Microsoft AI Daily Brief

📰 Also noted - Daily Brief - 2026-07-31

2026-07-31T07:20:04Z

📰 Also noted

Specialization and certification skilling updates - 2026-07-30: Microsoft is retiring several role certifications (AZ-204, MB-280, AZ-500, PL-200) between Jun 30 and Aug 31 2026, with AI-focused replacements such as Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate and Intelligent Applications Builder.

⚙️ M365 Admin & Compliance - Daily Brief - 2026-07-31

2026-07-31T07:20:03Z

⚙️ M365 Admin & Compliance

🟡 Coming soon

Microsoft Purview: auto-labeling scale increase - Planned Sep 2026
Purview Information Protection auto-labeling capacity increases from 100,000 to 500,000 files per tenant per day. Roadmap item 567890, preview planned September 2026 and GA October 2026.

Why it matters: large tenants can auto-classify far more content each day, widening DLP and compliance coverage.

🧩 Viva, Loop & other M365 apps - Daily Brief - 2026-07-31

2026-07-31T07:20:02Z

🧩 Viva, Loop & other M365 apps

🟡 Coming soon

Microsoft Viva: Discussion Post Previews - Planned Aug 2026
Viva Engage will let users preview a discussion post before publishing, so they can catch formatting issues and validate content first. Roadmap item 566699, general availability targeted for August 2026.

Why it matters: fewer mis-formatted or mistaken posts in Engage communities.

🛠️ SDKs & Dev Tooling - Daily Brief - 2026-07-31

2026-07-31T07:20:01Z

🛠️ SDKs & Dev Tooling

🟢 Just shipped

Microsoft Agent Framework - Python 1.13.0 - GA 2026-07-30
Adds bounded, in-memory archive skill discovery for MCP sources via FoundryToolbox, reusable session stores that persist full Foundry Responses sessions, and process-wide feature-usage telemetry. A breaking change redesigns workflow checkpoints for full replayability from the initial input and human-in-the-loop responses.

Why it matters: teams building agents in Python get durable sessions and MCP skill discovery, but should review the checkpoint change before upgrading.

Microsoft Agent Framework - .NET 1.16.0 - GA 2026-07-30
Graduates the GitHub Copilot agent from preview to stable, forwards MessageSendParams.Configuration in the agent-to-agent (A2A) adapter, preserves EditTable state across declarative workflow updates, and fixes InMemoryChatHistoryProvider persisting when the service already stores history.

Why it matters: .NET agent builders get a stable Copilot agent path and more reliable A2A and declarative-workflow behavior.

📰 Also noted - Daily Brief - 2026-07-30

2026-07-30T07:17:48Z

📰 Also noted

Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace - 2026-07-29: New unified Marketplace offering combining ISV Success, Marketplace Rewards, Azure IP co-sell, and certified software designations for companies building on the Microsoft Cloud, arriving September 2026.
Microsoft Cloud and AI strength fuels Q4 results - 2026-07-29: Microsoft Q4 FY26 earnings; Microsoft 365 Copilot surpassed 30 million paid seats.

🧩 Viva, Loop & other M365 apps - Daily Brief - 2026-07-30

2026-07-30T07:17:47Z

🧩 Viva, Loop & other M365 apps

🟢 Just shipped

Viva Engage: custom branding - GA 2026-07-29
Viva Engage is rolling out Custom Branding, an admin-led capability to define a tenant-wide visual identity (fonts, colors, logos, layouts) across the experience.

Why it matters: organizations can align the employee-communications surface with their corporate brand.

Copilot Dashboard: targeted audience surveys - GA 2026-07-29
Change leaders can launch a Copilot Pulse survey directly from the Copilot Dashboard, targeting all licensed or active users.

Why it matters: streamlines measuring Copilot sentiment and adoption for change-management teams.

📁 SharePoint & OneDrive - Daily Brief - 2026-07-30

2026-07-30T07:17:46Z

📁 SharePoint & OneDrive

🟢 Just shipped

Viva Connections multi-home site management moves to the SharePoint admin center - GA 2026-07-29
Management of Viva Connections multi-home experiences is moving from the Microsoft 365 admin center to the SharePoint admin center for streamlined administration.

Why it matters: SharePoint admins get consolidated control over Viva Connections home sites in the surface they already use.

🔌 Microsoft 365 Copilot Extensibility - Daily Brief - 2026-07-30

2026-07-30T07:17:45Z

🔌 Microsoft 365 Copilot Extensibility

🟢 Just shipped

Declarative agent manifest schema version 1.8 - GA 2026-07-30
Manifest v1.8 adds the EmailActions capability (write operations on mail: triage, supervised send, delete, inbox rules, auto-reply, folder management) and the MeetingActions capability (schedule events, create time-finding polls, surface time insights). It also adds a file property to reference worker agents by path and an embedded_resource_snapshot_id property on embedded knowledge.

Why it matters: declarative agents can now take write actions on email and calendar, a major capability step for partner-built agents.

Teams agents can receive targeted messages in group chats - GA 2026-07-30
Agents in Microsoft Teams can now receive messages targeted specifically to them in group conversations, alongside existing group broadcast handling.

Why it matters: enables more precise agent interactions in multi-participant Teams chats.

Version parameter added to Copilot usage report APIs - GA 2026-07-30
A version parameter was added to the getMicrosoft365CopilotUserCountSummary, getMicrosoft365CopilotUserCountTrend, and getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail Graph reporting APIs so developers can request additional detail in generated reports.

Why it matters: richer programmatic Copilot adoption reporting for partner dashboards.

🤝 Copilot Cowork - Daily Brief - 2026-07-30

2026-07-30T07:17:44Z

🤝 Copilot Cowork

🟢 Just shipped

Event-driven tasks in Cowork - GA 2026-07-30
Cowork can now run tasks automatically when something happens, such as receiving a matching email or a Teams message (including when you are @mentioned). You describe what to watch for and Cowork proposes the automation for you to review and confirm; event-driven tasks appear alongside scheduled prompts on the Scheduled page.

Why it matters: partner teams can build reactive, trigger-based automations for clients instead of relying only on scheduled prompts.