Today we are announcing the release of findings from the 2026 Work Trend Index (WTI) and the availability of new product updates that further enable Frontier transformation.

WTI 2026: Agents, human agency, and the opportunity for every organization

Microsoft’s annual Work Trend Index (WTI) synthesizes research and signals across the modern workplace to explain how work is changing and what leaders can do next. The 2026 report indicates that as AI and agents take on more work execution, people have more agency than ever to direct and own work outcomes. But most organizations aren’t adapting fast enough to meet the moment, meaning work processes—not just tools—need to be redesigned to achieve effective human-AI collaboration.

Key themes of WTI 2026: WTI Executive Summary

AI lifts individual potential | 58% of AI users in our survey say they’re producing work they couldn’t have a year ago, rising to 80% among Frontier Professionals.
Human agency is the new competitive advantage | When AI users were asked which human skills are most important, they said: quality control of AI output (50%) and critical thinking (46%).
#1 driver of AI impact isn’t individual—it’s institutional | Organizational factors—culture, manager support, talent practices—account for more than 2x the AI impact of individual factors like mindset and behavior (67% vs. 32%).
Watch out for the Transformation Paradox | A pressure point is emerging where the pull to perform collides with the push to transform. 65% of AI users fear falling behind if they don’t adopt AI fast, yet 45% say it feels safer to stick to current goals than redesign work. Only 13% feel rewarded for reinvention.
Every organization is a learning system | Agents in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem have increased 15x year over year and 18x in large enterprises. Frontier Firms pulling ahead aren’t just adopting AI, they’re redesigning how work gets done.

Share WTI insights with your customers.

Product announcements

Copilot Cowork

We are announcing exciting updates to Cowork today that help extend capabilities to include mobile platforms and incorporate data from Dynamics 365, Fabric IQ, third-party apps, and custom agents.

The Cowork experience is now extended to mobile platforms, available on iOS and Android through the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. (Available in Frontier)
A rich plugin ecosystem in Dynamics 365 Sales, Service, and ERP apps, third-party, custom, and Fabric IQ connectors. (Available in Frontier, third-party plugins coming soon)

Dynamics 365 plugins let Cowork pull the right records, understand business data, and trigger next steps—including performing updates and actions in Dynamics 365—to support end-to-end workflows for sales, service, finance, and operations teams with human approvals when needed.

A new class of Copilot connectors that bring real-time data to Copilot via MCP. The first wave of Microsoft-built federated Copilot connectors include partners like Moody’s, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), HubSpot, Canva, Notion, etc. (now GA in Chat and Researcher)

Additional products are also now generally available (GA) as part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem to provide productivity and security enhancements that further support Frontier transformation.

Copilot in M365 Apps

Copilot in PowerPoint now works inside your slides as a collaborator that plans and executes multi-step edits using natural language—pulling from your organization's files, meetings, and emails through Work IQ to keep content current, accurate, and on-brand. (now GA)
Copilot in Outlook now includes agentic capabilities that are action-oriented, enabling users to delegate ongoing inbox and calendar management while staying informed and in control. (now GA)
New Legal Agent capability in Microsoft Word: Microsoft has introduced a purpose-built Legal Agent that brings AI directly into high-value legal workflows in Word, enabling customers to analyze contracts, generate precise redlines with tracked changes, compare versions, and validate against internal playbooks with full citation traceability, all within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. For partners, this unlocks new opportunities to deliver differentiated, industry-specific solutions for legal teams, spanning implementation, customization (e.g., playbooks and “skills”), workflow integration, and managed services, helping customers accelerate contract lifecycle processes while maintaining compliance, security, and precision. (Available in Frontier, US only)

Agent 365 (now GA)

Agent 365 is now generally available, with new capabilities in preview to discover and manage shadow AI agents, including local agents like OpenClaw and Claude Code.
Cowork is now fully integrated with Agent 365 for observability, security, and governance.

ME7 (now GA)

General availability of the ME7 licensing SKU. Microsoft 365 E7 unifies Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, and Entra Suite into a single solution powered by Work IQ and integrated with the apps and security stack customers already rely on.

What do these updates mean for partners

These announcements enhance the M365 Copilot revenue opportunity, driving seat activation with existing customers and giving partners differentiated proof points to win new ones. Partners can further expand their services motion as Frontier transformation leaders, adoption accelerators, and agentic execution experts.

Work with customers to shift from “tool rollout” to “work redesign” mindset: WTI reinforces that AI impact comes from rethinking workflows (intake → decision → execution), not simply enabling a feature, so partners can work with customers to analyze their business processes and create a new redesigned process paths.
Focus on outcomes, not clicks: As part of the WTI results, we find it essential to define success using measurable customer KPIs (e.g., cycle time, turnaround, quality, employee experience) and validate impact through short, time boxed pilots.
Introduce consistency and predictability into governance and security as AI scales: Provide governance and security of “AI teammates;” discovery of agents and shadow AI; and a secure, managed environment for agents to work by enabling Agent 365 for agent registry and observability.
Choose and prioritize high-frequency workflows in customer organizations: Copilot Cowork is a shared space where work context is brought into one flow and augmented with AI to keep workstreams moving forward. This is an opportunity for partners to deliver increased value by redesigning business processes with AI agents that execute work end-to-end.
Lead Adoption with role-based scenarios: Drive adoption by building repeatable IP across Dynamics 365 Sales, Service, and Finance business process workflows. Bring bids, supplier context, and approvals into one flow for confident supplier selection and consolidate account health, open service issues, and deal context in one place for smoother customer renewals.

Call to action

Review announcements & readiness materials and try it out!

Read theMicrosoft 365 blog andDynamics 365 blog, for a deeper dive on all product announcements.
Read the latest on the future of work and agents with theWork Trend Index.
Proactively re-engage customers with WTI insights and new product announcements, especially where customer deals can be unblocked by these new updates. Leverage these updates to move upside deals to committed.

Proactively re-engage customers to highlight new WTI findings and ABS innovation

Resources

2026 Work Trend Index (WTI) Annual Report – Executive Summary
Dynamics 365 plugins for Copilot Cowork article by Bryan Goode
WTI Report
OMB blog byline Jared Spataro
M365 blog byline Matt Firestone

Partner-facing assets

FAQs

Work Trend Index (WTI) 2026 and Product Updates

AI Business Solutions Partner Marketing Team