How to get your brand in front of 400 million enterprise customers

Breaking: What Microsoft's biggest AI announcement means for you

Author

Elliot Garreffa
March 10, 2026

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Hey builders,

MCP just had its biggest moment since OpenAI adopted it.

Yesterday, Microsoft announced Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot. There were a lot of headlines - a new AI agent called Copilot Cowork, agentic capabilities across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, a new enterprise tier priced at $99/user/month.

But part of the announcement was a single line that changes the game for anyone building MCP apps:

Agents in Copilot now support "open standards like Apps SDK and MCP Apps" — meaning your apps can "surface directly within chat, enabling live, interactive experiences where work actually happens."

That means MCP apps - the same apps you can build for ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor - can now reach over 400 million Microsoft 365 users.

One protocol. Every major platform. Potential to reach a market of over +1 billion users.

Today we’re doing to break down everything Microsoft announced and why it matters.

The 3 Big Announcements

Microsoft called this "Wave 3" - and it has three major pieces.

1. Copilot Cowork

Microsoft worked directly with Anthropic to bring the technology behind Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot. In their words: "We have brought the technology that powers Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot."

What that means in practice: Copilot Cowork brings long-running, multi-step work into M365. Instead of asking Copilot a question and getting a response, you can now delegate meaningful work - and Cowork will break it down into steps, reason across your tools and files, and carry it forward over minutes or hours while you stay in the loop.

The key differentiator is what Microsoft calls Work IQ — it has the full context of your work. Not fragments of data, but your emails, meetings, chats, files, and relationships. So when Cowork reasons through a task, it's grounded in what you're actually working on.

2. Agentic Copilot across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook

This is the one that affects how people work every day. Copilot now works alongside you natively inside your M365 apps - not as a sidebar, not as a separate mode, but as a core part of how the apps work.

Microsoft's description: "creating, editing, and refining high-quality content from start to finish inside a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or email." It can refine a Word document into a polished draft, improve Excel spreadsheets with real formulas, produce slides in PowerPoint that match your organisation's brand kit and layouts, and draft and refine emails directly in Outlook.

→ Generally available now in Word and Excel. PowerPoint and Outlook rolling out over coming months.

3. Agents in Chat - with MCP App support ‼️

This is the one that matters most for builders.

Microsoft describes chat in Copilot as "the entry point for chat-first creation and execution." From chat, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations directly from a conversation, schedule meetings, draft and send emails - all without switching contexts.

But here's the line that changes everything for the MCP ecosystem:

"With agents in Copilot supporting open standards like Apps SDK and MCP Apps, your apps can now surface directly within chat - enabling live, interactive experiences where work actually happens."

They go on: "From sales and customer service insights in Microsoft Dynamics 365, to custom apps built with Microsoft Power Apps, to partner experiences from Adobe, Monday.com, and Figma, Copilot brings your critical tools and insights together in one place."

Adobe. Monday.com. Figma. These are the companies Microsoft is naming directly as already surfacing in Copilot chat.

Why This Is a Defining Moment for MCP

Let's zoom out.

12 months ago, MCP was an open protocol created by Anthropic. An interesting standard, but unproven at scale.

Then OpenAI adopted it. Then Cursor, VS Code, and the developer tools ecosystem.

And now Microsoft has built Wave 3 of Copilot - the productivity layer used by over 400 million enterprise workers - with MCP app support baked in.

Here's what that means for you as a builder:

→ 400 million enterprise users just became the addressable market for every MCP app. Every knowledge worker inside every organisation running Microsoft 365 is now a potential user. Your app can surface in the same chat window where they read email, join meetings, and manage their workday.

→ One protocol. Every major platform. When you build an MCP app, it can now be accessible across:

  • ChatGPT (850M+ weekly active users)

  • Claude (195+ connectors already live in the marketplace)

  • Cursor & VS Code (developer workflows)

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot (400M+ enterprise users)

The companies building MCP apps right now aren't just shipping integrations. They're getting distribution through the biggest software ecosystems in the world.

📊 Stay up to date with all the major AI App Stores (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot & More)

We've been tracking every MCP app launch across ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor at appdiscoverability.com/track since the beginning.

Right now we're tracking:

→ 235+ ChatGPT apps across 5 regions

→ 195+ Claude connectors

→ New apps going live every week - with full metadata, keyword rankings, and discoverability scores

With Microsoft entering the MCP app ecosystem, we'll be adding Copilot and Cursor tracking soon. The cross-platform picture is getting bigger, and we're building the tool to see all of it in one place.

If you want to stay ahead of which apps are launching, which categories are growing, and how the landscape is shifting week to week — sign up at appdiscoverability.com/track to get updates straight to your inbox.

🛠️ You Can Start Building Today

Here's what makes this moment exciting beyond the Microsoft news: the surface area for MCP apps is enormous and barely scratched.

Take travel as an example.

11% of all ChatGPT apps are travel apps - one of the biggest verticals in the store.

Companies like Hyatt, Expedia, and Voyage Privé have already launched. But most of the opportunity is in use-case specific apps that aren't tied to a single brand.

Think about it - someone opens ChatGPT and types: "Create me a budget for a trip to Brazil next year for Rio Carnival."

That's pure, high-quality intent. And right now, there's almost nothing purpose-built to capture it.

I recently built a travel budget calculator as an MCP app - you tell it where you're going, how many people, what dates, what kind of trip, and it gives you a full breakdown with estimated costs, local tips, and money-saving recommendations.

The whole thing took about 15 minutes using Fractal (usefractal.dev).

I recorded the full walkthrough: Watch: How to Build a Travel MCP App in 15 Minutes

Travel is just one vertical.

The same approach works for finance, real estate, education, HR, health - any category where people are already asking AI for help.

And with MCP apps now distributing across ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, AND Microsoft 365, the reach for every app you build just multiplied.

What a time to build

Its an incredibly exciting time to be building MCP Apps with more major AI companies adopting the standard every week.

As always, drop me a reply with any questions - I read every reply.

Happy building,

Elliot

🔗 Key Links

If you want help building your MCP app or figuring out your cross-platform distribution strategy, book a strategy call with our team at Ghost Team. We've been in this space since day one.