Microsoft on Monday unveiled an OpenClaw-based AI agent called Scout for its cloud productivity platform Microsoft 365 at its annual Build developer conference. Scout is an always-on agentic assistant that users can name and personalize with ongoing feedback. It runs in the cloud and works on desktop and web browsers, connecting to systems such as email and calendars. It includes policy compliance checks and audit logs, and is available via the Microsoft Frontier program with a GitHub Copilot subscription.

Microsoft has released an open-source standard called the Agent Control Spec to manage what AI agents are allowed or prohibited from doing. The specification helps developers and security and compliance teams define agent behavior rules in policy files. Policies can cover permitted and banned actions, points requiring human approval, and what records to keep for later review. The rules are applied at multiple checkpoints throughout an agent’s workflow and support plugins for major agent frameworks.