Two new updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word: Smarter Creation and Researcher agent

What’s New in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word Microsoft continues to evolve its Copilot capabilities in Word, bringing powerful new features that enhance productivity and streamline workflows. Two newly announced updates are rolling out this fall: First out of the gate is the integration of the Researcher Agent, allowing great content generation within Word itself. The second update is bringing more of the search and creation capabilities we have in Chat directly into Word. These updates represent a meaningful step toward closing the functionality gap between Copilot in Word and Copilot Chat. For me, this is a most welcomed improvement, making it easier for end users to get the results they want even faster, with less friction and more flexibility. Deep Research with the New Researcher Agent in Word Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced the Researcher agent in Copilot Chat, but moving and editing that content required copy/paste and jumping between applications. With this coming update...

What is Microsoft Teams Exploratory Experience and can you manage it?

Microsoft Teams Exploratory experience is a great feature for users without a Teams license to get to know Teams, and get involved with other organizations already migrated to Teams. The Microsoft Teams Exploratory Licence will replace the Commercial Cloud Trial license available today.
If a user has already been assigned a Teams license, the feature will not be available for that user (Also, the feature is not available for GCC, GCC High, DoD or EDU customers).

If, for some reason, you do not want your users to start playing with this experience (Let's say you are not ready to support the features, or you want an absolut controlled migration from SFBO to Teams, as many of my customers like), there are a couple of ways you can manage this.

The only way to turn this feature off completely, is to globally disable the use of trial apps and services. This can be done under the M365 admin center and "Services & add-ins", provided the organization is eligible in the first place.

If a user have already been playing around with the feature, the licence will have to be removed in M365 admin panel where all the user's licences are managed.

I highly recommend reading the documentation here if this is something you need to look into.