Microsoft is rolling out an important enhancement to help organizations use Microsoft 365 Copilot more securely. Starting this year, Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) will include new protections designed specifically for Copilot and Copilot Chat. The goal: prevent sensitive data from being sent to external web search engines during AI‑assisted interactions.
This update introduces real‑time DLP evaluation for prompts that contain Sensitive Information Types (SITs). When Copilot detects protected data in a user’s prompt, it will block any external web search from taking place. Instead, Copilot will continue responding only with internal Microsoft Graph data provided that the user’s licensing allows it.
Public Preview Begins: Late March 2026 Completes: Late April 2026
General Availability (Worldwide) Begins: Late June 2026 Completes: Late July 2026
What This Means for Your Organization
Who Will Be Affected?
This update is relevant for:
Organizations using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Chat, or Copilot Studio agents published to Microsoft 365.
Admins who manage Data Loss Prevention policies in the Microsoft Purview portal.
What’s Changing?
New DLP Control for Copilot Web Search
Admins will soon see a new option when configuring DLP policies: the ability to stop Copilot from using external web search when a prompt includes specific sensitive information types.
When this policy is triggered:
Copilot will not send content to external web search providers.
Copilot will still respond, drawing exclusively from internal Microsoft Graph data sources (assuming the user’s licensing supports this).
Microsoft is rolling out a major update to the Data Security Posture Agent in Microsoft Purview, and it’s a big step forward for organizations looking to stay ahead of credential‑related risks.
The newest addition is a credential scanning capability designed to help you uncover exposed credentials, like Microsoft Entra ID details, private keys, API tokens, and other sensitive access points across your selected data locations. With this update, Purview doesn’t just spot the issues; it also gives you risk scores, AI‑generated insights, confidence levels, and credential categories so you can quickly understand what matters and what needs attention.
All findings are surfaced in one streamlined task board, making it easier than ever to review, confirm, and take action.
Public Preview: Starts late March 2026, expected to finish by early April 2026
General Availability (Worldwide): Starts late June 2026, wrapping up by early July 2026
What This Means for Your Organization
Who will notice the change?
Admins who manage Microsoft Purview and use the Data Security Posture Agent within Microsoft 365 tenants will see the new feature appear under the Explore Agent section.
What’s changing?
A brand‑new credential scanning experience is being introduced, including:
LLM-powered detection of exposed credentials across selected data locations
Automated identification of:
Microsoft Entra ID credentials
Private keys
API tokens
Additional sensitive credential types
Each detection comes with:
A risk score
AI-generated insights
A confidence rating
A credential category
And to help you stay organized, Purview provides a task board where you can follow up on findings, track progress, and take recommended actions, all in one place.
Microsoft is rolling out a great new capability that will make life much easier for anyone who works with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) alerts. You’ll now start seeing AI‑generated summaries and categorizations, produced by the Microsoft Purview Data Security Triage Agent, directly inside the Microsoft Defender XDR portal.
This means faster triage, clearer insights, and less time manually digging through alert details.
What’s new?
When a DLP alert fires, analysts will now see:
A concise AI‑generated summary of what happened
A suggested categorization of the alert
Context pulled directly from the incident to help speed up investigation
If you’ve already deployed the Triage Agent in Purview, these summaries will show up automatically in your Defender XDR alerts. If not, eligible analysts will be able to deploy it directly from the alert page super handy.
Rollout timeline
Public Preview Starts: Early April 2026 Completed by: Mid‑April 2026
General Availability (Worldwide) Starts: Mid‑August 2026 Completed by: Late August 2026
Microsoft is rolling out a new wave of Certifications that reflect today’s rapidly evolving cloud, AI, and security landscape. The first beta exams begin this month, with more releases over the next few months, and all new Certifications expected to become generally available later this year.
New Microsoft Certification Beta Timeline (2026)
Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Engineer Associate Perfect for professionals who deploy and manage machine learning and generative AI solutions in production.
Exam: AI‑300 (beta) — March 2026
Training: Available March 2026
Go-live: May 2026
Azure Databricks Data Engineer Associate Ideal for data engineers who design secure, scalable pipelines using Azure Databricks to support real‑time analytics and AI.
Exam: DP‑750 (beta) — March 2026
Training: Available March 2026
Go-live: May 2026
SQL AI Developer Associate Validates your ability to build AI‑powered, modern database applications using best‑practice governance and DevOps approaches.
Exam: DP‑800 (beta) — March 2026
Training: Available March 2026
Go-live: May 2026
Azure AI Fundamentals A refreshed Fundamentals Certification focused on building modern AI apps and agents using Microsoft Foundry — great for beginners.
Exam: AI‑901 (beta) — April 2026
Training: March 2026
Go-live: June 2026
Azure AI App and Agent Developer Associate Aligned with generative and agentic architectures. Covers building generative apps, multistep reasoning workflows, and production‑ready agent solutions.
Exam: AI‑103 (beta) — April 2026
Training: March 2026
Go-live: June 2026
Cybersecurity Business Professional Validates your ability to recognize risks, apply secure-by-design practices, and support business decision‑making that enables secure AI adoption.
Exam: SC‑730 (beta) — April 2026
Training: May 2026
Go-live: July 2026
Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate Designed for developers building and monitoring AI solutions on Azure using containers, vector databases, serverless components, and distributed observability.
Exam: AI‑200 (beta) — April 2026
Training: April 2026
Go-live: July 2026
Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate Focuses on securing cloud and AI workloads, protecting models, and applying enterprise‑grade security patterns.
Exam: SC‑500 (beta) — May 2026
Training: July 2026
Go-live: July 2026
Windows Server Hybrid Administrator A unified Certification covering both Azure and on‑premises hybrid administration.
Exam: AZ‑802 (beta) — June 2026
Training: August 2026
Go-live: August 2026
Retiring Certifications: Key Dates & What Replaces Them
As Microsoft updates its Certification portfolio for modern AI‑driven roles, several existing Certifications are scheduled for retirement in 2026. If you hold one of these, make sure you renew it before the retirement date if renewal is available.
You can read more in the official Microsoft article here.
Today Microsoft is rolling out some major updates that truly reshape how AI shows up in everyday work. Here’s what’s new:
Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot
More model diversity, with Claude and next‑gen OpenAI models available starting today
Agent 365 becoming generally available on May 1 at $15 per user
Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite, also coming May 1, priced at $99 per user
Wave 3 is honestly the biggest shift I’ve seen in Copilot so far. It doesn’t feel like “AI that helps you write or summarize” anymore, it feels like Microsoft is moving Copilot into a true agent that can actually do work for you, not just respond to prompts. And this changes everything in how we’ll use Microsoft 365.
Frontier Transformation – What It Really Means
Microsoft is talking about “Frontier Transformation” but at its core, it’s actually simple: AI should help people achieve their highest goals — not just make processes a little faster.
Copilot Cowork – The game changer
The main highlight is Copilot Cowork, built together with Anthropic (the team behind Claude). What I love about it is that it can finally take on a whole piece of work, break it into steps, run those steps in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and keep you updated as it goes.
Not instantly, but over minutes or even hours. So instead of: “Write a one‑page summary” It becomes: “Prepare the full report, build the Excel analysis, create the PowerPoint, and draft the email to the team.” And it actually moves this work forward across the apps we already use daily.
Edit with Copilot – In-app agentic editing
Another thing I like is that “Agent Mode” is gone. It’s now simply called Edit with Copilot, and it works right inside the apps:
Word: turns your messy draft into something polished
Excel: actually builds formulas and charts (not just suggests)
PowerPoint: creates slides using your real templates and brand
Outlook: drafts or refines emails in the compose window
No more copy-paste. No more losing sensitivity labels. Everything stays governed and saved where it should be.
Work IQ – Copilot that “knows how you work”
Wave 3 also introduces Work IQ, which gives Copilot a deeper understanding of:
Your organization’s content
Your collaboration patterns
The apps and workflows you use
The context behind your requests
This is what helps Copilot choose the right model (Claude or OpenAI) depending on the task.
Multi‑model Copilot (Claude + OpenAI)
For the first time, Copilot becomes model-agnostic. You’ll be able to pick or automatically use:
Anthropic Claude (via the Frontier program)
OpenAI models
A model selector is coming to Copilot Chat so you can choose which model works best, depending on the task.
New licensing tier: Microsoft 365 E7 “The Frontier Suite”
Microsoft also launched a brand new enterprise tier — their first in 11 years: Microsoft 365 E7 (The Frontier Suite)
It bundles:
M365 E5
Copilot
Agent 365
Additional security + analytics tools
This shows how seriously Microsoft is betting on agentic AI becoming the new standard.
Rollout timeline
Wave 3 features are:
Already in research preview for selected customers
Expanding via the Frontier Program starting March 2026
With Wave 3, Agent 365, Work IQ, and the new E7 suite, AI is shifting from early experimentation to real, scalable, enterprise-wide value. Microsoft is not only imagining what AI could be it’s giving organizations the tools to build that future right now.
You can read more in the official Microsoft article here.
Microsoft is introducing a new soft purge action in Data Security Investigations (DSI), giving admins a quick and safe way to remove sensitive or overshared files during an investigation. With soft purge, items can be deleted immediately but still recovered later as long as they’re within their deleted‑item retention period, so admins get speed without risking permanent data loss.
This builds on DSI’s growing set of AI‑powered tools like intelligent categorization, AI search, and automated risk insights making it easier than ever for organizations to spot issues and take action fast.
New update coming to Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 558109. A soft purge action will soon be available in Data Security Investigations (DSI), giving admins a safer and more flexible way to remove sensitive or overshared content during an investigation.
When it’s rolling out
General Availability (Worldwide): Begins early April 2026
Expected completion:late May 2026
What this means for your organization
Who is affected?
Admins who use Data Security Investigations (DSI) in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal.
What’s changing
A new soft purge option will appear in DSI. With this action, admins can:
Remove items that match an investigation query
Keep those items recoverable until the retention period expires
Act quickly without risking accidental permanent deletion
And the best part:
The feature is on by default
No configuration needed
No changes to existing DLP, labeling, or retention policies
End users will not see any changes in their workflows
Once the rollout finishes, the feature simply appears for eligible tenants.
How to prepare
There is nothing you need to do in advance. If you want to get ahead, you may consider:
Reviewing how soft purge works in DSI
Updating any internal guidance on investigation processes
Informing your security or compliance teams about the new action
Overall, this update gives organizations a safer and more controlled way to remove sensitive content during investigations—without adding extra steps or complexity.
Microsoft Purview is rolling out a great new capability for SharePoint and OneDrive: automatic actions for sensitivity labels.
Until now, if someone manually applied the wrong label to a file, admins had limited options—especially when large volumes of content were involved. With this update, Purview can now automatically override or remove manually applied sensitivity labels when they don’t match your organization’s policies.
In simple terms: Your data stays correctly classified, even when humans make mistakes.
Rollout begins mid‑April 2026, and the feature will be off by default, giving administrators full control over when and how they want to enable it. It’s another step toward stronger, more accurate data governance across Microsoft 365.
Microsoft Purview is getting a meaningful upgrade as part of its ongoing integration with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. The latest improvement brings new auto‑labeling actions to SharePoint and OneDrive, giving organizations more control over how sensitive information is classified across their environment.
What’s new? Admins can now automatically override sensitivity labels that were applied manually or remove labels entirely when a file no longer meets the criteria for that classification. This means large volumes of content can stay properly labeled—even as information changes—without relying on users to update labels themselves.
Microsoft is rolling out an exciting update that will make life noticeably easier for anyone who works with shared or delegated inboxes in Outlook. Whether you’re an executive assistant managing a busy calendar, part of an HR or finance team working from a shared mailbox, or supporting customers from a service desk account—Copilot is about to become your new best friend.
Until now, Copilot features like summarizing threads or drafting replies were only available when you were in your own mailbox. But that’s changing. With this update, Copilot will work natively inside the shared or delegated mailboxes you already use every day, bringing AI assistance directly to the place where your work actually happens.
This enhancement is tracked under Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 554936, and it’s one of the most practical Copilot improvements so far for collaborative teams.
When is this coming?
Targeted Release: Rolling out from early April 2026 through early May 2026
General Availability: Rolling out from early May 2026 through early June 2026
In other words—it’s coming soon, and it will reach everyone within the next couple of months.
What’s changing and who benefits?
This update applies to:
People who work in shared or delegated Outlook mailboxes
Organizations where users are licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot
Once enabled, users will be able to:
✔ Use Copilot Chat directly inside shared or delegated mailboxes
You no longer need to switch back to your primary inbox to engage Copilot.
✔ Access features like Summarize, Draft, and other Copilot prompts
These capabilities will now operate on the content of the shared mailbox itself.
✔ Skip awkward prompt wording
No more typing things like “in @domain.com…”. You can simply ask Copilot naturally, and it understands the context of the mailbox you’re currently in.
✔ Benefit from full support for:
Full-access shared mailboxes
Shared folder permissions
Folder-level access models commonly used by support desks and admin teams
✔ Keep your Copilot history private
Even though multiple people may work in the same shared mailbox, the Copilot conversation history stays tied to your personal account, not the shared mailbox. No cross-user visibility. No confusion.
What does this mean for your organization?
The good news: There’s nothing you need to turn on. This feature will light up automatically for licensed users once rollout reaches your tenant.
Still, it’s worth doing a quick review of:
Your shared mailbox permission structure
Folder-level roles (especially for teams with tiered access)
Training materials or internal FAQs that mention Copilot in Outlook
You may want to update your documentation so users understand they can now use Copilot directly within shared inboxes.
