Announcing the General Availability of the Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program

Empowering Seamless Collaboration for Modern Workforces 

We are thrilled to announce the general availability of the Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program (MDCPP). This new program allows eligible independent software vendors (ISVs) who provide cloud communication and collaboration platforms the opportunity to offer customers a collaboration experience inside and outside meetings. ISVs who join the program can enable customers on their platform to view, collaborate, and coauthor documents within Microsoft apps. We’re excited to expand this experience available in Microsoft Teams to new platforms.  

Enable Live Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration 

The Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program allows eligible ISVs to include collaborative Microsoft 365 app experiences in their preferred communication and collaboration platform. And we’re bring the same quality customers expect from Microsoft for accessibility, security, and privacy. The Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program includes: 

Web app option for real-time co-authoring 

Now eligible ISVs can provide simultaneous collaboration and editing of documents integrated into their platform. This includes the ability to integrate Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from SharePoint and OneDrive for Business.  Available today. 

An image of a Word document that multiple users can collaborate on

Live app option in meetings 

Soon, customers will be able to experience interactive and engaging experiences with PowerPoint Live and Excel Live in their preferred meeting solution. With PowerPoint Live and Excel Live, meeting participants can interact and collaborate with documents in real time, including editing and exploring documents directly in the meeting window. Presenters can also see rich presenter view, speaker notes, and other available presentation tools. Coming soon.  

An image of PowerPoint Live showing a slide with speaker notes in a Teams meeting.

Partnering for Success with Zoom 

We have collaborated with Zoom to leverage their expertise in communication and collaboration in the development of MDCPP.    

“We continue the work with Microsoft as announced earlier this year to bring this to market for Zoom Workplace customers,” said Brendan Ittelson, chief ecosystem officer, Zoom. 

Getting Started 

We invite all eligible ISVs to take advantage of the Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program and transform their document collaboration process. To get started, visit our website for more information and resources. 

Join the MDCPP Today 

The Microsoft 365 Document Collaboration Partner Program is available to all eligible Microsoft partners and customers. Join us in this exciting journey and experience the future of document collaboration. 

We are excited for an easier, more collaborative future for our customers.  

NOW ON DEMAND | Microsoft Loop Learning Series [Six webinars]

UPDATE | All parts of the Loop Learning Series have aired and are now available to watch on demand, playable below in this blog post. 

Are you ready to learn more about Microsoft Loop? We have five upcoming Loop events for you – numerous opportunities to see Microsoft Loop in action, to learn about upcoming roadmap items and Copilot/AI innovations, ask questions, get time-saving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Loop product team.

Microsoft Loop – Five-part learning series: https://aka.ms/LoopLearningSeries.

We’re all eyes and ears each week for five weeks – starting August 14^th, 2024. Review each weekly, online learning opportunity below. Register to learn and share all things Loop – there it is! If you can’t make it to one, each part will be made available for on-demand viewing as soon as possible; we’ll keep this blog up to date throughout the series. As you learn, try it for yourself within the Microsoft Loop app. 

Part 1 | “Meet the makers: The story behind Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 1 of 5 in the Loop community learning series: 

• Co-presenters: Ron Pessner, Michelle Holtmann, and Karuana Gatimu


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 14^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:30am PDT


• Abstract: In our ‘Meet the Makers’ virtual event on August 14^th, leaders from the Microsoft Loop product team kickoff our learning series to share insights about the future of creating together with ease – no matter where you are or what tools you use. This opening session focuses on the strategy and vision for how Loop unlocks the power of shared thinking – with the intelligence of Microsoft Copilot – into a simple, familiar experience to get more done, right where you are, coordinated across your apps. And there will be experts live, active in the comments to address questions and feedback based on what’s shared.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 2 | “Almost everything you need to know to start with Microsoft Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 2 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Co-presenters: Rebecca Keys and Tamine Mokdissi


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 21^st, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:20am PDT.


• Abstract: Ever wondered how to get started with Loop? Whether you’re new to Loop or need a refresher, we’ve got you covered in this engaging session. We’ll show you both what’s coming soon and how to get started with Loop. We’ll highlight Loop components across various Microsoft 365 apps – creating and customizing your pages and workspaces within your favorite apps. We will share many tips along the way so you, too, can seamlessly and collaboratively whip up your projects to the next level.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 3 | “Level up your project management with Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 3 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Speakers: Esha Mathur and Jessica Mariscal Quintana


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 28^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:15am PDT.


• Abstract: Turn your projects into progress! With Loop, project management gets better – from set up, to onboarding your team, to working in collaborative workspace – all you need in one place. We’ll demo a variety of project-oriented tasks: Creating and sharing tasks lists, setting automation rules, and monitoring your milestones with automatically generated Workspace status. And we’ll have experts online to address your project questions and feedback.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 4 | “Meet Copilot in Loop“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 4 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Speakers: Jenna Hong and Oby Omu


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, September 4^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:15am PDT.


• Abstract: Take productivity one step further with Copilot in Loop. Discover the value of starting projects with content created by AI, stay in sync with a Loop-powered assistant, and make the most of your Microsoft Teams meetings. Copilot in Loop saves you time when creating page summaries, recap changes, and quickly get answers to make progress. We have a lot to share and are eager to hear what you think. Plus, discover more about “Copilot in Loop” within Copilot Lab.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 5 | “AMA: Live Video Q&A with the Loop team“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 5 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Co-presenters:  Derek Liddell, Dan Costenaro, and Manon Knoertzer


• Original air date/time: Thursday, September 12^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 11:30am PDT.


• Abstract: The Loop AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything) is a chance to ask open questions and provide feedback about what you’ve learned about Microsoft Loop throughout this learning series. The AMA is a 90-minute opportunity to connect live with Loop experts who will be live on video to answer your questions and listen to feedback. Note: If you are unable to attend the live AMA hour, you can ask your question at any time on the event page below in comments and the team will work to address it during the event – either on video or in direct written response in the comments; so, check back for sure.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

BONUS ‘Part 6’ | “Microsoft Loop IT governance and management controls“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is an IT-focused session about all the auditing, eDiscovery, compliance, and more management and control capabilities when working with Microsoft Loop and managing Loop workspaces in SharePoint (SharePoint Embedded).

• Co-presenters:  Dan Costenaro, Akanksha Rakesh, and Abi Ramesh


• Original air date/time: Thursday, September 26^th, 2024, from 9:00am – 10:00am PDT.


• Abstract: Discover the latest admin capabilities for managing Microsoft Loop. Whether you’re new to Loop or looking to validate its readiness for a large enterprise, this session is tailored for you. We’ll guide you through Loop’s available and newest admin and compliance features, demonstrate how to use Purview for eDiscovery with Loop content, establish good governance, and explore SharePoint admin center functionality for managing Loop workspaces. Additionally, we’ll share valuable tips to manage Loop content within your organization. Don’t miss this opportunity to unleash Loop to your employees while optimizing Loop manageability.

😎 Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Stay connected

Microsoft Loop is a transformative co-creation experience that brings together teams, content and tasks across your tools and devices. Loop combines a powerful and flexible canvas with portable components that move freely and stay in sync across applications — enabling teams to think, plan, and create together.

We are excited to share more about the productivity experience we love. Our goal is to bring you into the Loop and keep you there – both by gaining knowledge and helping you discover the power of working together in new ways. My team and I couldn’t be more excited and ready to engage with the best community in tech. See you every week once the series kicks off.

Note: Additional Microsoft Loop links and resources

• Try it today! loop.cloud.microsoft to get Loop’ed in!


• Microsoft Loop adoption center


• Get started with Loop (support.microsoft.com)


• Follow @MicrosoftLoop on Twitter.


• Join the “Microsoft Loop Community“ public group on LinkedIn!


• Microsoft Loop roadmap items on the Microsoft 365 public roadmap 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community. Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 community blog (review all Loop posts).

Thanks! Ron Pessner (Microsoft CVP – Loop)

Microsoft Loop | Live, Five-Part Learning Series

UPDATE | All parts of the Loop Learning Series have aired and are now available to watch on demand, playable below in this blog post. 

Are you ready to learn more about Microsoft Loop? We have five upcoming Loop events for you – numerous opportunities to see Microsoft Loop in action, to learn about upcoming roadmap items and Copilot/AI innovations, ask questions, get time-saving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Loop product team.

Microsoft Loop – Five-part learning series: https://aka.ms/LoopLearningSeries.

We’re all eyes and ears each week for five weeks – starting August 14^th, 2024. Review each weekly, online learning opportunity below. Register to learn and share all things Loop – there it is! If you can’t make it to one, each part will be made available for on-demand viewing as soon as possible; we’ll keep this blog up to date throughout the series. As you learn, try it for yourself within the Microsoft Loop app. 

Part 1 | “Meet the makers: The story behind Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 1 of 5 in the Loop community learning series: 

• Co-presenters: Ron Pessner, Michelle Holtmann, and Karuana Gatimu


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 14^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:30am PDT


• Abstract: In our ‘Meet the Makers’ virtual event on August 14^th, leaders from the Microsoft Loop product team kickoff our learning series to share insights about the future of creating together with ease – no matter where you are or what tools you use. This opening session focuses on the strategy and vision for how Loop unlocks the power of shared thinking – with the intelligence of Microsoft Copilot – into a simple, familiar experience to get more done, right where you are, coordinated across your apps. And there will be experts live, active in the comments to address questions and feedback based on what’s shared.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 2 | “Almost everything you need to know to start with Microsoft Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 2 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Co-presenters: Rebecca Keys and Tamine Mokdissi


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 21^st, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:20am PDT.


• Abstract: Ever wondered how to get started with Loop? Whether you’re new to Loop or need a refresher, we’ve got you covered in this engaging session. We’ll show you both what’s coming soon and how to get started with Loop. We’ll highlight Loop components across various Microsoft 365 apps – creating and customizing your pages and workspaces within your favorite apps. We will share many tips along the way so you, too, can seamlessly and collaboratively whip up your projects to the next level.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 3 | “Level up your project management with Loop”

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 3 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Speakers: Esha Mathur and Jessica Mariscal Quintana


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, August 28^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:15am PDT.


• Abstract: Turn your projects into progress! With Loop, project management gets better – from set up, to onboarding your team, to working in collaborative workspace – all you need in one place. We’ll demo a variety of project-oriented tasks: Creating and sharing tasks lists, setting automation rules, and monitoring your milestones with automatically generated Workspace status. And we’ll have experts online to address your project questions and feedback.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 4 | “Meet Copilot in Loop“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 4 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Speakers: Jenna Hong and Oby Omu


• Original air date/time: Wednesday, September 4^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 10:15am PDT.


• Abstract: Take productivity one step further with Copilot in Loop. Discover the value of starting projects with content created by AI, stay in sync with a Loop-powered assistant, and make the most of your Microsoft Teams meetings. Copilot in Loop saves you time when creating page summaries, recap changes, and quickly get answers to make progress. We have a lot to share and are eager to hear what you think. Plus, discover more about “Copilot in Loop” within Copilot Lab.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Part 5 | “AMA: Live Video Q&A with the Loop team“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is part 5 of 5 in the Loop community learning series.

• Co-presenters:  Derek Liddell, Dan Costenaro, and Manon Knoertzer


• Original air date/time: Thursday, September 12^th, 2024, from 10:00am – 11:30am PDT.


• Abstract: The Loop AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything) is a chance to ask open questions and provide feedback about what you’ve learned about Microsoft Loop throughout this learning series. The AMA is a 90-minute opportunity to connect live with Loop experts who will be live on video to answer your questions and listen to feedback. Note: If you are unable to attend the live AMA hour, you can ask your question at any time on the event page below in comments and the team will work to address it during the event – either on video or in direct written response in the comments; so, check back for sure.

Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

BONUS ‘Part 6’ | “Microsoft Loop IT governance and management controls“

NOW ON DEMAND | This is an IT-focused session about all the auditing, eDiscovery, compliance, and more management and control capabilities when working with Microsoft Loop and managing Loop workspaces in SharePoint (SharePoint Embedded).

• Co-presenters:  Dan Costenaro, Akanksha Rakesh, and Abi Ramesh


• Original air date/time: Thursday, September 26^th, 2024, from 9:00am – 10:00am PDT.


• Abstract: Discover the latest admin capabilities for managing Microsoft Loop. Whether you’re new to Loop or looking to validate its readiness for a large enterprise, this session is tailored for you. We’ll guide you through Loop’s available and newest admin and compliance features, demonstrate how to use Purview for eDiscovery with Loop content, establish good governance, and explore SharePoint admin center functionality for managing Loop workspaces. Additionally, we’ll share valuable tips to manage Loop content within your organization. Don’t miss this opportunity to unleash Loop to your employees while optimizing Loop manageability.

😎 Watch, share, and add your comments on this episode’s dedicated event page in the Microsoft Tech Community!

Stay connected

Microsoft Loop is a transformative co-creation experience that brings together teams, content and tasks across your tools and devices. Loop combines a powerful and flexible canvas with portable components that move freely and stay in sync across applications — enabling teams to think, plan, and create together.

We are excited to share more about the productivity experience we love. Our goal is to bring you into the Loop and keep you there – both by gaining knowledge and helping you discover the power of working together in new ways. My team and I couldn’t be more excited and ready to engage with the best community in tech. See you every week once the series kicks off.

Note: Additional Microsoft Loop links and resources

• Try it today! loop.cloud.microsoft to get Loop’ed in!


• Microsoft Loop adoption center


• Get started with Loop (support.microsoft.com)


• Follow @MicrosoftLoop on Twitter.


• Join the “Microsoft Loop Community“ public group on LinkedIn!


• Microsoft Loop roadmap items on the Microsoft 365 public roadmap 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community. Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 community blog (review all Loop posts).

Thanks! Ron Pessner (Microsoft CVP – Loop)

Leveraging Partner Apps to Deliver on the Promise of AI-Led Productivity

The advent of generative AI is driving a rethink of what outcomes we deserve from our productivity software – from gains in efficiency to more deeply engaging employees and unleashing creativity and innovation. Expectations are higher and growing fast, even as the understanding of the key scenarios and use cases for this technology evolves just as quickly.  

We anticipate businesses of all sizes to leverage a variety of tools and customizations to meet their specific needs and deliver on the potential of AI-enhanced productivity, and there is an ecosystem of options rising to meet this challenge.  On Monday September 16th, we shared updates we are making to the capabilities offered by Microsoft 365 Copilot, introduced Copilot agents and announced a new simplified agent builder experience powered by Copilot Studio. This article offers an overview of how Microsoft 365 customers can also leverage partner tools and apps as part of their broader approach to productivity, and Microsoft’s commitment to providing interoperability for those solutions across key Microsoft 365 surfaces. 

Supporting the Ecosystem of Gen-AI Productivity Apps 

The market for generative AI productivity solutions has grown exponentially in the past few years, both in number and the sophistication of available products. Microsoft is committed to offering developers and customers flexibility and choice as they try and deploy generative AI tools in tandem with Microsoft 365 applications, backed by a robust marketplace for customers to discover and adopt a diverse set of third-party solutions to meet their needs. Developers can create tailored and integrated experiences across Office, Outlook and Teams using extensive interoperability options within Microsoft 365 and Office 365 apps and services. The Microsoft Teams Store and Microsoft AppSource help create a vibrant ecosystem where customers get a wide range of solutions and partners get a platform where they can innovate and grow their business. Microsoft Teams alone supports more than 1,400 third-party apps, and monthly usage of third-party apps within Teams has increased more than 10 times over the past 2 years.  

Partner Highlight, AI in Office (Word) – Harvey.ai 

Harvey, the leading professional services platform engineered with AI, has developed an integration with Microsoft Word specialized for the law, tax, and finance fields. The new Harvey integration helps users draft, analyze, and research with natural language instructions and AI-powered experiences directly in Word. 

Partner Highlight, AI in Office (Excel) – Datasnipper  

DataSnipper, a generative-AI software startup that automates critical tasks for accountants and auditors, has developed a deep integration with Microsoft Excel. DataSnipper’s integrated product experience streamlines manual steps such as data entry and validation for audit and finance teams with intelligent automation directly in Excel.  

Partner Highlight, Microsoft 365 Copilot – Moveworks 

Moveworks is integrating with Microsoft 365 Copilot to make it easier for employees to perform routine tasks and get the help they need, when and where they need it. By providing a collaborative experience across two GenAI assistants, mutual customers can simplify complex processes and transform user workflows. 

Integrating AI Apps in Microsoft 365 

There are several different ways Microsoft customers can integrate AI tools from other providers into their Microsoft 365 applications. In some cases, customers and partners will choose to build on or extend Microsoft 365 Copilot through extensions or custom agents using Copilot Studio or Azure AI Studio. Customers can integrate third-party AI applications through App Store interfaces directly in Microsoft 365 applications like Teams, Outlook and the Microsoft 365 app. IT Admins can also find and deploy apps from the Microsoft admin center and Teams admin center. 

Adding third party apps in Microsoft 365 in a few simple steps 

Users can view all the apps available in Teams from the Teams apps store in a Teams desktop or web client

Open your Microsoft 365 apps: In Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 app you can access the app store from the Apps icon on the left navigation rail. 

Search for Apps: Use the top banner or search bar to find specific apps or browse categories and top picks to discover new tools. Click on an app to view its description, ratings, and user reviews.  

Install and pin: If adding apps has been enabled, users can simply click “Add” to install the app. To pin the app to the left navigation rail in Teams, Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 App for easy persistent access, users can right click on the app icon and select “Pin.” Users can then drag and drop the pinned apps to reorder them according to preference.  

Managing Apps for your Organization 

The Microsoft 365 admin center and Teams admin center offers a broad set of capabilities and controls to ensure that Microsoft and third-party apps are used according to their organization’s needs and preferences. Key examples of these controls include:  

• Manage Copilot agents as apps in the Integrated apps section of the Microsoft 365 admin center. Admins can enable, disable, assign, block, or remove Copilot agents for their organization, and manage Copilot capabilities and data privacy.   


• Pin third-party apps to the left navigation rail and integrate various elements that each Microsoft 365 app supports to extend functionality across Outlook, Teams, the Microsoft 365 app. 


• Configure org-wide app settings to control whether users can install third-party apps, overriding any other app permission policies.  


• Manage app subscriptions, including activating third-party apps via the third-party publisher’s portal before assigning them to users. 

Additional interoperability options with Microsoft 365 

Microsoft provides additional ways to connect with partners, ISV’s and third-party data sources with Microsoft 365.  The Microsoft commercial marketplace supports your organization’s needs to purchase innovative vendor solutions, while satisfying your organization’s business requirements. Microsoft AppSource already hosts thousands of apps, with millions of end users using these tools to enhance their workflows and productivity every day. AppSource is best for independent purchasing or for Microsoft 365 or Power BI applications, providing efficient distribution and reach for developers and where the product catalog can be accessed at https://appsource.microsoft.com/ or through the in-product experience in Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform.  

For services external to Microsoft 365, Microsoft Graph connectors enable your organization to index content from on-premises or cloud-based data sources into Microsoft Graph.  Microsoft Graph connectors allow your third-party content to participate in many Microsoft 365 experiences across search and Copilot for Microsoft 365, and used in Microsoft 365 apps whilst respecting appropriate permissions. User queries for information are always checked at runtime, so users only see what they have access to. We’re excited to share that starting September 20, 2024, Microsoft 365 and Office 365 subscriptions will now receive a 50 million item index per tenant without any extra cost for data ingested via Microsoft Graph connectors. With this change, previous index quota entitlements per license is removed, as is add-on cost for additional quota. Learn more about Microsoft Graph connectors and how to get started here. 

Looking Forward 

As the landscape of generative AI continues to evolve, so too does the suite of tools and systems that customers use to harness this technology for their organizations. For Microsoft, this means not only enhancing our own applications and features but also providing dependable, secure, and compliant integration options for third-party tools. Our goal is to ensure that Microsoft 365 remains the premier platform for adopting generative AI solutions, whether built on Azure Open AI, leveraging Copilot Studio, using Microsoft first-party solutions, or integrating with third-party tools. 

We are committed to maintaining and expanding interoperability to ensure that our customers have the freedom to choose the tools that best meet their needs. We recognize that the exact needs for the future are uncertain, but by continually listening to and learning from our customers, we aim to adapt and provide the best possible solutions based on their feedback. 

Quickly Diagnose Issues with Email Threat Policies

The Microsoft 365 commercial support team resolves customer support cases and provides support to help you be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur. 

Today, we’re excited to share some insights on working with Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MDO). 

Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MDO) provide cumulative layers of email security that include multiple threat policies. Some organizations choose our quick, “set-and-forget” preset policies, while others choose to customize their email threat policies for different sets of users, groups, domains and business requirements.  

Determine your protection policy strategy. 

Which policies apply to which recipients?  

In Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS), we often hear from administrators who create custom policies and find it challenging to determine which threat policy applied to a user or a message, especially if the recipient is part of multiple groups or policies. Consistent and effective policy management can lower administrator overhead, confusion, and even security risks, (e.g. bad emails being delivered to users due to overrides, or good emails being blocked because of aggressive blocks.) With that, we’re happy to announce two new tools to help you diagnose policy issues quickly and efficiently! 

Introducing: Email Threat Policy Diagnostic for a Recipient 

Requirements: Network Message ID, Recipient address 

Run the Email Threat Policy Diagnostic as an administrator in any admin portal (Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft Defender XDR, Exchange Admin Center, Compliance portal, etc.).  

The quick link https://aka.ms/diagmdopolicy will 1) open the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and 2) prepopulate the Get Help field (“?”) with the diagnostic query. 

Provide a Network Message ID and a recipient address for the Email Threat Policy diagnostic to show which policies applied when the message was received, and what policies covered the recipient.  

Example 1: Testing Safe Links user exclusions 

Your organization has three Safe Links policies defined. Joe works in the Threat Intelligence department, which commonly requires access for testing malicious links from email messages in a virtual environment. You decide to exclude Joe from Custom and Built-in policies to skip Safe Links processing.  

Figure 1: Safe Links policies screen in the Microsoft Defender XDR portal

Figure 2: Safe Links policy details and exclusions in the Microsoft Defender XDR portal

Figure 3: Safe Links policy details and exclusions in the Microsoft Defender XDR portal

Upon further testing, Joe still sees Safe Links applied to email messages with malicious URLs. After you collect a Network Message ID from Joe’s last test message, run the Email Threat Policy diagnostic. In this example, we will use these two pieces of input: 

 
Network Message ID: 42715389-04ae-4577-d1a3-08dcbad6af8a 

Recipient email address: joe@contoso.com 

Figure 4: Email Threat Policy Diagnostic in Microsoft Defender XDR portal – input

Figure 5: Email Threat Policy Diagnostic in Microsoft Defender XDR portal – results.

From the results, you’ll learn that the Standard Preset Security policy applied to this message. This is because Standard and Strict preset security policies take precedence over any custom and built-in policies and apply to your entire organization. To learn more about policy order and processing, see https://aka.ms/mdoorder. 

Solution and validation: 

Since your organization requires a higher degree of customizations, you decide to turn the Standard Preset Security policy Off .

Now that you only have two policies remaining (Custom and Built-in), and Joe is excluded from both, new test messages go through bypassing Safe Links. 

Example 2: Testing why anti-malware policies fire on excluded attachments 

You have multiple malware filtering policies that block different file attachments. The Custom malware policy is your latest policy that blocks all media file types, such as .mov, .mp4 and .mp3.  

Figure 6: Anti-malware policies screen in the Microsoft Defender XDR portal

Joe stopped getting voicemail messages. You know your voicemail provider uses an .mp3 file type and upon investigation, you find these messages are quarantined unexpectedly. You collect the Network Message ID and recipient address and run the Email Threat Policy diagnostic to verify which policy is applied to the message. 

Solution and validation: 

Since the custom policy was recently defined to block all media file types, you decide to modify the policy and remove .mp3 from the list of restricted file types. To confirm, you can run the diagnostics using the Network Message ID from the quarantine, provide Joe’s recipient address, and find out that the “Custom Malware policy” applies. 

Email Threat Policy Diagnostic in Microsoft Defender XDR portal – input and results.

Email Threat Policy Diagnostic in Microsoft Defender XDR portal – input and results.

 
Why Network Message ID (NMID)?  

A network message ID is a unique message ID value that persists across copies of the message that may be created due to bifurcation or distribution group expansion. Here’s what one looks like in message headers: 

X-MS-Exchange-Organization-Network-Message-Id: 185a3445-695c-464a-d44c-08dcb7d88102 

OR a different x-header that links to the same NMID value: 

X-MS-Office365-Filtering-Correlation-Id: 185a3445-695c-464a-d44c-08dcb7d88102 

Learn more about NMID. 

Notes:  

1. When providing a recipient, use an Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) mailbox which received the message. If a message was sent to a group, trace the message to the individual recipient first, and then provide the recipient Network Message ID.  


2. The diagnostic also works for outbound messages and similarly requires the Network Message ID and the recipient address. 


3. In addition to threat policies applied to the message, this diagnostic can also be used to help you troubleshoot which inbound connector was used to receive the message. This information is available in extended message trace reports, but it is surfaced in the results for your quick reference, which is helpful if you’re using multiple connectors and inbound routing configurations.  

Tip: Other self-help diagnostics are available for Exchange Online, Outlook and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. While these diagnostics can’t make any changes to your tenant without your consent, they offer insights into known issues and provide instructions to fix those issues quickly.  

Introducing: Threat Policy Checker PowerShell Script  
 
Requirements: No parameters are required to perform general inclusion logic checks. Provide a recipient address for the policies scoped to a particular user. 

Use the Threat Policy Checker Script to identify and resolve policy inconsistencies, and to ensure threat policies in your organization apply as intended. The script performs several checks to help you find inconsistencies in user membership and policy application without needing to provide a specific Network Message ID. If issues are found, the script provides guidance on how to resolve them. It can help with such questions as  

• Are there confusing policies with conditions that lead to unexpected coverage or coverage gaps?  


• Which threat policies apply to a recipient, or should have applied but did not? No actual detection or Network Message ID needed.  


• Which actions would be taken on an email for each policy matched?     

The script only runs in “Read” mode from Exchange Online and Microsoft Graph PowerShell. It does not modify any policies, and only provides actionable guidance for administrators for remediation. 

Quick link: https://aka.ms/mdopolicycheck  * 

Parameters and Use Cases 

MDOThreatPolicyChecker 

Run the script without any parameters to review all threat protection policies and to find inconsistencies with user inclusion and/or exclusion conditions. 

Script Output 1: ‘No Logical inconsistencies found’ message if the policies are configured correctly, and no further corrections are required. 

MDOThreatPolicyChecker.ps1 script version 24.08.02.1321

Connected to EXO

Session details

Tenant Id: aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa

User: Joe@contoso.com

Policy Custom antispam policy:
Type: Anti-spam Policy.
State: Enabled.
Issues:
-> Illogical inclusions of Users and Groups.
The policy will only apply to Users who are also members of any Groups you have specified.
This makes the Group inclusion redundant and confusing.
Suggestion: use one or the other type of inclusion.

Script Output 2: Inconsistencies found in the antispam policy named ‘Custom antispam policy‘, and consequent recommendations shown — illogical inclusions as both users and groups are specified. This policy will only apply to the users who are also members of the specified group. 

-IncludeMDOPolicies 

Add the parameter -IncludeMDOPolicies to view Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Safe Links and Safe Attachments policies: 

MDOThreatPolicyChecker.ps1 script version 24.08.02.1321

Connected to EXO

Session details

Tenant Id: aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa

User: Joe@contoso.com

Connected to Graph

Session details

TenantID: aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa

Account: Joe@contoso.com

Policies applied to Joe@contoso.com…

Malware:
Name: Custom Malware Policy
Priority: 0

Anti-phish:
Default policy

Anti-spam:
Default policy

Outbound Spam:
Default policy

For both Safe Attachments and Safe Links:
Name: Standard Preset Security Policy
Priority: 0

Script Output 3: Parameters -EmailAddress and -IncludeMDOPoliciesEOP specified to validate Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Safe Attachments and Safe Links policies, on top of Exchange Online Protection policies. 

-ShowDetailedPolicies 

To see policy details, run the script with the -ShowDetailedPolicies parameter: 

MDOThreatPolicyChecker.ps1 script version 24.08.02.1321

Connected to EXO

Session details

Tenant Id: aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa

User: Joe@contoso.com

Connected to Graph

Session details

TenantID: aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa

Account: Joe@contoso.com

Policies applied to Joe@contoso.com…

Malware:
Name: Custom Malware Policy
Priority: 0

Properties of the policy that are True, On, or not blank:
EnableFileFilter: True
FileTypeAction: Reject
FileTypes: ace apk app appx ani arj bat cab cmd com deb dex dll docm elf exe hta img iso jar jnlp kext lha lib library lnk lzh macho msc msi msix msp mst pif ppa ppam reg rev scf scr sct sys uif vb vbe vbs vxd wsc wsf wsh xll xz z txt
QuarantineTag: AdminOnlyAccessPolicy
RecommendedPolicyType: Custom
IsValid: True
Guid: ff6ba341-625a-4a0b-b32a-65e5625a6627

Anti-phish:
Default policy

Properties of the policy that are True, On, or not blank:
Enabled: True
ImpersonationProtectionState: Automatic
EnableMailboxIntelligence: True
TargetedUserProtectionAction: NoAction
TargetedUserQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
MailboxIntelligenceProtectionAction: NoAction
MailboxIntelligenceQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
TargetedDomainProtectionAction: NoAction
TargetedDomainQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
AuthenticationFailAction: MoveToJmf
SpoofQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
EnableSpoofIntelligence: True
EnableViaTag: True
EnableUnauthenticatedSender: True
HonorDmarcPolicy: True
DmarcRejectAction: Reject
DmarcQuarantineAction: Quarantine
RecommendedPolicyType: Custom
IsValid: True
Guid: bf512d2b-bc3b-4843-a01c-433a02fd6bab

Anti-spam:
Default policy

Properties of the policy that are True, On, or not blank:
QuarantineRetentionPeriod: 15
TestModeAction: None
MarkAsSpamEmptyMessages: Test
MarkAsSpamBulkMail: On
MarkAsSpamNdrBackscatter: On
IsDefault: True
HighConfidenceSpamAction: Quarantine
SpamAction: Quarantine
BulkThreshold: 7
ZapEnabled: True
InlineSafetyTipsEnabled: True
BulkSpamAction: MoveToJmf
PhishSpamAction: MoveToJmf
IntraOrgFilterState: Spam
HighConfidencePhishAction: Quarantine
RecommendedPolicyType: Custom
SpamQuarantineTag: Notification policy
HighConfidenceSpamQuarantineTag: Notification policy
PhishQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
HighConfidencePhishQuarantineTag: AdminOnlyAccessPolicy
BulkQuarantineTag: DefaultFullAccessPolicy
IsValid: True
Guid: 191b78dc-9221-4a2c-b51c-208a186e931a

Outbound Spam:
Default policy

Properties of the policy that are True, On, or not blank:
IsDefault: True
ConfigurationType: HostedOutboundSpamFilterPolicy
ActionWhenThresholdReached: BlockUser
RecommendedPolicyType: Custom
AutoForwardingMode: On
Guid: 5a6504d0-b3e8-4dda-8060-94e03f9813c6
IsValid: True

For both Safe Attachments and Safe Links:
Name: Standard Preset Security Policy
Priority: 0
Preset policy settings are not configurable but documented here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-office-365/recommended-settings-for-eop-and-office365#microsoft-defender-for-office-365-security

Script Output 4: Parameters -EmailAddress,-IncludeMDOPolicies, and -ShowDetailedPolicies list all EOP and MDO policies applied to a user and their full details. 

* Please read the disclaimer when running the script. The scripts are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. The sample scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. Please use GitHub to report issues to the developers. 

 
We hope these tools help you evaluate and diagnose issues related to the order and precedence of email protection policies better. Do you have questions or feedback about Microsoft Defender for Office 365? Engage with the community and Microsoft experts in the Defender for Office 365 forum. 

Important resources: 

Email Threat Policy Diagnostic 
Threat Policy Checker Script 
Get started with Microsoft Defender for Office 365 
Order and precedence of email protection 
Preset security policies  
Anti-spam message headers 
Message trace in the new EAC in Exchange Online (NMID) 
Self-help diagnostics for issues in Exchange Online and Outlook 

 Alex Hudish is a Senior Supportability Program Manager in the Customer Service & Support (CSS) Supportability Team focused on Security and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 

Ross_Parkel is a Senior Technical Support Escalation Engineer in Customer Service & Support (CSS) focused on Security and Microsoft Defender for Office 365.  

Mithun_Rathinam is a Senior Technical Support Escalation Engineer in Customer Service & Support (CSS) Beta Team focused on Security and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 

Marc Nivens is a Senior Technical Support Embedded Escalation Engineer on the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Team. 

OneNote’s new Sticky Notes feature for Windows receives update

A few months back, we launched the new Sticky Notes experience for Windows, a feature of OneNote to help you remember effortlessly. We are thrilled to announce updates for it, all thanks to the incredible feedback we’ve received from you since the launch.  

Your input has been instrumental in shaping the direction of our development, and we are deeply grateful for your continued support and suggestions. 

Windows Start Menu Entry-point 

We have added a shortcut in the Start menu to make accessing new Sticky Notes experience easier for you. Now, your Sticky Notes are just a click away! 🚀 

This shortcut launches the OneNote app directly into the new Sticky Notes view and is automatically added whenever you install or update the OneNote app. 

sticky note icon in app menu

The new purple-tinted Sticky Notes icon with the new tag makes this shortcut easily distinguishable from the existing Microsoft Sticky Notes app shortcut in the Start menu. 
 
Always on Top 

One of the most requested features is here! You can now pin your popped out notes, so they stay above other applications while you multitask or switch between apps. Simply click the pin icon in the top bar of a popped-out note to keep it always on top. 
 

Copy Note 

You can now effortlessly copy the entire content of a Sticky Note, including images and text, with a single click. Simply click on the ellipsis (…) menu and select Copy Note to copy everything to your clipboard. 
 

Don’t see these features yet? It’s probably us, not you.   

These features are being deployed in phases and advancing steadily. The exciting new features are on their way and should be with you in the next few months. 

Your Feedback Matters 

We value your input! Easily share your thoughts by selecting ‘Feedback’ from the menu options. 
 

Frequently Asked Questions 

1. How do I update the new Sticky Notes? 
   
   
   
   1. The new Sticky Notes experience is a feature of the OneNote Windows app. To update it, you should update the OneNote Windows app.  
   
   
   
   


2. I am seeing an error dialogue on clicking the Start menu shortcut. Why? 
   
   
   
   1. If your workplace uses Intune policy on Windows, the new Sticky Notes feature won’t be available, and you’ll see an error. Check with your admin for details. 
   
   
   2. Those with Office LTSC licenses are not eligible to use the new Sticky Notes and will get an error.  
   
   
   3. If these don’t apply, but you see an error, the feature is still rolling out to your device. Please wait for a few months and ensure your Office apps are updated. 
   
   
   
   


3. Can I access Sticky Notes on my phone? 
   
   
   
   1. Yes, Sticky Notes are available in the OneNote mobile apps for both Android and iOS. 
   
   
   
   


4. How do I move my notes from Microsoft Sticky Notes to OneNote’s new Sticky Notes feature? 
   
   
   
   1. Make sure you’re signed into the existing Microsoft Sticky Notes app. 
   
   
   2. Use the same account to sign into OneNote on Windows. 
   
   
   3. If you have multiple accounts, verify that your Sticky Notes account is set as the primary one in OneNote Windows app. 
   
   
   4. By completing these steps, your Sticky Notes will automatically sync to the cloud and will be accessible in the new Sticky Notes by OneNote. 
   
   
   
   


5. What will happen to the existing Microsoft Sticky Notes app? 
   
   
   
   1. The Microsoft Sticky Notes app will still be available but to access the latest features and enhancements, we recommend moving to the new Sticky Notes in OneNote.   
   
   
   
   

SharePoint News Connector Retirement

A Step Forward in News Sharing and Collaboration for SharePoint

SharePoint News connector has been a valuable tool in our Microsoft Teams experience, seamlessly integrating SharePoint news into our team channels. As we strive for innovation and collaboration, we are transitioning away from the SharePoint News connector to embrace alternative, more integrated solutions.

SharePoint News Connector

Our decision to move beyond the SharePoint News connector is driven by our commitment to providing a seamless and collaborative environment. With current advancements in Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, we can leverage alternatives, ensuring real-time updates and discussions within Teams channels.

Exploring New Alternatives

We encourage you to explore our robust alternatives to SharePoint News connector, such as Teams Workflow, Viva Connections and Viva Amplify, which offer a more integrated and feature-rich news experience that continues to share SharePoint site news within your Teams’ channels.

• Viva Connections News notifications: The Viva Connections app delivers News notifications via Microsoft Teams and links users to the Viva Connections app through the notification –Learn more about Viva Connections News notifications

• Viva Amplify: Viva Amplify brings together internal communication processes in a single tool. You create content once, then publish your message through SharePoint, email, Microsoft Teams, and soon Viva Engage.- Publish a Viva Amplify publication

• Create your own workflows in Teams: Set up a Teams workflow

Timeline for Transition

The process will begin by halting the creation of new SharePoint News connectors starting July 22nd and will continue with the phase-out of configured connectors from August 26th onwards.

This change will happen automatically on the dates specified. There will no action required from admins, but it is highly suggested to:

• Notify users about this change


• Update any relevant documentation


• Share the alternative solutions to ensure a smooth transition.

Resources

We understand the importance of a smooth transition and are dedicated to providing support throughout this change. You can follow our support guidance for additional help and information.

• Support Guidance

Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Support Tips, Part 2

The Microsoft 365 Commercial Support Team resolves customer support cases and provides support to help you be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur.  

Today, we’re excited to share more about some of our supportability work with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.  

In November 2023, we posted our first article on Copilot for Microsoft 365 sharing some initial insights and guidance from the customer support team’s perspective.  Even though it seems like yesterday much has happened since then and we’ve continued to learn from all customers as they rapidly adopt and use Microsoft Copilot to increase their productivity, collaboration, and creativity every day.    

Our published guidance and resources have continued to grow and expand too, and today we’ll share answers to some of the top questions we hear from customers along with some of our favorite resources to help you better prepare and learn more.  

Plan & Deploy  

Q: What are the prerequisites for my organization to use Copilot for Microsoft 365?  

A: Copilot has specific licensing prerequisites and deployment requirements and  most of these parallel the requirements to use Microsoft 365 Apps. Note that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a user-based license and requires that Microsoft 365 Apps on a Windows desktop are deployed using a user-based license. More information on prerequisites here > Get started with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn  

Q: What model does Copilot for Microsoft 365 use and are there any limits on number and length of conversations or file uploads?  

A: Some important updates that apply to this were recently shared on April 2.  All licensed commercial customers will have priority access to GPT-4 Turbo in Copilot for Microsoft 365.  Limits on the number of chats per day and the number of turns per conversation have been removed.  File uploads are unlimited up to 2 GB uploads per day.  More information on the recent announcements here > Bringing the latest capabilities to Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers | Microsoft 365 Blog  

Q: Are there any special considerations when using Microsoft Purview information protection capabilities with Copilot for Microsoft 365?  

A: Yes.  Before deploying Copilot, take time to get familiar with information protection considerations and ways to strengthen your data protection solutions when using Microsoft Purview. More information on deploying with Microsoft Purview here > Considerations for deploying Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn  

Q: How does semantic index work with Copilot and what are the supported content types?  Is there anything I can do as an administrator to prepare and manage the sematic index?  

A: The semantic index enhances Microsoft Copilot and search results in the Microsoft 365 applications, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Teams by creating two indexes, one for user-level content and data, and one for tenant-level content and data.  Each supports different file types with the latest illustrated here:  

There are optional steps that administrators can take if they wish.  More information on semantic index here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/semantic-index-for-copilot  

Q: Is there anything special I need to think about with network planning and endpoints?  

A: Copilot services connect to endpoints within the Microsoft 365 Endpoint taxonomy.  As with other Microsoft 365 services, it’s recommended to align networks with the Microsoft 365 Network Connectivity Principles for optimal performance and security.  

Q: Where can I learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365 privacy and security and how our data is handled when my users interact with Copilot?  

A: In early March, additional data residency capabilities were announced here. Full details on data, privacy, and security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 can be found here > Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn  

Q: Does Microsoft have a playbook or set of resources to help me plan and implement Copilot for Microsoft 365 for my organization and drive successful adoption?  

A: Comprehensive resources are available to assist in discovering, planning, and implementing Copilot for organizations of all sizes. This includes guidance for working across leadership, IT, and end users.  A full set of adoption resources can be found here > Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Microsoft Adoption  

Manage & Use  

Q: What level of controls are available to IT Admins for Copilot for Microsoft 365?  

A: By using the Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, IT Admins can manage how users in their organization interact with Copilot for Microsoft 365.  More information on Copilot management capabilities here > Manage Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with the Copilot page | Microsoft Learn  

Q: What languages does Copilot for Microsoft 365 support?  

A: Support for an additional 16 languages was recently announced.  Details on Copilot supported languages here > Supported languages for Microsoft Copilot – Microsoft Support  

Q: I assigned a Copilot license to a user but it’s not showing up for them. What should I do?  

A: After assigning a Copilot license to a user, it can take up to 72 hours for the background refresh of the license to take effect and for Copilot to show up in applications. Administrators can force a refresh by applying the File > Account > Update license button (located directly under the Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise logo).    

More information here > How to find and enable missing Copilot button in Microsoft 365 apps – Microsoft Support  

Q: Ok, so Copilot still doesn’t show up in Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word… what now?  

A: This will happen if Connected Experiences have been turned off in your organization (which enables analyzing of content for Microsoft 365 apps) including when users are using Windows Information Protection or Microsoft Defender Application Guard. To enable Copilot in this scenario, policy settings for connected experiences will need to be turned on. The following are indications that Connected Experiences are disabled:   

• Office Cloud policy for “Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content” is disabled.  


• Office ULS log shows “Data.IsPrivacyEnabled”:false” in the  Office.AugLoop.Client.Liblet.StartRuntimeAttempt event.  


• Either of these registry keys are enabled:  
  
  
  
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftoffice16.0commonPrivacyusercontentdisabled  
  
  
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftoffice16.0commonPrivacydisconnectedstate  
  
  
  
  

More information on connected experience settings here > Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn  

Q: My users are getting mixed results when working with large documents and Copilot in Word. Any tips?  

A: When referencing documents with Copilot in Word, try to limit your document size to 20 pages and 15,000 words or less. This is the sweet spot for Copilot to work effectively. More information on working with Copilot in Word here > Keeping it short and sweet: a guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot – Microsoft Support  

Q: My users are really excited about the email summarization, drafting, and coaching capabilities with Copilot in Outlook but are running into occasional issues. Any limitations to be aware of?  

A: Copilot scenarios in Outlook are only available on a user’s primary mailbox and not with shared, archived, group, or delegated mailboxes. With Coaching by Copilot, a user’s email draft needs to be at least 100 characters to use the Coaching capability. There’s no limit on prompt length when using Draft with Copilot.  More information on working with Outlook here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Outlook – Microsoft Support  

Q: Users are bumping into some latency issues when working with Copilot in Excel. Any suggestions?  

A: Copilot in Excel works for Excel tables of up to 2 million cells. Skills like formula column suggestions, highlight, sort, and filter do not have data limits. Keep in mind that it can take some time to get a response when working with large tables. Note that Copilot in Excel only works with files that are hosted in OneDrive or Microsoft 365 SharePoint locations and have Autosave turned on.  More information on working with Excel here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel – Microsoft Support  

Q: What are some things my users can do to get better performance when using Copilot in Microsoft Teams?   

A: Limit questions to topics covered in the chat or meeting.  When conducting meetings and calls, speak or chat in supported languages. With chat scenarios, keep in mind that Copilot can only process as far back as 30 days from the last message sent. This may be further limited by retention policies that are set within your organization.  More information on working with Microsoft Teams here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support  

Q: Some of my users are seeing issues or missing results when retrieving files to reference in Copilot with Word Online, PowerPoint Online, and Excel Online. What’s causing this?  

A: For Copilot to work with Office web applications like Word Online, PowerPoint Online, and Excel Online, third-party cookies must be enabled. Blocking third-party cookies will result in a failure when retrieving files to reference. More information on requirements here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-requirements  

Q: I have users that aren’t seeing relevant documents or information, including personalized content (fx. suggested meeting hours) when using Copilot. Is there a way to fix this?  

A: This may be related to semantic index. Check and make sure Enterprise Search is enabled in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. And then make sure Item insights are enabled. Having Item or People insights turned off will reduce the Microsoft Search and semantic index experience. More information here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/semantic-index-for-copilot   

Copilot, Your Support Assistant  

Finally, keep in mind that you can always use Copilot as your support and troubleshooting assistant and even ask it to provide suggested prompts to use for ways it can help with different scenarios. Below is a quick example using Copilot in the browser.  There’s  a great mobile app (powered by GPT-4!) too.  

As with any scenario, make sure to use good prompting techniques to help Copilot provide the responses and results that you want. This includes:  
 

1. Providing complete details and sufficient context about the scenario or issue.  


2. Instructing on any specific information sources that Copilot should use when responding.  


3. Guiding how Copilot responds by telling it to act like a certain role or expert (e.g. “act like a technical expert on Exchange Online” or “act like a solution architect specializing in Teams meeting rooms and calling”).  


4. Consider the sequence and order of the context, example, and instruction details in your prompts. Experimenting with the order and when specific sources are referenced can have an impact on the quality of responses.  


5. Focusing on positive instructions and telling Copilot what to do (versus what not to do) often generates the best results.    

 
There’s a ton of great learning and resource material out there on prompt engineering. If you need a starting point, take a look at these resources > Learn about Copilot prompts – Microsoft Support and Copilot Lab (cloud.microsoft).  

Hope you found this helpful, and we’ll continue to share updates from our Copilot journey here in Microsoft 365 commercial support!  

 Brian Stoner is a Director in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team where he leads a team of technical and business program managers.  

The CSS Modern Work Supportability Team delivers innovative self-help solutions and diagnostics, in-service enhancements, and support programs to help customers get maximum value from their Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions and create an easy-to-use, connected support experience.  

Enable Office Diagnostic Data to unlock the power of Microsoft 365 Apps health.

In the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center you can monitor your Microsoft 365 Apps health as well as leverage update validation during your monthly patching rollout. Both of these powerful tools are available in the Apps Admin Center. The prerequisite for seeing this data is enabling Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) to allow us to collect your usage and patching signals and then return them to you in a way that allows you to really see what is happening in your environment from an Apps health perspective. Additionally, sending diagnostic data to Microsoft allows us to better track the quality of the builds we release, identify potential issues faster and deliver a better product to you.  

What is Office Diagnostic Data? 

Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) is a set of diagnostic signals that are collected by the Microsoft 365 Apps on your device and include details of how the M365 Apps are functioning, including signals related to App reliability, App performance, and versioning information, among other things. Microsoft can use this data to keep our applications updated, safe, and working well. Microsoft gives customers control over what type of ODD is sent to Microsoft, including the ability to turn it off almost completely. 

How can I tell if I am sending Office Diagnostics Data to Microsoft  

To ensure your devices in your tenant are sending diagnostic data you can check the tracker in the Apps Health section of the Apps admin center. Under the Overview page, in the Insights section, click on “See details” to show the flyout of how many devices are sending data. If you are not seeing the number of devices sending data you think you should, check to make sure you are configured to send data, your network is not blocking the traffic and that your devices are in support. 

Picture of the Microsoft 365 Apps health page in the Apps admin center showing number of devices configured to send optional diagnostic data.

Why: Value of enabling ODD 

We encourage customers to enable Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) to provide visibility into the health of their M365 Apps. With ODD enabled, both Microsoft and the customer’s tenant admins can proactively address issues that may impact the user experience. When Microsoft engineering receives detailed diagnostic signals from your devices, we are able to monitor for major issues and can take steps to mitigate reliability and performance problems—and even alert you to actions that you may need to take to resolve issues.  

If ODD is disabled (set to the lowest level of  “Neither”),  Microsoft engineering has no visibility into your user’s experiences, and your tenant’s issues will not be considered when prioritizing bug fixes. 

For customers, Microsoft has created a separate admin portal called the Apps Admin Center (config.office.com). If a tenant has ODD enabled, the admin can access M365 App health data and act on recommendations from Microsoft (through Config.office.com). Additionally, if Microsoft identifies an issue that is not within our control to resolve, we will often reach out to advise the customer on how to fix the problem. 

To summarize, by sending ODD to Microsoft, you can benefit from the following: 

• Access health dashboards in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center that show you the relevant app health data. 


• Influence the development and prioritization of new features and bug fixes.  


• Benefit from the latest security updates and patches that are intended to improve your user experience. 


• When relevant, receive proactive guidance and recommendations from Microsoft on how to improve the performance and reliability of your Microsoft 365 Apps. 


• Experience proactive resolution of issues and bugs. 

We have customers from all over the world and from various industries, including government and security, who have enabled ODD (Office Diagnostics Data). This allows us to collaborate more effectively and keep a proactive eye on their health and experience. Enabling ODD can help us partner better and improve our customers’ experiences. 

What is collected? 

The level of diagnostics data you choose determines what type of data is collected by ODD. To enable us to process your app health trends and provide proactive support, we recommend that you set ODD to at least the Required level. This level collects the minimum amount of data needed to identify and fix issues. If you set ODD to Neither, you are essentially disabling it and preventing Microsoft from proactively improving your user experience. This means that you will be left alone in dealing with your tenant issues and user escalations reactively, without any proactive help from Microsoft engineering . Please refer to the following table for more information on the different levels of ODD. 

How to enable ODD? 

There are a number of ways to configure Office Diagnostic Data on your devices, the method you use will depend on how you manage your devices. The following are the primary methods used by most customers. 

Cloud Policy: 

Use the “configure the level of client software diagnostics data sent by office to Microsoft” in the apps admin center(config.office.com)​ 

Levels:​ 

• Optional​ 

• Required*​ 

• Neither​ 

If policy is not configured, optional diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft.​ 

*Minimum recommended​ 

Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps Cloud Policy page showing policy to configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft.

Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn  

Control Setting via GPO (for Windows)​ 

Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft (admx.help)

Control privacy settings by editing the registry. 

 Use the following information to configure privacy settings directly in the registry

Picture of the description of the policy setting for configuring the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftofficecommonclienttelemetry] “sendtelemetry”=dword:00000002 

How to view the Data sent to Microsoft  

Use Diagnostic Data Viewer 

• Go to Start, select Settings>Office data settings​ 


• Enable toggle for Office diagnostic data viewing on 

Picture of the Office data settings data viewer toggle

Picture of the Diagnostic data viewer data events

Diagnostic Data Viewer Overview (Windows 10 and Windows 11) – Windows Privacy | Microsoft Learn 

How can an admin monitor M365 Apps health? 

Microsoft 365 Apps health takes the diagnostic data you send to Microsoft and gives it right back to you in an easy to read and understand section within the M365 Apps admin center. Apps health tracks things like load time, crash rates and file open time to give you a holistic view of the health of the devices in your organization.  

You can drill into each individual application, focus on a specific servicing channel or monitor the health of your add-ins all from Apps health inside the Apps admin center.  

Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps health application metrics page

Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps health Add-in overview page

Privacy: 

What is included in Office Diagnostic Data?  

Depending on the level of control you have set up, the information that will be sent to Microsoft will be different.  For Microsoft to help you keeping your tenant healthy proactively, we it is sufficient enabling ODD at the “Required” level. For a full list of Office Diagnostic data sent to Microsoft when “Required” level is set up, please refer to: Required diagnostic data for Office – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn  

How does Microsoft keep our data private?  

Microsoft is the industry leader in protecting customer data and will only use your data to provide the services that you have purchased from Microsoft. Read more about how we protect & manage your data here. 

How long diagnostic data stored? 

For commercial customers, our typical engineering practice is to retain diagnostic data from Microsoft 365 Apps for up to 18 months. If an enterprise subscription expires or is terminated, Microsoft holds for 90 days and then deletes data within the next 90 days, as outlined in the DPA.  

Is user data collected? 

With Office Diagnostic data no user content or personal information (such as usernames or email addresses) is collected. Data that we received is pseudonymized. Diagnostic data also does not include any file content or information about apps unrelated to Office. 

Where is data stored?  

Office Diagnostics Data for EU customers is now stored within the EU, aligning with our commitment to regional data residency. The rest of the data continues to be securely stored in the United States, ensuring comprehensive data management and privacy. 

Network 

Office Diagnostics Data is transmitted to Microsoft through Office 365 endpoints, utilizing the devices’ network. This process typically involves a low volume of data, which is unlikely to impact network performance. Additionally, the data is secured both during transit and while stored, ensuring its confidentiality and integrity. 

What is the impact in my Network?  

The bandwidth consumed by Office Diagnostic Data varies as it depends on user interaction with Office Apps. While “Required” events typically upload once per session, user-driven events differ. To estimate data upload, enable diagnostics on a few devices and monitor connections to diagnostic endpoints via your firewall. For individual device data, use the Diagnostic Data Viewer on a ‘typical’ user’s device. 

Safely bring AI chat to all using Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection, plus new video

Starting your organization’s AI transformation may seem challenging when users want to use AI tools now and IT teams want to ensure data security. AI is spreading surprisingly quickly, with 75% of knowledge workers reporting that they use AI at work.¹ But if your users are leveraging unsanctioned AI tools, it puts sensitive business data at risk—once it goes into an AI model, there is no getting it back. And if you block AI services to prioritize security, you risk falling behind other organizations who are moving full speed ahead with AI.   

You can give users the AI tools they want today while also protecting sensitive data with Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection. Best of all, it’s available at no additional cost if you’re on an eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription, and it’s easy to roll out using the Copilot adoption kit.  

We know all the AI options out there might be confusing, so we have a new Copilot explainer video available as part of Microsoft Build to help provide greater clarity about how users can be more creative at work and save time using AI. You can watch the new Copilot explainer video at aka.ms/Copilot/BuildVideo.

Bring AI-powered web chat to your users today 

Rolling out Copilot is easy. When an eligible user signs in with their work or school account (Entra ID), Copilot automatically adds commercial data protection. This means prompts and responses are not saved, no one at Microsoft has eyes-on access, and data is not used to train the underlying large language model. You can learn more about managing Copilot on Microsoft Learn.  
 
Give your employees a productivity and creativity boost with Copilot 

People have a lot on their plate at work, and Copilot with commercial data protection uses advanced AI models like GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 to provide powerful AI tools to help tackle tasks of all sizes. 

With AI in their toolkit, users are already recognizing gains at work with 90% reporting that AI helps them to save time,² and 84% reporting that it helps them be more creative.³ They’re using it to do things like: 

• Answer complex questions sourced with the latest information available on the web so they can spend less time searching and asking peers and more time getting things done.


• Summarize content like an article or PDF into a set of bullet points to save time reading long documents.  


• Create custom images that can be used for presentations, blogs, and more to bring the creative vision in their head to life.  

You and your users can sign in and try Copilot today at copilot.microsoft.com. 

Pair Copilot with Microsoft Edge for added security capabilities 

Users get additional security features when they access Copilot through the Microsoft Edge sidebar, including capabilities like native support for Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies that add protections to prevent sensitive content from being summarized, copied, pasted, or captured by screenshot.  

Plus, Edge offers controls for managing Copilot and third-party AI services with Edge management service and new user features such as real-time translation of videos using AI and AI-powered Workspaces. Learn more about Microsoft Edge and new announcements at Build.  

Kickstart your AI journey with the Copilot adoption kit 

If you’re ready to train your users on how to make the most of AI at work, use the customizable resources in the Copilot adoption kit. Available in nine languages, this kit includes ready-made resources such as a training presentation, company-wide communications, tip sheets, and more. The kit can help you unlock the full potential of AI for your users and accelerate your AI transformation. 

¹, ², ³: 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report (Microsoft, LinkedIn) 

Deployment of AI in Support: An interview with Jason Weum

Ross Smith interviews Jason Weum on the deployment of artificial intelligence in support at Microsoft. 

Ross Smith: Hey Jason,. as a leader in the deployment of AI in Customer Support, I’m interested in learning more about your background and how you started engaging with AI..   

Jason Weum: My background is in software development and engineering having spent a large part of my career both developing software (custom & boxed product) as well as managing the process through Technical PM and Product Management roles.  I have spent time in consulting, development, PM, testing, and support roles throughout my career.  Most recently I moved into the Supportability function within Microsoft Support where we focus on crafting an AI-Frist Customer support experience while making our Support Engineers more efficient and effective through developing cutting-edge solutions. 

Ross: Wow, that’s great – you have both and engineering and support background. ,  so you haveThis gives you  a good great perspective on this new world of AI that blends cutting edge technology and support practices. We know that Customer Service and Support is a top enterprise scenario for  the use of AI. When did you first get involved with AI? 

Jason: My team started discussing how we could disrupt shake up some of our current plans in support by leveraging AI back in the summer of 2022.  We were laying the initial foundation of understanding for using AI in Customer Service.  Then in December of 2022, ChatGPT burst onto the scene and because of our workwe’d already done a bunch of worksignificant research, experimentation, and work  in this space, we were primed for seizingto seize the opportunity.  Quickly in January 2023 we started building models based on our data sets combined with the power of GPT 3.5, and learning as the technology was changing so rapidly.  It was and continues to be quite a wild ride. 

Ross: So you were ininvolved with experimenting with AI this early on, before ChatGPT was even introduced to the world. You’ve clearly got a lot more experience than most. What are some of the things you’ve learned? 

Jason: One of the most important things I learned is that AI, like many technologies, has a learning curve for users to see the promised efficiencies.  Early on many people thought it was this magical tech to solve all problems and, while it is amazingly powerful, it does take investment to realize the potential.  Another key learning is that there isare certain things AI is really good at and others where it tends to struggle.  Understanding the parts of your processes or tooling that are good candidates for AI is key to unlocking the most productivity gains.  Finally, AI is only as good as the model or knowledge source you feed it.  We learning learned that having a good set of high-quality content is important to ensuring the best possible response quality. 

Ross: Sounds like you all have learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Can you tell us all a little more about where you see AI totally shine and where it tends to not perform as well in customer scenarios? 

Jason: In the customer service space, we see AI perform well at tasks that typically require less deep knowledge about the thing you are supporting.  For example, helping draft high quality customer emails, helping create initial troubleshooting or scoping emails to your customer, categorizing your support case based on a defined taxonomy, answering customer questions on how to use a particular feature –, basically things that typically take up time in a support engineers’ day but don’t require deep specialized knowledge.  Conversely, deeply technical nuanced issues, issues specific to an individual implementation, issues on new areas that aren’t well documented, these are candidates more suited for your human engineers. 

Ross: You have a long history with building diagnostics and automation to help customers help themselves with their technology issues. How will AI be integrated or will it be different from traditional diagnostics we read about here Save time and effort with Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics – Microsoft Community Hub 

Jason: Right now, we believe AI will help in a few ways.  First, AI continues to help our developers generate code more efficiently, allowing them to accomplish more in the current methodology of development.  Secondly, we see diagnostic services being able to leverage LLMs to perform tasks that would normally be embedded in business logic.  For example, we have diagnostics that analyze large log files looking for predefined patterns.  Going forward we will be able to leverage the pattern recognition and categorization capabilities of AI to be able to find new patterns in logs files we haven’t encountered yet.  This will shorten the development cycle and increase the effectiveness of these diagnostics.  Lastly, we can use AI to generate natural outputs along with advanced troubleshooting steps that evolve over time.  With diagnostic results being able to prompt an LLM for additional insights we can ensure diagnostics can provide the most up to date guidance in a low code way. 

Ross: This is such a fascinating time of technological change and rapid advancements. What are you excited about for the future? 

Jason: As many have said, we are just on the verge of this AI revolution and what it can unlock for do for many around the world.  I am excited to be a part of one of the most exciting times in computing history and being able to learn every day as new things continue to be discovered.  Many problems we have tried to solve in the past with marginal results now seem much more feasible.  I am excited to see where we can go, what we can do, and what problems we can solve in the months to come. 

Ross: You have clearly come a long way in your AI journey, Jason. What advice would you share with customer support professionals who are trying to figure out how to deploy AI in their organizations? This is an intimidating space. What should people do to get started? 

Jason: AI is another tool that can be used to help you solve business problems.  While it is powerful and exciting, it won’t address everything all at once.  I would recommend being clear on the challenges in your organization and then seeing how AI might help.  Make sure you have a foundational understanding of where AI excels today and take that into careful consideration before planning out where to start.  Also, be aware that AI will change your existing processes and you may need to rethink how things work to get the most out of these new capabilities.  I like to start small and learn, building out based on positive results.  Finally, remember that any AI solution is only as good as the data in the model.  Taking time to ensure you have quality knowledge source content first will go a long way in ensuring the results AI delivers meet expectations. 

Related: ChatGPT & AI: 6 Tips for Managing Support Content (microsoft.com) 

Ross Smith is the Worldwide Support Leader for the CSS Modern Work Supportability team.  

Jason Weum is a director of supportability for OneDrive and SharePoint support, and he led strategy development for Modern Work GPT. 

Microsoft at TechCon365 and PWRCON – Seattle, WA (June 3-7, 2024)

“The thing I enjoyed most about the event was being around like-minded individuals discussing things that I deal with daily.”
– Previous TechCon365 attendee

Join Microsoft, MVPs and the best community in tech for TechCon365 & PWRCON Seattle 2024 | June 3-7, 2024 | TechCon365.com/Seattle. Graphic: A collage of all the Microsoft speakers presenting in Seattle, WA.

• What: TechCon365 & PWRCON – Seattle




• Register today |Use the MSCMTY discount code to save $200 USD off registration.




• Content: 2 Microsoft keynotes + 8 general sessions || 185+ overall sessions – 50 Microsoft-led sessions| 25+ full-day workshops




• Microsoft is sending over 45+ product makers to present and engage.


• Review all sessions + agenda view, workshops, and their full speaker lineup.




• When & where: June 3-7, 2024 




• In-person: Seattle, WA – Seattle Convention Center  




• Twitter & hashtag: @TechCon365 | #TechCon365


• Cost: $850 – $2,775 (Learn more about ticket pricing options)

At TechCon365 & PWRCON Seattle, a Microsoft 365 Conference & Power Platform Conference, the subject matter is divided into tracks and each session is designated for beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert. Tracks are offered for the following subjects: Microsoft 365 Apps, SharePoint, Azure / 365 Development, Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Content Management, Power Users, Business Value, Implementation/Administration, Power Automate (Flow)/Workflow, Power BI – Business Intelligence, SharePoint Development, and more. Choose one complete learning track or mix and match based on what content best meets you and your organization’s current needs!

With 2 optional days of workshops and a 3-day conference, you can choose from over 130 sessions in multiple tracks and 25 workshops presented by Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, Microsoft Teams, Viva, Azure, Copilot & AI’s top experts! Whether you are new to Microsoft 365, Power Platform and SharePoint or an experienced power user, admin or developer, TechCon365 has content designed to fit your experience level and area of interest.

See how the Microsoft 365, SharePoint Power Platform, Azure, and AI ecosystem is growing and evolving by speaking with technical experts from the local Microsoft field and diverse channels within the Microsoft Partner Network – all in our exhibit hall.

Microsoft keynotes, sessions, and workshops: Copilot/AI, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Viva, Power Platform, D&I, and related technology

Microsoft keynotes and AMA

Hear from Microsoft leadership revealing the latest innovations shaping the flexible, innovative, and secure business environments of the future. [all times listed in PDT]

• Microsoft 365 keynote: “Thriving in the era of AI”




• Presenters: Omar Shahine (CVP), Adam Harmetz (VP), Karuana Gatimu (Principal PM Manager), and Dan Holme (Principal GPM)


• Date/Time/Location: Wednesday, June 5^th, 8:30am – 9:40am PDT | Room: 6E




• Power Platform keynote: “Empowering transformation: Power Platform and Dataverse in the age of AI”




• Presenter: Nirav Shah (CVP)


• Date/Time/Location: Thursday, June 6^th, 8:30am – 9:40am PDT | Room: 6E




• Microsoft AMA + SharePint: Wednesday, June 3-7, 5:00pm – 7:00pm PDT | Room 6C – Collab Stage

“Thriving in the era of AI” – Opening Microsoft 365 keynote, presented by Omar Shahine, Adam Harmetz, Karuana Gatimu, and Dan Holme.

“Empowering transformation: Power Platform and Dataverse in the age of AI” – Power Platform keynote, presented by Nirav Shah.

 Register today | Note: Use the MSCMTY discount code to save $200 USD off registration.

Take the opportunity to select the sessions best suited for your role and interests. All breakouts bring product updates, demos, customer stories, best practices, and insights into product and solution strategy – including guidance on the future.

And find us in the Community Lounge – A place to connect with Microsoft MVPs, MCM, Microsoft Regional Directors, and user group leaders via Ask the Experts tables and in the Community Lounge when you can pick up some laptop stickers and learn more about community programs in the Exhibit Hall.

TechCon365 (Microsoft 365) | Microsoft-led general and breakout sessions

It is crucial to ensure your organization is technically ready for the full potential of Copilot for Microsoft 365. The sessions below focus on technical readiness and ensuring you have the latest guidance. Our experts will share best practices and provide guidance on how to leverage AI and to maximize the benefits of Copilot within your organization. 

TechCon365 general sessions

• “Creating an AI-powered organization – User satisfaction & adoption practices for Copilot” with Karuana Gatimu | Room 609


• “Getting ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365” | with Karuana Gatimu | Room 615:616


• “SharePoint Premium – Intelligent content for everyone” with Sesha Mani, Chris McNulty, and Jaclynn Hiranaka | Room 608


• “What’s new and next for Microsoft Viva” with Michael Holste and Kristi Kelly | Room 619:620

TechCon365 breakout sessions + workshop

• “Copilot to Enhance the Employee Experience” with Jay Leask | Room 604


• “The art of prompt engineering in Copilot for Microsoft 365” with Michelle Gilbert | Room 613:614


• “Driving rollout & adoption of Microsoft 365 and Copilot with Microsoft Viva” with Heather Cook and Karuana Gatimu | Room 608


• “The Future of Your Intranet: Beautiful, flexible and AI-ready powered by SharePoint” Denise Trabona and Dave Cohen | Room 619:620


• “Introducing SharePoint Premium: AI-powered content management for Microsoft 365” with Chris McNulty | Room 615:616


• “Unlock SharePoint Premium content services by connecting Azure Pay-as-you-go billing” with Tom Resing | Room 612


• “Automatically capture information about incoming files in Microsoft 365” with Tom Resing | Room 612


• “The Ins and Outs of Microsoft 365 Backup & Archiving” with Trent Green, Brad Gussin, and Jaclynn Hiranaka | Room 608


• “Teams Premium unveiled: Navigating Teams Premium for optimal productivity” with Margi Desai and Mansoor Malik | Room 619:620


• “Empowering frontline workers with Microsoft Teams and next-generation AI” with Tulsi Keshkamat | Room 615:616


• “Microsoft Teams in a regulated environment” with Max Fritz | Room 602:603


• “What’s new in Teams for Education” with Max Fritz | Room 607


• “Cultivating trust and leadership excellence: Strategies for respect and empathy in the workplace” with Heather Cook | Room 613:614


• “Getting started with Viva Amplify” with Michael Holste and Naomi Moneypenny | Room 608


• “Viva Underground: An outcome-based route to success with Microsoft Viva” with Joy Apple and Jay Leask | Room 615:616


• “OneDrive: Collaboration and AI at your fingertips” with Ben Truelove | Room 619:620


• “New Planner: Unifying task management in Microsoft Teams” with Biatrice Ambrosa | Room 609


• “Mastering Microsoft Lists” with Miceile Barrett and Mark Kashman | Room 619:620


• “How Microsoft Does IT: Governance and Administration in the Era of Copilot” | Room 615:616


• “Managing change in a Microsoft world! Office 365 governance and change management” with Max Fritz and Michelle Gilbert | Room 612


• “Top 10 best practices every admin should be doing in Microsoft 365” with Michelle Gilbert | Room 607


• “Governance, Information Management, and Teams – What you need to know” with Joy Apple and Jay Leask | Room 606


• “Secure collaboration in Microsoft 365 within a zero-trust lens” with Jay Leask | Room 613:614


• WORKSHOP | “Ultimate guide to administering Microsoft 365 and Teams” with Max Fritz and Michelle Gilbert | Room 609

TechCon365 developer sessions

• “Introduction to extending Copilot for Microsoft 365” with Jeremy Thake | Room 604


• “Developing Graph Connector to ground your business data in Copilot for Microsoft 365” with Jeremy Thake | Room 608


• “Copilot extensibility with Microsoft Graph Connectors made easy” with Fabian Williams | Room 608


• “Introduction to Microsoft Graph” with Fabian Williams | Room 604


• “Building Copilot experiences in SharePoint Embedded applications” with Marc Windle | Room 608


• “Improve your users’ productivity with custom Viva Connections cards” with Alex Terentiev | Room 607


• “Expanding SharePoint Framework Web Parts in Teams, Office and Outlook” with Alex Terentiev | Room 606


• “Viva Connections: Create bot-powered adaptive card extensions” with Alex Terentiev | Room 602:603

PWRCON (Power Platform & Microsoft Fabric) | Microsoft-led sessions

Discover more AI innovation and learn about other core investments that help us deliver powerful business applications for your organization. Power Platform and Fabric help you leap ahead in the Age of AI. From keynote to breakouts to workshops, PWRCON provides insights on how the Power Platform, Dataverse, and Fabric leverage existing enterprise data and business processes to unlock the benefits of Copilot. Get up to speed on the latest product updates and turn up your skills dial on real-world solution design and deployment. Drive your digital transformation, learning from the best subject matter experts in the business.

PWRCON general sessions

• “Power Automate and automation in the Age of AI: strategy & roadmap” with Ashvini Sharma | Room 619:620


• “Power Platform Architecture” with Ilya Grebnov | Room 615:616


• “What’s new in Dataverse & AI Builder: How to easily build generative AI business applications” with Yogi Naik | Room 612


• “Building the apps of the future today with Power Platform and Copilot” with Leon Welicki | Room 608

PWRCON breakout sessions + workshop

• “Copilot is beside me along my RPA journey” with Taiki Yoshida and Chris Garty | Room 615:616


• “What’s New with Copilot Studio” with Dewain Robinson and Pawan Taparia | Room 615:616


• “Extending Microsoft Copilot products using Copilot Studio” with Dewain Robinson and Pawan Taparia | Room 609


• “Deep dive into building Copilots with Copilot Studio” with Dewain Robinson and Pawan Taparia | Room 606


• “Extend Copilot Studio with intelligent actions, workflows from Power Automate” with Matt Townsend and Harysh Menon | Room 619:620


• “Extend  Copilot for Sales using  Copilot Studio to empower sales teams with data and insights” with Bharath Varadarajan | Room 609  


• “Process mining with Copilot and AI: A new frontier for business intelligence” with Heather Orta-Olmo and Derah Onuorah | Room 615:616


• “Dataverse: Safeguard AI-enabled Enterprise Applications and Copilots” with Mihaela Blendea | Room 619:620


• “Power Pages overview and roadmap” with Meera Mahabala | Room 619:620


• “Using your enterprise knowledge for building Q&A experiences in Copilot” with Julie Koesmarno | Room 604


• “Securing and governing the Power Platform at scale” with Zohar Raz | Room 609

Microsoft Fabric and Power BI sessions + workshop

• “Unlocking insights with Power BI Copilot” with Shannon Lindsay and Alex Powers | Room 609 


• “Building a modern Data Lake with OneLake: The OneDrive for data” with Josh Caplan | Room 611


• “Driving productivity and a data-driven culture with Power BI in Microsoft 365” with Alex Powers and Shannon Lindsay | Room 619:620


• “Transform Your Power BI data in Microsoft Fabric” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | Room 611


• “Source Control with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | Room 609


• “Deep Dive on Power BI, Teams and SharePoint” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | Room 609


• “From SQL developer to business analyst: Harnessing Fabric’s innovations” with Charles Webb | Room 612


• WORKSHOP | “Everything You Wanted to Know About Power BI… but were afraid to ask!” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | Room 607

 Register today | Note: Use the MSCMTY discount code to save $200 USD off registration.

Get the most out of TechCon365: Our top five tips while attending

1. Introduce yourself | Unique perspectives await, including yours.


2. Attend as much as you can | Laptops down, eyes open – depth learning, tips, and tricks abound.


3. Share what you know |Your knowledge saves time – pay it forward.


4. Ask questions, share feedback | Your issues and  ideas Inform us and influence the roadmap.


5. Hydrate and dress for steps | Keep the brain healthy and mind active.


6. BONUS | Update your LinkedIn profile and photo | Best reflect your professional experience and growing technical aptitude.

Learn more

Visit TechCon365.com/Seattle and follow the action on X/Twitter: @TechCon365, @Microsoft365, @MSFTCopilot, @SharePoint, @OneDrive, @MicrosoftTeams, @MSPowerPlat, @Microsoft365Dev, and @MSFTAdoption.

Join in: TechCon365 & PWRCON Seattle 2024 | June 3-7, 2024 | TechCon365.com/Seattle.

I hope you will join us in Seattle, WA for what will be a fantastic week in the PNW! We’re looking forward to the action alongside the community, MVPs, and Microsoft product members from Copilot, Teams, Office, SharePoint, OneDrive, Loop, Viva, Power Platform, Lists, Planner, and more.

Remember, use the discount code MSCMTY discount code to save $200 USD off your conference registration. Register today!

Last, a glimpse of the TechCon365/PWRCON event experience:

Cheers and see you there,

Mark Kashman, Senior product manager – Microsoft

Microsoft at the European Collaboration Summit (ECS) 2024 (Wiesbaden, Germany)

Join in: The European Collab Summit 2024 | May 14-16, 2024 | CollabSummit.eu.

• What: European Collaboration Summit and European Cloud Summit – co-located in 2024




• Register today |Use the MSCMTY discount code to save 15% off registration.


• Note: For this guide, we’ll use their main acronym ECS to talk about the event and be clear when highlighting content in either Collab or Cloud side of things.




• Content: 1 Microsoft general keynote + 4 general sessions || 100+ overall sessions – 34 Microsoft-led sessions| 12 full-day tutorials – 4 are Microsoft-led




• Microsoft is sending over 45+ product makers to present and engage.


• Review all sessions, tutorials, and speakers.




• When & where: May 14-16, 2024 




• In-person: Wiesbaden, Germany – RheinMain Congress Center


• Tutorials: May 14, 2024




• Twitter & hashtag: @CollabSummit | #M365Con


• Cost: €500 – €1,240 (Learn more about ticket pricing)

Join Microsoft and community experts in-person, in one place. The European Collab Summit and European Cloud Summit are co-located in 2024 – converging on Wiesbaden, Germany, May 14-16, 2024 – with two pre-event and one post-event workshop days. They are both wonderful events, together spanning Copilot and AI, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Viva, Power Platform, related Microsoft 365 apps, plus Azure and its vast portfolio of services.

With nearly 3,000 attendees, the European Collaboration Summit is a big opportunity to learn a lot and meet with Microsoft and MVP experts across numerous areas – your tech community peers included. With 75+ sponsors and exhibitors year after year, it hosts a large expo hall filled with apps, services, and solutions.

You’ll hear the latest product updates and guidance from over 45 Microsoft product makers — filled with real-world solutions across a combined general keynote, four general sessions, numerous breakout sessions, and pre/post event deep-dive workshops to build your expertise – presented alongside Microsoft MVPs and community experts. We hope you join in to learn, share, and engage –including evening gatherings, the attendee party, and a dedicated community space + a lightning talk stage – all within the Expo Hall alongside all the wonderful event sponsors.

Microsoft keynotes, sessions, and workshops: Copilot/AI, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Viva, Power Platform, D&I, and related technology

Microsoft general keynote and general sessions

Hear from Microsoft leadership revealing the latest innovations shaping the flexible, innovative, and secure business environments of the future. [all times listed in CET]

• General keynote: “Thriving in the age of Copilots”




• Host: Laurie Pottmeyer | Panelists: Dan Holme, Vesa Juvonen, and Dona Sarkar.


• Date/Time/Location: May 15^th, 9:30am | Halle Sud, A+B




• Collab general sessions




• “Modern work in the era of AI”




• Host: Mark Kashman | Panelist: Liz Sundet, Cathy Dew, and Fabian Williams


• Date/Time/Location: May 15^th, 11:00am | Halle Sud, A+B




• “Adopt, build, and automate AI-powered solution development” presented by Heather Cook (link coming soon) 
  
  
  
  • Date/Time: May 16th 9:00am
  
  
  
  




• Cloud general sessions




• “AI landscape” presented by Carlotta Castelluccio




• Date/Time/location: May 15^th, 11:00am | Halle Sud, D




• “This is why we can’t have the nice things” presented by Dona Sarkar




• Date/Time/location: May 16^th 9:00am | Halle Sud, D

 Register today | Note: Use the MSCMTY discount code to save 15% off registration.

Microsoft-led breakout sessions for each event

Take the opportunity to select the sessions best suited for your role and interests. All breakouts bring product updates, demos, customer stories, best practices, and insights into product and solution strategy – including guidance on the future.

Microsoft-led Collab sessions

It is crucial to ensure your organization is technically ready for the full potential of Copilot for Microsoft 365. The sessions below focus on technical readiness and ensuring you have the latest guidance. Our experts will share best practices and provide guidance on how to leverage AI and to maximize the benefits of Copilot within your organization. 

• “The new era of corporate communications” with Liz Sundet | May 15, 12:00pm | Forum 1.1


• “Unlock your brand expression in SharePoint and Viva Connections” with Cathy Dew | May 15, 4:20pm | Forum 1.1


• “What’s new and next for Microsoft Viva and the Employee Experience” with Dan Holme | May 16, 1:30pm | Halle Sud, A+B


• “Viva Engage and AI transform communications: From eyeballs to engagement, from channels to change agent” with Dan Holme | May 15, 3:00pm | Halle Sud, C


• “From community to keynote” with Liz Sundet | May 16, 1:30pm | Expo Stage


• “Mastering Teams meetings” with Laurie Pottmeyer | May 16, 10:20am | Halle Sud, A+B


• “Skill up on Microsoft Lists” with Mark Kashman | May 16, 11:20am | Halle Sud, A+B


• “Understanding Microsoft 365 Copilot” with Mark Kashman (link, time, and location coming soon)


• “There’s no time like the present – Real-time reporting with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric” with John White and Jason  Himmelstein | May 15, 4:20pm | Studio 1.2 A-B


• “SharePoint API platform: What’s new and coming” with Bert Jansen | May 16, 2:50pm | Halle Sud, A+B


• “What’s new with Microsoft Profile in the age of generative AI” with Wictor Wilén | May 15, 5:20am | Halle Sud, A+B


• “Automating manual processes through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Power Automate Desktop” with Christina Wheeler | May 16, 10:20am | Forum 1.3


• “Build apps that don’t fail in production” with Garry Trinder and Waldek Mastykarz | May 15, 2:00pm | Halle Sud, C


• “Data Classifiers, the first step to identifying sensitive data” with Al Eardley | May 15, 12:00pm | Studio 1.1, A+B


• “Microsoft Graph development simplified with MGT” with Gavin Barron | May 15, 5:20pm | Halle Sud, C


• “Mastering Microsoft Graph Connectors with the NEW Microsoft Graph Python SDK” with Fabian Williams and Gabrielle Williams | May 15, 12:00pm | Halle Sud, A+B


• “Top hidden features of custom connectors to level up the maker experience” with Daniel Laskewitz and Mats Necker | May 15, 5:20pm | Forum 1.2


• “Security Copilot in Microsoft 365 Defender: Use cases from the field and demo” with Tobias Martin and Dominik Hoefling | May 15, 3:00pm | Forum 1.3


• “Viva Connections for administrators – Setup, configuration and decisions” with Dragan Panjkov | May 15, 2:00pm | Studio 1.4, A+B


• Collab tutorials:
  
  
  
  • “Building intranets with Viva, SharePoint and Microsoft 365” with Emily Mancini, Cathy Dew, and Liz Sundet | May 14, 9:00am | Studio 1.4 A
  
  
  • “Building experiences for the Microsoft 365” with Vesa Juvonen, Stefan Bauer, Waldek Mastykarz, Paolo Pialorsi, Derek Cash-Peterson, Julie M Turner, Anoop Tatti, Garry Trinder | May 14, 9:00am | Forum 1.3
  
  
  
  

Microsoft-led Cloud sessions

When discovering opportunities across Azure, Copilot, and OpenAI, professionals, entrepreneurs, and businesses are invited to enhance their knowledge and establish meaningful connections. Attendees can expect interactive demos, enlightening discussions, and a deep dive into Microsoft’s strategic direction with advances in cloud. The goal is to discover both ‘how-to’ and increase awareness of the ‘what-if’ – focusing on the impact of cloud adoption and gravitating towards Responsible AI.

• “A developer’s journey on maximizing generative AI” with Korey Stegared-Pace | May 15, 2:00pm | Forum 2


• “Responsible AI in engineering” with Lee Stott | May 15, 4:20pm | Foyer Nord


• “It’s not just words: LLMs in Computer vision” with Carlotta Castelluccio | May 16, 10:20am | Foyer Nord


• “Prompt engineering – An art, a science, or your next job title?” with Maxim Salnikov | May 15, 12:00pm | Studio 2.2 C


• “Future of cybersecurity in the era of Quantum Computers” with Holger Sirtl May 15, 5:20pm | Studio 2.2 D


• “Demystifying Microsoft Defender for Servers” with Tom Janetscheck | May 15, 2:00pm | Halle Sud, D


• “Designing the SAP Deployment Automation Framework” with Kimmo Forss | May 16, 2:50pm | Forum 2


• “Exploring the future of analytics with Microsoft Fabric” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | May 15, 4:20pm | Studio 2.2 D


• “What in the world is Azure Data Explorer and why should I care?” with John White and Jason Himmelstein | May 16, 11:20am | Loge 2.2 A+B


• “Increase your SOC efficiency across Microsoft 365 and Azure with Microsoft Sentinel and Automation” with Tobias Martin and Dominik Hoefling | May 15, 12:00pm | Studio 2.2 D


• “Let’s unlock scenarios with Microsoft Graph and Azure OpenAI and ChatGPT with Semantic Kernel” with Fabian Williams | May 15, 3:00pm | Halle Sud, D


• “Maximizing cost optimization with FinOps in Azure: Best practices and strategies” with Francesco Sodano and Marta Lopata | May 16, 11:20am | Foyer Nord


• “Microsoft Defender for Cloud – Defender CSPM in the field” with Dominik Hoefling and Tom Janetscheck | May 16, 2:50pm | Halle Sud, D


• “Real-time data processing using Azure Event Hubs & Azure Stream Analytics with or without code” with Ajeta Singhal | May 16, 3:30pm | Loge 2.2 A+B


• “Serverless Actor Model with Durable Functions!” with Massimo Bonanni | May 15, 5:20pm | Studio 2.2 C


• “The Future of Network and Identity Security: Microsoft Entra SSE” with Shruti Ailani and Bert-Jan Pals | May 16, 11:20am | Studio 2.2 D


• Cloud tutorial:
  
  
  
  • “Everything you wanted to know about Power BI” with John White and Jason  Himmelstein | May 14, 9:00am | Studio 1.3 D
  
  
  • “Microsoft Cloud security powerclass” with Sasha Kranjac, Omar Kudović, Tom Janetscheck | May 14, 9:00am | Forum 1.2
  
  
  
  

You can review each full agenda for Collab sessions and Cloud sessions. Plus, use the event mobile app (iOS and Android) to add sessions to your schedule.

 Register today | Note: Use the MSCMTY discount code to save 15% off registration.

Get the most out of ECS: Our top five tips while attending

1. Introduce yourself | Unique perspectives await, including yours.


2. Attend as much as you can | Laptops down, eyes open – depth learning, tips, and tricks abound.


3. Share what you know |Your knowledge saves time – pay it forward.


4. Ask questions, share feedback | Your issues and  ideas Inform us and influence the roadmap.


5. Hydrate and dress for steps | Keep the brain healthy and mind active.


6. BONUS | Update your LinkedIn profile and photo | Best reflect your professional experience and growing technical aptitude.

Learn more

Visit CollabSummit.eu and follow the action on X/Twitter: @CollabSummit / #CollabSummit, @Microsoft365, @MSFTCopilot, @SharePoint, @OneDrive, @MicrosoftTeams, @MSPowerPlat, @Microsoft365Dev, and @MSFTAdoption.

Join in: The European Collab Summit 2024 | May 14-16, 2024 | CollabSummit.eu. Use the discount code MSCMTY to save 15% off registration.

I hope you will join us in Germany for what will be a fantastic week! We’re looking forward to the action alongside the community, MVPs, and Microsoft product members from Copilot, Teams, Office, SharePoint, OneDrive, Loop, Viva, Power Platform, Lists, Planner, and more.

Remember, use the discount code MSCMTY discount code to save 15% off your conference registration. Register today!

Last, review the ECS 2023 recap video – contains much of the essence and what to expect at an ECS event:

Cheers and see you there,

Mark Kashman, Senior product manager – Microsoft

Microsoft OneNote now available on Apple Vision Pro

Today, we are introducing the newest member of the OneNote family, on the Apple Vision Pro. We have worked closely with Apple for many years to bring these experiences to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Now, with Apple Vision Pro, OneNote will make use of the infinite canvas of spatial computing and can appear side-by-side with other great Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and Teams at any scale for incredible multitasking. 

You can plan trips, practice daily habits, and create/edit your task list, all in spatial reality – the OneNote experience on the Apple Vision Pro helps you stay productive, no matter where you are. 

screenshot showing Onenote on the Apple vision pro

Overview 

OneNote for Apple Vision Pro is a native app, that supports many of the features available on OneNote for iPad. These include: 

• Write memos, make a digital notebook, or jot down notes. 

• Highlight can’t-miss notes with Important and To Do tags. 

• Secure your notes with a password and control permissions when sharing with others. 

• Sync your notes to cloud (OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint), making it easy to access your notes anywhere. 

• Share ideas and your notes with friends and colleagues. 


•  

You can go hands-free or also use a keyboard and trackpad. If using a keyboard and trackpad, just pair them with Bluetooth. 

To learn more about Apple Vision Pro, watch this video from Apple.

How to install Microsoft OneNote on Apple Vision Pro 

To install OneNote on your Apple Vision Pro, follow these steps: 

1. From your Apple Vision Pro, go to the App Store and search for Microsoft OneNote. 


2. Tap Get. 


3. Enter your Apple ID and password, if prompted, to start the download. 


4. Once the app is installed, tap to launch it. 


5. Sign in with your Microsoft personal, work, or school account. 

To update Microsoft OneNote, return to the App Store and follow the steps above. 

Tip: Enable automatic updates from Settings > App Store. Under App Updates, slide the Automatic Downloads toggle to On.

screenshot showing Onenote on the Apple vision pro

Features coming soon. 

Some OneNote features are not yet available on Apple Vision Pro: 

• Insert from camera & photos (coming soon) 

• Copilot (coming soon) 

• Two-factor authentication (Microsoft Authenticator is not currently available for the Apple Vision Pro. We’re working on it, though, so check back for updates soon.) 

What types of accounts are supported? 

OneNote for Apple Vision Pro only supports personal accounts and work accounts that are not managed by your organization. If your work account is managed by your organization, you will be unable to sign in. 

Related topics 

Use Microsoft Teams on Apple Vision Pro 

Invest in Tech: Supercharge your frontline with AI

Meet the needs of your frontline

Whether a sales associate in a store, a machine operator in a manufacturing plant, or a care clinician in a hospital, frontline workers account for over 2.7 billion of the global workforce (Gartner 2022). That’s over twice the number of desk-based workers.

They are a vital component of the global economy, and yet face some of the greatest challenges like labor shortages and supply chain issues. This puts pressure on the workforce to deliver the same consistent quality, but faster and with less support.

But the frontline is also often faced with a technology landscape of siloed information from paper-based processes, legacy systems and different devices all required to do their work. This adds another pressure to frontline workers, who end up spending more time searching for information than creating value in your business.

Golden opportunity for transformation

There is a golden opportunity for business leaders to invest in technology that will power their frontline workforce to improve worker productivity, business process efficiency, and employee retention. And a key part of the opportunity to uplevel your frontline workers is by transforming the way they work with next generation AI.

An image providing statistics about how next-generation AI is transforming productivity across most workforces.

When we talked to customers, we found that AI can help frontline workers in three main ways: 

1. Answers and guidance in the moment: Enable in-the-moment answers and guidance to find the right information they need to make a decision. 


2. Automate common workflows: Speed up everyday processes like reporting incidents or creating tasks to save workers’ much needed time. 


3. Advise workers on what to focus on: Advise and summarize information, from shift handovers to missed communications, so workers can quickly get up to speed on information they need to do their job informed. 

We are excited to show you how you can meet these AI needs on the frontline by easily creating a custom copilot that fits your unique frontline use cases using Copilot Studio or by empowering them with the full, out-of-the-box Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.  

Create your copilot, your way, for your frontline–with Copilot Studio

We are empowering you to easily build your own custom copilot, your way to meet the specific needs of your frontline workers. Whether you create a copilot for a singular purpose, like HR or IT support, or as a comprehensive copilot to meet the various needs of your frontline, you can create the right AI assistant to meet the challenges faced on your frontline. 

Answers and guidance in the moment

We often hear from customers that their frontline workers are struggling with finding the right information in the moment to make a decision quickly. Many of them search across different resources or hundreds of pages of content to find the right answer. In fact, 62% of frontline workers say they struggle with too much time spent searching for information (Work Trend Index, 2022). This hurts their ability to be effective or respond to customers. Create a copilot connected to the knowledge systems you use today like SharePoint, websites or system of records to equip your frontline with the ability to find the right information, guidance and answers at their fingertips. Now AI is helping your frontline workers get answers quickly, spend less time on operations, and improve customer interactions.

An image demonstrating examples of copilot prompts retail frontline workers input on the Microsoft Teams mobile app.

Automate common workflows

Many frontline workers are also struggling with having to handle multiple processes and tasks spread across systems.  In fact, data from our Work Trend Index shows that over 60% of frontline workers struggle with repetitive and tedious tasks that take time away from valuable work like providing quality customer service and efficiently fulfilling meaningful components of their work. Create a copilot that automates common workflows like task management with intelligent capabilities to increase execution visibility and smooth task completion. This will enable your team to have more operational visibility into the work that needs to be completed, while also enhancing the ability to execute processes faster.

An image demonstrating how copilot can automate common workflows like task management in the Microsoft Teams mobile app.

Advise workers on what to focus on

We also know that your frontline workers are often faced with a lot of information and work they need to digest and put into action to create the best customer experience and complete work efficiently. But they are often too overwhelmed with the amount of content they need to take into account and miss crucial information that could personalize how they complete work. Create a copilot that advises and shares pertinent information in the moment so they can focus on delivering their best to your customer or the work at hand. Frontline workers will be able to bring more personalized and relevant information into their interactions with customers as well as their tasks to increase customer satisfaction and upselling of products and services.

An image demonstrating how copilot can provide a response that advises and shares pertinent information, such as providing a list of customers with the following prompt: “Do I have visit proposals?”

All of these scenarios can be created today in as fast as a few days using Copilot Studio. 

Copilot for Microsoft 365: Your AI assistant at work integrated into the Microsoft 365 apps

For frontline workers who work in the Microsoft 365 apps millions of people use every day like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more, you can enable them with an AI assistant at work. We are excited to announce that Copilot for Microsoft 365, which works across your entire universe of data at work and is integrated into the Microsoft 365 apps and the web, will now be available as an add-on to all F SKU licenses. This AI addition will enhance frontline worker and manager productivity by combining powerful large language models with their work content and context to help them deliver at a higher level.

With Copilot for Microsoft 365, frontline workers can recap a patient visit or a regional sales call on a Teams meeting with intelligent notes or quickly catch up on any town halls and trainings they miss. They can find information quickly, whether searching for patient and customer information or scouring through manuals, with content across Microsoft 365. And they can use Copilot to draft and edit customer responses in Outlook to improve customer response rate and satisfaction. This means frontline managers and workers will be able to spend less time searching for and cataloguing information, and more time on the work and human interactions that are meaningful to your business.

Plus, Microsoft Copilot is built on Microsoft’s trusted and comprehensive approach to enterprise-grade security, privacy, identity, compliance, and responsible AI—so you know it’s enterprise ready.

Here’s how you can get started and transform your frontline with AI

Whether you want to enable your frontline workforce with a custom copilot, or a Copilot integrated with Microsoft 365 productivity suite, you can transform your frontline today with next generation AI to uplevel their productivity.

Here are two ways you can get started:

1. Get started today with Copilot Studio and learn more about how you can transform your business processes with a custom copilot.  


2. Learn more about how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can uplevel the productivity of your frontline workforce. Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be available for Frontline licenses in the coming weeks.

We are looking forward to seeing how you transform your frontline workforce with AI.