Copilot Hits 30 Million Paid Seats in Six Months, Drives Productivity Gains at Microsoft

Microsoft's AI-powered copilot tool has reached 30 million paid seats in just six months, according to its EVP Charles Lamanna. This rapid growth is a testament to the impact of agentic coding on software development and knowledge work.

In an interview, Lamanna explained that with agentic coding, Microsoft's software engineers are no longer spending most of their time writing code from scratch. Instead, they oversee AI systems that generate code, freeing up time for more complex tasks such as architecture and coordination.

The shift towards AI-driven productivity has also extended to data analysis, where Copilot is being used by employees in various departments to build dashboards and reports. This has reduced costs and improved decision-making speed across the company.