Microsoft default block third party AI apps from user data and server is back with Micosoft 365 Local?

Tom Arbuthnot's Microsoft 365 Perspective

Many thanks to Landis Technologies, this month's Empowering Cloud Benefactor. Landis just released one of the first Microsoft Teams Unify (aka Teams Phone extensibility, AKA leveraging ACS) Model Contact Centres; details here.

Monthly Update Video Briefing June

Check out my monthly Microsoft Teams update for June, all the news you need to know in less than 15 minutes on LinkedIn or Empowering.Cloud (and PowerPoint deck here).

You can also catch the audio version on the Teams Insider Podcast feed.

Microsoft 365 News

Microsoft is changing the default Office 365 policies to block users from granting consent to third-party apps that want access to files and sites. Is this because many third-party AI meeting summary tools are scraping calendars and sending emails to attendees? (I suspect so). Or maybe a reaction to ChatGPT now having new Office 365 data Connectors. It's positioned as part of the Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and in alignment with the “Secure by Default” principle. I think it's a good change.

Check out MC1097272 for all the details (it has been merged with a change to legacy protocols (why you must watch these changes carefully!). Tony Redmond has a good write-up on this topic. Additionally, Tony, Paul, and the team will be introducing the new Office 365 for IT Pros (2026 Edition) next week. This is the bible for the Office 365 technical roles.

Re OpenAI ChatGPT adding Office 365 connectors for Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. I have set this up and tested it, as with all these things, the details matter. The key consideration is that this leverages Deep Research each time, so users are limited to 10 tasks/month, plus an additional 15 tasks/month using the Deep Research lightweight version. I'm working on a blog that explains the setup and a comparison with Microsoft 365 Copilot. If you have tried it too, I'd love to hear your feedback.


Microsoft's equivalent of ChatGPT deep research/reasoning models, Microsoft Researcher Agent and Analyst Agent, went generally available this month. Everyone with a Microsoft 365 licence should now have them. For the first time in the blog, we have seen a usage limit communicated: "any user with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can run up to 25 combined queries per month". Look out for an expert briefing deep dive on these and other Copilot Agents on Empowering.Cloud next month.

On June 16th, Microsoft announced "comprehensive sovereign solutions empowering European organizations". Called Microsoft 365 Local, Microsoft said, "Microsoft 365 Local provides customers with additional choice by bringing together Microsoft’s productivity server software into an Azure Local environment that can run entirely in a customer’s own datacenter.” It appears that this will be variants of the new subscription server versions of Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. However, there is no Microsoft Teams server version, and I don't imagine there ever will be.

Microsoft Teams News

On Teams, Microsoft has added Real Time Text (RTT) support to Teams clients and now Teams Rooms with a laptop/mobile device. Real-time text (RTT) is an accessibility feature that allows text to appear instantly on the screen, character by character, as it is typed, without requiring the user to press the "Send" button. This has been pushed through due to the European Accessibility Act regulation's June deadline.

AI assistance is coming to the Teams Rooms Pro Portal. The initial implementation will answer questions about your rooms and devices, extract inventory and health data and help with “how to” queries on Teams meetings and room management. More active capabilities are planned. Check out a quick demo video here.

Operator Connect is adding providers again, now with 112 providers, but still no new countries, with 106 countries covered. AudioCodes has its AudioCodes Live Platform for partners in there, which added 7 more countries yesterday, bringing their total to 17 countries covered. Power BI comparison report here.

For Microsoft partners, the Converged Comms Partner Technical Bootcamp on-demand recordings are now available! Also, for partners, if you don't watch Selling Microsoft Teams Rooms, you're missing out on 10 minutes a week of key news.

New on Empowering.Cloud

Teams Insider Podcast

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube

Events

Online events:

  • Teams Fireside Chat July - Traci Herr, Sr. Escalation Engineer - Teams Voice & Devices at Microsoft - 10th July
  • Let's Talk Teams Live - Hosted by MVP Tom Arbuthnot with special expert co-host Michael Levy, CEO of Numonix. In the hot seats: Microsoft’s Kiran Kodali (Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Calling Platform), Gamma’s Samantha Mooney (Proposition Owner, UCaaS) -16th July
  • Mastering Microsoft 365 Change and Message Center - with Ally Ward, M365 Product & Platform Services Manager at a global legal firm and MVP Michael Blumenthal - breaking out all the year-to-date stats from ChangePilot - 29th July
  • Copilot Fireside Chat - Bas Brekelmans, Microsoft CTO, Copilot Studio - 31st July
  • Teams Fireside Chat - Patrichi Dash, Product Manager, Dynamics 365 CS at Microsoft - 14th Aug

Now on demand: Surviving a Cloud Phone Outage – Comparing Teams, Webex & Zoom Phone’s Local Survivability Solutions with Kevin Keiller and I, recording here.

In-Person events:

More on our (new) events page.

As always, if you have questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, please reply and let me know. I read all the replies.

Thanks

Tom

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