Many thanks to Ribbon this month's Empowering.Cloud Benefactor.
I'm just back from speaking at their Insights event in Lisbon. For anyone in the US, check out Ribbon INSIGHTS Dallas in November.
Microsoft Teams Monthly Update Video September
Check out my monthly Microsoft Teams update video for September.
All the news you need to know in 12 minutes on LinkedIn or Empowering.Cloud.
You can also catch the audio version on the Teams Insider Podcast.
Microsoft Teams News
A significant addition to Copilot in Microsoft Teams, every channel and meeting (Facilitator) can now have their own AI Agent.
Throughout a team’s workday, agents will "proactively keep everyone updated on project status, run smarter meetings, draft content, stay on top of tasks, and provide timely answers to questions".
Teams Channel Agents act as AI experts within each channel, using conversations, meetings, and files as context. They can flag key deadlines, generate concise status reports, assign tasks with due dates, and answer natural language questions, such as “What’s the latest on our budget?” You can even bring them into meetings to provide expert insights. They will offer:
- Status Reports – auto-drafts reports from channel chats, meetings, Planner, and announcements.
- Instant Answers – pulls insights from conversations, meetings, plans, or the web.
- Planner Integration – creates and tracks tasks in Planner, with updates available via chat.
Facilitator Agent for meetings is now GA and gets some new capabilities:
- Agenda & Focus – auto-creates or infers agendas, tracks topics, and keeps time with gentle reminders.
- Real-time Notes – shared, editable notes captured automatically during the meeting.
- Q&A Support – answers meeting questions and pulls in relevant info on the fly.
- Task Management – captures, assigns, and syncs tasks into Planner for follow-up.
- Document Drafting – suggests and generates Word/Loop drafts from meeting discussions.
- In-Room Experience – agenda timers, AI notes, and chat available in Teams Rooms.
- Ad-hoc Capture – one-tap mobile support for unscheduled chats and quick syncs.
More details in the Microsoft blog and YouTube Video
Even without Defender licenses, Teams will now warn users before they click on unsafe links. A step up from Safe Links, available to everyone.
Granular External Access Controls (MC1150123). Previously, an all-or-nothing approach at a tenant level, now you can allow specific groups (e.g., Sales or Finance) to have external chat access. PowerShell first (preview), UI coming with GA in Dec.
Admins can now securely remotely collect Teams logs – a big win for troubleshooting at scale.
Teams Phone Extensibility is GA, and the first 5 Unify-certified contact centres are here! Congrats to AudioCodes, CentrePal, ComputerTalk, Heedify, and Landis.
We also learned on the recent Teams Fireside chat that Dynamics 365 Contact Centre will follow the same Teams process to certify for Unify.
Microsoft Teams Devices
Desk Phones – are getting a new UI for blind/consultative transfer rolling out across button, touch, and sidecar phones.
Teams Rooms on Windows Boards will soon get Touch console support and Browser support (Edge in kiosk mode) – October rollout.
Microsoft 365 Copilot News
Copilot chat in Word, Excel, Outlook, and other apps is becoming a single, unified thread with a shared history across all apps and the main Copilot Chat experience. Rollout will be completed by November. This will apply to all M365 users, regardless of whether they have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
Dynamics Copilots, Sales, Service, and Finance are now going to be included in the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot license (previously $20 add-ons).