M365 news digest: October 27, 2026

Two dates need action this week. AI Builder credits stop being included with new and renewed licences on November 1, and Copilot Studio moves agents off several older models on November 12. The rest is mostly rollout news for Copilot, Intune and Entra that you should tell users and the help desk about.

Copilot

AI Builder credits retirement: Prepare to use Copilot Credits

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

AI Builder credits are being replaced by Copilot Credits. From November 1, 2026, AI Builder capacity add-ons reach end of life, and new or renewed Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licences no longer include seeded AI Builder credits. The features keep working, but they draw on Copilot Credits, and credits don’t convert automatically. If neither kind of credit is available, AI Builder runs in Power Apps and Power Automate are blocked. Copilot Studio is not affected, because it already uses Copilot Credits.

Who is affected: tenants that run AI Builder in Power Apps or Power Automate. What to do: check when your AI Builder contracts expire, pull 30 days of usage from the Power Platform admin center, estimate your Copilot Credit needs from Microsoft’s rate table (it isn’t one-for-one), and buy and allocate credits before your current entitlements run out.

Copilot Studio - Information regarding the end of support for selected AI models

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

On November 12, 2026, agents that use GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini or the GPT-5 Standard models in Copilot Studio move automatically to GPT Chat Latest. Several GitHub Copilot harness models move to newer versions on the same day. In non-U.S. environments that restrict cross-geo data movement, GPT-4.1 and GPT-5 stay supported.

Who is affected: agent makers and owners, and the admins who look after them. What to do: in the Power Platform admin center (Manage > Copilot Studio), find agents on retiring models, tell their owners, and test the replacement model on key workflows and actions before the 12th.

Microsoft 365 admin center: Manage authoritative sources for Microsoft 365 Copilot Search

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Admins can mark up to 100 SharePoint Online sites as authoritative sources so they rank higher in Copilot Search. Sites are added, removed, imported or exported in bulk from the Microsoft 365 admin center. Only Global Administrators and Global Readers can manage the list. The post gives a late September 2026 rollout, which is earlier than its publish date, so check the Message Center for the real timing.

Who is affected: tenants that use Copilot Search. What to do: pick the sites people should trust first, such as HR, policy and IT help, and keep the list under 100.

Enhanced M365 Copilot Memory - Copilot is now personalized with work data

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Copilot now uses inferences from your Microsoft 365 work data to personalize its answers. The rollout started in early October 2026 and should finish by the end of November. Users can turn it off with the “Chat History and Work Insights” toggle under Settings > Personalization. Admins can turn it off for the tenant with the enhancedPersonalizationSetting control.

Who is affected: all Microsoft 365 Copilot users. What to do: nothing by default. If your privacy or works council rules need it, decide on enhancedPersonalizationSetting before the rollout reaches your users.

Microsoft Copilot for Outlook: New Copilot entry point in Classic Outlook

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

In classic Outlook for Windows, the Copilot button moves next to the ribbon and shows suggestions based on what you’re doing. The side pane stays. The worldwide rollout runs from mid-November to late November 2026, and GCC, GCC High and DoD follow in December. Licensing and admin settings don’t change.

Who is affected: classic Outlook users. What to do: update screenshots in training material and give the help desk a heads-up before the rollout.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Teams: Bilingual consecutive interpretation mode with Interpreter agent

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

The Interpreter agent in Teams meetings gets a consecutive mode: speakers take turns, and each turn is interpreted before the next person speaks. When a Copilot-licensed user switches it on, it applies to the whole meeting. General availability runs from mid-November to early December 2026, and it needs no tenant setup.

Who is affected: Copilot-licensed users who run multilingual meetings. What to do: check that the people who will use it have a Copilot licence, and suggest when it helps, such as negotiations and detailed working sessions.

Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365): SharePoint Site Builder

Microsoft 365 Roadmap · Official · 2026-10-26

Users will be able to ask Copilot to create a SharePoint site. Copilot first shows a site plan to review and confirm, and then builds the site.

Who is affected: SharePoint admins and anyone allowed to create sites. What to do: check your site creation policy, naming rules and sensitivity labels before more sites start appearing.

Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365): App Blocks

Microsoft 365 Roadmap · Official · 2026-10-26

App Blocks lets Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat users turn a request and its data into an interactive item inside the chat, such as a calculator, dashboard, form, planner or comparison tool.

Who is affected: Copilot Chat users. What to do: expect questions about where these items live and who can see them, and give users a short note before it lands.

Excel: Get and transform data with Copilot in Excel

Microsoft 365 Roadmap · Official · 2026-10-26

Copilot in Excel gets a “get data” skill. You describe the data you need, and Copilot connects to it, transforms it and loads the result through Power Query, so you get a query you can inspect, edit and refresh.

Who is affected: Excel users with Copilot, and admins who govern data connections. What to do: check which data sources users can reach from Power Query, because asking Copilot makes those connections easier to create.

Excel: Edit with Copilot in Excel on iPhone

Microsoft 365 Roadmap · Official · 2026-10-26

Edit with Copilot comes to Excel on iPhone, so you can change a workbook by describing what you want. Copilot keeps working even if you leave the app, and chat mode is still there for questions.

Who is affected: iPhone users with Copilot. What to do: check that your Intune app protection policies cover Excel on iOS.

What’s new for Microsoft 365 Copilot developers updated (2026-10-22)

Microsoft Learn · Official · 2026-10-22

The October update adds three things:

Version 1.9 of the declarative agent manifest, which adds agent_skills, a Fabric capability for querying Microsoft Fabric data, and an optional instructions property.
A Cost Management API for setting Copilot credit spending policies and alerts by group.
A daily per-user detail function for Copilot usage reports.

Who is affected: agent developers, and admins who track Copilot spend and usage. What to do: if you’re managing Copilot credit costs, look at the Cost Management API.

Intune

Outlook: Multiple Intune Accounts in Outlook for Android

Microsoft 365 Roadmap · Official · 2026-10-26

Outlook for Android will support more than one Intune app-managed (MAM) account. A device can still have only one MDM-enrolled account.

Who is affected: Android users who work across more than one organisation, and the admins who manage them. What to do: check that your app protection policies behave as you expect when a second managed account is added.

What’s new in Microsoft Intune updated (2026-10-23)

Microsoft Learn · Official · 2026-10-23

The week of October 19 adds support for Apple Volume Purchase Program apps with unlimited licences from Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager, so you don’t have to track licence counts for those apps.

Who is affected: admins who deploy VPP apps to iOS, iPadOS and macOS. What to do: nothing required. Check your VPP app assignments the next time you sync tokens.

Security

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Users will be able to register a passkey or passwordless sign-in as their first MFA method, without setting up SMS or voice first. Users who are enabled for passkeys will be prompted to register one by default. Phase 1 covers synced passkeys, Entra passkeys on Windows and FIDO2 keys, starting in early November 2026. Phase 2 covers Windows Hello for Business, macOS Platform SSO and Authenticator, and should finish by late February 2027.

Who is affected: users who haven’t registered MFA yet, and identity admins. What to do: review your Conditional Access policy for security info registration, and update onboarding guides so users aren’t surprised by the passkey prompt.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365: New MessageContents table in Advanced Hunting for Microsoft Teams messages

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Advanced Hunting gets a MessageContents table with Teams message snippets and metadata, including federated messages and messages with URLs. Only people with the Advanced Hunting and message preview permissions can query it. The rollout runs from late September to mid-November 2026.

Who is affected: security analysts, and anyone with the permissions to read Teams message content. What to do: decide who should see Teams message content before the rollout reaches you, check those role assignments, and update your investigation procedures.

Microsoft Purview: permissions audit log improvements

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Purview adds two audit operations for role-based access checks: CheckUsersInRoles and CheckUserInRolesWithScopes. They’re on by default and roll out from late September to late October 2026. They only record access checks made after deployment, with no backfill.

Who is affected: compliance and security teams who investigate access. What to do: add the two operations to your audit searches and reports.

Microsoft Purview | Data Lifecycle Management - Hard delete OneDrive and SharePoint files with priority cleanup workflow

Microsoft 365 Message Center (via mc.merill.net archive) · Unverified (secondary source) · 2026-10-26

Priority cleanup in Purview gets a “Delete data permanently” option that can hard delete specific OneDrive and SharePoint content, even under retention or holds. Held content needs eDiscovery admin approval first. The feature is off by default. The public preview runs to the end of November 2026, and general availability runs from late November 2026 to early January 2027.

Who is affected: compliance, records and eDiscovery admins. What to do: agree who can approve permanent deletion before anyone creates a policy, and write the process into your retention documentation.

Sources

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