Smarter AI Workflows in Microsoft 365 Copilot has been announced on the roadmap: Tools, Source Control, and Agents

Tool Selection in Copilot Chat: Making AI Features More Discoverable One of the most helpful updates in my opinion, is the introduction of the new “Tools” button in Copilot Chat. Users will soon see this button directly in the chat prompt box, offering quick access to a curated set of Copilot features such as Researcher, Analyst, Pages, and image generation.  This will hopefully help users with an easier path to the different tools at their disposal. The feature is turned on by default, with no admin configuration required. This feature is associated with Roadmap ID 497298 , and is expected to roll out in the last weeks of August. Source Control in Copilot Chat: Scoped Responses for Greater Relevance Another user-friendly enhancement coming up, is the ability to scope Copilot Chat responses to specific content sources. This feature will allow users to define exactly which documents, folders, or repositories Copilot should reference when generating responses. It’s a subtle but power...

Prepare for shared channels in Teams


According to a post in the message center not long ago, the shared channels feature in Teams is about to roll out in GA after being available in preview for some time.

Although shared channel seems to be available by default in the Teams client, please note that this is only an internal availability, unless the admin of the tenant has enabled/allowed the b2b-directconnect in Azure AD. 

I recommend reading up on this article in order to familiarize yourself with the configuration. It is not enabled by default, and there are several options available. A good approach could be by opening to specific partners and not allowing "everyone". If the company has invested in AAD P1 or P2 licenses, it is also possible to trust the partner's MFA and Compliance checks in conditional access, easing the usage for users.

This feature adds to the mix of external user access. It does not replace the guest user feature, nor anonymous access to teams meetings. But the real benefit of shared channel in my view, is how it adds the channel in the external user's existing list of teams and channels and does not require a tenant switch.

According to the message center post, this should be rolling out mid July and the following weeks.