a transition point for Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. Microsoft is executing on the 2026 Release Wave 1 plan (April – September 2026) while pushing new monetization and governance. The core themes are AI-first UX across all workloads, mandatory retirements, and price/governance consolidation.
- Microsoft 365 Pricing and Packaging Shift: Microsoft is implementing significant price increases for commercial Microsoft 365 subscriptions effective July 1, 2026, citing expanded Copilot Chat, Defender, and Intune analytics. At the same time, Microsoft introduced the new Microsoft 365 E7 Frontier Suite that bundles Copilot, AI agents, security and governance into a single enterprise package.
- SharePoint Online – Reimagined Experience and Retirements: Microsoft has teased a reimagined SharePoint experience on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, with a redesigned app bar and refreshed start page rolling out mid-June to late July 2026, including AI-assisted creation requiring Copilot premium. Critical deadline: InfoPath Forms Service retirement completes July 14, 2026, and publishing InfoPath forms is now blocked for all tenants. SharePoint Advanced Management adds a new Admin Agent in 2026.
- Microsoft Teams – Monetization and Meeting AI Controls: In Q3 FY26, Productivity and Business Processes grew 17% driven by Microsoft 365 Commercial and Copilot adoption. Teams Live Events retired June 30, 2026, moving customers to a unified events framework. New Message Center update MC1319216 adds an in-meeting toggle to control Meeting AI features like Copilot, Facilitator, and Recap.
- Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot: App-based form and grid experiences in Copilot Chat will be generally available in July 2026, with support for custom UX entering preview. Message Center MC1323266 confirms Power BI data grounding for Copilot Chat questions is rolling out, and the Copilot app is moving to a simplified, chat-centered experience.
- Power Platform – 2026 Release Wave 1 Execution: Wave 1 delivers modernized app experiences, AI-powered automation, Dataverse intelligence, and strengthened governance and cost management. Power Apps now has Microsoft 365 Copilot GA in model-driven apps and public preview for canvas apps, plus new app skills for data entry, exploration, visualization, and summarization.
- Power Automate / Power Apps: Custom tools and rich UI for app-based conversations in Power Apps are in public preview, extending model-driven apps integration with Copilot. June 2026 feature update adds ability to add Microsoft 365 Copilot chat for app users in canvas apps (preview) and model-driven apps.
- Power BI: Two new Copilot experiences are now fully deployed: Chat with your Data and Copilot in securely embedded reports for portals and websites. April 2026 update expanded in-report Copilot on mobile to full back-and-forth chat grounded in the specific report.
- Copilot Studio: Focus on multi-agent orchestration, autonomous agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, and teams of agents working together. New governance features include Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI to track sensitive data through apps and agents, and automatic connector management enforcement aligning with Power Platform without PowerShell.
- Power Pages: Agent API for Power Pages is now available, enabling site creators to build custom chat experiences integrated with Copilot Studio agents. Modernized experiences and Fabric integration are part of Wave 1.
- Governance and Admin: Power Platform admin center now shows a new connectors column across inventory grids for Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio, queryable via Power Platform for admins V2 connector, inventory API, and Azure Resource Graph.
