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Many thanks again to Ribbon, our September community Benefactor, for supporting Empowering.Cloud. If you are in the US, Ribbon INSIGHTS Americas is in Florida on 10–12 November. Microsoft used the last week of the quarter to announce "the new Copilot". This issue covers what it means for licensing and admin settings, plus lots of important Microsoft 365 and Teams updates and the end of Azure Communication Services as a standalone product. Microsoft Teams Enterprise Update — September 2026Everything you need to know in 15 minutes or less. Watch on YouTube, read it on Empowering.Cloud, or listen on the Podcast. Upcoming EventsOnline events
In-person events
Microsoft 365 and Copilot NewsThe new Copilot — Home, Code and Autopilot in one appMicrosoft announced "the new Copilot" on 25 September: one app, three tabs, Home, Code and Autopilot. Jared Spataro's post, Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot, landed the same day. I've written up what you need to know in The New Copilot Explained: Home, Code and Autopilot, and what it means for Microsoft 365 admins, but here is the TLDR:
Two things every licensed user will notice from October (MC1479277). The Cowork, Code and Autopilot entry points become visible by default to everyone with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, whether or not they have a spending policy; users without one get a "Request access" message (enterprise) or "Learn more" (education), and a new admin centre setting chooses which message they see and whether they can request access. The existing setting in the admin centre used to hide usage-based experiences (“Allow users to discover and use AI experiences enabled by usage-based billing”) will be removed. New Copilot - What's coming when?
Copilot pricing — seat plus Copilot Credits, and usage-based billing off by default for enterprise, but on for Copilot BusinessThe companion post for anyone who owns a budget is Nicole Herskowitz's Evolution of the Copilot pricing model, and Spataro's earlier Building the system for AI at work sets up the same two terms. The Copilot User Subscription License (USL), still $30 per user per month list, covers "everyday AI": Chat, Copilot in the Office apps, Office in Copilot and model choice. GPT-5.6 and Sonnet 5 are included; "new models like Opus 5 will be included with limits". Hit the limit as a heavy user, and you get "a clear warning first, then a choice: switch your model selection to Auto at no additional cost or move to credits". No numbers for those limits have been published. Usage-based billing (UBB) in Copilot Credits covers "advanced AI": Cowork, Code, Autopilot, the new agentic SharePoint and OneDrive work, and the frontier models Astra and Fable. MC1479276 adds the dates the blog leaves out: "UBB will begin to roll out in Copilot in Q4 CY2026" and is switched on inside the Frontier public preview. The default for enterprise is "UBB services stay off until an admin creates a spending policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and nothing is billed before that." Copilot Business is different. MC1476200 says eligible *new* Copilot Business purchases get usage-based billing configured/enabled by default, with Microsoft creating the Azure resource and a spending policy with default limits: from 19 October for purchases direct from Microsoft, and from 2 November through CSP (Partner Center announcements). Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol land in Copilot on launch dayBoth arrived on 22 September across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, Cowork and Copilot Studio (More models, one Copilot), and both are cheaper than their predecessors: Opus 5.5 about 40% below Opus 5, Sol 50% below GPT-5.6. Claude still needs the existing Anthropic subprocessor opt-in. The industry response to Opus 5.5 has been particularly positive. We are seeing Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft, with their own models, focus more on cost/performance. Grok also arrived on 12 September, off by default with its own SpaceXAI subprocessor setting and excluded from EU, EFTA and UK tenants during preview (MC1474124). The Anthropic controls have been renamed under "Choose which users can access Anthropic models" (MC1476342), with a separate opt-in for retained-data models such as Fable 5.0 and Mythos 5. Azure Communication Services retires as a standalone offeringMicrosoft has published an Azure retirement notice and a retirement and breaking changes guide for Azure Communication Services: no new sign-ups from 23 October 2026, and standalone retirement on 30 September 2028. Microsoft Teams Interop, Teams Phone, and Teams Phone Extensibility (TPE) are not impacted. “This decision reflects our evolving strategy to prioritize deeply integrated communication experiences within Microsoft platforms, specifically Teams, Dynamics 365, and Azure, while working with leading Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) providers to fill gaps and accelerate innovation for Azure customers.” Some services retire outright; others will remain supported only through Teams integrations. My read is that Microsoft is stepping back from standalone CPaaS to focus on integrated communications/AI and agents. Interesting Microsoft 365 Changes
Deadlines
Microsoft Teams and AI-Powered Workplace@Copilot in Teams gets an upgradeAlongside the Copilot super app announcement we heard: "And now when you invoke @Copilot in Teams, your entire team gets the shared context and permissions of the channel, group chat or meeting". Ask why a product decision was made, and Copilot pulls the background from across conversations — no digging, no re-explaining. When that decision ripples into manufacturing, packaging and launch timing, Copilot goes further: it offers to prepare a cross-functional review with dependencies, owners, open questions and decisions, so everyone can see how their work connects and what still needs resolving. The @Copilot capability will be in private preview in Teams by the end of the month." I'll be looking out for more details. Key Teams Changes
Teams Rooms and Devices NewsTeams Rooms on Android September releaseThe September Android release, build 1449/1.0.96.2026249711, adds a new Gallery view, the Interpreter agent, town hall event-group chat and SIP/H.323 via partner (the last three Pro), and fixes devices still using EWS for calendar, which is a prerequisite for the 1 October EWS enforcement. Rooms and Intelligent Spaces Updates
Two new device write-ups from me: MAXHUB Teams Rooms portfolio explained and a first look at Jabra Reach alongside PanaCast 55 VBS and SpeakerMic. New on Empowering.Cloud
Subscribe to the Teams Insider podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or the YouTube playlist. As always, if you have any questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, please reply. I read all the replies. Thanks Tom |
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