Microsoft is executing major retirements and AI-driven modernization across M365 + Power Platform this month. Key drivers: InfoPath/SharePoint Alerts end-of-life July 14, SharePoint external sharing moves to Entra B2B only, and July 1 marks the effective date for M365 price restructuring + Copilot Chat built into new SMB SKUs. Power Platform 2026 Release Wave 1 is live with GA Copilot features and agent tooling. Cost governance + ROI scrutiny on Copilot are now board-level topics.
SharePoint Online
- InfoPath Forms Services + InfoPath Client 2013 retire July 14, 2026. Forms stop opening/submitting in SPO after this date. No extension option. Run M365 Assessment Tool to audit usage.
- SharePoint Alerts retiring July 2026: New alert creation blocked since Jan 2026. All existing alerts stop in July. Migrate to Power Automate or SharePoint Rules.
- External sharing change effective July 2026: One-time passcode “specific people” links stop working. Entra B2B guest accounts now required for external SPO/OneDrive access.
- New SharePoint experience rolling out mid-June to late July 2026: Redesigned app bar + Start page with Discover, Publish, Build icons. AI-assisted creation needs Copilot premium.
- Neutral UI coming to Page Editor + Property Pane in July 2026 for Worldwide + GCC/DoD. Standardizes authoring surface.
- File-level archiving enabled by default starting July 6, 2026 for tenants with M365 Archive. Opt-out required before then.
Power Automate
- 2026 Release Wave 1 live Apr–Sept 2026: AI-powered automation + agent innovation focus. New actions, governance, desktop flow logging, callback registration, and OCPM Semantic Model export to Fabric (preview).
- InfoPath retirement impact: SharePoint Designer 2013 also end-of-support July 14, 2026. Flows are the replacement path.
Power Apps
- 2026 Release Wave 1: Refreshed model-driven UI now GA, real-time Dataverse for offline-first canvas apps, enhanced search in grids/lookups, broader generative pages.
- Copilot features: M365 Copilot now GA in model-driven apps. Canvas app preview ongoing. New app skills GA: data entry, exploration, visualization, summarization.
- Power Fx User Defined Types GA as of Studio v3.
- Power Apps MCP Server GA May 4, 2026: Agent feed to supervise agent activity inside business apps.
Power BI
- Build 2026 “Agentic Era” announcements: Agent Skills for Power BI (Preview) enables end-to-end agentic analytics – AI agents create models/reports/visuals from prompts or screenshots.
- Copilot input limit increased: 500 chars → 10K chars across all Copilot surfaces.
- Deprecations: Hierarchies in scorecards removed Apr 15, 2026. Legacy Excel/CSV import stops refreshing July 31, 2026.
Power Pages
- 2026 Release Wave 1: Better AI tool integration, security agent features for admins/makers. GA of Power Pages plugin for GitHub Copilot CLI + Claude Code.
- More secure SharePoint integration with site-scoped permissions.
- Server logic + governance controls updates: disable external service calls, WAF managed rules, SAML/OpenID updates.
Copilot Chat
- New SMB SKUs July 1, 2026: Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot + Business Premium with Copilot launch. Copilot built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.
- Free Copilot Chat for commercial customers with GPT-4o, agents via Copilot Studio, pay-as-you-go at $0.01/message or $200/25K messages.
- Features rolling out July: Schedule meetings over chat in Outlook + M365 Copilot app; Copilot sidebar for classic Outlook; summarize PDF/Word/PPT attachments; mobile meeting prep in Outlook iOS/Android.
Copilot Studio
- 2026 Release Wave 1: Agent innovation focus. Reuse connector/API actions across copilots. Unpublish actions when services change.
- Dataverse Admin Skills in Public Preview: Manage Dataverse environments via natural language.
- Business skills: Capture org processes/policies as natural-language instructions for agents.
- Local data inferencing for Copilot Studio + Power Platform coming by end of 2026 for US, UK, AU, IN, UAE. Canada 2027, Japan 2028.
Microsoft 365 / Office 365
- Price restructuring effective July 1, 2026: M365 E3/E5 increases reflect Copilot Chat + AI value. Microsoft moving from optional to mandatory AI utility. CIOs auditing ROI.
- Copilot Cowork GA: Toggle in M365 Copilot app. Nine new partner plugins GA. PayGo $0.01/Copilot Credit. Grace period ends July 1, 2026 for Frontier tenants.
- New admin controls: Unified agent management in M365 admin center. Agents usage report preview late July, GA Sept. PAYG budgets + department billing policies GA in July.
- SharePoint Server 2016/2019 end-of-support July 14, 2026: No patches after. Security/compliance risk if not migrated to SPO or Subscription Edition.
