Last week we covered the super app announcement, Copilot Studio’s agent-first overhaul, and the multi-model expansion. This week the super app actually starts rolling out — today, August 18. The bigger story is that Microsoft and the broader AI industry are converging on shared standards: Agent Plugins 1.0 as a cross-platform plugin format, MCP as the universal integration layer, and a unified Copilot experience that absorbs what were separate products.

For IT leaders, the shift from “Copilot as a feature” to “Copilot as a platform with standards-based extensibility” changes how you plan governance, licensing, and adoption.

1. Super App Rollout Begins Today

The Copilot super app merger starts August 18, 2026. Here is what actually happens today:

URL transition: The web app moves from m365.cloud.microsoft to copilot.cloud.microsoft. Auto-redirect is enabled unless your firewall explicitly blocks the new domain. If your organization allowlists Copilot URLs, update proxy and firewall rules now.

Consumer features deleted: Copilot Podcasts, Group Chat, Deep Research, and Copilot Labs are gone. Podcasts are deleted with no export — if users saved content there, it is already inaccessible. M365 Premium subscribers redirect to the Researcher agent for in-depth reports.

Desktop preview: An updated Windows and Mac desktop app enters early preview today, with broad deployment in mid-September. The target for full super app unification — including the AutoPilot tier with background autonomous agents — is end of September.

Account indicators: Clearer personal/work account switching in the app interface. The app name and icon are simplified.

What this means for IT leaders: Update firewall rules for copilot.cloud.microsoft. Communicate the consumer feature deletion to any users who relied on Copilot Podcasts or Deep Research for personal work. Brief stakeholders that the full unification lands in September.

2. Agent Plugins 1.0: A Real Cross-Platform Standard

On August 12, Agent Plugins 1.0 shipped as an open standard — co-developed by AWS, Anysphere (Cursor), Microsoft, OpenAI, Vercel, and Google as core maintainer. This is not a Microsoft-only format. It works across VS Code, Copilot CLI, Copilot app, Cursor, ChatGPT/Codex, and Kiro.

How it works: A single plugin manifest (plugin.json) packages Agent Skills and MCP server configurations into one installable unit. Skills live under skills/ as SKILL.md files. MCP servers are declared in mcp.json. Client-specific files go under a namespace directory. The structure is simple — only two required fields in the manifest.

What it replaces: Nothing immediately — existing Copilot plugins continue to work. But the old GitHub App-based extensions (Sentry, Stripe, MongoDB, Docker, Azure) were disabled last November. Agent Plugins 1.0 is the successor paradigm: build once, deploy across multiple AI tools.

Enterprise governance: managed-settings.json controls which plugins are enabled, which marketplaces are trusted, and which MCP servers are allowed. The default marketplace (“Awesome Copilot”) is built into VS Code, Copilot CLI, and the Copilot app. Over 800 plugins are already catalogued.

Available on all plans: Free, Pro, Pro+, Business, and Enterprise — not gated behind enterprise licensing.

What this means for IT leaders: Agent Plugins 1.0 means plugin governance is now a cross-platform concern, not just a Copilot concern. A plugin built for VS Code can also run in Cursor or ChatGPT. Define which plugins are approved and configure managed-settings.json before users start installing them.

3. MCP Becomes Universal

Model Context Protocol is now the integration standard across the entire Microsoft Copilot stack:

M365 Copilot Federated Connectors (GA): Deployed from the M365 admin center under Copilot → Connectors. Federated connectors fetch live data on demand from third-party sources via MCP — no indexing into Microsoft Graph required. User-level authentication preserves existing source permissions. Currently available in M365 Copilot Chat, Copilot in Excel, and Researcher.

MCP agents in Office apps: MCP-based agents now work directly inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook on the web. Not yet in desktop or mobile clients.

Copilot Studio MCP (GA): Makers connect proprietary systems and external APIs directly into agent workflows via MCP. Three-step process: create a declarative agent, add tools and knowledge (connectors, APIs, MCP), publish to M365 Copilot.

GitHub Copilot Code Review (GA July 29): Agent skills and MCP server connections for code review. All MCP tool calls during review are read-only — a security boundary. Default MCP servers (GitHub MCP + Playwright MCP) are enabled with no setup. MCP configs from the Copilot cloud agent carry over automatically.

Dynamics 365 Sales: MCP-based partner integrations with ZoomInfo, Dun & Bradstreet, LeadIQ, Gong, Enlyft, and HG Insights.

What this means for IT leaders: MCP is the integration path for everything Copilot touches. If you are building custom connectors, build them as MCP servers. The federated connector model eliminates the indexing latency problem of synced connectors — but means your source systems need to handle the query load.

4. Teams Meeting Recaps App: Practical AI Value

A new dedicated Meeting Recaps app in the Teams left rail centralizes all AI-generated meeting recaps. It is the most immediately practical Teams update this quarter.

Key features:

  • Pin to the Teams sidebar for quick access
  • Browse recaps from the past 30 days
  • Filter by Missed, Followed, date, participants, or keywords
  • Search by meeting title, organizer, participant, or keywords
  • Access AI summaries, transcripts, recordings, shared files, notes, action items, and mentions
  • Audio Recap — AI-generated spoken summary; combine up to 8 meetings into a single podcast-style audio recap
  • Video Recap for watching meeting recaps
  • Custom AI summary templates

Licensing: AI-powered recap features (audio, video, intelligent summaries) require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Intelligent text recap requires Teams Premium or M365 Copilot. Users without either can still access recordings and transcripts based on existing permissions. The app is enabled by default but not pinned.

What this means for IT leaders: This is the Copilot feature executives actually use. The podcast-style audio recap combining multiple meetings is genuinely useful for busy leaders. Pin the app for executive teams first. Desktop and web only for now — mobile is coming soon.

5. Copilot Cowork Expands Its Reach

Copilot Cowork, the autonomous multi-step execution layer, absorbed significant new capabilities:

Computer Use moved into Cowork. Previously part of the Frontier-tier Researcher agent (retired July 1), Computer Use lets agents operate websites and desktop applications through their UI — automating processes that lack APIs. It is now on consumption billing under Cowork’s credit model.

Tasks tab for monitoring long-running Cowork activities — see what agents are working on and resume where you left off.

Windows taskbar integration shows agent status and progress without opening the Copilot app.

Scheduled and recurring prompts — “every Monday, summarize my week” changes Copilot from reactive to proactive.

Expanded grounding: Outlook Copilot Chat now reasons over entire inbox, calendar, meetings, and enterprise data instead of a single email thread. Copilot Notebooks turn notes directly into Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files. Notebooks also support Markdown, plain-text, and rich-text files.

New Cowork plugins: Adobe, Canva, Miro, monday.com, Harvey, LSEG, Moody’s, Morningstar, S&P Global Energy, TeamsMaestro, plus full Microsoft Fabric and Dynamics 365 support.

What this means for IT leaders: Cowork is the primary consumption billing driver. Computer Use in Cowork expands the automation surface — and the risk surface. Scheduled prompts mean agents are always running; budget governance must account for recurring workloads, not just one-off tasks.

6. GitHub Copilot CLI: No PAT Required

GitHub Copilot CLI in GitHub Actions now authenticates using the built-in GITHUB_TOKEN — no personal access token required. This eliminates the biggest operational barrier to running Copilot CLI in CI/CD pipelines.

Details:

  • Requires copilot-requests: write permission on the workflow
  • Usage billed to the organization, not the individual developer
  • --max-ai-credits flag sets a per-session credit limit (public preview)
  • Soft caps — an in-flight response can slightly exceed the limit since cost is known only after completion

CLI feature highlights:

  • Sessions sidebar for managing multiple concurrent agent sessions
  • /tasks command for managing all subagents and their tasks in one place
  • /btw opens a side chat without interrupting the current agent turn
  • /rewind restores conversation and files Copilot changed — without Git
  • /worktree creates an isolated Git worktree for exploring changes
  • Headless mode with --plan and --mode autopilot for pipeline automation

What this means for IT leaders: Copilot CLI is now viable for CI/CD pipelines without credential management overhead. Set per-session credit caps to control costs. The CLI is a legitimate agent runtime — treat it with the same governance as any development tool.

7. September 1 Deadlines: Act Now

Multiple deadlines hit September 1, 2026:

Model deprecations (GitHub Copilot): Gemini 3.1 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5/4.6, Claude Sonnet 4.5/4.6, and Raptor Mini retire across all experiences. MAI-Code-1-Flash deprecates September 10. Pinned configurations and CI workflows referencing these models will break. Enable replacement models in Copilot settings before September 1.

Promotional credit allowances end:

  • Business: drops from 3,000 credits/seat ($30) to 1,900 credits ($19) — a 37% reduction
  • Enterprise: drops from 7,000 credits/seat ($70) to 3,900 credits ($39) — a 44% reduction

Claude Sonnet 5 introductory pricing ends — standard pricing ($3/$15 per million tokens) replaces $2/$10.

Pre-August 3 Copilot Studio agents on the GitHub Copilot harness move to credit billing.

Passkeys become default for Entra ID. SMS/voice MFA retires February 1, 2027.

Default-on model policy: New GA Copilot models auto-enable for Business and Enterprise orgs. Admins must opt out before August 26 to maintain individual approval workflows.

What this means for IT leaders: Audit pinned model configurations today. Re-evaluate credit budgets — a 100-seat Business org loses 110,000 pooled credits ($1,100/month). Inventory SMS/voice MFA users and build a passkey migration plan.

8. Licensing Notes

M365 E7 Frontier Suite ($99/user/month) bundles E5 + M365 Copilot + Agent 365 + Entra Suite — a $9 savings vs. separate purchase. GA since May 1. For enterprise clients serious about agentic AI, this is the simplest licensing path.

Copilot in 30 — partner-led 30-day Copilot Business trial through CSP partners. Product ID CFQ7TTC0MM8R. Available through December 31, 2026. Strong client acquisition tool.

AI Builder credits seeded in Power Platform and Dynamics licenses will be removed in November 2026. Clients using AI Builder need to plan for the transition to Copilot Credits.

5% cost of capital uplift on CSP software subscriptions with annual-term monthly billing takes effect October 1, 2026.

Strategic Next Steps

  1. Update firewall rules for copilot.cloud.microsoft — the URL transition starts today
  2. Configure Agent Plugins governance — define approved plugins and marketplace settings in managed-settings.json before adoption accelerates
  3. Build MCP connectors for client-specific systems — MCP is the integration standard across the entire Copilot stack
  4. Pin the Teams Meeting Recaps app for executive teams — immediate, practical value
  5. Set Cowork credit caps and budget alerts — scheduled prompts and Computer Use expand the consumption surface
  6. Audit GitHub Copilot model selections — six models retire September 1; enable replacements now
  7. Re-evaluate credit budgets — promotional allowances drop 37-44% on September 1
  8. Plan passkey migration — inventory SMS/voice MFA users before the February 2027 retirement

The story this week is standards convergence. Agent Plugins 1.0 unifies plugin development across rival AI tools. MCP unifies data integration across the entire Microsoft stack. The super app unifies what were four separate products. For IT leaders, this simplifies the architecture — but raises the governance stakes, because decisions made today about plugins, connectors, and credit budgets will span a much larger surface area tomorrow.

Follow along at https://x.com/kkaminsk for daily Copilot and Microsoft AI analysis.