. For those companies that need to build or run AI, that would be billed through Copilot Studio or Microsoft Foundry.

What is Copilot Cowork?

Microsoft’s Copilot Cowork, one of the Frontier Suite’s headlining capabilities, handles long-term multistep tasks autonomously. It is an AI agent found within Microsoft 365 and is designed to accept delegated tasks and perform as a collaborative team member, rather than serving as a basic chatbot. A key benefit of Copilot Cowork is the fact that it’s capable of handling multistep tasks instead of simply answering user or customer questions.

Capabilities of Copilot Cowork include, but are not limited to:

• Drafting emails
• Organizing files
• Creating Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents
• Scheduling meetings
• Summarizing Teams chats
• Managing projects
• Analyzing data

Human workers can run Copilot Cowork in the background to handle these and other essential tasks while they turn their attention to other important tasks they need to complete. The Copilot feature was developed in collaboration with a partnership with Anthropic, basing it on the latter’s Claude model.

Copilot Cowork initially entered research preview in March 2026 with select customers. It is available to organizations through the Frontier program and rolling out to E7 customers, though mobile support and additional plugins are still completing their rollout. At time of writing (June 2026), businesses that do not have Frontier or E7 currently do not have access to it.

Why is E7 So Relevant Now?

Our society is currently in the midst of active transformation as AI continues to mature and, as a result, we consistently insert it into various aspects of our lives. The business environment mirrors this trend as AI is rapidly growing to become a critical piece of enterprises. Much like PCs and the internet put organizations through a transformation in the 1990s and early 2000s, AI is already set to be a complete gamechanger.

It is clear that the demand for products able to manage and execute AI is high in the corporate environment. While Microsoft Frontier Suite is a new product, it quickly gained high early interest and appears to be positioned to become a mainstream product now that it has been fully rolled out.

According to Microsoft, in the preview phase, tens of millions of agents were registered in the Agent 365 Registry in its first two months. Additionally, Microsoft uses Agent 365 internally and has said it maps more than 500,000 agents within its own organization. The company also indicates E7 is quickly moving from experimentation to active implementation.

Combined, all of these factors strongly suggest there is a huge desire or need to have a secure and comfortable way to manage and integrate AI into daily processes within the business environment. E7 appears positioned to be the next phrase and businesses that don’t upgrade may potentially be destined to lose a competitive advantage in their respective industries.

Is E7 Right for My Business?

If your enterprise is already using Microsoft E5, chances are E7 is a better subscription deal. Not only will you see a cost savings through making the upgrade, you can get more bang for your buck because you’ll also gain access to all the new features. Additionally, you can buy all of your current licenses as one bundled product, simplifying your subscriptions.

If you’re not using E5, but you do subscribe to pieces of Microsoft’s offerings, you might want to transition to E5 as a comprehensive solution with a long-term goal to eventually step up to E7. This way, you can put yourself on a level playing field with your competitors. If statistics are any indicator, they’re all probably investing in these products. E7 can help you advance your security and compliance measures beyond the capabilities of E5, so, ultimately, you cover your bases here as well.

Not sure where to start? Red River can help your organization prepare for AI by transitioning to Microsoft Frontier Suite (or any Microsoft product). We can also help you navigate the licensing and technological complexities to ensure your enterprise has success by selecting the correct licenses that will be beneficial to your business. Microsoft licenses aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution – there is a high degree of customization and we can help you with the selection process to ensure you get what you need and don’t pay for items you don’t need.

What Pricing Options is Microsoft Offering Businesses?

Frontier Suite delivers the most value for organizations already on E5 with active Copilot deployments. Organizations not yet using Copilot or those companies without a clear AI agent strategy are likely buying ahead of their actual needs.

For example, companies that are using E5 but aren’t ready to do a full upgrade to E7 can still benefit from their abilities by purchasing Agent 365 as a standalone license, currently priced at $15 per user per month.

Organizations seeking to upgrade to E7 can take advantage of a launch promotion Microsoft is offering. Companies subscribing to Microsoft Frontier Suite can receive a 15% discount on an annual or triennial subscription when they purchase 100+ licenses. This offer is valid through December 31, 2026.

The bottom line is, by subscribing to E7, businesses already invested in E5 can save money as they streamline costs, since it’s an all-inclusive bundle of products they’re likely already investing in anyway. Everyone else can still choose the licensing products they want.

Frontier Suite Offers a “Holistic Reimagining” for Businesses

Microsoft describes its Frontier Suite as a “holistic reimagining of business” built to align AI with “human ambition” so organizations can achieve their “highest aspirations”. With this new product, Microsoft effectively pushes forward, getting AI out of the experimental phase and puts it in a position to help businesses realize concrete outcomes and growth opportunities.

Moving forward, it’s clear AI is going to expand beyond chatbot capabilities in most settings. However, it’s also important businesses do not venture too far into the “wild west” mentality; they’ll need to maintain security and compliance as they integrate and elevate AI into more meaningful use.

E7 offers businesses a comprehensive solution, incorporating Microsoft 365 E5, Copilot, Entra and Agent 365. Microsoft designed this product to serve enterprises so they can be “human-led, agent-operated” entities. In other words, organizations can leverage AI while still leading a path forward, freeing up employees to focus on valuable human-oriented tasks.

Copilot Cowork furthers this goal by providing enterprises with an intelligent AI team member that is capable of getting “real work” done in an expedited fashion. Don’t have time to summarize a meeting or draft an email? Let Copilot Cowork handle it. Need to craft a spreadsheet or analyze the latest data? Cowork can manage that for you too.

Predictions indicate there will be a notable 1.3 billion AI agents in circulation by 2028, but most organizations don’t have adequate controls. E7 essentially offers a solution to this massive problem because it adds layers of trust to the business’s technological infrastructure and positions them with much-needed guardrails to ensure AI is capable of maintaining security and compliance.

If your company is one of those billions of companies inserting AI into their ecosystems and assigning AI with more responsibilities, this is an important consideration you’ll need to take into account starting now, not later. If you’ve already invested in E5, you can enjoy all these features with the added components of E7 should you decide to upgrade. Even better, you don’t have to worry about paying for multiple add-ons to get the features you want – you can streamline your costs and receive all the products you need.

Microsoft suggests the marriage of intelligence and trust helps define its new product to bring E5 to the next level while maintaining the features and capabilities of this signature product. Should you find yourself ready to move forward, partnering with the expert team at Red River can get you on the right path to bolster your cybersecurity stands and better integrate compliance, while elevating your operational capabilities using AI.

Ready to Upgrade to Microsoft Frontier Suite? Red River Can Provide Expert Advice

Microsoft offers an array of license options to assist organizations in meeting their productivity, collaboration and security needs. AI is quickly changing the landscape and going forward, it will be vital for businesses to consider this factor as they make decisions in productivity and cybersecurity tools.

Red River’s team holds a deep understanding of what enterprises need. Our team can provide the experience and knowledge large organizations need to help them navigate the complexities and different layers pertinent to today’s business environments. In most cases in the enterprise setting, E7 will be a valuable upgrade to invest in for your users, empowering them to gain access to the latest innovations for successful use of AI.

If you have any questions or would like more information about Microsoft’s new Frontier Suite, contact Red River today. Our team of experts will help you start the process and provide support along your transformative journey to assist you in better leveraging AI in your daily processes.