Ones to watch from Microsoft Ignite 2025: unofficial guide

This is my yearly post trying to keep some semblance of tabs on the new announcements and updated features from Microsoft Ignite 2025. This is not an exhaustive list, just the ones that caught my eye, but I will provide links to all the references at the end of this post.

Microsoft Ignite 2025 was the year of the AI announcement. With updates across Azure, Microsoft 365, and the Power Platform showing a decisive move toward making AI autonomous, secure, and deeply context-aware, AI is being woven into the very Fabric that is the Microsoft Cloud (pun intended). Here’s a breakdown of the announcements and updates that I noted from Ignite 2025:

#1 Agent 365

Microsoft has launched Agent 365, an extension of its existing infrastructure aimed at helping IT leaders manage and secure AI agents in workplace operations. Now available in the Microsoft 365 admin center via the Frontier early access program, it combines security tools like Defender and Entra with productivity apps such as Word and Outlook. Key features include agent tracking, strong access controls, real-time activity visualization, and workflow interoperability, all designed to enhance governance and protection for AI agents while promoting innovation without major infrastructure changes.

Agent 365 is available now in Microsoft 365 admin center with the Frontier program, Microsoft’s early access program for the latest AI innovations.

#2 SharePoint admin agent, WorkIQ enhancements

The SharePoint Admin Agent, currently in preview, leverages AI insights to support IT admins in managing secure and compliant environments by monitoring inactive sites and permissions sprawl while automating tasks like archiving. It enhances governance as Microsoft Copilot is adopted, reducing operational overhead and optimizing storage costs. Significant updates to Work IQ improve Microsoft 365 Copilot’s productivity and personalization, while Copilot’s enhanced reasoning with structured metadata in SharePoint provides context-aware answers and extends to images, intranet content, and encrypted files for better organizational support.

#3 Copilot Chat adds more value for users within a Copilot license

Copilot Chat is set to launch in preview by March 2026, allowing users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to access features in Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In Outlook, the AI assistant will help users manage their inbox, calendars, and meetings, making it easier to handle emails, prepare for meetings, and gather important information. Agent Mode in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will support collaborative work, guiding users through tasks to create polished documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. By using web data and referenced files, Copilot Chat will help improve content creation across Microsoft’s productivity tools.

#4 Security Copilot with E5, plus twelve security agents

Microsoft is incorporating Security Copilot agents into E5 subscriptions to enhance cybersecurity with AI-driven tools across Microsoft Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview. This includes over 40 new agents and interactive features for improved collaboration, allowing organizations to transition from reactive to proactive security strategies and address the cybersecurity skills gap.

#5 Copilot Mode in Edge for Business

Microsoft Edge for Business is introducing Copilot Mode in private preview, becoming the first AI browser to integrate public and organizational data securely. This update enhances Edge’s functionalities with features like Agent Mode for automated tasks, a new tab page inspired by Copilot, and Daily Briefing summaries, alongside AI tools for multi-tab reasoning and video summarization. The innovations prioritize data protection, ensuring secure AI-assisted enterprise browsing, with a wider rollout expected in February 2026.

#6 New developer experience for PowerApps

Microsoft is launching a redesigned Power Apps experience to streamline app development with AI assistance, allowing users to create applications by simply articulating their ideas. This new platform incorporates Microsoft 365 Copilot for task automation and enhances governance tools for app management. Customers will be able to preview the unified Copilot chat experience starting December 10, 2025.

#7 Cotext aware intelligence in Power BI

Microsoft have announced major updates to Power BI at Ignite, including expanding the standalone Copilot experience to mobile, improving search and verified answers for faster insights, and launching Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in public preview to enable secure, agent-ready semantic modeling. These updates aim to make data interaction more intuitive, accelerate analytics workflows, and strengthen governance with features like semantic model version history and Visual Studio Code integration.

Other product updates

SharePoint

On-Demand Page and List Creation: You can now create SharePoint pages and lists directly from Copilot chat using @mention commands, making content creation faster and integrated into workflows.
eSignature in Microsoft 365: eSignature is now generally available, enabling secure document signing directly from SharePoint using trusted providers like Adobe and DocuSign, all within Microsoft compliance boundaries.
FAQ Web Part Enhancements: The FAQ web part now includes AI-suggested updates, easy import of existing FAQs, reference linking to SharePoint pages, and shareable Q&A links. These features are in public preview.
Viva Amplify Integration: SharePoint news posts can now be promoted across multiple channels (Outlook, Teams, Viva Engage) with analytics to measure engagement, thanks to Viva Amplify integration.
Pay-As-You-Go Storage: A flexible PAYGO storage option is coming soon, enabling admins to purchase additional SharePoint storage as needed, integrated with archiving for lifecycle management.

Teams

Unified Copilot Experience in Teams: Copilot is now integrated across chats, channels, and meetings, offering smart recaps, message rewrites, and context-aware insights. This experience is generally available for chats and channels and in public preview for meetings.
External Collaboration Improvements: Teams now supports chatting with anyone via email, sharing files and Loop components in external chats, and trust indicators for external users. Admins get new presets for managing external collaboration securely.
Pop-Out Core Teams Functions: You can now open Teams apps like chat, calls, and calendar in separate windows for better multitasking and workspace organization.
Collaborative Spaces in Chats and Channels: Persistent spaces for co-creating content and organizing information are now available in chats and channels, reducing clutter and improving collaboration.
Channel Agent Enhancements: Channel Agents can now generate status reports and create workback plans directly in Teams channels. These updates simplify project tracking and planning, making collaboration more efficient.
Facilitator Agent Upgrades: Facilitator can now build live meeting progress trackers, ping missing participants, and draft documents based on meeting discussions. These features are in public preview.
Customizable Meeting Recap Templates: Meeting recaps can now be tailored using ready-made or custom templates, ensuring summaries fit your team’s preferred format. Available in public preview.
Branded Reactions [Private Preview]: Organizations can upload custom reaction icons for meetings, aligning visual identity with brand elements or event themes.

Copilot Studio

Redesigned creation experience: Build and refine agents through an improved conversational interface that guides users and taps into an expanded set of work-related knowledge sources.
File generation with natural language: Agents built in Microsoft 365 Copilot, can now create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in seconds using natural language commands.
Seamless upgrade path: Copy agents from Microsoft 365 Copilot to Copilot Studio in one click, unlocking advanced AI agent customization.
Workflows agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot: Create, build, and manage workflows using natural language in chat. Boost productivity with quick scenarios like daily triage, weekly digests, and lightweight approvals—all directly within Copilot.
Choose your own model: Select from leading options like OpenAI’s GPT‑5, Anthropic’s Sonnet 4.5, and Opus 4.1 to power your agents. This empowers you to tailor agent intelligence to fit your specific business scenario, optimize performance, experiment with new capabilities, and deliver agents that meet your organization’s unique needs.
Ensure agents are ready for launch, and don’t regress over time, with Evaluations: Built-in evaluation tools help you test agents against real-world scenarios, compare versions, and track performance with clear metrics. Evaluations can give teams greater confidence that their investments are performing as expected.
Computer use: Agents can now automate tasks across apps and websites, using secure Windows 365 experiences—from hosted browsers for quick web automation to IT-managed Cloud PC pools for rapid scalability.
Expanded agent analytics: Clear insights into connected and child agent performance, detailed visibility into Copilot Credits consumption and limits, AI-generated summaries of top analytics insights, and interrogating analytics using natural language.
Real-time protection: Copilot Studio integrates with Microsoft Defender and other trusted security platforms, providing continuous monitoring and protection against threats like prompt injection—helping every agent run more safely.
Microsoft Entra Agent ID: Every agent made in Copilot Studio now gets a unique Microsoft Entra Agent ID, making it simple to register, manage, and govern your entire agent fleet.

SharePoint Stuff