Insights

What's changing?

From September 2026, new capabilities are published to the AI at Work roadmap as soon as Microsoft commits to them, instead of being held back for the next wave announcement, so you’ll hear about new capabilities sooner. Each item then stays visible as it moves through In Development, Rolling Out and Launched, so you can follow a feature right through to delivery.

There will be no release wave 2 announcement or release plan this September.

What stays the same?

The change affects how Microsoft shares its plans, but not how the products are built, released and deployed, which stays the same. Products with established release schedules will keep them, while Message Centre will remain the place for tenant-specific notifications, and Microsoft Learn is will still be home to documentation and implementation guidance.

Four things to do now

To prepare for this change, we’d recommend four immediate steps:

• Update your links: If internal documents, roadmap decks or bookmarks point to Release Planner or release wave plans, start repointing them to the AI at Work roadmap.
• Set up filters and RSS: Saved views in My Release Plans won’t carry over. Filter the new roadmap to the products you use and subscribe via RSS so updates come to you.
• Build your own planning rhythm: Release waves gave teams a natural twice-yearly checkpoint. Without this it can be easy to lose the opportunity to review your system. We recommend booking a monthly or quarterly review to assess new releases, any impacts or new features you could benefit from, and ensure adequate testing.
• Run Microsoft’s solution checker regularly: The solution checker tool analyses customisations against Microsoft’s recommended practices and can identify deprecated functionality, performance concerns and issues that could affect upgrade readiness. As new capabilities are now published to the roadmap throughout the year rather than grouped into two major release wave announcements, regular solution checker reviews can help you stay ahead of future platform changes.

This review should also cover planned deprecations and other changes that may require action. Microsoft may add a deprecation to the roadmap before confirming exactly when the affected functionality will be withdrawn. If your team misses the update, you may only become aware of the change when Microsoft removes the functionality. Regular monitoring and testing can reduce the risk of unexpected disruption.

Smaller organisations that don’t regularly undertake development work may be less likely to monitor these updates. If your team can’t manage this process internally, arrange a review at least once a year to identify changes that could affect your Dynamics 365 or Power Platform environment.

The bigger picture

Most organisations using Dynamics 365 or Power Platform use other Microsoft applications, so having them all on the same roadmap as a connected platform makes sense.

The biggest change will be the change in mindset needed. Many organisations used the releases as a prompt to review their systems, assess changes coming and regroup before April and September. Without this and with continuous updates, the onus is now on companies to set aside the time to do this and be more proactive.

Microsoft will publish capabilities earlier, but customers will also need to monitor the roadmap more regularly. Without an agreed review process, important updates, planned deprecations or testing requirements could be missed.