Trying to send this out, knowing that Microsoft had a pretty huge email outage yesterday. Here’s hoping it reaches you.
While we’re on the subject, though. This outage was a pretty big deal. I wonder how many companies couldn’t do anything because email was unavailable. For all the talk about AI and fast-changing technology, when you can’t keep the email flowing, I’ve got to wonder how much organizations can trust you.
Then again, if you’ve been using Exchange long enough, how much pain is moving going to be?
Speaking of Microsoft and AI, though. There was also this last week:
Who thought renaming the M365 Roadmap was a good idea?
The "AI at Work Roadmap"
Which just begs this response, doesn’t it? - Microsoft’s latest rebrand proves that it just wants to shoehorn AI everywhere
We’ve known that for a while now, Microsoft. You don’t have to keep reminding us.
Copilot News:
This is a pretty good overview of what’s new.
What’s New in Microsoft Copilot | August 2026
I will admit that there are a few new things I’m looking forward to, including integrating OneNote and Copilot Notebooks as a more project-focused tool. I think there’s some real potential there.
There are also connectors that may interest those of us in the legal world.
This may also be of interest to the heavy PowerPoint users - Use custom skills with Copilot in PowerPoint
If you haven’t tried this, you should. There’s a lot of potential here as well - Copilot Pages: Work side by side with AI
This is a good take. Copilot needs to be more than something that helps you draft better emails - Copilot Has to Earn Its Seat
Non-Copilot News:
Patch Tuesday keeps getting larger and larger, and still, the bad guys are ahead:
This is also an AI-related risk: Block Prompt Injection Emails with Microsoft Defender.
At the ILTA Conference last week, I noticed how often any session or conversation about AI came back to governance.
AI-First and Microsoft 365: How to Adapt AI Governance for the Copilot Era
What my WorkIQ Persona Sketch taught me about Data Governance
Coming soon - Microsoft confirms rollout of redesigned Planner UI is happening soon.
You might be surprised to learn what you don’t know - Everything your IT team needs to know about Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes
This could be interesting - Microsoft Teams Introduces Communicator App for Targeted Announcements
Of course, I couldn’t leave you without some Purview education:
Close the gaps: layered data protection with Microsoft Purview across endpoint, browser, and network
A Contrast and Comparison of Retention and Sensitivity Labels
Were you impacted by the latest outage? Did it give you time to do some focused work without having email notifications popping up every five minutes?
Here’s hoping September doesn’t come in with any more surprises in store.