Copilot adds admin controls and Studio tool support as Office LTSC 2021 approaches its support deadline.

Support for Office LTSC 2021, Visio LTSC 2021 and Project LTSC 2021 ends on October 13, 2026. Organizations still using these products should prioritize upgrades: applications may continue to run, but updates, security fixes and technical support will stop.

• Inventory affected installations and confirm migration plans before the deadline.
• Continued use introduces security, compliance and compatibility risks.

Microsoft is introducing a control that determines who can upload advanced Copilot agents and plugins. Administrators will be able to restrict uploads to specific users or Microsoft Entra ID groups; review who should have this deployment permission.

• Supports targeted upload permissions rather than broad organizational access.
• The supplied notice does not include a complete rollout timeline.

Microsoft has added SpaceXAI to its Online Services Subprocessor List and introduced an admin setting governing access to Grok models. The setting is disabled by default, and eligible Frontier customers must explicitly enable it; review the provider against organizational AI and data-governance requirements before opting in.

• The setting is under AI providers operating as Microsoft subprocessors in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Subprocessor listing alone does not enable SpaceXAI or mean it processes your organization's data.

Browser-use controls for Copilot Cowork are available in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with more granular access rolling out from mid-September. Administrators can enable the capability for selected users or security groups rather than only tenant-wide, supporting controlled pilots before wider deployment.

• Worldwide general availability rollout begins in mid-September 2026.
• Review pilot groups and browser-use access before expanding adoption.

Copilot Studio agent workflows can use Model Context Protocol (MCP)-compliant tools, with general availability reached on July 15, 2026. Agent builders can connect proprietary systems, dynamic knowledge sources and custom actions; assess where existing integrations could use this capability.

• Workflows can pass structured inputs to tools and consume structured outputs downstream.
• Supports deterministic orchestration around agent-extensible capabilities.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is introducing Writing blocks for creating, reviewing and refining longer-form content without leaving Copilot. Worldwide general availability rollout begins in mid-September 2026; adoption teams should include the editing experience in user guidance.

• Supported use cases include emails, memos, announcements and reports.
• Drafts can be refined iteratively in a structured workspace.

Copilot Notebooks will let users add Power BI reports alongside files as reference material for generated content. Organizations using Power BI should assess relevant notebook scenarios ahead of preview and general availability.

• Worldwide public preview: late September to mid-October 2026.
• Worldwide general availability: late October to mid-November 2026.
• Report information can ground summaries, presentations and briefs.

A new Power BI report and query in Viva Insights Advanced Insights provides a daily Microsoft 365 Copilot usage snapshot, with rollout completed in early September. Analyst users should evaluate it for monitoring recent adoption while accounting for its data lag.

• Report and query name: Microsoft 365 Copilot latest usage snapshot.
• Includes three months of activity and refreshes daily.
• Data is typically available through two to three days before the current date.

Microsoft is introducing Cowork adoption and impact insights in the Copilot Analytics Consumption dashboard. Leaders, managers and analysts will gain visibility into usage and completed tasks; use the new measures to inform adoption reviews while treating assisted hours as an estimate.

• Includes Cowork usage patterns and the types of tasks users complete.
• Cowork assisted hours estimates additional work made possible using Cowork.

Copilot Studio's Custom Grader Library lets users create custom graders once and reuse them across multiple evaluations. Public preview is available from September 15, 2026; agent teams should assess shared graders for consistent evaluation and regression analysis.

• Makes custom graders reusable evaluation assets.
• Reduces duplicated grading logic across evaluations.

Brand managers will be able to upload Markdown presentation skills to Brand Kit and share them across the organization for use with PowerPoint Copilot. Frontier rollout begins in mid-September; brand and adoption teams should prepare reusable, organization-approved presentation instructions.

• Covers desktop, web and Mac.
• Skills use Markdown (.md) files to guide presentation creation.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is introducing inline previews for supported code, charts, diagrams and other visual outputs. Users will view and interact with this content within the conversation rather than a separate side-by-side code canvas; update relevant user guidance to reflect the changed experience.

• Supports reviewing and iterating on generated content directly in chat.