At the Build 2025 conference, Microsoft’s GitHub introduced the Copilot AI agent, a groundbreaking tool designed to automate specific programming tasks and enhance developer workflows. The new agent can take on tasks like adding features, fixing bugs, extending tests, refactoring code, and improving documentation.
Once the work is completed, developers receive notifications, allowing them to review, modify, and seamlessly integrate the code directly from GitHub. By acting as a virtual team member, Copilot aims to make AI a natural part of software development, setting Microsoft’s developer tools apart from competitors like Atlassian and GitLab.
The Copilot AI agent is powered by Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet model, which excels at handling low-to-medium complexity tasks in well-tested codebases. When assigned an issue, the agent acknowledges with an emoji and organizes its work in a new file, complete with a summary, mimicking the behavior of a human collaborator. This agentic approach to coding enables developers to focus on higher-level tasks while Copilot efficiently handles routine programming work. According to Alex Devkar, Carvana’s Senior Vice President of Engineering, the AI agent integrates smoothly into existing workflows, increasing development speed and allowing teams to concentrate on more creative challenges.
While recent coding tools like Cursor and Windsurf offer “vibe-coding” by generating code from brief human prompts, Copilot’s AI agent is geared more towards maintaining code libraries and enhancing existing applications. This focus on integrating AI into practical development processes distinguishes GitHub’s tool from its competitors.
GitHub has significantly expanded since Microsoft acquired it in 2018, generating over $2 billion in annual revenue as of last year. The Copilot AI assistant, which now features an agent mode, has grown rapidly, reaching over 15 million users—four times more than a year ago—according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The new Copilot AI agent, however, will not be available for free. It is currently offered as a preview for Copilot Pro+ subscribers and organizations using the Copilot Enterprise service. A limited free tier for individuals remains available, but the agentic features are reserved for paid plans. GitHub will collect feedback from early users to refine the tool before a broader release.