advance AI-driven capabilities across the Power Platform and Microsoft 365 ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on agentic AI, governance, Copilot integrations, and productivity enhancements. Key themes include expanded agent sharing/distribution, improved content creation and automation in SharePoint/Teams, Dataverse as a core agent data platform, and ongoing 2026 release wave 1 rollouts focused on security, modernization, and enterprise-scale AI.
Microsoft 365 Copilot & Copilot Studio / Chat
- Copilot Updates (July 2026): Over 40 features rolling out, including governed agent publishing to the Agent Store (with admin review), company-wide Copilot Prompt Gallery for tenant-specific prompts, brand kit creation from guidelines, AI content watermarks for transparency, and broader MCP (Model Context Protocol) agent access in Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
- Agent Sharing & Teams Integration: Easier sharing of agents directly to Teams channels/teams for better discoverability and collaboration; long-running agent task status in Windows taskbar.
- Chat Enhancements: Richer interactive answers (e.g., Bing cards), PDF viewing/ analysis in Copilot Chat, and expanded presence in Teams chats, channels, and meetings.
SharePoint Online & Copilot in SharePoint
- July 2026 Features: Natural language content creation (Word, Excel, PowerPoint files and interactive HTML reports/dashboards from site content); conversational file/folder organization, sharing, approvals, rules, and Quick Steps; improved citations, sensitivity labels, and metadata understanding for scoped queries.
- Copilot in SharePoint now defaults to “on” for M365 Copilot licensees (from mid-June), enhancing knowledge management and workflow automation.
Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, Dataverse)
- Dataverse as Agent Platform (July 2026): Expanded Dataverse plugin for coding agents (now in Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot marketplaces); growing MCP ecosystem with 60+ servers, ISV certification for trusted adoption, and “Bring Your Own MCP” for internal governance. Enhanced agent authoring, self-healing desktop flows, and AI-powered governance.
- Power Apps & Power Pages: Modernized experiences, Native Dataverse Authorization (Public Preview) for stronger security, custom tools/rich UI for app-based conversations, and better embedding/Power BI integration.
- Power Automate: AI-powered automation advancements, object-centric process mining (GA), and Copilot Studio-powered actions in flows.
Power BI, Teams & Broader M365/Office 365
- Power BI: Ongoing integrations with semantic models, Fabric apps, and agent skills (from Build 2026 momentum).
- Teams: Enhanced Copilot integration, in-meeting AI toggles (rolling out), and agent sharing improvements.
- General M365/Office 365: Pricing/plan updates (e.g., Copilot for Business), admin controls for governance/cost management (e.g., PAYG caps), specialization updates for partners, and continued focus on security, compliance, and ROI reporting.
