Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update March 2026

March's update covers the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3 announcements, including Claude models in Copilot chat and Copilot Cowork built with Anthropic. Agent 365 gets a general availability date of 1 May 2026 at $15 per user per month, and Microsoft 365 E7 arrives in May at $99 per user per month. Also covered: Teams Phone, channel agents, rooms and devices roadmap items.

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for March 2026.

Many thanks to Ribbon for their continued support.

PowerPoint Deck

Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3​

Anthropic in M365 Copilot ​

Copilot Cowork​

Agent 365​

Microsoft 365 E7​

AI Workplace Roadmap​

Teams Devices Roadmap​

New Teams Certified Devices​

Events​

Useful Links:

Briefings

• Real AI Use Cases in the Contact Centre with Luware Nimbus - Costs, Risks and Benefits - Marcel Gaufroid, Head of Sales – EU, at Luware
• Microsoft Places in 2026: APIs, Desk Booking, and Copilot Context - Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy Lead for Microsoft Places
• Pure IP's Platform Strategy that Simplifies Enterprise Communications - Adnon Dow, Chief Strategy Officer at Pure IP
• AI Voice Agents - Sean Keegan, Developer Evangelist for Azure Communication Services at Microsoft
• Tony at NWN Explains How They Deliver Multi-Platform UCaaS at Scale with NUWAVE iPILOT

Teams Insider Podcasts

• CTO of LabourNet on Microsoft Teams Phone and Contact Centre with a Dispersed National Workforce with Mike Love, CTO at LabourNet, Janet Souter-Dantu, Co-founder at ScopServ Integrated Services, and Vanesia Raborethe, Head of Sales at ScopServ
• SharePoint at 25, Past, Present, and AI Future with Microsoft's Jeff Teper
• AI enabling real-time communications with Adam Jacobs, IC3 Principal Program Manager at Microsoft
• Scaling Microsoft Teams Phone and Teams Rooms at BAE Systems with Andrew Wigmore

Other Useful Links

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/03/09/copilot-cowork-a-new-way-of-getting-work-done/
• https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/02/27/microsoft-and-openai-joint-statement-on-continuing-partnership/
• https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1247880
• https://portal.changepilot.cloud/MC1247634
• https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1248392
• https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1245225
• https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1243546

Chapters

• 0:04 Ribbon and AWS expanded relationship
• Recent briefings and podcasts
• 0:28 Copilot Wave 3 overview
• 0:34 Anthropic Claude models in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• 0:34 Copilot Cowork
• 6:25 Anthropic as sub-processor and the OpenAI relationship
• 6:56 Agent 365 GA date and pricing
• 8:10 Microsoft 365 E7: what is and isn't included
• 9:02 SharePoint at 25 with Jeff Teper
• 9:49 AI workplace roadmap: meeting bots, Teams Phone numbers, channel agents
• 11:20 Rooms and devices roadmap and new certified devices
• 12:37 Upcoming events

Key insights

• Claude models appear in the Microsoft 365 Copilot model dropdown from March, but only for tenants that enable Anthropic models.
• Anthropic models run outside Azure with Anthropic as a Microsoft AI sub-processor; Azure hosting has no announced timeline.
• Copilot Cowork uses the same model and harness as Anthropic's Cowork, adding enterprise audit, control and the Work IQ layer.
• Copilot Cowork reaches Frontier-enabled tenants in March, with no date yet for the rest of the world.
• Agent 365 reaches general availability on 1 May 2026 at $15 per user per month, licensed per user rather than per agent.
• Microsoft 365 E7 arrives in May at $99 per user per month, covering E5, some Entra capabilities, Copilot and Agent 365, but not Teams Premium.
• Third-party meeting bots will be clearly identified in the Teams meeting lobby from May, which requires lobby to be enabled.
• Teams Phone will support up to 10 numbers per user, mixing Operator Connect, Direct Routing and Calling Plan across locations.

Insights summarised by AI from the episode transcript, reviewed by the Empowering.Cloud team.