What's new in Microsoft | October 2025 Updates

GPT-5 will soon be established as the default model in Copilot Chat. The real-time router in GPT-5 enables Copilot to automatically select the most appropriate model for each prompt, using a high-throughput chat model for faster replies and a reasoning model for complex, multi-step queries.

A toggle option will temporarily allow switching between models when the reasoning model is selected. This toggle will be enabled by default and later removed as part of the rollout.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Beginning November 2025 for Microsoft 365 Copilot users
• Subsequent rollout: Extended later to users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license

Impact:

• Who is affected: Copilot Chat users across Microsoft 365 environments
• What will happen: GPT-5 will replace previous versions as the default model, enhancing response efficiency and reasoning depth.

Copilot Chat is being updated to simplify calendar management with improved search capabilities. Meetings can now be searched by organizer, allowing quick access to schedules created by managers, teammates, or peers. This enhancement improves the process of reviewing and preparing for upcoming meetings.

Delegates with access to other users’ calendars can also use Copilot Chat to search and manage those calendars more efficiently, streamlining meeting detail retrieval and schedule management.

Additionally, Copilot Chat now supports searching Outlook calendars by meeting category. All tagged meetings are displayed with key details such as title, date, time, and location, improving schedule organization.

Rollout timeline:

• By organizer and delegate search: Rolling out in November 2025
• By category search: Rolled out in October 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: Microsoft 365 users with access to Copilot Chat and calendar features
• What will happen: Calendar searches by organizer, delegate, and category will enhance meeting organization and management within Copilot Chat.

Bing web cards are being introduced in Copilot Chat to provide quick, visual summaries of information from the web. These expandable cards display rich content for common queries such as weather, stocks, sports, and news, enabling faster access to key information.

Bing web cards will appear when Copilot Chat is used to search the web and will be available to users with and without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Rolling out in November 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Copilot Chat users across Microsoft 365 and consumer environments
• What will happen: Bing web cards will enhance search interactions by displaying structured, easily viewable web information directly within Copilot Chat.

AI Views in Microsoft 365 Copilot Search now provide richer, context-aware summaries by displaying relevant metadata, related resources, and suggested actions. These enhancements help assess result relevance without opening the source file or message. AI Views now function across more Microsoft 365 apps and major third-party platforms through Copilot connectors, broadening support for varied enterprise use cases.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Search is also being enhanced with semantic search, organizational context, and deeper Microsoft 365 data integration to deliver more accurate, actionable responses to natural language queries. The updated experience presents direct answers along with related resources, suggested actions, and links to additional content, enabling smoother transitions from discovery to action.

Additionally, Copilot Search now returns people information for broad people-related queries, improving contact discovery and exploration. Searches for skills or roles, such as “project management leadership” or “developers in London,” surface relevant individuals across the organization.

On mobile, Copilot Chat can now be used directly in file previews for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This enables quick file insights such as summarizing long documents, extracting deadlines from presentations, or analyzing spreadsheet data.

Rollout timeline:

• AI Views and enhanced semantic search: Rolling out in November 2025
• People search and mobile file insights: Rolled out in October 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: Microsoft 365 Copilot Search users across desktop and mobile platforms
• What will happen: AI-powered views, context-aware results, and file-level Copilot interactions will improve search accuracy, content discovery, and productivity within Microsoft 365.

An audio recap feature is being introduced in Copilot for Teams, providing a hands-free way to stay informed about meetings. Meeting recaps can now be generated as audio summaries that can be listened to while commuting, transitioning between meetings, or working at a desk. Up to eight meetings can be summarized at once, offering flexibility in how information is consumed.

Three delivery styles are available:

• Newscast: A single AI speaker provides a concise, fast-paced summary.
• Executive: Two AI speakers deliver an efficient summary with minimal commentary.
• Casual: Two AI speakers present a conversational summary with additional context and commentary.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Details to be announced

Impact:

• Who is affected: Microsoft Teams users with access to Copilot meeting recaps
• What will happen: Audio recap options will allow meeting summaries to be consumed audibly, improving accessibility and flexibility for staying informed.

Copilot in PowerPoint now includes an on-canvas experience for creating speaker notes, replacing the previous chat-based workflow. Notes can be generated for individual slides or entire presentations, allowing seamless preparation without interrupting the creation process.

An on-canvas translation feature has also been introduced, enabling quick slide translation directly within the deck. This update streamlines localization by removing the need to switch to chat-based interactions.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Rolled out in October 2025 on web, Windows desktop, and Mac

Impact:

• Who is affected: PowerPoint users with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot
• What will happen: On-canvas speaker note creation and translation will improve presentation preparation and multilingual content management within PowerPoint.

Copilot in Outlook now assists with meeting planning by automatically generating draft agendas when a meeting invite is created. Agendas are suggested based on the meeting title, attendees, and context from Microsoft 365 work data, including related meetings, chats, and emails. Drafts can be reviewed, edited, or refined before sending invitations.

Enhancements to the meeting preparation experience further streamline pre-meeting workflows. Within the Outlook meeting event form, Copilot can now generate key insights to support preparation and suggest helpful actions such as locating pre-reads or clarifying meeting objectives. The experience now supports all meeting types, including one-on-one meetings, and allows continued conversation with Copilot for additional insights.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Rolled out in October 2025 for Outlook for Windows, Outlook for web, and Teams

Impact:

• Who is affected: Microsoft 365 users leveraging Copilot in Outlook and Teams for meeting management
• What will happen: Copilot will assist in drafting agendas and providing meeting preparation insights, improving efficiency and consistency in planning and follow-up activities.

The Employee Self-Service Agent delivers a centralized experience for employee support, starting with HR and IT functions. It enables employees to quickly access information and complete tasks such as checking leave balances or submitting IT tickets. The agent integrates with systems like Workday, ServiceNow, and SAP SuccessFactors and can perform inline, contextual handoffs without requiring users to switch tools. Built in Copilot Studio, it includes connectors and preconfigured workflows, is fully customizable, and supports Microsoft 365 security and compliance. Future expansion is planned for Facilities and other verticals.

The Surveys Agent unifies the survey creation process within a single conversational interface. It removes the need to use multiple tools for form creation, response collection, and feedback analysis. This pre-built agent supports a range of use cases, including training feedback, employee engagement, and customer research.

The App Builder Agent enables quick creation of lightweight, interactive apps - such as project trackers, feedback forms, and dashboards - using natural language and Microsoft 365 data. Apps created are secure, enterprise-ready, and instantly deployable, with data stored in Microsoft Lists for seamless collaboration. Permissions inherit from Microsoft 365, ensuring consistent and secure sharing.

Rollout timeline:

• Employee Self-Service Agent: Rolling out in November 2025
• Surveys Agent: Rolled out in October 2025
• App Builder Agent: Rolled out in October 2025 (available through the Frontier program)

Impact:

• Who is affected: Organizations using Copilot Studio for HR, IT, survey management, and lightweight app creation
• What will happen: New and enhanced agents will streamline employee support, simplify survey workflows, and enable rapid app development within a secure Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

A new capability in Microsoft Teams enables users to start a chat with anyone using their email address, even if the recipient is not currently using Teams. The recipient receives an email invitation to join the chat session as a guest, enabling streamlined external communication and collaboration across organizational boundaries.

This feature will be supported on Android, Desktop, iOS, Linux, and Mac platforms and is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 513271.

Rollout timeline:

• Targeted Release: Beginning early November 2025 and expected to complete by mid-November 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): Beginning January 2026

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users within the organization
• What will happen: Users will be able to initiate chats with external contacts using their email address. External users will receive an email invitation and can join the chat as guests. The experience will adhere to the organization’s Entra B2B Guest policy, and all chats will remain within the organization’s security boundary. The feature will be enabled by default.

External collaboration in Microsoft Teams is being enhanced with support for file attachments and Loop sharing in 1:1, group, and meeting chats involving external users. Files and Loop components will be automatically shared with external participants without requiring additional actions from the sender.

Entra B2B Guests within an organization will also be able to attach and share files from their home tenant’s OneDrive or SharePoint, further improving cross-tenant collaboration. A new admin control will provide IT teams with management options for these sharing capabilities.

Rollout timeline:

• Targeted Release: Beginning late October 2025 and expected to complete by mid-November 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): Beginning mid-January 2026

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users participating in 1:1, group, or meeting chats with external users, including guest and Teams for Free users
• What will happen: File attachments and Loop components will be shareable in external chats by default, simplifying collaboration and enabling seamless sharing across organizations.

Files shared have an external label and always open on Web.

A new Follow thread feature in Microsoft Teams allows users to stay engaged with specific conversations across the Discover feed and Channels. Posts can be followed directly, and all followed discussions will appear in a new Followed threads view within the Chat app, simplifying the process of tracking key conversations across Teams.

This update applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, web, and iOS/Android.

Rollout timeline:

• Targeted Release: Beginning mid-November 2025 and expected to complete by late November 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): Beginning late November 2025 and expected to complete by early December 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users accessing posts via the Discover feed or Channels
• What will happen: A new Follow thread option will appear on posts, allowing users to track them in the dedicated Followed threads view in the Chat app. No admin action or configuration is required, and tenant-level settings remain unchanged.

A new capability in Microsoft Teams enables searching for images shared in chats and channels, including screenshots, whiteboard photos, and other visuals. Searches can be performed by person name or message content in Autosuggest, with the Search Results Page displaying the related chat or channel for additional context.

This update is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 505443.

Rollout timeline:

• Targeted Release: Beginning early November 2025 and expected to complete by mid-November 2025
• Worldwide and GCC: Beginning mid-November 2025 and expected to complete by early December 2025
• GCC-H and DoD: Beginning early December 2025 and expected to complete by mid-December 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users across Worldwide, GCC, GCC-H, and DoD environments
• What will happen: Image search will be supported within Teams, allowing users to locate visuals shared in chats and channels by name, message content, or context from the Search Results Page.

Image suggestions in Autosuggest: Start typing to reveal image results based on the sender or message keywords.

• Screenshot 1: Image result suggestions in Autosuggest for a message keyword

Clicking an image opens it in a lightbox with a carousel to browse related images.

• Screenshot 2: Image search results with Lightbox carousel

The convenience recording feature in Microsoft Teams is being expanded to support audio-only recording in meetings and calls. This enhancement allows participants to keep their cameras on during meetings while recording only the audio, providing a more flexible and privacy-conscious recording experience.

The update offers greater efficiency and accuracy in documenting discussions while reducing exposure of facial information when recordings are required.

This feature applies to Teams for Windows desktop, Mac desktop, web, and iOS/Android.

Rollout timeline:

• General Availability: Details to be announced

Impact:

• Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users across supported platforms
• What will happen: Users will gain the option to record meetings and calls in audio-only format, improving flexibility, efficiency, and privacy in meeting documentation.

Support for emojis in custom section names is being introduced in Microsoft Teams, allowing users to personalize and visually organize their workspace more effectively. This enhancement aligns with similar personalization options available in other collaboration platforms, providing a more expressive and intuitive navigation experience.

This update is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 503300 and will initially be available on Teams for Desktop and Web, with Mobile support planned for a future release.

Rollout timeline:

• Targeted Release: Beginning early November 2025 and expected to complete by mid-November 2025
• General Availability (Worldwide): Beginning late November 2025 and expected to complete by end of November 2025

Impact:

• Who is affected: Microsoft Teams users on Desktop and Web (Mobile support coming later)
• What will happen: Emojis can be added to custom section names, allowing more visual and personalized organization within Teams workspaces.

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected: All Microsoft Teams users across commercial and education tenants.

What will happen:

• Users will be able to insert emojis directly into custom section names in Teams:

• Emojis will appear in the left navigation pane, providing visual anchors for sections: