Copilot Radar
Field Notes from the Frontier
Intelligence briefing
What's new in
Microsoft AI.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Features, releases & announcements
Admins can now block up to 1,000 sites from Copilot web grounding
A new domain exclusion configuration lets a Search or Global Administrator hand Copilot a CSV of domains — two subdomain levels deep — to skip when Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat ground answers on the web. It is off by default and managed with a downloadable PowerShell script.
Copilot Chat adds screenshot capture, SharePoint Lists grounding and attachment lookup
The July 29 release notes add a built-in screenshot tool on Windows that drops an image straight into a prompt, SharePoint Lists as a Context IQ grounding source, and the ability to ask Copilot to list the file attachments you have sent or received by email.
Copilot in SharePoint can plan and build site solutions from a prompt
Copilot in SharePoint now takes natural-language instructions to plan and build solutions on a site, and the OneDrive file previewer gains a floating Copilot button with contextual prompts and a direct hop into chat.
Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 arrives across Microsoft 365 Copilot
Opus 5 is rolling out in the model selector for Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Copilot Chat, Cowork and Copilot Studio, aimed at everyday use on complex multi-step work across documents, spreadsheets and long-running tasks. Availability varies by region and tenant configuration.
Non-federal GCC tenants get an opt-in switch for Anthropic models
A new Microsoft 365 admin center setting lets non-federal Government Community Cloud customers turn on Anthropic models. It is disabled by default and requires accepting terms, because those models process customer data outside Microsoft's FedRAMP-authorized government cloud.
MCP-built agents reach the Office apps, and federated connectors get an admin home
Agents built with the Model Context Protocol are now available inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Catalyst, and admins can deploy and manage MCP-based Federated Copilot Connectors from the Connectors tab under Copilot in the admin center.
"Copilot in 30" gives SMBs a guided 30-day Copilot trial
Microsoft introduced Copilot in 30, a partner-led motion that pairs a 25-seat, 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial with targeting, campaign, and adoption resources for organizations under 300 employees. The trial becomes available to transact in CSP from August 1, 2026.
OpenAI's GPT-5.6 lands across Microsoft 365 Copilot
GPT-5.6 is now available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Chat, and Cowork, optimized with OpenAI for knowledge work as Copilot's preferred model. Copilot can pick it automatically for suitable tasks, or users can choose it from the model selector.
Sales Agent is now generally available
Microsoft's role-based Sales Agent reached general availability, pulling CRM records and Microsoft 365 work data together so sellers get customer and deal intelligence inside Outlook, Teams and Copilot chat instead of hopping between systems.
Microsoft Copilot Cowork
Agentic task execution for the enterprise
Claude Opus 5 joins Cowork's model selector
Anthropic's Opus 5 is rolling out in Cowork alongside Copilot Chat and the Office apps, pitched at everyday use on complex multi-step work with stronger reasoning across documents, spreadsheets and long-running tasks.
Microsoft hosts a live session on Cowork and managing Copilot Credits
With consumption billing now in force, the Microsoft 365 Copilot team scheduled a live walkthrough of how Cowork works and how admins track and control Copilot Credit spend.
Cowork tasks can now fire on an event instead of a schedule
Describe what to watch for — a matching email, a Teams channel or chat message, an @mention — and Cowork proposes a trigger card you confirm. Event-driven tasks sit beside scheduled prompts on the Scheduled page and default to draft-and-approve before anything is sent.
Plugin tools can accept files straight from a Cowork session
Plugin authors declare a base64-encoded tool parameter and Cowork resolves the workspace file to content before calling the tool — so a plugin can convert a document, analyze an image, or attach a file to another system without a manual upload.
GPT-5.6 powers more complete Cowork deliverables
OpenAI's GPT-5.6 is rolling out in Cowork, strengthening agentic execution so complex multi-step tasks run from instruction to a finished deliverable, with outputs that are more complete and usable from the start.
Claude Sonnet 5 joins the Cowork model lineup
Anthropic's Sonnet 5 is rolling out in Cowork for work that requires planning across steps, reasoning through context, and turning information into polished business artifacts — near-Opus 4.8 performance at a lower price point.
Microsoft Scout
Always-on personal AI agent — Frontier preview
Scout 0.23.578 pulls Teams transcripts and books meeting rooms
The July 30 build lets Scout retrieve Teams meeting transcripts, find and book meeting rooms, and prepare meeting drafts for you to review before anything lands on a calendar.
Scout can check and grant file access in SharePoint and OneDrive
Alongside better recognition of SharePoint and OneDrive links, Scout can now show who has access to a file and grant someone view or edit rights without leaving the conversation.
Co-Create workspaces move into OneDrive and SharePoint
Scout's Co-Create workspaces can now be stored in cloud storage rather than only on the local disk, and they pick up wiki-style links between notes, embedded images, and pasting screenshots straight into a page.
Automations gain quarterly and ordinal recurrence
Automation scheduling now covers monthly, quarterly, ordinal and other advanced recurring patterns, and the same build makes Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 4.8 and GitHub Enterprise Cloud sign-in easier to reach. Chat also adds conversation search and queued follow-up instructions.
Scout's July release reworks automations and widens its Microsoft 365 reach
Version 0.23.331 redesigns the Automations form with per-automation reasoning and context, adds Microsoft 365 tools for To Do, Presence, and Teams channels, and extends Co-Create to CSV, Mermaid, and Excalidraw files — alongside a reworked compose box and per-message model switching.