Copilot Cowork is now available in Microsoft's Frontier program, marking one of the biggest shifts in how Copilot works since launch. Instead of just answering questions, Cowork executes multi-step work across Microsoft 365, coordinating tasks across Outlook, Teams, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel based on a natural language description of your intended outcome. It generates a plan, coordinates tasks, and carries work forward with visible progress tracking, requiring explicit user approval before taking actions like sending emails, scheduling meetings, or editing files.
Under the hood, Cowork is built on Anthropic's Claude platform but operates entirely within your tenant's security boundaries, respecting existing Microsoft 365 permissions and policies. Anthropic is enabled as a subprocessor by default for most tenants. EU-based tenants are opted out by default due to EU Data Boundary requirements and must be explicitly enabled by an admin.
To access Cowork, your tenant must be enrolled in Frontier, Microsoft-built agents must be enabled, and Anthropic must be confirmed as a subprocessor. Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) license can then install it from the Agent Store and pin it to the left rail. General availability timing has not yet been announced.
Cowork is a fundamental shift from reactive prompt-and-response to proactive, multi-step execution, and it's built to be enterprise-ready from day one. This will move the AI productivity conversation from "what it should do" to "what it actually does."
The Microsoft Outlook app on both iOS and Android devices will be adding support for Purview's automatic application and recommendation of Sensitivity Labels based on the contents of the email. With this change, end-users will now be able to see a similar experience to what is already made available in Outlook desktop. Rollout of the feature will begin mid April 2026 and is expected to complete by late April 2026. Please note, the change is only applicable to organizations that have automatic or recommended sensitivity labeling policies with appropriate licensing. A banner will display across the top of Outlook when composing an email whose content matches that of your configured labeling policies. This banner will either notify the user that a label was automatically applied, or a recommended to apply a specific label.
Microsoft Purview is introducing a new Data Lifecycle Management feature that enables admins to apply retention policies or labels in OneDrive and SharePoint based on when files were last accessed. Initially, this will support Microsoft 365 file types, with additional types planned for the future. Previously, retention policies and labels could only be applied based on when items were created or last modified. With this update, admins will have a new “last accessed” option, allowing organizations to automatically delete obsolete data and improve the quality of Microsoft 365 Copilot responses. The preview will begin in late May 2026 and complete by mid-June, while general availability will start in late June and finish by mid-July.
Microsoft has announced the retirement of SharePoint Designer 2013, with support ending on July 14, 2026. This move is part of Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to modernize workflow automation and customization, encouraging organizations to transition to newer tools like Power Automate. There will be no extensions or exceptions after the retirement date. Organizations should review there are still SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows in the tenant, and plan to migrate those to modern solutions such as Power Automate or Power Apps as soon as possible. The SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) can help move supported workflows to Power Automate (but this is pretty limited).
Microsoft has rolled out a new SharePoint list (and library) column type called Quick Steps (General Availability by early March, DoD by early April) to enable inline automation. This Column type will now allow users to trigger common actions. These actions include email, Teams chat, approvals, Power Automate flows, and column updates. This feature respects existing SharePoint permissions and policies.
6. Introducing Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite
Microsoft has unveiled Microsoft 365 E7 (the “Frontier Suite”), on March 9, 2026, as a new all-in-one enterprise platform that unifies AI, security, and identity to help organizations operationalize AI at scale. Microsoft 365 E7 bundles Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the Microsoft Entra Suite, and the new Agent 365, which serves as a centralized control plane for governing, securing, and observing AI agents using familiar Microsoft security and compliance tools like Defender, Entra, and Purview. Designed to move companies beyond AI pilots, E7 introduces a human-led, agent-operated system of work where AI can take action across the business under a single governance model. The suite will be generally available on May 1, 2026, priced at $99 per user per month, with partner promotions and launch resources aimed at accelerating secure, enterprise-wide adoption of AI and agent-based workflows.
Today, IT admins can enable or disable third‑party model providers, such as Anthropic and xAI (US only), at the tenant level in the Microsoft Admin Center. With this update, admins will be able to assign access to a third‑party model provider to specific users or groups within the tenant. This feature will begin rolling out in late April 2026 and is expected to be completed in late April 2026.
What to expect:
Admins will see a new control in the Microsoft Admin Center that allows assigning a third‑party model provider to specific users or Entra ID groups.
The setting will apply at the provider level, not at the individual model level.
Assignments will be enforced consistently across the Microsoft Admin Center, PPAC, and Copilot Studio.
The control will apply to subprocessors and independent processors for all current and future third‑party model providers.
Admins can add up to any combination of 999 groups and users; nested groups are supported.
Microsoft is introducing support for Microsoft Lists as a knowledge source for custom agents in SharePoint and OneDrive. These custom agents can now ground responses in a list stored on a SharePoint site or in your OneDrive. General Availability (Worldwide): Rolling out in late March 2026 and expect to complete rollout by early May 2026.
Users can configure a custom agent to use one Microsoft List as its knowledge source.
Agents can:
Answer questions using information stored in list items
Reference list item metadata in responses.
Provide up-to-date responses based on list items the user has permission to access.
In SharePoint, users can create an agent directly from a list by selecting AI actions > Create an agent from the command bar.
While editing an agent, users can also select an individual list from the Sources tab, similar to selecting individual files.
Important limitations:
Agents currently support grounding on only one Microsoft List.
Grounding on multiple lists, or combining a list with other content (such as files or pages), is not supported.
If a list is added to an existing agent, all previous knowledge sources are removed, and the user is prompted to confirm before the change is applied.
Agents configured with a site as the knowledge source will continue to ground only on the site’s Document Libraries and Pages library.
Compliance considerations:
| Question | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Does the change alter how existing customer data is processed, stored, or accessed? | Custom agents can now ground responses directly in Microsoft List items, accessing structured list data based on the user’s existing permissions. |
| Does the change introduce or significantly modify AI/ML or agent capabilities that interact with customer data? | The change adds Microsoft Lists as a supported grounding source for custom agents, enabling AI-generated responses based on list content. |
| Does the change provide end users a new way of interacting with generative AI? | Users can ask agents questions and receive generative AI responses grounded in Microsoft List data. |