Microsoft Teams Enterprise Update – September 2026

Anuj Bhatia, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, discusses how AI is transforming the real-time communications platform that powers Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.• How the IC3 team is enabling AI agents to operate across chat, telephony and email channels• Security and compliance challenges when AI bots handle enterprise communications, including prompt injection and data loss prevention• The shift from seat-based licensing to consumption-based billing for AI services and what it means for enterprises• How AI is reshaping leadership, organisational design and the way knowledge work gets done• The future of personal AI agents in healthcare, contact centres and everyday productivityThanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for November 2026Teams Admin Centre device management ends by 15 DecemberThanks to Pure IP - Observability, 7 December webinarNew on Empowering.CloudUpcoming events - Ignite, Fireside Chat live from Ignite, Devices AMAsThe Copilot meeting policy splits in twoContact Center Intelligence - Microsoft's agents in Genesys and Five9November meeting security - phishing, QR codes, deepfakes5 Teams Quick Hits7 Intelligent Spaces Quick HitsMany thanks to Pure IP, this month's benefactor.

Henry Levak, VP & General Manager (Team Workspace Solutions Business Group) at Logitech, discusses the company's biggest-ever enterprise launch, covering breakthrough hardware and revolutionary audio technology.• Rally Bar 2: a single device replacing both Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini, with a die-cast recycled aluminium body, all-digital camera system and MDEP built in from launch• Tap IP 2 and Tap Scheduler 2: Tap IP 2 gains improved presence detection whether table or wall-mounted, while Tap Scheduler 2 adds presence awareness that turns the display off when no one is nearby, saving around 30% power• Rally System 2 Pro: a modular ecosystem featuring cameras, speakers, mic pods and RoomMate 2 Pro compute, connected via Logitech Link AV over IP• Divisible rooms and Scenes: connect up to three Rally System 2 Pro units with pre-configured scenes for flexible, partner-customisable room configurations• Sound Shape technology: the Rally Speaker 2 Pro (32-driver array) and Rally Speaker 2 Max (64-driver array) beam audio precisely into defined zones, enabling level coverage and dual-language support in a single room• Rally Speaker 2: a seven-driver line array sound bar for rooms up to eight metres, delivering state-of-the-art front-of-room audio• Availability: Rally Bar 2, Tap IP 2 and Tap Scheduler 2 are available now; the Pro AV line launches summer 2027Thanks to Logitech, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Tom Crinnegan, M365 AI Services & Governance Leader at EY, discusses how EY is deploying and governing Microsoft 365 Copilot across 420,000 users in over 140 countries.• Managing Microsoft's Frontier early access programme at enterprise scale and setting user expectations• The shift to usage-based billing and why IT shouldn't hold the AI credit budget• Governance challenges with Cowork, autopilots, and Copilot code• Running weekly enablement sessions reaching 7-8k attendees across a 420,000-strong workforce• Keeping humans in the loop when tooling offers to take on 20-30% of the working dayThanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Jamie Bartlett, award-winning technology writer and bestselling author of How to Talk to AI, discusses why the skills that matter most for using language models are cognitive and linguistic, not technical.• How language models actually work and why understanding the basics changes how you use them• The sycophancy problem: how question framing and emotional pressure skew your results• Why cognitive offloading is a growing risk for individuals and organisations• Voice mode vs typing and when each approach serves you best• Practical techniques including devil's advocate prompting, cognitive friction, and reflecting before prompting• Why the best AI users are often people with no IT background at allMore about Jamie and his work at jamiebartlett.co.Thanks to Jabra, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

Tristan Gayford, Microsoft Teams Product Manager at EY, discusses managing Microsoft Teams across one of the world's largest organisations and the challenge of shifting from predictable per-user licensing to consumption-based AI costs.• Tristan's journey through the unified communications evolution, from Office Communications Server in 2008 through Lync and Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams at enterprise scale• Running Microsoft Teams across 400,000+ employees in over 100 countries, and how professional services firms navigate data residency and regulatory complexity• How EY has adopted Microsoft Copilot for meeting recaps, transcription and notes, balancing retained and transient transcription across different regulatory environments• The fundamental shift from fixed per-user-per-month licensing to consumption-based AI billing, and why IT funding models need to evolve• Why AI consumption costs should be owned by the business rather than IT, treating AI as an employee whose output must be justified up the management chain• The challenge of model selection and cost transparency when business users lack guidance on which AI model to choose and cannot predict costs before running a promptThanks to Landis, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Pratik Chanda, WW Partner Sales Lead - Devices, GCPS GTM at Cisco, discusses Cisco's record-breaking growth in the devices market and why the company is uniquely positioned for Microsoft Teams Rooms deployments.• Cisco's journey to becoming one of the fastest-growing Microsoft Teams Rooms OEMs, crossing almost a billion dollars in devices revenue• What sets Cisco apart: the intelligent workplace experience, combining AV, networking, security and AI observability across the entire stack• The management story: ProPortal, Control Hub (soon to be Cloud Control) and dual registration for a single pane of glass across all endpoints• Cisco's open platform philosophy: native support for Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google, and the rebrand from Webex Devices to Cisco Devices• How customers and partners can get started with Cisco for Microsoft Teams RoomsThanks to Cisco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

Chandra Chivukula, Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft Teams, discusses the evolution of Microsoft Teams into a platform for human and agentic interaction.• Microsoft Teams is being positioned as a secure, compliant enterprise surface for AI agents, bringing agentic infrastructure within the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary• Microsoft Scout demonstrates the power of enterprise-safe AI, running within the corporate boundary with full access to organisational data for real productive workflows• Facilitator, the meetings agent, is already delivering real value by automating meeting follow-ups and enabling voice-driven task creation in real time• Channel agent brings durable, searchable AI-ready knowledge to Microsoft Teams channels, offering better discoverability and long-term institutional memory than group chats• Copilot in chat enables multiplayer AI collaboration, acting as a virtual coworker within existing group conversations• Engineering teams at Microsoft are seeing significant productivity gains through coding harnesses built on Copilot CLI, with access to multiple AI models for cross-verification• Catch Up on mobile provides a card-based, one-handed way to triage important messages, pulling users back into channels with AI-curated relevance• Structuring work in channels rather than group chats builds an accruing knowledge base that AI agents can reason over, benefiting the entire organisationThanks to AVI-SPL, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Victor Guzman, Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, and Siunie Sutjahjo, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Meeting, walk through the exact quality review process from Microsoft's Get to Green programme, giving every Microsoft Teams admin the tools to diagnose and resolve call quality issues.• Victor shares the seven-step quality and reliability checklist that resolved 99% of escalated customer issues• A full walkthrough of the CQD QER 5.3 templates, covering usage summaries, media health dashboards, transport reports and VPN analysis• How to identify whether issues stem from proxy configurations, VPN tunnelling, DNS resolution or network congestion• Using weekly metrics and drill-down reports to pinpoint problems by country, subnet, hour and individual meeting• The per-user search experience for troubleshooting specific complaints and meeting IDs• How to present CQD data to network and security teams to drive actionThanks to Barco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

Gidi Adlersberg, Voca CIC Business Line Manager at AudioCodes, discusses the new Microsoft Teams Voice Agent Certification Program, with AudioCodes being the first vendor to achieve certification.• How the certification builds on Microsoft's Unify integration model, using the same Azure technology stack as the Microsoft Teams Contact Centre certification• The difference between Microsoft's native Teams Phone Agent and the extended, fully managed AI receptionist service from AudioCodes• Real-world use cases including caller authentication, knowledge base-driven troubleshooting, and sentiment-aware bot responses• Why proper bot-to-human escalation is critical and how context is preserved when transferring to a live Microsoft Teams user• AudioCodes' predictable, capped commercial model with no token-based charges• Implementation as a fully managed service, from proof of concept through to productionThanks to AudioCodes, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.