Changelog
Content in this guide changes as Microsoft ships features and UK guidance evolves. The most recent full review was on 9 July 2026.
2026-09-07
Refocused the latest Copilot updates on practical use cases, future capability planning and proportionate safety controls rather than adding marking-specific guidance.
- Published a new Future capabilities page with cited Microsoft sources covering interactive MCP Apps, Work IQ in Copilot Studio, agents as workflow steps, maker roles, safer identity/sharing controls and human approval for selected Agent actions.
- Added Future capabilities to the Build & Automate navigation and linked it from relevant build, admin and Copilot Studio guidance.
- Added a practical safety-options table covering read-only access, sandboxes, scoped sources, designed execution identities, human approval, read-only Work IQ, evaluation, spend limits and review dates.
- Updated IT/admin guidance to present safety as proportionate configuration choices rather than simply enable/disable decisions.
- Updated Copilot Studio and advanced-tier watch-outs for safe execution identities, human approval gates, read-only connected tools and evaluation evidence.
- Updated the qualification/policy approval Agent use case to show controlled actions with human approval rather than autonomous approval.
- Updated Copilot Notebooks use cases to include selected Outlook email and Teams meeting context.
- Updated the centre-support analysis use case to include Python-backed Excel analysis with validation safeguards.
- Updated the centre-support Agent example around tightly scoped approved SharePoint knowledge.
- Expanded the safe Agent sandbox use case with dummy data, test identities, read-only/scoped designs and non-production connections.
- Checked all 24 published pages for broken internal links; none were found.
2026-09-05
Expanded the user discovery journey from basic Copilot through automation and Copilot Studio
- Added a Personal Agents page that positions early Microsoft 365 Agents as saved specialist helpers with limited organisational grounding, not autonomous AI workers.
- Added a Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium page explaining the practical unlock: richer work grounding through Microsoft Graph and Work IQ, while making clear that admin-controlled features can still remain unavailable.
- Added a Copilot in apps page covering Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, including why users can see different capabilities in the same app.
- Added a Shared Agents page covering recipient licensing, source permissions, admin sharing controls, co-ownership and lifecycle.
- Added a Copilot in SharePoint page covering scoped knowledge, SharePoint Agents, workflow features, permissions, preview/rollout differences and site/admin controls.
- Added a Power Automate page focused on persistent processes, non-AI-first automation, orphaned-flow risk and ownership/offboarding.
- Added a Copilot Studio page for cases where an Agent becomes an organisational service requiring actions, connectors, channels, environments, publishing, credits and formal ownership.
- Added a dedicated Copilot Connectors page explaining visible vs enabled vs configured vs permitted vs healthy, including self-service connector models and access-risk checks.
- Expanded the My Copilot Access and Build & Automate navigation to expose these stages directly.
- Updated Start Here with a numbered discovery path from current access through Personal Agents, Premium, in-app Copilot, shared Agents, SharePoint, Cowork, Power Automate and Copilot Studio.
- Updated related links across access, Cowork, admin and build/automate guidance; all 16 standalone pages pass the internal-link check with no broken links.
2026-09-05
Reworked the use-case library around the user access journey
- Replaced user-facing tier labels with journey language: Start here, Personal Agents, Premium Copilot, Richer Agents, Automate basics, Add AI to flows, Build business tools, Organisational Agents, and Advanced & governed.
- Kept the internal tier IDs unchanged for maintenance and filtering.
- Updated the advanced stage to reflect that Copilot Cowork is now generally available, while still requiring admin discoverability, usage-based billing and organisational controls.
- Added a new 'Browse use cases by what you have access to' page explaining how to read the Library and why a later stage is not automatically better.
- Added 'Use cases by access' to the My Copilot Access navigation and linked it from Start Here.
- Updated representative use cases across Chat, Personal Agents, Premium Copilot, work-grounded Agents, Power Automate, Power Apps, Copilot Studio and Cowork with plain-English licence and credit dependencies.
- Updated Cowork examples to current availability and credit-control language, including user/group limits and /cost.
- Removed temporary maintenance test use cases created while checking internal routing.
- Ran the internal-link checker across all standalone pages; no broken links remain.
2026-09-05
Clarified Cowork model choice, external connectivity and safe summarisation
- Updated Cowork guidance for UK tenants: Anthropic/Claude is optional and Cowork can continue with allowed non-Anthropic models such as GPT models.
- Updated the Cowork access diagnostic so model availability is clearly separate from Cowork access, billing and admin enablement.
- Added the same UK model-governance rule to the admin page and the Advanced & governed library stage.
- Added a new 'AI can process information — but it does not automatically connect to it' page explaining the difference between AI Builder/prompt processing and connectors, HTTP/API calls or external integration.
- Added a manual-vs-automated DfE example: a web-grounded Agent can support a person-led check, while unattended monitoring needs a scheduled Power Automate design with an approved fetch/integration step.
- Added a new use case for automatically monitoring a DfE page for changes, including Premium/integration dependencies, optional AI interpretation, source checking and lifecycle ownership.
- Updated the existing public regulatory research Agent use case to distinguish interactive web research from unattended monitoring.
- Added a new 'Summarising safely' page explaining that summaries are selective, users should define what matters, use coverage/gap checks and validate critical points against the source.
- Updated the public-guidance summarisation use case with omission risks, AO-specific importance criteria and a two-pass coverage method.
- Added navigation entries for Summarising safely and AI vs connectivity, and linked both into the main journey.
- Ran the internal-link checker across all 19 standalone pages; no broken links remain.
2026-09-05
Added a manager-facing pricing, licensing and credit-capacity guide
- Added a new top-level 'Costs & licences' section with current UK list-price guideposts checked 5 September 2026 and clear warnings that pricing, agreements and promotions can change.
- Added a commercial snapshot covering Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Power Automate Premium/Process, Copilot Studio capacity, Agent 365, Microsoft 365 E3/E5/E7 and Cowork.
- Explained annual-commitment risk so monthly-looking prices are translated into approximate annual exposure for experiments and pilots.
- Added guidance on bundle effects, including that Microsoft 365 E7 currently includes Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365 and Microsoft Entra Suite.
- Added a dedicated 'Credits & capacity' page explaining AI Builder credits, Copilot Credits, pooled tenant/environment capacity, overage, monthly resets, prepaid capacity and pay-as-you-go.
- Added a prominent warning that the 5,000 AI Builder credits currently seeded by each Power Automate Premium licence are scheduled to be removed on 1 November 2026 and do not convert automatically into Copilot Credits.
- Added current Copilot Credit rate examples and a capacity-estimation method for AI-enabled automations.
- Added a dedicated Agent 365 page explaining that Agent 365 is a governance/control plane, not an Agent builder; it is licensed per user and is available standalone or included in Microsoft 365 E7.
- Updated the existing Agent 365 use case with current licensing and availability information.
- Added commercial snapshot callouts to Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium, Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Cowork pages.
- Updated manager guidance to ask for annual commitment, variable consumption and total use-case cost rather than a single monthly licence figure.
- Added Costs & licences to the main navigation, Credits & capacity beneath it, and Agent 365 under Admins & Governance.
- Linked pricing and capacity guidance from Start Here, Build & Automate, Managers and Admins pages.
- Added a warning that a Power Automate trial does not necessarily trial the full AI capacity model because AI Builder trials are discontinued.
- Ran the internal-link checker across all 22 standalone pages; no broken links remain.
2026-09-05
Updated Guide 365 v2 for late-August and September 2026 Microsoft 365 Copilot changes affecting governance, knowledge sources, chat, Notebooks and Excel.
- Expanded Copilot Studio guidance with human approval for sensitive tool calls, Agent Readiness, richer evaluations and structured knowledge sources including SharePoint Lists, Dataverse and Azure SQL.
- Added SharePoint Authoritative Sites guidance for prioritising trusted canonical content in Copilot Search.
- Updated Copilot access guidance for the unified web/work chat experience and Work IQ control.
- Added a new published Copilot Notebooks page covering files, SharePoint, Outlook emails, Teams meetings, permissions, evidence completeness and sharing.
- Updated Copilot in apps guidance for Python-powered advanced analysis in Excel, including validation requirements for consequential assessment-sector work.
- Strengthened lifecycle governance checks to record approval gates and test/evaluation evidence and to rerun assurance after material changes.
- Added Copilot Notebooks to the discovery journey, related links and site navigation.
- Checked all internal links across the site; no broken internal links were found.
2026-09-05
Restructured the guide around user discovery, access and lifecycle
- Added a new Start Here journey that begins with what users can see and what they are trying to do, rather than internal tiers.
- Added user-facing pages for current Copilot access, missing/disabled features, Cowork, managers, admins/governance, build/automate decisions and lifecycle health checks.
- Introduced the recurring model: visible ≠ enabled ≠ configured ≠ permitted ≠ included/free.
- Added 'What to ask your admin' guidance and awarding-organisation risk prompts.
- Added lifecycle guidance covering ownership, review dates, offboarding, project closure and retirement of licences, agents, connectors, Cowork access and automations.
- Added new custom navigation: Start Here, My Copilot Access, Cowork, Build & Automate, Managers, and Admins & Governance.
- Checked all standalone-page internal links; no broken links remain.
2026-09-04
Added Chat vs Cowork decision guidance
- Added a new published guide item: 'Choose between Copilot Chat and Copilot Cowork'.
- Added the core decision rule: use Chat for questions and interactive help; consider Cowork for defined multi-step jobs and deliverables.
- Added guidance on Copilot Credits, prerequisites, limitations and a fallback when Cowork is unavailable.
- Added the podcast episode as the source and marked the item last checked on 4 September 2026.
2026-07-11
Applied first structured content update batch.
- Updated watch-outs for tiers t0, t0a, t1, t1a, t5, t6.
- Added 14 new use cases across tiers t0, t0a, t1, t1a, t2, t4, t5, t6.
2026-07-11
Added surface picker, security readiness checker, sensitive-conversations guidance and machine-readable feeds.
- New page: "Which Copilot should I use?" surface picker and surface explainer, including Web / Work / SharePoint / Studio agent and Cowork.
- New page: security readiness checker (SharePoint hygiene, DLP, labels, transcription, agent controls, credit controls).
- New guidance section: sensitive AO conversations (safeguarding, malpractice, complaints, appeals, reasonable adjustments, HR, live assessment).
- Repositioned Copilot Cowork as a future app for UK AOs — plan for, do not depend on.
- Refreshed Office Agent (stride.microsoft.com) wording to blue / on-radar preview.
- Added machine-readable feeds: /llms.txt, /data/use-cases.json, /data/sources.json.
- Sitemap now uses absolute URLs and includes new pages.
- Added optional provenance fields to use cases: last_checked, source_url, uk_availability, licence_dependency, credit_dependency.
2026-07-09
Initial launch of The 365 Copilot Guide for Awarding Organisations.
- Nine access tiers (t0 – t6) with 80+ use cases.
- Guidance page: red lines, licensing traps, governance model, staff allocation.
- Per-use-case feedback with work-email validation.