M365 News Roundup for April 2025
Microsoft turns 50 and makes announcements
Microsoft held a birthday party for itself last week. In between the pats on the back and some interruptions by employees over their technological partnership with the Israeli government, they also made some announcements about new Copilot features:
I’m not surprised they are releasing new features like an improved chatbot memory, personalization, etc. It was only a matter of time.
My chief complaint about the coverage is that most media outlets—and maybe they are following Microsoft PR—don’t differentiate between the different versions of Copilot.
Some new features may be unavailable if you use M365 and Copilot at work. Similarly, the features available will differ if you use the free version as a consumer and log in to your work M365 account.
It can be frustrating to see news about new features only to realize they aren’t available to you, even when paying for a Copilot license for M365, because there is a difference between that and Copilot Pro (The paid version for the consumer M365 license, which should not be confused with the available features that have been added to the consumer M365 base license.). There are differences between Copilot Chat and Bing Chat as well.
I feel frustrated as a user and an IT professional because our users see these announcements. I'm disappointing them when I explain that our Copilot environments don’t have the same features.
At the same time, I understand that releasing a Copilot feature for business users requires integration with existing compliance, privacy, and eDiscovery tools in Purview. Consumers don’t get those same considerations. (We can argue about whether they should; it’s a valid discussion.) It’s not always easy to convince users that it’s better for them not to have features that they can use at home.
Are you feeling it, too?
Maybe this will help a little: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot: FAQ and comparison.
Copilot News:
Of course, the other big news in the Copilot world before last week’s announcements was the imminent rollout of the new agents:
Facilitator Agent Brings AI Notes to Teams Chat.
Microsoft releases its answer to OpenAI and Google's Deep Research.
I’m looking forward to experimenting with them.
I thought this was an interesting read about using Copilot. Using Copilot as a neurodivergent marketer – social scripting can transform workplace interactions.
For the SharePoint creators out there - Create pages with Copilot in SharePoint.
I am enjoying this new Teams app. It has the potential to help create prompt libraries for different groups easily. How to Add and Use the New Prompts App.
This is a solid breakdown of using DLP to prevent Copilot from accessing sensitive data - M365 Copilot DLP Policies in action, what can(‘t) they do?
Last month, I highlighted a series Anna wrote covering Sensitivity Labels. This month, she is on to DSPM for AI. You should follow her blog instead of waiting for me to share this stuff. (In fact, there are a lot of folks I link to in these roundups who you should be following!)
Getting Started with Data Security Posture Management for AI
Understanding Your Organization’s AI Activity with DSPM for AI
Related - Microsoft Purview – Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI.
And -
For consumers: Microsoft 365 subscribers can now experience Copilot in OneDrive.
Finally, some tools to report on how your Copilot rollout is going - Introducing the Copilot Analytics Advanced Analysis Playbook.
Non-Copilot News:
I mentioned the availability of Security e5 as an add-on to Business Premium customers last month. Still, I wanted to share a couple of items that might help you decide if it’s right for you:
I’ll be honest about this. When I first read the description for this feature, the eDiscovery part of my brain was ready to run. It sounds scary, but I realize now that it’s also necessary.
The Audit log is your friend:
Planner data can be a problem - The Risk behind Planner - Lack of Data Retention. Luckily, a solution may be on the roadmap: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?id=486828
Not to be confused with DSPM - Another day, another Purview solution: Data Security Investigations.
If you’ve ever needed to train folks on how SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams work together, Daniel Anderson has some free infographics that may interest you for the small price of your email address.
Finally, some thoughts on external collaboration with M365:
What are the options for External Access in Microsoft 365?
That’s all for this month! Has there been any big news that has your focus this month that I haven’t covered? Please share with the class. ;-)
As always, please share this with anyone who would benefit from subscribing to the newsletter, whether with a paid subscription or a free one, so that they can get this kind of roundup each month. I’ll keep doing what I do here if you keep reading and sharing!