Today marks a major pivot point for Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem as the free phase for certain Copilot automations ends, immediately introducing new costs for businesses using Copilot Studio agents and workflows . Simultaneously, the landscape is being reshaped for the future, with the planned September 16 release of the Power Platform 2026 Wave 2 plans—featuring the transformation of Excel data into dynamic apps—and the upcoming transition of all declarative agent tuning to Microsoft Copilot Studio .
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- Copilot Monetization Shift: The grace period for existing agents and workflows built with the GitHub Copilot harness in Copilot Studio ended on September 1. These automations now operate on a consumption-based billing model via Copilot Credits, which is a new, immediate cost factor for many enterprise customers .
- Power Platform 2026 Wave 2 Plans: Detailed plans for the next major update are set to be released on September 16, with a rollout beginning shortly after. A key feature is the ability to transform static spreadsheets into dynamic apps within Power Apps Studio by importing Excel data directly into Dataverse .
- Copilot Studio Updates: Significant security and functionality upgrades are rolling out this month. This includes blocking the use of maker credentials for authentication to prevent unauthorized access and introducing a new “agent node” to call agents directly within a workflow .
- Agent Tuning Transition: The ability to tune declarative agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot via Agent Builder templates will be paused starting August 20 to transition the experience to Copilot Studio. A public preview of the new skill-based tuning experience is expected in September .
- Copilot Experience Overhaul: A revamped Copilot interface with a more chat-centric operation is arriving in Outlook and Teams in mid-September. Additionally, agents built in Copilot Studio are being streamlined to look, feel, and behave more like Copilot Chat to provide a seamless user experience .
