The Week AI Agents Got Real: Copilot Tasks, Gemini Actions, and Claude Cowork Compared

Something happened this week that most people missed because no single announcement was big enough to dominate the news cycle. But zoom out, and it's obvious: Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic all shipped AI agents that take real-world actions — within 72 hours of each other.

Microsoft launched Copilot Tasks. Google rolled out agentic features for Gemini on Android. Anthropic shipped scheduled tasks for Claude Cowork. Three companies. Three different approaches. One shared message: AI that just talks to you is over. AI that works for you just started.

We spent the week testing all three. Here's what each one does, how they compare, and which ones are actually worth your time right now.

Three Launches, One Week

Let's put this in context. For the past three years, AI assistants have mostly done one thing: answer questions. You type a prompt, you get a response. Maybe it writes an email draft. Maybe it summarizes a document. But you still copy-paste, click send, open the app, and do the actual work.

This week, all three major AI platforms crossed the same line at the same time. They stopped just generating text and started taking actions — booking rides, managing email, running recurring workflows, browsing the web on your behalf.

Here's the timeline:

• February 24 — Anthropic announces scheduled tasks for Claude Cowork at their Enterprise Agents briefing
• February 25 — Google launches Gemini agentic features on Pixel 10 and Galaxy S26
• February 26 — Microsoft previews Copilot Tasks: “a to-do list that does itself”

That's not a coincidence. That's a market telling you where things are headed.

Microsoft Copilot Tasks

Microsoft's pitch is the boldest: “AI that doesn't just talk to you, but works for you.”

Copilot Tasks gets its own computer and browser. You describe what you need in plain English, and it plans and executes the work independently — browsing the web, working across apps, handling multi-step workflows. It runs in the background while you do other things.

The examples Microsoft showed are ambitious:

• Nightly email management — drafts replies, unsubscribes from promotions, flags what matters
• Weekly apartment hunting — scans listings, tracks new options, books showings
• Monday morning briefings — summarizes upcoming meetings, travel, and how you spent last week's time
• Job search automation — compiles listings, tailors resumes and cover letters for each one
• Price monitoring — watches hotel rates and auto-rebooks when prices drop

The critical detail: Copilot Tasks asks for your consent before anything meaningful — spending money, sending messages, booking things. You can review, pause, or cancel at any point. Microsoft is calling this “copilot, not autopilot.”

Who gets it: Research preview right now, limited to select users. No pricing announced yet. Waitlist is open.

Our take: The scope is impressive. If Microsoft delivers on even half of these use cases, this changes how people interact with AI daily. The “no configuring agents or MCPs” angle is smart — they're going after people who want results without setup. The big question is whether it actually works reliably at launch.

Google Gemini Actions

Google took a different approach: mobile-first agentic AI. Starting with the Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26, Gemini can now take actions inside apps on your phone.

The headline examples: Gemini can prep an Uber ride or put together a food delivery order. You tell it what you want in natural language — “order Thai food from that place I got pad thai last month” — and it handles the browsing, selecting, and cart-building. You still tap “confirm” before anything actually ships or charges.

What makes Gemini's approach different:

• Lives on your phone. Not a desktop tool. Not a browser tab. It's in your pocket, connected to the apps you already use.
• Works with existing apps. Uber, food delivery, and more — Gemini operates inside apps rather than replacing them.
• Human confirmation required. Like Copilot Tasks, Google kept a human-in-the-loop. Gemini preps the action; you approve it.

Who gets it: Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S26 users first. Broader Android rollout expected.

Our take: This is the most consumer-friendly version of agentic AI we've seen. Google's advantage is distribution — hundreds of millions of Android phones. For business owners, the immediate use case is personal productivity (errands, logistics). The business-facing features will come later, likely through Google Workspace integration.

Claude Cowork Scheduled Tasks

Anthropic's approach is the most business-focused of the three. We wrote a full guide on this last week, but here's the summary.

Claude Cowork scheduled tasks let you describe a workflow once and have Claude execute it automatically on a recurring basis. Daily briefings. Weekly reports. Hourly monitoring. You write the instructions in plain English, pick a frequency, and Claude runs it on schedule — with access to all your connected tools, plugins, and files.

The practical use cases we've been testing:

• Daily morning briefing — summarizes overnight emails, Slack messages, and calendar events
• Weekly competitive research — scans for competitor mentions, industry news, and market shifts
• Friday team recap — pulls activity from project tools and generates a team update
• Daily lead summary — reviews new contact form submissions and prioritizes follow-ups

Anthropic also shipped 13 enterprise plugins alongside scheduled tasks — Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, DocuSign, Apollo, Clay, and more. Pair scheduled tasks with these plugins and you've got an AI assistant that reads your email, checks your calendar, and pulls data from your tools — all before you sit down in the morning.

Who gets it: All paid Claude plans — Pro ($20/month), Max, Team, and Enterprise. Available now in Claude Desktop.

Limitation: Your computer must be awake and Claude Desktop open for tasks to run. Not truly cloud-based yet.

Our take: This is the most immediately useful for businesses. You can set up a scheduled task in under a minute and start getting value tomorrow morning. The plugin ecosystem is strong. The computer-must-be-awake limitation is real but manageable. We've been running three scheduled tasks for a week and haven't gone back.

How They Compare

Which One Should You Try First?

We have opinions on this. The answer depends on what you actually need.

If you run a business: Start with Claude Cowork.

It's available right now. It costs $20/month. You can set up your first scheduled task in under a minute. The Google Workspace plugins (Drive, Gmail, Calendar) mean it integrates with tools most businesses already use. And the recurring task model is built for business workflows — not one-off errands.

Start with a daily morning briefing. One task. Five minutes to set up. If it saves you 10 minutes a day, that's over 40 hours a year from one prompt you wrote once. Read our full setup guide to get started.

If you want personal productivity: Watch Copilot Tasks.

The scope of what Microsoft is promising is the most ambitious. Email management, price monitoring, job search automation — these are life tasks, not just work tasks. But it's still in research preview with a waitlist. Join the waitlist now and be ready when it opens up.

If you live on your phone: Try Gemini Actions.

If you have a Pixel 10 or Galaxy S26, the Gemini agentic features are already there. The use cases are simpler — ordering food, booking rides — but the convenience factor is real. This is AI meeting you where you already are.

What This Means for Your Business

Three things to take away from this week:

1. AI agents are no longer theoretical. We've been writing about AI agents for months. The concept was always compelling — AI that doesn't just answer questions but takes action on your behalf. This week, it stopped being a concept. Three of the biggest tech companies on earth shipped working products. The “when will this be real?” question has an answer: now.

2. The cost of NOT adopting just went up. When AI tools were just chatbots, you could argue the productivity gain was marginal. An AI agent that manages your email, preps your morning briefing, and monitors your competitors while you sleep? That's not marginal. That's a full-time assistant for $20/month. Your competitors who adopt this will simply operate faster than you.

3. The human-in-the-loop pattern is the standard. All three platforms kept human approval for meaningful actions. Nobody shipped full autopilot. That's good. It means you can trust these tools because they're designed to keep you in control. The AI prepares; you decide.

If you want help figuring out which AI tools make sense for your business, that's literally what we do. Book a free call and we'll walk through it with you.

Getting Started This Week

Don't try to set up all three at once. Pick one and go:

1. Claude Cowork — Download Claude Desktop, open Cowork, type /schedule, and create a daily morning briefing. Takes 5 minutes. Our step-by-step guide walks through the whole process.
2. Copilot Tasks — Join the waitlist now. When you get access, start with email triage — it's the lowest-risk, highest-value use case.
3. Gemini Actions — If you have a supported phone, try asking Gemini to order dinner tonight. Seriously. The best way to understand agentic AI is to watch it work.

We track every major AI launch and break down what matters for businesses. Follow @elevatedaico on X for real-time takes on launches like these, and subscribe to our newsletter below for the full breakdowns.