Month: September 2025

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What is the SharePoint Knowledge and what does it do?

The responses and workflows you get back from AI is only as good as the content it can reason over or leverage. If your content (data) is not in good shape and healthy (relevant, up-to-date etc) then it “isn’t ready” meaning your experience of AI will be “sub optimal” at best.

This is where Microsoft’s upcoming SharePoint’s Knowledge Agent comes it. It is designed to bridge that gap — enriching, organising, and structuring organisational content so Microsoft 365 Copilot and enterprise agents can drive real business impact, not just deliver answers.

SharePoint Knowledge Agents’ “role” is to help you turn fragmented content into structured, governed, AI‑ready knowledge – so your AI doesn’t just answer, it understands, compares, summarises, and automate by having optimally organised, labelled and meta data rich content at its virtual fingertips!

What is SharePoint knowledge agent ?

If your organisations’ SharePoint intranet is cluttered with old, irrelevant pages or files that simply are not labelled properly (inconsistent metadata), Search and AI tools like Copilot can’t easily find or understand the information your people need when they search. This limits the value you get from AI, because it can’t surface the best answers or automate tasks reliably.

The SharePoint Knowledge Agent is a Microsoft native, AI-driven capability in SharePoint that systematically improves content quality, discoverability, and governance, which are the foundations Copilot needs to reason well. SharePoint Knowledge agent adds intelligent metadata, builds useful views, aligns labels and policies, and even generates workflows from plain language.

SharePoint Knowledge Agent

Microsoft say that the result should be “cleaner, richer knowledge fabric” across your business that raises the “fidelity of AI answers”, reduces manual effort, and makes content immediately actionable.

Knowledge Agent is designed to solve this problem by:

  • Curating content intelligently (helping keep only what’s useful and relevant),
  • Automating site maintenance (removing or updating outdated pages and files),
  • Enabling natural-language workflow creation (letting users build processes just by describing what they want, in plain English).

All of this happens inside SharePoint, making your intranet/knowledge libraries smarter, cleaner, and ready for AI-powered productivity without leaving your SharePoint page. Once enabled by your admin (since it is in preview right now), content admins see a floating button in the bottom‑right corner of every SharePoint page which serves as your entry point into SharePoint’s Knowledge Agent.

TIP:

You will know that a site has the SharePoint knowledge agent enabled as you will see the little SharePoint icon on the bottom left of the screen.

What can SharePoint Knowledge Agent do?

The SharePoint Knowledge agent has several key uses:

  • Context for AI with auto metadata: Copilot can suggests new columns and tags, and then auto classifies files with more meaningful, auto-filled metadata. Copilot and Agents can reason over this data to better distinguish similar documents and deliver higher‑quality answers.
SharePoint Knowledge agent – adding suggested Columns and meta tags
  • Confident, compliant experiences: Keeps metadata clean and aligned to policy with smart suggestions, labeling, and admin controls.
  • an create optimised “AI” views: Generates views that sort, filter, and group documents by metadata (e.g., “policies expiring in 2026” or “contracts grouped by client”) so teams find what matters fast.
  • Plain‑language automation: The Knowledge agent can help with “simple” automation tasks too. For example, users can describe what they need (e.g., “When the document changes or is updated, send an email to the owner”), and the agent builds the workflow.

This is quite simple automation but no technical expertise is required. For more advanced users, this can (still) be done with Power Automate which provides much more control and capability. Worth noting that the automations done via the Knowledge agent “currently” relay on meta data contents only and not file contents.

  • Answers and insights in context: You can ask the Knowledge Agent quick questions about site content and get grounded answers that leverage this new metadata.
  • Dynamic, multi‑turn web creation: Helps “owners” build and master SharePoint pages with natural language prompts, templates, and intelligent section suggestions – turning web content creation and SharePoint pages into a guided, iterative experience.

Knowledge Agent helps improve Copilot and agents accuracy

  • Better grounding with richer signals:
    Copilot relies on context to reason well. Structured metadata gives it the disambiguation and granularity needed to separate look‑alike documents, trace policy lineage, and surface authoritative sources.
  • Higher signal‑to‑noise across the tenant:
    Clean metadata and policy alignment reduces clutter in retrieval, improving ranking, semantic matching, and prompt grounding. Your AI spends less time guessing and more time knowing.
  • Actionable content, not just answers:
    AI-generated views, file comparison, and audio summaries make content instantly usable helping people move from “find” to “decide” to “do” in one flow.

Enabling the SharePoint Knowledge Agent?

  • Availability: Knowledge Agent is now available in Public Preview via “tenant‑level opt‑in” for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.It can be enabled at site level or across all sites. This is only via PowerShell today, but I expect a UI to come soon.

Common Questions

  • Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses? Yes – Users need a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license to use this feature.
  • Is this only about metadata? No — this is about creating AI‑ready content end to end: intelligent metadata, compliant labeling, actionable views, guided page creation, and plain‑language automation.
  • How to I enable the Knowledge Agent? Microsoft have provided a guide and instructions on how to enable the agent via PowerShell. You can access this here: https://aka.ms/KnowledgeAgentOptIn
  • Will this reduce manual tagging? Yes — the agent suggests and autofills columns based on content and user input, cutting manual effort dramatically.
  • How does this improve Copilot answers? Cleaner, richer metadata gives Copilot the context to distinguish similar documents and ground responses to authoritative content.
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Beyond OpenAI: Microsoft Copilot add Claude support

Microsoft has started to broaden their AI horizons by adding their first (not Open AI) model into Copilot.

Microsoft are integrating Anthropic’s Claude models into Microsoft 365 Copilot which marks a significant pivot from their exclusive OpenAI-centric approach. Microsoft are also working on their models which we already see on Copilot Plus PCs which will at some point make their way to Copilot.

This move is more than just a new menu option or toggle, it is part of their strategic play to diversify AI capabilities and reduce dependency on a single vendor.

Claude Opus and Sonnet in Copilot.

Claude Opus 4.1 and Sonnet 4 are now available to commercial Frontier Copilot users, (Corporate early adoptors) offering, for the first time, alternatives to Open AI’s GPT models for agents in Copilot Studio and also for their Researcher Agent.

Copilot Studio Model Selector (preview)

It’s worth noting that enabling access does require admin approval. See later.

In the formal annoucement, Microsoft said that Anthropic’s models will unlock “more powerful experiences” for users.

Using Claude in Microsoft Researcher Agent – Via Copilot Chat.

Claude is not new to Copilot, but not new to Copilot AI. Claude is already available (along with other AI models) are already embedded in Visual Studio and Azure AI alongside Google’s AI and Elon Musk’s Grok. This is, however the first time Copilot launch that we have seen non-OpenAI models powering Copilot.

Why This Matters

Microsoft’s shift to leveraging different models reflects a broader trend. Microsoft’s message here is that Copilot is no longer about a single model or even vendor, bit more about orchestration, choice, and adaptability.

Different models have different areas of excellence and this sets the foundations for Microsoft to give flexibilityto tailor and tune AI experiences to specific business needs  using the most appropriate model for the task.

It does, however, raise questions around governance, model performance, and cost. With multiple models in play, we don’t really know how the future of pricing will work if multi model is the future for Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Data Sovereignty and Multi-Model Concerns?

One question I’m already seeing is around Microsoft’s boundary of trust and responsibility, something Microsoft boast around with their Microsoft 365 portfolio.

While the flexibility of multi-model AI is compelling, the question is does it introduce new considerations around data residency and compliance when multi models are being used?

To address that, Microsoft has confirmed that these Claude models run within its Azure AI infrastructure, but states that are not Microsoft-owned. This means that when users “opt to” use Claude, their prompts and responses may be processed by Anthropic’s models hosted within Microsoft’s environment.

This means that when organisations choose to use Anthropic models, they are using these under Anthropic’s Commercial Terms of Service, not the consumer user terms.

For regulated industries or organisations with strict data governance policies, this is likely to raises a few red flags or at least questions that Microsoft will need to be able to answer.

  • Data Boundary Clarity: Is the data staying within Microsoft’s compliance boundary, or is it crossing into Anthropic’s operational domain? If so what does this mean for data compliance and security?
  • Model-Specific Logging: Are logs and telemetry handled differently across models? Can organisations audit usage per model? How is encrypted data handled?
  • Privacy and Consent: Are users aware when their data is being processed by a non-Microsoft model? Is consent granular enough? Will users understand even if Microsoft tell them?

Again, Microsoft has stated that Claude models are “fully integrated” into the Microsoft 365 compliance framework, but organisations will still want to (and should) validate this against their own risk posture – especially where sensitive or regulated data is involved.

Enabling Claude models in Copilot.

To enable the models, your Microsoft 365 Admin needs to head over to the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and enable access to the other models. Instructions for this are shown in the link below.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/connect-to-ai-models?s=09

Microsoft Message Centre annoucement: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/?#/MessageCenter/:/messages/MC1158765?MCLinkSource=DigestMail

Thoughts.

This is a smart move I think. Microsoft is playing the long game — moving their eggs out of one basket and looking a different models that made most economic and performance sense and brining more choice to agent builders.

For those of us partners like us at Cisilion, advising clients on AI adoption, this reinforces the need to think modularly. When building agents, don’t just pick a model – pick a framework that allows you to evolve. Microsoft’s Copilot is becoming that framework and that should be good for business.

I do expect this is just the start. We know Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI is “less properpous” that it once was. As such I do expect more models, more integrations, and more choice and I do think we will see Microsoft’s own models making their way to Copilot soon.

But with choice comes complexity. We need to ensure that governance, transparency, and user education keep pace with innovation. Again partners will need to help customers navigate this.

What do you think. Is this a good move for Microsoft and their customers?

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What is Cisco’s Sovereign Critical Infrastructure?

Cisco yesterday announced what they referred to as a “significant milestone” in Europe’s journey toward digital sovereignty.

Their Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio is a comprehensive, air-gapped solution designed to give European organisations full control over their digital environments – from infrastructure, through collaboration, through to data.

This will be available from the end of this month (September 2025).

Why Sovereignty Matters?

The concept of digital sovereignty is not new, but its urgency has accelerated due to the increasing geopolitical tensions, evolving compliance frameworks, and the rise of AI-powered infrastructure. Some organisations across Europe – ranging from governments to banks and healthcare providers are looking for more ways to obtain better more autonomy and control over all or aspects of their IT environments, expecially in fields such as research and development or for high wealth clients etc.

You may recall, Microsoft announced their Sovereign Cloud offering for Microsoft 365 and Azure “local” earlier this year.

The technology will enable organisations to formally meet compliance requirements by delivering solutions aligned with key foundational, EU and country certifications and standards and ultimately achieving the new European Union Cybersecurity Certification (EUCC).

Is this just on-prem Data Centers?

Yes… but no. Cisco’s new offering is not just about hosting data and compute services locally; it’s about owning the infrastructure, managing encryption, and ensuring operational resilience without external dependencies. The other important aspect is the infrastructure is managed in the same fluid ways that cloud infrastructure is managed rather than the trabdiotnal ways of managing and patching applications and updates that were familiar in on premises environments.

It will enable organisations to deploy hybrid or on premises solutions aligned with key foundational, EU and country certifications and standards and ultimately achieving the new European Union Cybersecurity Certification (EUCC).

What does Cisco’s  Sovereign Infrastructure include?

This infrastructure portfolio includes:

  • Configurable and Air-Gapped: Customers will be able to deploy the infrastructure on-premises, with full control over licensing and encryption. Cisco cannot remotely disable or update products — a major shift in trust and control.
  • Compliance-Ready: The portfolio aligns with EU and country-specific certifications, including IPv6-readiness, Common Criteria, and a roadmap toward the EU Cybersecurity Certification (EUCC).
  • Broad Coverage: It will span routing, switching, wireless, collaboration, and select endpoint devices. It will be enhanced by Cisco and Splunk’s end to end security and observability solutions.

Strategic Business Enablement

What is important to take away here is that this is not just a new product announcement. For many EU organisations it will be seen as a niche buisness enabler.

For organisations needing or wanting to  navigate true hybrid environments, address increasing regulatory pressures, and manage AI adoption, model training and AI R&D for closed systems, Cisco’s Sovereign Critical Infrastructure offers a flexible foundation for building secure, compliant, and future-ready AI and digital estates.

IDC’s commentary on this shares that they are seeing huge increases in spend (across KEY European counties) on on-premises DC infrastructure which is reinforces this shift. They say that on-prem IT is now commanding the majority of IT budgets across parts of Europe despite the overall continual rise of hybrid and cloud services models.

“On-prem IT still requires connectivity. Here the importance of network sovereignty cannot be underestimated, especially for organizations responsible for critical national infrastructure. Operational resilience is key for these organizations, who seek the extra controls, protections, and autonomy that genuine digital sovereignty solutions can bring. This is especially true when it comes to network sovereignty—a challenge that few network infrastructure providers thus far have been able to address.” | IDC

Sovereignty, especially in networking, in these scenarios is essential.

Closing thoughts

Cisco’s goal is to better enable European organisations to build infrastructure that uniquely aligned to their needs whether that is hybrid cloud or descretely on-premises. The platform promises not only secure and compliant infrastructure services but also benefits from modern management, resilient and autonomous operations which is a critical capability in the AI and digitial transformation era.

More reading and source: https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2025/m09/cisco-announces-sovereign-critical-infrastructure-portfolio.html

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Microsoft Power Platform Licensing Guide

Microsoft have made their monthly-updated Power Platform Licensing Deck publicly available. Now, you might think this is not worthy of a blog post, but for many organisations, this information has always been hidden away meaning organisations had to talk to Microsoft or their licensing / support partner to “understand” how Power Platform is licensed against a bunch of different scenarios.

The guides (see below) include a couple of slides on each of the Power Platform products which gives a nice overview of the products, licensing, and comparisons between the different ways of using, consuming, and purchasing.

Links to these are below for your consumption.

Click to access Power-Platform-Licensing-Deck-September-2025.pdf

Click to access Power-Platform-Licensing-Guide-September-2025-PUB-V2.pdf

What is Microsoft Power Platform?

Power Platform refers to a suite of “Low-Code” Microsoft Products aimed to help “builders” create integrated and autonomous workflows, build apps, create agents and web-pages, as well as create adn manage data sets and AI powered applications etc.

What is Low Code?

Low code is a way of building business applications and automations using simple, visual tools -like drag-and-drop interfaces – instead of traditional, complex computer programming. Low Code development allows people who aren’t professional software developers to create apps, automate processes, and solve business problems quickly, often just by clicking, selecting, and configuring options or (with Copilot) by using “prompts”, rather than writing lots of code. It can help make digital transformation faster and more accessible for everyone within in the organisation – not just IT.

The products that make up Microsoft Power Platform portolio include this up include Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Pages, Dataverse and AI Builder. There is also Power BI for data visualisation and manipulation.

Power Apps

Is a “low-code platform” to build custom business apps quickly, with flexible licensing for single or unlimited apps per user. Ideal for modernising processes and enabling app development across teams.

Power Automate

Enables automation of workflows across apps and services using cloud flows and robotic process automation (RPA). It offers user-based, flow-based, and bot-based licensing for attended and unattended scenarios.

Power Pages

Is a secure, low-code platform for building external-facing websites with authenticated or anonymous access. Licensing is based on user volume, with both subscription and pay-as-you-go options.

AI Builder

Empowers users and developers to build, train, and deploy AI models without coding, using a credit-based system. Integrated with Power Apps and Power Automate; it supports scenarios like document processing and prediction.

Dataverse

Is a scalable, secure data platform that underpins the Power Platform, enabling structured data storage and management. Offers default and accrued capacity, with add-ons for database, file, and log storage.

Copilot Studio

A low-code conversational AI platform to design, build, and deploy custom copilots and chatbots. Integrates with Microsoft 365 and external data sources, with licensing based on usage and capacity.

Microsoft Support Pages

The link here, gives the formal pages from Microsoft for you to book mark:

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Teams in Microsoft 365 is back for good (but it’s your choice)

It’s back!  Starting November 1, 2025, Microsoft Teams is officially “back” in the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Enterprise suites globally, but the choice to have it not sit with organisations and not Microsoft!

After years of regulatory issues, stalls, conceats and negotiations as well as regional licensing inconsistencies, Microsoft has reached a landmark agreement with the European Commission that reshapes how Microsoft Teams is packaged, priced, bundled and positioned across their modern work and productivity suites.

This agreement has spared Microsoft the potential antitrust fine and reputation damage.

The EU Commission decision makes Microsoft’s commitments (which were agreed) binding for seven years and for ten years regarding interoperability and data portability between platform.

Why This Matters

This isn’t just a licensing update it’s a fundamental “win” and global reset for Teams in Microsoft 365 and Office. After being forced to u bundle Teams from Office last year, causing cost increases, confusion and frustration for customers and partners, the change in decision actually follows a multi-year antitrust investigation originally triggered by Slack and Alfaview, who argued that bundling Teams with Microsoft 365 gave Microsoft an “unfair market advantage”. The European Commission had agreed, citing violations of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

To resolve the issue, Microsoft agreed and committed to:

  • Offering Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites with or without Teams globally, not just in Europe.
  • Introducing new pricing tiers that reflect organisations choice of whether to have teams or not have teams included, with clearer cost differentiation.
  • Enhancing interoperability and data portability, which will allow customers  more transparent ways to migrate Teams data to other and competing platforms.
  • Providing APIs and developer tools to support third-party integrations to further promote a more open and fair ecosystem.

In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.

What’s Changing for Customers

Whether you’re an enterprise, medium or small business, the change is synonymous and ultimately gives organisations more choice and control:

  • Choice: in whether you want to have Microsoft Teams included as part of your Microsoft 365 or Office 365 suite. No more default bundling.
  • Transparency: with clearer pricing including reduced rates for suites without Teams Included.
  • Flexibility: Long-term license holders can switch to the “Teams-free” versions should they wish.
  • Consistency: The same options and pricing structures apply globally for every organisation across every region, meaning and end to regional licensing differences and rules.

In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.

Strategic Implications.

For organisations globally, this is a opportunity to reassess their productivity and collaboration strategy.

The global unbundling option opens the door to hybrid environments where Teams coexists across the business or departments meaning it’s more cost effective (IT integrations and support aside) to have multiple collaboration platforms such as to Slack, Zoom, or Webex for example.

Microsoft’s commitment to interoperability means third-party tools can now also fully embed Office Web Apps and access Teams-like functionality without being locked into the Microsoft stack or needed cumberson plug-ins which break the user interface and confuse users.

From a licensing perspective, this should also simplify procurement and renewals. There will be no more navigating region-specific bundles or opaque pricing.

For developers, the expanded API access is also a win and should help with line of business integration and interoperability across the board.

In short. The decision is “do you want Microsoft 365 with Teams or without“.

Talk to your Microsoft Partner

If you’re navigating Microsoft licensing or wondering how this impacts can positively impact your business come talk to your Microsoft Partner.

Whether you’re rethinking your collaboration  strategy, looking to better understand and optimise your licensing or need help with technology deployment, adoption or training, we can help.

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Microsoft Copilot Consumer brings Memory Management and Google Drive Integration

Microsoft Copilot is adding with two new major updates (this time for the consumer experience) that bring it closer to the more personalised AI experience users have been asking and waiting for.

Copilot Memory Management

One of the biggest asks for the consumer version of  Copilot has been its lack of persistent memory, something that ChatGPT and Microsoft 365 Copilot have both had for a little while.

Memory is one of the key features helps makes AI feel much more personal and it’s finally coming to the Copilot Consumer experience that you use via the Windows App, mobile app and at https://copilot.microsoft.com.

A new Manage Memory feature within the Copilot profile tab is now starting to roll out which allows users to tell Copilot to specifically “remember this.”

Copilot Memory

Right now, unlike the Microsoft 365 Copilot version, there is not a way to view or edit your saved memories, but there is an option, via Privacy settings, to delete them and essentially “start over”.

Copilot Memory Management in Copilot Consumer

Think of this as resetting your TV and having to add all your favourite apps and channels again!

Microsoft have confirmed however that full memory management interface is coming soon, similar to what Microsoft 365 Copilot and ChatGPT has. This will eventually allow users to add, edit

Personally, Memory Management will make a huge different to how we work with Copilot and helps ensure greater user control and transparency.

Third Party App Integration.

Microsoft is also expanding their Connectors Ecosystem, which is what is used to connect and integrate third-party services. Support for Microsoft apps and services such as OneDrive is already supported, but they are now testing with Insiders Google Drive integration.

Integration into OneDrive and *soon* Google Drive means users will be able to do such things as:

  • Ask Copilot to read files or folders from users OneDrive or  Google Drive
  • Generate summaries, create reports and other content on your data stored in cloud drive
  • Access and leverage OneDrive and soon Google Drive data in workflows across the web, Windows 11 app and mobile.

This builds on the existing ChatGPT-style connectors framework and opens the door for broader integrations in future. Microsoft is not new to having extensive open API connection to their apps and services so watch out for more native connectors coming your way soon!

Great for Consumers

These updates signal Microsoft’s continued innovation in their AI services and commitment to make Copilot a more intelligent, connected, and user-centric assistant.

For professionals, students and general users alike, the ability to manage memory and connect to third party cloud services like Google Drive will unlock new productivity scenarios.

As someone who’s personally deeply invested and embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, I see this as a positive move – but one that must be backed by clear user controls, privacy safeguards, and cross-platform consistency.

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Copilot Chat comes to Enterprise Office Apps for all

Microsoft is in the process of Copilotizing Business / Enterprise versions of your Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote) even for users that don’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot License.

Microsoft say that “These updates help make Copilot your true personal AI assistant for work: Whether you’re drafting a document, analyzing a spreadsheet, or catching up on email, Copilot is right there, ready to answer questions, create content, spark ideas, and automate tasks. Here’s what’s new.”

Copilot Chat Interface

This familiar Copilot sidebar will understand the context of your open files, document, PowerPoint or spreadsheet and helps to draft, summarise, analyse, and brainstorm without having to switch apps or leaving your app.

Copilot Chat in Office

Microsoft is introducing a persistent Copilot Chat pane in the ribbon of all it’s core Microsoft 365 Office apps. It will be be:

  • Fully  integrated and content-aware, meaning it will tailors responses based on your current open file.
  • Including in the Core Microsoft 365 license (no specific Microsoft 365 Copilot license required).
  • Will have the ability draft, summarise, assist with content and formulas and of course create and rewrite content.
  • Front and centre to your apps removing (Microsoft hope) the need to deploy other “free” AI plugins such as GPT free which might inadvertently share sensitive data outside your organisation. This is key for organisational compliance, governance and privacy.

How it differs from the Microsoft 365 Copilot license?

The “premium” Microsoft 365 Copilot licence still offers all the advanced capabilities that Microsoft 365 Copilot provides today including file and image upload, image generation, and  cross-document reasoning, as well as (most importantly), organisational awareness and acess to the Microsoft Graph API (meaning you can search across docs, meetings, people, email). It also provides the  deeper analysis tools and custom agents such as Analyst and Researcher.

Why This matters

This brings a number of benefits to users and organisations. Including:

  • Streamlined workflows: Users can draft or revise text in Office without opening a browser or switching apps.
  • Instant insights: Since users can ask Copilot to analyse data ranges, identify trends, or generate pivot tables in Excel. 
  • Faster presentations: Users can get help from Copilot to build outlines, suggest visuals, or transform bullet points into speaker notes in PowerPoint. 
  • Email productivity: By using Copilot in Outlook to summarise long threads, draft replies, or extract action items in seconds. 
  • A Unified experience: Above all, all users get a single AI assistant across their core Office apps. This helps with training, reduces pressure to deploy 3rd party plugins and aids support.
  • Compliance and Governance: keeps data secure knowing that no data is shared online or used to train AI models – a huge risk organisations face when using “free” AI tools such as Gemini or GPT free.

Under the hood: How Copilot Chat works

Context awareness 

Copilot Chat works by reading the contents and metadata of your open document in real time, so it knows what you’re working on—even titles, headings, tables, and comments. 

Secure Processing

Queries are processed within Microsoft’s trusted cloud environment. No data or prompts ever leaves your organisations compliance boundaries or is used to train Microsoft or OpenAI LLMs

Natural-language interface 

Copilot Chat allows the users to type or “speak” questions like “Summarise this report” or “Show me the top three trends in this data set,” and Copilot replies conversationally. 

Continuity and history 

All your Copilot interactions stay visible in the sidebar, so you can scroll back to previous prompts and refine follow-ups without losing context.

Copilot Chat in Office. Image (c) Microsoft

Copilot Chat rollout

  • Copilot Chat will start rolling out to Business users with Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business subscriptions.
  • Rollout will start with users running Microsoft Office Current Channel.
  • IT Admins may need to enable Copilot Chat in the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre if not already enabled.
  • Organisations are advised to work with their training and adoption team (or partner) to ensure this is included in training and update communications.
  • Training or IT can Use the Microsoft 365 usage analytics dashboard to track adoption, active users, and common Copilot queries.

With Copilot Chat in Office Apps, do we still need use Microsoft 365 Copilot?

In many cases users that already have Microsoft 365 will not want to give it up. There are many things to consider however when comparing Copilot Chat to Microsoft 365 Copilot. These inckude:

  • Whether users want/need to analyse multiple documents or entire SharePoint libraries in one session.
  • Build (or use) Copilot Agents (whilst Copilot chat users can do this they are cost option and charged on consumption)
  • Rely on GPT-5’s advanced reasoning, creativity, and summarisation capabilities. 
  • Want built-in image generation or the ability to upload custom files for Copilot to process. 
  • Use other Microsoft Copilot agents for sales, service, or finance workloads that will soon be bundled.
  • Use features like Facilitator, Interpreter and Meeting Recap in Microsoft Teams
  • Other advanced features such as Copilot Notebooks.

My Thoughts and Comments

Brining Copilot Chat directly into Office apps should help streamline and standarise IT provision whilst boosting productivity, reduce context-switching, and eliminate routine tasks for all users.

I love that Copilot Chat is now integrated directly into the Microsoft 365 apps and is governed by the Copilot Control System (CCS). CCS is the enterprise-grade portal for IT administrators to secure, manage, and analyse the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, Copilot Studio, and related agents across their business.

Confusion? Training and awareness will be key to ensure users know that they can and can’t do in Copilot based on the license they have. It could become easy for users with a Copilot Chat acess sitting next to a user with Microsoft 365 Copilot to question why they don’t have access to some features where as their colleague does!

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Microsoft simplifies Copilot add-ons with reduced pricing

Windows Keyboard with Copilot Button

Microsoft has confirmed in a blog that they are streamlining its Copilot add-on portfolio by incoprating their specific role-based solutions into the core Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription. Starting mid-October, Copilot for Sales, Service, and Finance will no longer carry the additional $20 US per user/month premium, making advanced AI capabilities more accessible to businesses of all sizes

What’s Changing with Copilot Pricing?

Microsoft’s flagship AI assistant, Microsoft 365 Copilot, originally cost $30/user/month. Until now, specialized Copilots for sales, service, and finance added another $20/user/month, bringing the total to $50/user/month for businesses that need any of the role-specific Copilot agents. But this is about to change for the better!

To simplify licensing and lower cost barriers, Microsoft will:

  • Include Copilot for Sales, Service, and Finance to Microsoft 365 Copilot users at no charge 
  • Distribute these agents through the upcoming Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Store 
  • Maintain existing functionality and user experience for current customers.

Old vs New Pricing Comparison.

Copilot SKUCurrent PriceNew Price (Oct 2025)
Microsoft 365 Copilot$30 pupm$30 pupm
Copilot for Sales+$20 pupm*$0
Copilot for Service+$20 pupm*$0
Copilot for Finance+$20 pupm*$0
Total Price for All ($)$90 pupm$30 pupm

What are Role-Based Copilot Solutions?

There a few of these already as part of the core Microsft 365 Copilot license including Researcher and Analyst but previously the deeper role based agents that also plugged into third party apps were a cost option.

With these now coming to the base license, this makes a huge increase in ROI for organisation that leverage these tools. …. We now get included:

Copilot for Sales

This is designed to empowers sellers with AI-generated insights, meeting prep, and dynamic revenue plans to drive pipeline growth.

Copilot for Service

This Copilot assists support teams by drafting case summaries, automating client communications, and updating records with contextual intelligence.

Copilot Finance

Streamlines reconciliation, anomaly detection, and report generation, integrating directly with ERP systems like Dynamics 365 and SAP.

Why Businesses and FDs should care

Reducing the Copilot bundle from $50 to $30/user/month unlocks AI for a broader set of “frontier firms”—organizations built around data, automation, and rapid iteration. Key benefits include:

  • Lowered cost of entry for specialized AI assistants 
  • Simplified licensing and procurement via the Copilot Agent Store 
  • Consistent user experience across general and role-based Copilots 

How to Access the New Copilot Agents

  • Mid-October rollout through the Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Store 
  • No additional licensing steps or fees for existing Microsoft 365 Copilot customers 
  • Automatic availability of role-based agents in the Agent Store UI 

IT admins will be able to simply provision the agents to user groups without renegotiating contracts or updating billing settings.

Key readiness advice

  • Speak to your Microsoft Copilot Partner to help your organisation conduct funded awareness and update workshops which will help you review current Copilot deployments to identify pilot groups for Sales, Service, and Finance. If you are already a Microsoft 365 Copilot customers, you will likely be entitled to funding for adoption, integration and training when you buy
  • Plan training sessions that showcase real-world use cases in each domain. 
    Align procurement and budget forecasts to reflect a unified $30/user/month Copilot cost. 
  • Leverage the upcoming Copilot Agent Store for centralised rollout and governance. 

Why the price reduction?

By consolidating Copilot offerings and cutting role-based premiums, Microsoft is making it easier for organisations to embed AI across every function – without surprising price adjustments or complex licensing models.

Oh… And one more thing..

In true Microsoft style, there’s also a little renaming for the Copilot Studio experiences:

  • When using the Agent Builder toll inside Copilot as a Microsoft 365 Copilot user, Microsoft now refer to this as “Copilot Studio Lite,”
  • The full Copilot Studio experience is called…wait for it “Copilot Studio Full” .

Hmmm not a fan but there you go!

You can read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/09/10/moving-sales-service-and-finance-to-the-frontier-with-microsoft-365-copilot/

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Is Microsoft about to kill DocuSign?

Microsoft (after months of testing) is launching native eSignature support in Microsoft Word. How does this compete and compare to wider known tools such as Adobe Sign. Where where does Microsoft eSignature support fit and who is it for?

Why? To streamline document approvals without leaving your document and without needing to pay for expensive/third party eSignature tools.

eSignature Support in Word

Microsoft Word has quietly gained a feature that is aimed to save multiple email chains, PDF exports, and “please print, sign, scan, and send back” headaches. The new eSignature capability lets you send, receive, and track legally binding signatures directly inside Word – with no third-party apps required.

Why This Matters

For years, Word has been the place where contracts, agreements, and proposals are written – but not where they’re finalised for commercial use. That final step often meant exporting to PDF, uploading to a signing platform such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign, and then re-downloading for storage. Now, that friction is gone.

With eSignature in Word, organisations can:

  • Request signatures from within the open document straight from Word or SharePoint.
  • Track progress without leaving Word.
  • Store signed copies securely in OneDrive or SharePoint.

How to use eSignature in Word

How It Works is simple:

  1. Users prepare, Co author their document as normal in Microsoft Word.
  2. Insert signature fields where needed via the new eSignature menu*
  3. Send the document for signing — recipients get a secure link to review and sign the document.
  4. Track status in real time, again, right from within Microsoft Word.
  5. Receive the signed copy automatically saved back to your chosen location.
eSignature in Word ToolBar

Note: to use eSignature in Word, a few steps are required by admins, including enabling the feature in the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre, and creating a policy for use in Intune or Office Config Centre. See more below.

Enabling eSignature Support in Office Config Centre – Required Admin rights.

eSignature Security and Compliance

Microsoft’s eSignature service is built on the same compliance and security framework as the rest of Microsoft 365, including:

  • Encryption in transit and at rest.
  • Audit trails for every signature request.
  • Integration with Microsoft Purview for governance and retention.

eSignature Workflow Support

One of the things third party eSignature  tools do well is workload integration into LOB.

Since eSignature is native to Word and Microsoft 365, Microsoft have their own native workflow support which includes:

  • Ability to trigger signature requests from Teams chats or Outlook emails.
  • Signed documents inherit your organisations existing retention and sensitivity labels.
  • Approvals can be part of a Power Automate flow for end-to-end process automation.
  • These Power Automate flows can integrate (and may already be) part of your business workflow.

Is this the end of Docusign?

I do t think so….. While Microsoft’s move might feel like the big boys taking a shot across the bow, at DocuSign, I don’t beleive this is really designed to compete (not head on anyway). In fact, just last week, DocuSign Q2 results shows it’s doubling down on its core strengths.

  1. DocuSign’s Q2 FY2026 results beat expectations, with revenue up 13% YoY to $801M.
  2. Their new Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform now has over 10,000 customers, positioning DocuSign beyond “just” e-signatures, into full contract lifecycle and workflow automation — a space where Microsoft is still building capabilities.
  3. Developer and ecosystem push is strong as
    with deep integrations, AI-powered agreement workflows, and orchestration tools like Maestro built in. This is aimed squarely at enterprise developers who need more than just a signature – they want embedded, automated, and compliant agreement processes.
  4. DocuSign leads the way in multi-party signing, and signature authentication. Microsoft Word’s eSignature is convenient for those already in the 365 ecosystem and that don’t have a eSignature system today as well as those that just need relatively simple capabilities.

Will Microsoft eSignature kill off DocuSign?

I don’t think so…

For the time being, DocuSign will likely remain the go-to for regulated industries, complex workflows, and organisations that need platform-agnostic signing.

For organisations that don’t have this feature today, or use a third party tools without the need for complex integrated workflows, then this could be a viable and cosy effective solution built right into their existing flow of work.

For larger, more regulated organisations however, that already have investment, process and LOB integration with a third party eSignature tool, then this is likely not going to of immediate interest. This is due to the rich number of additional features tools like DocuSign and Adobe Sign bring including contract lifecycle management, and eSignature portals that bring more than just e-signing are in use.

The real story isn’t “Microsoft kills DocuSign”  it’s that the e-signature market is maturing. Microsoft’s entry will likely capture casual and internal signing needs, while DocuSign focuses on high-value, compliance-heavy, multi-party agreements. In other words: the pie is growing, and both players are carving out their slices.

Further info:

Microsoft Video: https://youtu.be/1S8HDKYPIA4

DocuSign: https://www.docusign.com/en-gb

Microsoft eSig: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/announcing-sharepoint-esignature-for-microsoft-word/4419681

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Windows 11 25H2 Release Preview: What you need to know

Windows 11’s annual feature update—version 25H2 (Build 26200.5074)—is now available in the Release Preview Channel. This signals that the update is nearly finalised and ready for broader deployment later this year.

If you are a Windows Insider on the “Release Preview Build”, this will be offered to you as an optional update.

Windows 11 25H2 – What’s New

This update is delivered as an enablement package (eKB), meaning that Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 share the same servicing branch and feature set. This is a huge benefit to users and businesses, since it means it’s deployed and installed like an update with out the need for a full OS reinstall over the top. 

The formal Windows 11 Build number jumps from 24H2’s 26100 series to 26200.5074 (or later), marking the official 25H2 release. Once installed, monthly servicing updates will continue seamlessly – following the standard Windows Update cadence

Feature Removals and Enterprise Controls

  • PowerShell 2.0 and the Windows Management Instrumentation command-line tool (WMIC) are removed in this update, aligning with Microsoft’s deprecation roadmap
  • IT admins on Enterprise and Education editions can now remove select preinstalled Microsoft Store apps via Group Policy or MDM CSP—streamlining bloat management across managed devices

Deployment Paths and Timing

  • Seeker Experience – Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel can opt into 25H2 via Settings → Windows Update → “Download and install”. 
  • Commercial Channels – Available through Windows Update for Business (WUfB) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). 
  • Azure Marketplace images go live later today, empowering large-scale testing and validation.
  • Fresh-install ISO files will be published next week on the Windows Insider ISO download pages.

Why 25H2 is good for IT Management

Predictable annual cadence lets you plan testing windows without chasing large-scale feature overhauls. 

  • 25H2 uses the same servicing branch as 24H2 which reduces validation overhead since it acts like a new feature rather than new build. This means new features arrive continuously instead of big bang releases. 
  • New enhanced Group Policy controls for Store apps improve image standardisation and reduce endpoint clutter. 
  • Early access via Windows Insider Release Preview gives IT departments a runway to validate compatibility, prove stability, tweak policies, and train end user support teams before general availability.

References and more reading

Preparing now of course will help ensure your organisation can move smoothly to Windows 11 25H2 when the public rollout begins around October time. Validate in your environment, document any custom policies, and align with your Windows Update for Business strategy to deliver a seamless upgrade experience. It is worth noting that

Microsoft consider a device a commercial device if it is not running the Windows 11 Home edition AND is being managed by an IT administrator (whether via Microsoft Endpoint Manager or other management solution) or has a volume license key or commercial ID or is joined to a domain.

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/08/29/releasing-windows-11-version-25h2-to-the-release-preview-channel.

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Will OpenAI’s “gpt-realtime” set a new benchmark for AI Voice?

OpenAI has introduced gpt-realtime, a new cutting-edge speech-to-speech model, alongside the general availability of its Realtime API. This release marks a significant step forward in the evolution of voice AI, particularly for enterprise applications such as customer support and conversational agents. They announced this in a video broadcast which you watch below.

SIP Telephony Support: Lowering the Barrier to Entry

One of the most notable updates they annunced was the addition of SIP telephony support, which aims to simplify the process of building voice-over-phone applications. Developers will be able to integrate phone numbers directly into OpenAI’s SIP interface, streamlining deployment and reducing the need for complex telephony infrastructure. As it develops, this could reshape the competitive landscape, especially for startups that previously relied on expensive and bespoke integrations to differentiate their offerings.

A Unified Model for Natural Interaction

Gpt-realtime apart will feature an end-to-end architecture which will set it apart to how such integrations work today. Unlike traditional systems that chain together speech recognition, language processing, and text-to-speech, OpenAI’s new model will handle everything in a single pass. This will result in much faster response times, more natural audio, and improved emotional nuance (one of the biggest limitations today) meaning it will be capable of interpreting laughter, stress, worry, pauses, and tone shifts.

Open AI so it will also be highly configurable. Developers will be able to adjust pacing, tone, and persona, enabling more tailored and brand-consistent voice experiences.

Considerations for Enterprise Adoption

While the capabilities are lok super impressive, these models will still be expensive to start with anyway. Pricing is expected to be $32 per million input tokens and $64 per million output tokens which is significantly higher than traditional chained models. Additionally, the unified architecture offers less modularity and observability, which may limit flexibility for teams that require fine-grained control over model behavior or voice switching.

In a blog post from CX Today, Alex Levin, CEO at Regal is quoted saying, “the cost of the speech-to-speech model is still approximately four times higher than chaining a speech-to-text (STT), large language model (LLM), text-to-speech (TTS) pipeline for Voice AI Agents“

Strategic Implications

OpenAI’s latest release is a clear signal of intent: to make voice AI more accessible, performant, and enterprise-ready. Given Mcirosoft and other leading Cloud giants, close relationships with Open AI, we can also expect them to eventally add support for such models meaning customers that leverage, for example Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI will likely gain support for this in the near future too through tools like Microsoft Dynamnics and Copilot Studio.

For organisations exploring and wanting to experiment more with conversational based automation, gpt-realtime promises to offers a powerful new toolset whilst talking the technolgy closer to human voice.

As always, the key lies in aligning technology choices with business goals, recognising ROI and customer expectation and keeping ahead of the curve as the landscape evolves and the pace of AI maturity and adoption contines to accelerate.

Sources: 
– CX Today – OpenAI’s Latest Moves Put Many Voice AI Startups on Notice
– Open AI – YouTube Video:
– Open AI Blog

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