What Is the Microsoft Frontier Program and How Do You Use It in Microsoft 365?

Copilot Nov 18, 2025

If you are working with Microsoft 365 Copilot and keep seeing references to “Frontier” or “Frontier agents,” you are looking at Microsoft’s early access program for its newest AI capabilities. This post explains what the Microsoft Frontier program is, when it was introduced, how to enable it in your tenant, what changed with Message Center post MC1181201, and what to think about before you turn it on.

What is the Microsoft Frontier program?

Microsoft Frontier is an early access space for the latest AI innovations in Microsoft 365. It gives organizations and individuals the ability to try Copilot powered preview features and agents before they are generally available, and to provide feedback that shapes the final product.

Frontier lives inside your existing Microsoft 365 environment. You stay in the same tenant, with your existing security, compliance, and data protection controls. Frontier experiences are clearly marked as preview experiences and are governed by your enterprise product terms and Data Processing Agreement.

Typical Frontier experiences include:

  • Copilot agents such as Researcher and Analyst in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app
  • App specific features like Agent Mode in Excel for the web
  • New agents like People, Surveys, and App Builder as they roll out to public preview

When was Microsoft Frontier introduced?

Microsoft publicly introduced the Microsoft 365 Copilot Frontier experiences in an official Microsoft 365 Copilot blog post on 23 April 2025, explaining that Frontier would begin rolling out in phases from May 2025 to eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot customers.

Subsequent posts and documentation show Frontier expanding to additional experiences and to some individual subscribers, such as Microsoft 365 Personal and Family, through specific Frontier offerings like Agent Mode in Excel.

How the Microsoft Frontier program works in practice

At a high level:

  1. Your tenant must have eligible licenses, typically Microsoft 365 plus Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Frontier needs to be turned on by an admin.
  2. Admins control which users can access Frontier features via the Microsoft 365 admin center using the Copilot settings.
  3. Once enabled, users see Frontier labeled features:
    • In the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, agents that are part of Frontier are tagged with “(Frontier)” in their name.
    • In apps like Excel for the web, certain capabilities such as Agent Mode are described as being “part of Microsoft’s Frontier program.”
  4. Experiences may change, move, or be retired as feedback is collected. They are preview features, not fixed long term capabilities.

How to enable Microsoft Frontier for your Microsoft 365 tenant

Prerequisites

Before you touch the toggle:

  • You need the right admin role. Copilot and agent settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center are managed by roles such as AI Admin or Global Administrator.
  • Your users must have appropriate licenses, typically Microsoft 365 plus Microsoft 365 Copilot, since Frontier is a way to deliver experimental Copilot experiences rather than a standalone SKU.
  • For some Office app specific features, such as Agent Mode in Excel, being on the Beta Channel for Microsoft 365 Apps is recommended so that the client can surface these capabilities as they roll out.

Step by step: Turn on Copilot Frontier in the admin center

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center
    Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center with an account that has permissions to manage Copilot settings.
  2. Open the Copilot settings
    In the left navigation, select:
    Copilot → Settings → User access.
  3. Find the Copilot Frontier setting
    Under User access, select Copilot Frontier. This is the central Frontier Admin Control that governs whether your users can access Frontier experiences in web apps, desktop apps, and agents. By default, no users are allowed.
  4. Choose who gets Frontier
    In the Copilot Frontier pane, you will see options such as:Historically, admins could target Entra ID (Azure AD) groups from this control. However, that behavior is being removed by Microsoft per Message Center post MC1181201. Starting mid November 2025, group based assignments are no longer supported here and access must be assigned directly to individual users. Existing group assignments are automatically converted to user level entries during a short transition window.
    • No users
    • All users
    • Specific users
  5. Save your changes
    Confirm and save the configuration. Frontier features will then light up for the selected users as the experiences are available in your tenant and region.

Do I still use groups anywhere with Frontier?

MC1181201 removes group based assignments in the Copilot Frontier control itself. Frontier guidance and several agent specific posts still describe using groups for managing access to particular agents or deployments under the Copilot Control System and Agents page, which is separate from the Frontier toggle.

The key points:

  • The Frontier on or off gate is now per user only.
  • Individual Frontier experiences, like specific agents, may still allow targeting to users or groups on their own settings pages in the admin center.

How users access and use Frontier features

Once the admin work is done, what does Frontier look like to end users?

Using Frontier agents in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app

  1. Users open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
  2. They go to the Agents tab.
  3. Agents built by Microsoft and part of the Frontier program are tagged with “(Frontier)” at the end of the name, so they are easy to spot.

Examples of agents that may appear via Frontier include Researcher, Analyst, People, Surveys, and App Builder, as they roll out in preview.

Using Frontier features inside apps like Excel

For app embedded experiences such as Agent Mode in Excel:

  • Users go to Excel for the web and open or create a workbook.
  • Agent Mode appears as a Copilot powered experience that can build and edit workbooks side by side with the user, using tables, charts, PivotTables, and formulas. It is explicitly described as part of Microsoft’s Frontier program and relies on the Frontier toggle being on plus any app specific requirements like Excel Labs in some phases of rollout.

Other Frontier experiences are similar: they show up in the familiar app interface but are labeled as preview experiences or as part of Frontier.

Benefits of enabling Microsoft Frontier

Turning on Frontier is not just “more features.” It changes how your organization engages with Microsoft’s AI roadmap.

1. Early access to cutting edge capabilities

Frontier gives you hands on access to the latest Copilot models, agents, and app features before they are generally released, such as Researcher and Analyst agents, Agent Mode in Excel, and emerging agents like People, Surveys, and App Builder.

2. Influence the product direction

Frontier is explicitly designed as a co creation channel. Microsoft uses Frontier to gather real world feedback and telemetry from customers, and that feedback informs what ships broadly, how it is tuned, and which scenarios get prioritized.

3. Stay within your existing compliance and security posture

Rather than spinning up a separate test environment, Frontier experiences run in your existing Microsoft 365 tenant and are governed by the same enterprise product terms and Data Processing Agreement. That means your data protection and compliance controls still apply, subject to the preview terms called out in the documentation.

4. Better return on your Copilot investment

If you are already paying for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Frontier helps you:

  • Discover new high value use cases earlier
  • Train champions and power users ahead of broader rollouts
  • Prepare adoption content and change management resources before features hit general availability

Frontier experiences are made available under your existing preview terms rather than as a separate, paid SKU.

Things to think about before enabling Frontier

Frontier is powerful, but it is not for everyone by default. Here are considerations you should review before flipping the switch.

1. Preview quality and change tolerance

Frontier experiences are previews. Documentation explicitly notes that they can change, move, or be removed, and that they are meant for evaluation and feedback rather than production critical workflows.

Questions to ask:

  • Are you comfortable with UI changes and behavior shifts mid pilot
  • Do you have a way to test new features before recommending them for broader use

2. Governance and assignment model

The MC1181201 change means you can no longer use Entra ID groups in the Copilot Frontier admin control. You must assign Frontier access to individual users. Existing group assignments are converted to user level entries during the transition window, and from mid November 2025 only individual assignments are supported there.

This has implications:

  • You need a clear process for deciding which individuals get Frontier
  • You may want to maintain Entra groups for license handling and other controls, but you will not rely on them in the Frontier on or off gate
  • You should document how you will onboard and offboard users from Frontier

3. Support load and training

Frontier is meant for experimentation. Users will have questions, and the experiences sometimes behave differently than GA features.

Plan to:

  • Brief your helpdesk about which Frontier experiences you have enabled
  • Provide short internal “how to” guides or internal blog posts for major agents such as Researcher, Analyst, People, or Agent Mode in Excel
  • Use Microsoft’s Frontier getting started guide and adoption resources as templates where appropriate

4. Risk and data considerations

Frontier runs within your tenant and inherits your existing protections, but as preview features:

  • Review your existing data classification and protection policies
  • Confirm key stakeholders understand that telemetry and feedback from Frontier experiences are being used to improve Microsoft’s AI models, under your enterprise terms
  • Evaluate whether certain departments or data types should be excluded from Frontier entirely

The Surveys Agent article, for example, highlights that Frontier experiences are “governed by Microsoft’s enterprise product terms and Data Processing Agreement,” which is a good model for how to communicate this internally.

Quick start checklist for Frontier in your tenant

Use this as a condensed action plan:

  1. Confirm you have Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses for your pilot users.
  2. Decide which individuals will join the Frontier program first and why.
  3. In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Copilot → Settings → User access → Copilot Frontier.
  4. Change the setting from No users to either All users or Specific users, keeping in mind that Frontier now supports only individual user assignments after MC1181201.
  5. Enable key agents or app experiences under Copilot → Agents as needed, such as App Builder or People, targeting the right users or groups for each agent.
  6. Communicate clearly to your pilot users:
    • What Frontier is
    • Which experiences are available
    • Where to send feedback or support questions

Microsoft Frontier program FAQ

What is the Microsoft Frontier program?

Microsoft Frontier is an early access program that gives you preview access to the latest AI innovations in Microsoft 365, including Copilot agents and app features, inside your existing tenant.

Who can join Frontier?

Frontier is available to organizations with eligible Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses and, in some scenarios, to individual Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers for certain experiences like Agent Mode in Excel. Access requires a work or school account or a supported Microsoft 365 subscription, plus a Copilot license when required.

Is there extra cost for Frontier?

Microsoft positions Frontier experiences as preview features made available under your existing enterprise product terms and preview terms. There is no indication that Frontier itself is a separate paid SKU, but you must still license the underlying Microsoft 365 and Copilot offerings that those experiences depend on.

How do I enable or disable Frontier in my tenant?

Use the Microsoft 365 admin center:

  1. Go to Copilot → Settings → User access → Copilot Frontier.
  2. Choose No users, All users, or Specific users.
  3. Save your changes.

Setting it back to No users effectively disables Frontier for everyone.

What changed in MC1181201?

Message Center post MC1181201 describes a change to the Frontier Admin Control. Starting mid November 2025, you can no longer assign Frontier access using Entra ID groups in that control. Existing group assignments are converted to individual user entries during a transition period, and going forward you must assign access to individual users only through the Copilot Frontier setting.

How do users know they are in Frontier?

Users know they are in Frontier when:

  • They see agents with “(Frontier)” in the name in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app under Agents
  • They can access features such as Agent Mode in Excel that documentation explicitly describes as “part of Microsoft’s Frontier program”

If they do not see any Frontier labels or features, either they are not licensed, not included in the Copilot Frontier setting, or your tenant does not have access yet.

Which admin roles can manage Frontier?

Frontier is controlled under Copilot settings and integrates with the Copilot Control System for agents. Microsoft’s documentation indicates that roles such as AI Admin and Global Administrator can manage Copilot agents and related controls in the Microsoft 365 admin center, which aligns with managing Copilot Frontier as part of the same control surface.

Does Frontier change where my data is stored?

Frontier experiences run in your existing Microsoft 365 tenant and are governed by your enterprise product terms and Data Processing Agreement. That means data protections and residency follow the same rules as your broader Microsoft 365 environment, subject to the preview terms described for these features.

Can I leave the Frontier program?

Yes. From a tenant perspective, turning Copilot Frontier back to No users in the Microsoft 365 admin center effectively leaves Frontier for your organization. From an end user or subscription perspective, leaving any specific program or preview that was required for an individual account disables those experiences once the settings and licenses are removed.

If you are running a Microsoft 365 environment with Copilot already in play, Frontier is one of the best tools you have to understand where Microsoft’s AI roadmap is going and to tune your own adoption story ahead of your peers. Used carefully, with a clear pilot group and governance model, it can give you a real advantage in both learning and value.

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