Hands-On Microsoft 365 Pulse – Weekly Updates (Week 41)

By Oct 13, 2025 Pulse 0 Comments

This week I’m bringing you two highlights from the SharePoint world that you won’t want to miss. The first is a post I wrote about how you can bring Microsoft Teams town halls into your SharePoint pages by embedding them. In the article I explain why this approach makes sense.

The second is an update about managing SharePoint agents in the Copilot control system. Admins will be able to view all SharePoint agents and block agents from being used in Copilot chat. This is especially useful if you need to restrict or allow certain agents within your organization.

Microsoft 365 Updates - Week 41

(more…)

Hands-On Microsoft 365 Pulse – Weekly Updates (Week 40)

By Oct 6, 2025 Pulse 0 Comments

Among the many enhancements from last week, one feature stood out: Teams channels are now available in Context IQ prompts. This update is part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to enhance Copilot in Microsoft 365 with Context IQ (CIQ) — a set of AI capabilities that lets users search for, select, and insert relevant enterprise or personal data directly into their prompts or conversations. Now, when writing Copilot prompts in the chat box, you can use Context IQ to search for and select Teams channels, grounding your prompts in contextually relevant data and improving the accuracy and usefulness of Copilot responses.

The week was also marked by an avalanche of updates across the Power Platform, with Dynamics taking center stage.

Microsoft 365 Updates Pulse

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – September 2025

By Oct 1, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

September brought another wave of updates for Copilot across Microsoft 365, but one stands out as a true game changer: Copilot now supports models beyond GPT. This marks a major step toward giving organizations more flexibility and choice in how they leverage AI within Microsoft’s ecosystem.

The first implementation of this shift is already here—Anthropic’s Claude models (Opus 4.1 and Sonnet 4) are now available in Copilot Researcher and Copilot Studio, alongside OpenAI models. This opens the door to a multi-model future where users can pick the best AI for their needs. Rollout began on September 24, with Anthropic models in preview and governed by Anthropic’s terms. Don’t miss the details in this article—there’s plenty more AI innovation to explore across your favorite Microsoft 365 apps.

(more…)

Hands-On Microsoft 365 Pulse – Weekly Updates (Week 39)

By Sep 29, 2025 Pulse 0 Comments

This week, I want to highlight a small but mighty feature in Microsoft Teams that’s now available worldwide. If you work with external users, you’ll know the pain of sharing files. Until now, you had to upload them to OneDrive or—worse—resort to unauthorized platforms. That’s no longer the case. You can now attach files directly in chats with external users, saving time and avoiding frustration. It’s not a brand-new announcement, but its global rollout makes it worth sharing.

On the broader Microsoft 365 front, the standout update for me is the arrival of Claude in Copilot. It’s exciting to see model choice becoming a reality—currently available in Copilot Studio and the Researcher agent.

And for all the SharePoint developers out there: Microsoft just updated their plans—SPFx Field Customizers are here to stay (at least for now). The earlier idea to retire them in favor of JSON column formatting has been shelved. Column Formatting is still great for simpler scenarios, but if you need advanced logic like API calls, SPFx is still your friend.

(more…)

Hands-On Microsoft 365 Pulse – Weekly Updates (Week 38)

By Sep 22, 2025 Pulse 0 Comments

This past week, SharePoint introduced the Knowledge Agent in preview, bringing powerful AI capabilities across the platform. Even better, Microsoft made it available on the same day it was announced—no waiting required.

Microsoft Teams features keep coming out like hot cakes, making it challenging to stay on top of everything. With so many announcements coming out, I figured I’d put together a recap of everything that’s been announced since the beginning of summer so you don’t miss the important stuff.

While AI has been stealing the spotlight, another significant change quietly happened this September: the return of the new SharePoint page templates. After briefly disappearing, they’re back—and this time, Microsoft says they’re here to stay.

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – August 2025

By Sep 9, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

August was packed with updates for Microsoft Copilot, more than 100 in fact. Picking just a few highlights isn’t easy because so many of them can change the way we work, but here are the ones that stood out for me.

First, GPT‑5 is now available in Copilot. What makes this interesting is how Copilot uses it: it picks the right model for the job, switching between a fast, high‑throughput model for quick answers and a deeper reasoning model for complex, multi‑step tasks.

Another big one is the new Activity tab in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word. It shows recent comments and edits, with filters by time, and it’s a better way to keep track of changes and stay aligned with your team.

And the feature I’ve been waiting for, Voice in M365 Copilot. It brings a natural, hands‑free way to interact with Copilot on desktop and mobile. You can talk to Copilot like a colleague, search for info, catch up between meetings, brainstorm out loud, and it supports multiple languages. For me, this means I can finally use Copilot while commuting without touching the keyboard.

There’s a lot more to unpack this month, so keep reading to see the full list of updates and how they can make a difference in your day‑to‑day work.

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – July 2025

By Aug 9, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

Microsoft Copilot continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate, making it challenging to track all developments across the entire suite. This month alone brought nearly 80 updates spanning various applications and use cases, reinforcing Copilot’s position as Microsoft’s fastest-moving product line.

From this extensive list of enhancements, two updates particularly deserved my attention: Researcher availability in Word for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, which expands research capabilities directly within document creation workflows, and Visual Insight and Intelligent Recap features in Microsoft Copilot for Teams, which enhance meeting analysis and follow-up processes.

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – June 2025

By Jul 1, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

June was absolutely wild for Microsoft Copilot updates—we’re talking 50+ new features dropping left and right. But here’s the thing that caught my attention: Microsoft is finally solving one of our biggest pain points.

Microsoft is basically saying “your agents should work everywhere you do”—and they’re actually delivering on it. The Researcher in Copilot Notebooks is now bringing serious research power right into your collaborative workspace. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app for iOS and Android is getting an Agent Store (hello, mobile productivity!). And here’s the game-changer: SharePoint agents are now accessible directly in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. No more context-switching headaches.

This isn’t just another feature update—it’s Microsoft finally connecting the dots between all these different Copilot experiences. Your AI assistants can now follow you around just like your coffee mug does. ☕

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – May 2025

By Jun 2, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

May was an incredible month for Copilot enthusiasts, with almost 100 updates once again! Microsoft clearly isn’t slowing down with their pace of innovation, and the developments happening in the Copilot ecosystem continue to impress.

This month, I’m excited to spotlight two brand new agents that have just reached General Availability – and these are real game-changers for how we’ll approach complex work tasks!

First up is Researcher, which combines OpenAI’s deep research model with Copilot’s orchestration and search capabilities. This agent can tackle complex, multi-step research projects by simultaneously reasoning over both your work data and web information, including third-party sources through connectors. Think of it as having a research assistant that can pull from everywhere at once.

Then there’s Analyst, powered by OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model and built specifically for data analysis work. What makes this agent stand out is its chain-of-thought reasoning approach – it works through problems step by step, taking as many iterations as needed to refine its analysis. Plus, it can run Python code for complex data queries, and you can actually watch it work in real-time! It’s like having a data scientist collaborate with you directly.

Keep reading to catch up with all of May’s announcements and discover how these updates might transform your daily workflow!

(more…)

What’s new for Copilot – April 2025

By May 6, 2025 Copilot 0 Comments

Hey there, Microsoft 365 fans! April brought us an impressive batch of Copilot updates, and wow – some of these new features are absolute game-changers! The month delivered over 100 updates across practically every M365 application, including that massive Wave 2 Spring release. It’s honestly crazy how fast Copilot is evolving!

I’m particularly excited about the new audio overviews for Word and PDF files in OneDrive – imagine having your documents transformed into podcast-style summaries while you’re on the go! The redesigned Prompt Gallery app is another standout, making it much easier to browse and manage organizational prompts right from a sleek new home page.

Let’s check out what happened this month and how these updates might transform the way you work. Between us, keeping up with Copilot’s evolution feels like a full-time job these days!

(more…)

João Ferreira

I've been working with Microsoft Technologies over the last ten years, mainly focused on creating collaboration and productivity solutions that drive the adoption of Microsoft Modern Workplace.