Microsoft is including its Security Copilot AI platform in all Microsoft 365 E5 subscriptions at no additional cost. The rollout began on 18 November 2025 for existing Security Copilot customers with Microsoft 365 E5 licences.

All other Microsoft 365 E5 customers will receive access over the coming months with 30-day advance notification before activation.

The move is designed to address the global cybersecurity workforce shortage, which has reached four million unfilled positions according to the World Economic Forum. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Dorothy Li stated the challenge is "not just to keep pace - but to leap ahead."

Security Copilot delivers AI-powered agents embedded directly into Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Purview. These agents accelerate investigations, automate routine tasks and help security teams shift from reactive to proactive strategies.

Microsoft 365 E5 customers receive 400 Security Compute Units per month for every 1,000 user licences, up to 10,000 SCUs monthly. This allocation is designed to support typical enterprise scenarios without extra spending.

The company is expanding its agent portfolio with more than 40 new offerings. This includes 12 Microsoft-built agents and over 30 partner-built agents available through the Microsoft Security Store.

New Microsoft agents cover security operations, identity and access management, endpoint management and data security. Identity administrators can deploy agents to remediate risky users, optimise Conditional Access policies and streamline access reviews.

Data security professionals can use agents in Microsoft Purview to discover, analyse and remediate sensitive data risks. IT administrators gain access to agents that convert requirements into policies and assess changes before implementation.

Li said Security Operations Centre analysts have detected malicious emails up to 550 per cent faster using the Phishing Triage Agent. Identity administrators achieved up to 204 per cent greater accuracy identifying missing Zero Trust policies with the Conditional Access Optimisation Agent.

The interactive agent experience, now in public preview, enables focused conversations with each agent. Security Copilot draws on Microsoft's threat intelligence from more than 100 trillion daily signals and integrates with Microsoft Sentinel.

A new enterprise knowledge integration feature, currently in preview, allows agents to access organisational data. This delivers contextual recommendations specific to each environment.

Customers can also build custom agents using Security Copilot's Agent Builder and APIs. Since September 2025, customers have created more than 370 unique agents tailored to their specific requirements.

Li stated Microsoft is committed to helping organisations become "Frontier Firms" that harness agentic AI to transform security and IT operations. The inclusion of Security Copilot represents what she called "a new era of cybersecurity."