M365 News Roundup for January 2025
2025 promises to bring many changes
It’s January, and based on the M365 roadmap, we should expect to see many changes coming to the M365 world. Of course, just because something is expected to roll out in January doesn’t mean it won’t get bumped, but there is a lot to watch.
Of course, the one we are all looking for but not looking forward to trying to explain to end users is the rebrand:
Microsoft 365 app UI and Copilot are getting a massive update in 2025, including a new icon.
As if the naming convention for the various Copilot versions wasn’t confusing enough, I think they will make it worse. Sigh.
Are you ready to try to clarify the new Copilot branding for your users?
In other Copilot News:
This is a good, deep look into the Data Governance tools available for managing Copilot: Microsoft 365 Copilot Data Governance. Also:
I’m looking forward to seeing how well this works - Gather and create notes with Copilot in your personal OneNote notebooks directly on the page.
I’ve seen a neurodivergent person demo this feature, and they found it very useful for helping interpret interactions during a meeting. However, I also think many people will find it creepy, so it makes sense that not every team would want it enabled: Blocking Microsoft 365 Copilot Making Inferences in Teams Meetings.
Pulling reports like this could be helpful - New Copilot reporting datasets and how to fetch them programmatically.
DID YOU KNOW you can save and share your Copilot prompts? - I’m looking forward to this hitting our tenant at work. I think it’s an exciting way for our experts to share their knowledge.
An interesting use-case for your consideration - Microsoft 365 Copilot for the C-Suite - Meet your new Business Partner Agent
Non- Copilot News:
Other things are going on in the M365 universe that are not directly related to Copilot that I want to share with you, including a look at a couple of underutilized features, Bookings, and Workflows:
This change is coming on Jan. 27th and might cost you some money. I’ve already been evaluating our offboarding procedures for OneDrive to account for this:
Given the problems I saw putting together last week’s issue, it’s important to remember this - Never Assume Searches Are Accurate Without Verifying.
The helpful M365 licensing maps were updated in December. Keep them handy. You’ll need help with licensing, which can be very confusing.
This seems like good advice - Why you should never mess with Private and Shared Channel SharePoint Sites.
Speaking of SharePoint - SharePoint Intelligent Versioning and the 500 Version Limit.
Beware of These Microsoft Teams Phishing Scams - Teams can be a vector for phishing.
Finally, these aren’t all M365 retirements, but we will all be dealing with these:
Microsoft readies a slew of enterprise-impacting retirements