Episode date: 2026-05-06

Format: Wednesday brief

Runtime target: 9-12 minutes

Agents are moving from answering questions to taking assignments. This episode connects Microsoft Copilot Cowork, Microsoft Agent 365, and Anthropic's financial-services agent templates into one operating question: when AI does the assignment, who owns the review?

Delegation is becoming embedded inside everyday work surfaces, not just chat windows.
Agent control planes help with inventory and governance, but dashboards do not replace workflow ownership.
Vertical agents in finance make review, source lineage, evidence, and fallback ownership more urgent.
Useful output is not the same as ready output.

By Wednesday, May 13, 2026, run a 30-minute delegation-quality review for one AI-assisted workflow. Capture the task, approved users, sources, output artifact, reviewer, evidence, fallback owner, stop condition, and user message.

Microsoft: Copilot Cowork: From conversation to action across skills, integrations, and devices - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/05/05/copilot-cowork-from-conversation-to-action-across-skills-integrations-and-devices/
Microsoft: Microsoft Agent 365, now generally available, expands capabilities and integrations - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2026/05/01/microsoft-agent-365-now-generally-available-expands-capabilities-and-integrations/
Anthropic: Agents for financial services - https://www.anthropic.com/news/finance-agents
Microsoft: Microsoft 365 Copilot, human agency, and the opportunity for every organization - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/05/05/microsoft-365-copilot-human-agency-and-the-opportunity-for-every-organization/