Tom Arbuthnot's Microsoft 365 Perspective

Many thanks to Ribbon this month's Empowering.Cloud Benefactor.

I'm just back from speaking at their Insights event in Lisbon. For anyone in the US, check out Ribbon INSIGHTS Dallas in November.

Microsoft Teams Monthly Update Video September

Check out my monthly Microsoft Teams update video for September.
All the news you need to know in 12 minutes on LinkedIn or Empowering.Cloud.

You can also catch the audio version on the Teams Insider Podcast.

Microsoft Teams News

A significant addition to Copilot in Microsoft Teams, every channel and meeting (Facilitator) can now have their own AI Agent.

Throughout a team’s workday, agents will "proactively keep everyone updated on project status, run smarter meetings, draft content, stay on top of tasks, and provide timely answers to questions".

Teams Channel Agents act as AI experts within each channel, using conversations, meetings, and files as context. They can flag key deadlines, generate concise status reports, assign tasks with due dates, and answer natural language questions, such as “What’s the latest on our budget?” You can even bring them into meetings to provide expert insights. They will offer:

• Status Reports – auto-drafts reports from channel chats, meetings, Planner, and announcements.
• Instant Answers – pulls insights from conversations, meetings, plans, or the web.
• Planner Integration – creates and tracks tasks in Planner, with updates available via chat.

Facilitator Agent for meetings is now GA and gets some new capabilities:

• Agenda & Focus – auto-creates or infers agendas, tracks topics, and keeps time with gentle reminders.
• Real-time Notes – shared, editable notes captured automatically during the meeting.
• Q&A Support – answers meeting questions and pulls in relevant info on the fly.
• Task Management – captures, assigns, and syncs tasks into Planner for follow-up.
• Document Drafting – suggests and generates Word/Loop drafts from meeting discussions.
• In-Room Experience – agenda timers, AI notes, and chat available in Teams Rooms.
• Ad-hoc Capture – one-tap mobile support for unscheduled chats and quick syncs.

More details in the Microsoft blog and YouTube Video

Even without Defender licenses, Teams will now warn users before they click on unsafe links. A step up from Safe Links, available to everyone.

Granular External Access Controls (MC1150123). Previously, an all-or-nothing approach at a tenant level, now you can allow specific groups (e.g., Sales or Finance) to have external chat access. PowerShell first (preview), UI coming with GA in Dec.

Admins can now securely remotely collect Teams logs – a big win for troubleshooting at scale.

Teams Phone Extensibility is GA, and the first 5 Unify-certified contact centres are here! Congrats to AudioCodes, CentrePal, ComputerTalk, Heedify, and Landis.

We also learned on the recent Teams Fireside chat that Dynamics 365 Contact Centre will follow the same Teams process to certify for Unify.

Microsoft Teams Devices

Desk Phones – are getting a new UI for blind/consultative transfer rolling out across button, touch, and sidecar phones.

Teams Rooms on Windows Boards will soon get Touch console support and Browser support (Edge in kiosk mode) – October rollout.

Microsoft 365 Copilot News

Copilot chat in Word, Excel, Outlook, and other apps is becoming a single, unified thread with a shared history across all apps and the main Copilot Chat experience. Rollout will be completed by November. This will apply to all M365 users, regardless of whether they have a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.

Dynamics Copilots, Sales, Service, and Finance are now going to be included in the $30 Microsoft 365 Copilot license (previously $20 add-ons).

New on Empowering.Cloud

• Understanding the Importance of SOC 2 Type II Compliance when Choosing Cloud Services with Steve Jump, Cyber Risk Governance Advisor and Chief Security Officer at Numonix
• Neat's Microsoft Teams Devices Portfolio Explained (2025)
• Crestron Multi-Camera Expanion - Five Cameras without Automate VX with Cara Shannon, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Intelligent Video and Unified Communication at Crestron
• Backing Up Your Teams Phone Number Configuration - Why & How with Damian Lewis, Digital Workplace Specialist at BSI

Teams Insider Podcast

• Scaling M365 Copilot Adoption Across 20,000 Users with MVP Karoliina Kettukari, Head of Modern Work at OP Financial Group
• AV, AI and Meeting Equity - Multi-Camera, Multi-Agent, Multi-AI with Bo Pintea from Huddly
• The Future of Converged Communications with Leon Wright, Global Lead for Converged Communications at Microsoft
• Microsoft Teams Desk Phones - AI Features and Roadmap with Prashi Badkur, Senior Product Manager Lead for Teams Phone Devices at Microsoft

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube

Events

Online events:

• Copilot Fireside Chat with Karuana Gatimu, Director Customer Advocacy - AI & Collaboration at Microsoft - 24th September
• New M365 Change Community Round Up - 25th September. A new monthly series where I and MVP co-hosts discuss the key Microsoft 365 changes from Microsoft Message Center
• Inside Microsoft 365 Change Management with Arin Komins, Microsoft 365 Product Manager / Technical Solutions Director at a large healthcare provider, MVP Michael Blumenthal and myself - 7th October 15:00 UK / 09:00 CT
• Teams Fireside Chat with Scott Plette, Partner Group Product Manager - Teams Calling and Premium at Microsoft - 8th October (it's a Wednesday this time)
• The AI-Powered Workplace Experts Series - Episode 2 - 9th October

In-Person events:

• Microsoft UC User Group London September 2025 - 24th Sept
• Logi Work London - 30th Sept
• UCX London - 1st - 2nd October - planning some great Microsoft talks and a user group takeover. More details soon. Expect some great speakers f

More on our events page.

As always, if you have questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, please reply and let me know. I read all the replies.

Thanks

Tom

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