Microsoft Insights: Issue 3

Table of contents

Microsoft Copilot

What’s new? – New Copilot capabilities and controls

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Security and Governance

Microsoft 365 Platform

Retirements and changes

Welcome to your April update

Last month, Microsoft introduced its next phase for AI with Copilot agents. This month, we are starting to see what that actually looks like in practice.

In short, the focus is shifting from new features to real-world application. Copilot is moving from something that supports work to something that actively shapes how work gets done.

At the same time, Microsoft continues to release smaller, practical updates across Microsoft 365, refining performance, strengthening security and embedding AI more deeply into everyday tools.

This month includes:

• How Copilot and agents are starting to be applied
• The growing importance of governance and control
• New AI and Copilot enhancements across Microsoft 365
• Teams, security and platform-level updates released in April

Microsoft Copilot

What’s changing? - From capability to application

Following March’s announcements, Microsoft is now embedding Copilot and agent-based capabilities into real workflows. Rather than introducing entirely new tools, the focus is on how Copilot works across:

• Outlook, Teams and meetings
• Documents, presentations and files
• Business applications and processes

This includes early examples of Copilot:

• Preparing for meetings using calendar context
• Supporting follow-ups across Teams and Outlook
• Assisting with document creation and refinement in PowerPoint and Word
• Beginning to act through agents within tools like OneDrive

What does it mean for you?

• Less time switching between applications
• More joined-up workflows across your Microsoft environment
• Early opportunities to automate repeatable processes
• A need to review how work is structured, not just how tools are used

What’s new? – New Copilot capabilities and controls

April brings several practical Copilot updates:

• Copilot meeting preparation using Outlook calendar context
• Copilot agents beginning to appear in OneDrive
• Improved capabilities in PowerPoint for AI-assisted content creation
• AI watermarking added to generated video and audio content for transparency
• Licensing enforcement updates restricting in-app Copilot access for unlicensed users

What does it mean for you?

These updates improve how teams prepare for and follow up on meetings, reducing the need for manual coordination. They also introduce stronger governance and transparency around AI-generated content, helping ensure outputs are traceable and appropriate for business use.

At the same time, organisations gain clearer control over who can access Copilot features, making it easier to manage adoption at scale. Overall, this leads to more consistent and reliable outputs across content creation tools.

Microsoft Teams

What’s new? - More automation, control and communication insights Teams continues to evolve as the central collaboration hub, with several practical updates:

• Create workflow command to build workflows directly within chats and channels
• Meeting notes now available for instant meetings, powered by Loop and synced with Planner and To Do
• Rule-based app management to control third-party integrations by publisher
• Express voice enrolment for improved voice isolation and Copilot insights
• Multiple phone numbers per user (up to 10) in Teams Phone
• Expanded reporting, including calls and contextual messaging insights

What does it mean for you?

These changes make it easier to create automated workflows directly within Teams, removing the need to switch between tools. They also improve visibility of actions and follow-ups from meetings, helping teams stay aligned without relying on manual tracking.

Plus, stronger controls over third-party applications give businesses greater confidence in how Teams is used, while enhanced reporting provides deeper insight into communication patterns across the organisation.

Microsoft Security and Governance

What’s changing? - AI adoption is driving a step-change in security and compliance As Copilot becomes more embedded, Microsoft is introducing more advanced security, identity and compliance controls:

• Passkeys (FIDO2) introduced in Microsoft Entra ID campaigns
• AI-powered DLP alert summaries in Defender XDR (Purview Triage Agent)
• Endpoint DLP Device Health Dashboard
• Advanced auto-labelling in Purview, including overriding manual labels
• Cross-tenant Intune mobile application management and group sync
• Authenticator jailbreak detection improvements
• Security Copilot is also being integrated more deeply, with inclusion in Microsoft 365 E5 (phased rollout from April).

Do you need to do anything?

Yes. With these changes, it is important to review your current security and governance setup. This includes assessing identity and authentication methods, ensuring data classification and labelling policies are up to date, and evaluating device and endpoint security posture.

You should also review how data is shared across tenants to ensure access controls remain appropriate as collaboration expands.

Microsoft 365 Platform

What’s new? – Platform-wide updates, performance improvements and lifecycle changes

Microsoft continues to release monthly updates across Microsoft 365 Apps and supporting infrastructure, including:

Current Channel: Version 2603 (Build 19822.20182) released April 14

Monthly Enterprise Channel: Updates across multiple builds (2603, 2602, 2512)

Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel: Version 2508 updated

These updates include:

• Security fixes across Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
• Performance improvements for large files and real-time collaboration
• Stability enhancements across Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint
• Improvements to file syncing, search accuracy and document handling
• Additional platform updates include:
• Custom OneDrive sync folder names to reduce path length issues
• Increased eDiscovery review sets (20 to 100 per case)
• Expanded Teams and Microsoft Places licensing capabilities

What does it mean for you?

• More stable and secure core applications
• Improved performance across everyday workloads
• Better scalability for compliance and legal processes
• Reduced friction when managing files and collaboration

Retirements and changes

What’s changing? – Microsoft is modernising by retiring legacy features and services.

Key retirements include:

• SharePoint legacy features replaced by Microsoft Purview
• SharePoint 2013 workflows and add-ins retired
• Azure ACS and older SharePoint extensibility models deprecated
• Viva Engage Live Events (no new events after April 15)
• Outlook Usage Report in Exchange Admin Center retired
• Teams Office 365 connectors retiring April 30
• Defender support changes for older iOS versions

Do you need to do anything?

Yes. If you are still using legacy features, now is the time to assess and modernise your setup. This means reviewing any dependencies on older SharePoint capabilities or workflows, transitioning to modern alternatives such as Microsoft Purview or the Power Platform, and checking that any reporting or integration tools you rely on are still supported and fit for purpose.

The direction is now clear.

March introduced the concept of AI-led workflows and April is putting that concept into practice, and after early feedback supporting them even further with ongoing updates across security, collaboration and the core Microsoft 365 platform.

For you, the message couldn’t be clearer; it’s not enough to just convince your team to adopt AI, but to embed it into your workflows to accelerate how your business actually operates.

If you would like help reviewing your Microsoft environment, and making sure you adopt AI in a way that is structured, secure and – most importantly productive – our specialists can help.