Microsoft 365 and Power Platform ecosystems as of late June 2026 centers on agentic AI workflows, deeper compliance governance, and structural deprecations. Microsoft is shifting heavily toward native “agent” interactions—most notably via the general availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot embedded in model-driven Power Apps and the new AI-driven SharePoint List Agent.
On the infrastructure side, administrators face strict deadlines as Microsoft stops selling standalone SharePoint/OneDrive plans to new customers, slashes Power Platform production backup retention by 75%, and prepares for the final shutdown of InfoPath Forms Service in mid-July.
SharePoint Online & Microsoft/Office 365
- InfoPath Blocked Ahead of Final Retirement: Effective May 18, 2026, publishing new or modified InfoPath forms in SharePoint Online is permanently blocked. The InfoPath Forms Service will completely shut down on July 14, 2026, requiring immediate migration to Power Apps or Microsoft Forms.
- End of Standalone SharePoint/OneDrive Plans: Microsoft has ceased selling standalone SharePoint and OneDrive plans to new customers. Moving forward, the standard Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise suites serve as the primary onboarding channels.
- SharePoint List Agent & Inline Comments: The SharePoint List Agent is now generally available, allowing users to build bespoke data spaces using natural language. Additionally, inline commenting and notification support is rolling out for Markdown files within SharePoint and OneDrive.
- Granular File-Level Archiving: To reduce tenant storage overhead, Microsoft 365 Archive now supports file-level archiving for individual items within SharePoint rather than requiring an entire site to go offline.
- Teams Live Events Retirement: Set for retirement on June 30, 2026, admins must finalize transitions from Live Events to Teams Town Halls and Virtual Event APIs.
Power Platform (Apps, Automate, BI, Pages)
- Production Backup Retention Slashed: In a major administrative change, backup retention for all Power Platform production environments is being cut from 28 days down to 7 days, meaning point-in-time restores older than a week are no longer supported.
- Advanced Connector Inventory Tracking: Rollouts in the Power Platform Admin Center now capture the exact connectors and inner connector operations used by every app, cloud flow, and Copilot Studio agent. Advanced Connector Policies (ACP) have reached general availability to assist with managing these dependencies.
- Power Apps & Desktop Flow Synergy: A new “run Power App” action allows desktop flows to open a canvas or model-driven app natively, establishing a dual-experience communication channel to pass variables and inputs without UI workarounds.
- Power Automate Built-In Version Comparison: Power Automate for desktop introduces side-by-side version comparison, allowing makers to inspect changes across subflows, variables, and code actions directly within the designer UI.
- Power BI Component Shifts: The legacy “Visualize the List” button inside Microsoft Lists has been formally retired in favor of native “Export to Power BI” and Power BI Desktop connections.
- Power Pages AI Security Agents: As part of the 2026 Release Wave 1, Power Pages has integrated market-leading AI tools alongside automated security agent features to provide makers with actionable insights for securing employee and customer portals.
Copilot Chat & Copilot Studio
- M365 Copilot Generally Available in Model-Driven Apps: Users can now utilize Copilot directly inside their model-driven business apps to enter data, summarize views, and query information grounded across the organization’s tenant data via Microsoft Work IQ.
- App-Based Forms in Copilot Chat: Microsoft confirmed that app-based form and grid experiences within Copilot Chat will hit general availability in July 2026, alongside previews for custom UI layouts.
- Copilot Studio Multi-Agent Orchestration: Updates to Copilot Studio introduce custom metrics evaluation for multi-turn conversations, automated test-set generation from real user inputs, and deeper governance controls for multi-agent environments.
- Purview Agent Protection: For data governance, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management has expanded specialized tracking policies to monitor, flag, and mitigate risky agentic behaviors triggered by custom Copilots.
