Regaining Control Over Unmanaged GenAI Apps: New Microsoft Purview Enhancements in Edge

Many organizations are growing increasingly concerned about the widespread use of unsanctioned Generative AI (GenAI) tools. These apps, often accessed through unmanaged browsers, pose significant risks to data security and compliance. To help with this, Microsoft is now updating some features in  Microsoft Purview that will enhance policy enforcement for unmanaged cloud apps accessed via the Edge browser.  What’s Changing? Previously, enforcing Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Collection policies required manual creation of Edge configuration policies. These policies were often complex and needed to be scoped correctly to block unsupported browsers or apply protections. With this update, Microsoft automates much of that process: Collection Policies now apply directly within Edge without needing a separate blocking configuration. DLP Policies automatically generate Edge configuration policies that align with the scope of the DLP rules. DLP policies can operate in two mode...

Custom Engine Agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Agents in BizChat has been available for some time already, but now there is an upcoming update to Agents. The introduction of custom engine agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot! These specialized agents can be built on any large language model (LLM), toolchain, or orchestration tool, tailored specifically for your domain or tenant workflows. Initially supported in Microsoft Teams, this feature will soon be available in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat).  

The introduction of Custom engine agents enables your organization to create customized experiences using your own AI systems and orchestrators. You can design unique prompts, connect to any LLM, and integrate these custom agents with Microsoft 365 Copilot. After the rollout, users will be able to access these agents, provided they are enabled and deployed in the Microsoft 365 admin center under the Copilot tab.  You can read more about the feature on this page.

Eligible users can create agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio for low-code tools or the Microsoft Teams Toolkit in Visual Studio for pro-code solutions. Access to Copilot Studio requires enabling the Microsoft Power Automate free license.  

Users can deploy agents for individual tasks and share them with internal teams, but organization-wide sharing requires admin approval. 

This feature is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 474439 and will hopefully be in preview during February. The current target for GA is a finished roll-out by end of April.