Microsoft Will Bundle Security Copilot With M365 Enterprise Licences
Summary
Microsoft announced at Ignite 2025 that Security Copilot will be bundled with Microsoft 365 E5 licences. The rollout starts immediately for organisations that already have both M365 E5 and Security Copilot subscriptions and will be phased in for other M365 E5 customers over the coming months. The inclusion aims to remove cost uncertainty as a barrier to adoption, while Microsoft also unveiled Agent 365 — a control plane to manage and govern AI agents across the enterprise.
Content summary
The package grants M365 E5 customers a monthly allotment of Security Compute Units (SCUs) that scale with licence counts (400 SCUs per 1,000 paid user licences, capped at 10,000 SCUs). Microsoft previewed 12 new built-in agents across Defender, Entra, Intune and Purview and highlighted over 30 third-party agents from vendors like Adobe, AWS, Okta and Tanium. Agent 365 was introduced as a central registry and governance layer for the growing population of AI agents, with initial access via Microsoft’s Frontier preview programme. Analysts see the move as a major push to accelerate enterprise adoption, though mid-market and smaller organisations may still face cost hurdles.
Key Points
- Security Copilot will be included with Microsoft 365 E5 licences and rolled out in stages.
- Customers already running both M365 E5 and Security Copilot get immediate access; others will receive access over the coming months.
- Microsoft will allot 400 SCUs per 1,000 paid user licences per month, up to a 10,000 SCU cap.
- SCU examples: 400 users → 160 SCUs/month; 4,000 users → 1,600 SCUs/month.
- Microsoft previewed 12 new native agents across Defender, Entra, Intune and Purview to extend detection, identity, policy and compliance capabilities.
- Over 30 third-party vendors have published their own Security Copilot agents (Adobe, AWS, Okta, Tanium, etc.).
- Agent 365 is introduced as a central registry/control plane to discover, manage, govern and secure AI agents across environments.
- Agent 365 will enforce access controls, track usage and risks, ensure interoperability and help detect agent-related threats.
- Initial access to Agent 365 via Microsoft’s Frontier preview programme; broader availability expected later.
- Analysts say the bundle should boost adoption but may not fully address cost barriers for mid-sized and smaller organisations.
Context and Relevance
This is a notable shift in how Microsoft positions AI security tooling: by bundling Security Copilot with M365 E5 it removes one of the main adoption frictions — cost uncertainty — and signals Microsoft’s intent to make agent-driven security capabilities mainstream. The move arrives as enterprises face a rapid proliferation of AI agents (IDC forecasts billions deployed) and growing concerns about governance and agent-related attack surfaces. Agent 365 addresses that governance gap by offering a centralised way to discover, secure and monitor agents, including third-party and custom agents.
Why should I read this?
Quick heads-up: if you look after security, identity or compliance, this changes the playing field. Microsoft just made it far cheaper to kick the tyres on Security Copilot and rolled out controls for managing the mess of AI agents everyone’s about to inherit. Read this if you want to know how your toolset and governance plans might need to adapt — or if you want to argue for trialling Copilot now that cost is less of an excuse.
Author style
Punchy — this is a strategic move aimed squarely at boosting enterprise uptake of AI-driven security; it’s big news for defenders and deserves attention now, not later.