Microsoft is changing the way new features are released for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse. Instead of announcing new release waves twice a year, upcoming features have been continuously released in the AI at Work roadmap since September 2026. New features will appear there as soon as Microsoft can communicate the planning bindingly, and will then be updated along their rollout.
This also eliminates the previous rhythm of our release wave updates. Instead of summarizing several hundred innovations twice a year, we will in future regularly classify the changes that are actually relevant for companies.
Microsoft continues to publish the full overview itself. All announced features, planned rollouts, and status changes can be found in the Microsoft AI at Work Roadmap.
We are therefore concentrating on another question: Which innovations are changing specific business processes and which of them should companies actually examine or use?
In September, the focus will be on AI agents, intelligent sales, data-based project management and the governance of the Power Platform.
The most important Microsoft updates in September 2026
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| What’s | Microsoft Solution | Status | Why Relevant? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work IQ connects business and workplace data | Microsoft Copilot / Dataverse | Preview from September | Copilot and agents can take business processes and corporate data into account more closely together |
| Lead Research and Next Best Actions directly in Sales Home | Dynamics 365 Sales | General Availability in September | Sales teams can see faster which leads are prioritized and what next step makes sense |
| CRM records directly from the Sales Agent | Dynamics 365 Sales | General Availability in September | Contacts, accounts, and opportunities can be created directly from the Copilot chat |
| historical deal patterns for active opportunities | Dynamics 365 Sales | General availability in September | Insights from past deals are incorporated into recommendations for ongoing opportunities |
| What-if analyses for project quotes and calculations | Dynamics 365 Project Operations | General Availability in September | Prices, costs and margins can be simulated in different scenarios before making a decision |
| Enterprise-wide view of resources and assignments | Dynamics 365 Project Operations | General Availability in September | Project organizations gain greater visibility into utilization, resources, and potential bottlenecks |
| Agentic Center of Enablement for Power Platform Governance | Microsoft Power Platform | Public Preview in September | AI Agents to Identify Risks and Automate Governance Tasks |
1. Work IQ connects copilot and agents more closely to actual business processes
One of the most strategically important innovations will come at the end of September with Work IQ. Microsoft is thus bringing data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform closer together with the information that employees use in Microsoft 365 every day.
The preview will start on September 30, 2026, with the further rollout scheduled for October. Work IQ will not only give Copilot and agents access to individual pieces of information, but also give them more context about how business data is related and the rules and processes behind it.
Why is this relevant?
The usefulness of an AI agent depends heavily on whether it understands the necessary business context.
For example, a sales agent doesn’t just need an email from Outlook. They also need to know which customer is behind it, which opportunity is open, what activities have already taken place, and what processes apply in the CRM.
Microsoft is moving in exactly this direction: Microsoft 365, Copilot and Business Applications are growing closer together at the data and process level.
For companies that already use Microsoft Copilot, Dynamics 365 or their own agents, the quality of the underlying data structure becomes even more important.
2. Dynamics 365 Sales does more research and prioritization
In sales, several AI functions will go into general availability in September.
The new combination of lead research and next best actions in Sales Home is particularly relevant. The sales agent researches information about leads, evaluates their relevance and shows directly in the workspace which leads need attention and which next step could be useful.
Instead of just processing leads in a list, sales teams can prioritize more strongly according to actual potential and need for action.
The Business Use Case
Especially with larger lead volumes, a simple problem often arises: Not too few leads, but too little time for consistent qualification.
This is where AI can take over some of the preparatory work. Information is compiled, leads are prioritized and possible courses of action are prepared. The salesperson continues to make decisions, but can concentrate his time more on the contacts where a conversation makes sense.
For companies using Dynamics 365 Sales , it is therefore worthwhile to examine how lead qualification is done today and which parts of it can already be supported by agents.
3. The sales agent can create CRM data directly from Copilot
A second relevant sales update reduces the switch between Microsoft 365 and CRM.
Starting in September, users will be able to use the sales agent to create data records such as contacts, accounts or opportunities directly within Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Information from the conversation context can already be transferred to the form. Before saving, the values can be checked and adjusted.
Why is this more than comfort?
CRM data quality often fails not because of missing fields, but because information is not consistently transmitted after meetings, conversations or e-mails.
If CRM campaigns can take place more strongly where employees work anyway, the hurdle to data maintenance is lowered.
The interesting use case is therefore not the individual function, but a more integrated sales process:
Communication, research, next action and CRM maintenance are moving closer together.
4. The sales opportunity agent learns from past deals
AI is also more involved in decision support for ongoing opportunities.
Starting in September, the Sales Opportunity Agent will be able to take historical deal patterns into account. For example, recurring objections, competitors, missing stakeholders or typical delays from past sales processes can be taken into account. This results in indications for current opportunities.
Why is this relevant?
Many CRM systems document successful and lost sales opportunities for years. However, this knowledge is rarely systematically used for the next deal.
AI makes it possible to use this historical data more strongly as a basis for operational decision-making.
However, data quality remains the decisive factor. If reasons for lost opportunities, stakeholders, activities or sales phases have not been properly maintained, even an agent can learn from them to a limited extent.
5. Project Operations enables better scenarios for pricing, costs, and margins
For project-based companies, the what-if analysis for estimates is one of the most interesting September innovations in Dynamics 365 Project Operations.
Companies can simulate different scenarios for project offers and, for example, change prices, discounts or costs. The effects on key figures such as profitability and gross margin become directly visible.
The Business Use Case
A typical question in project sales is:
What happens to our margin if we make concessions to the customer on price?
Instead of manually running through calculations in different Excel versions, scenarios can be analyzed closer to the actual project offer.
This is particularly interesting for professional services and other project-based organizations where supply, resource deployment and project margin are closely linked.
6. More transparency about resources across the entire project portfolio
Also planned for September is an organization-wide view of project allocations.
Project managers can use it to analyze resources, projects, tasks and bookings more closely in a common view. In addition, indications of over- or underutilization should be visible.
Why is this relevant?
Resource planning becomes problematic as soon as it is no longer a single project that has to be managed, but an entire portfolio.
The crucial question then is not only whether a project is sufficiently staffed. Companies must be able to see where the same resources are planned in parallel, where capacities are lacking and what impact new projects have on existing obligations.
This is exactly where the new view in Project Operations creates more transparency.
7. Power Platform Governance Is Becoming More Agentic
With the Agentic Center of Enablement, Microsoft is also bringing an interesting governance function into public preview in September.
AI Agents are designed to help identify risks within the Power Platform at an early stage, prioritize problems, and prepare or automate remediation measures.
Why is this relevant?
The more apps, automations, and agents that emerge in an organization, the more important governance becomes.
The classic Center of Excellence therefore deals with issues such as environments, authorizations, data access, compliance and standards.
Microsoft is now starting to support these tasks more strongly with AI as well. For companies looking to roll out Power Platform and Copilot Studio more broadly, this is an important step towards scalable agent governance.
What companies should take away from the September updates
The September innovations show a clear direction: Microsoft is not only building more AI functions into individual products. Agents are increasingly being directly connected to data, processes and actions.
In sales, they take over research and support prioritization. In project operations, decisions about margins and resources become more data-based. Work IQ connects the business context across Microsoft 365 and business applications. At the same time, Microsoft is investing more in the governance of this new agent landscape.
The crucial question is therefore not which new function you can activate.
The more important question is which of these features actually improves an existing process.
A sales agent brings little added value if lead processes and CRM data are not neatly structured. A what-if analysis only helps if costs, prices and project calculations are reliably maintained. And AI agents can only be scaled securely if data access and governance are clarified.
Which Microsoft updates are really relevant to your environment?
Not every new function has to be activated. However, some innovations can significantly simplify existing processes or enable new use cases.
Would you like to know which of the current Microsoft innovations make sense for your company? Talk to us about your existing processes and use cases.
