Short on time? Here’s a quick audio breakdown of the top five updates this month.
Most of this month’s Microsoft news is about Copilot, and one change is worth planning for now. Starting December 1, usage-based billing turns on by default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses in CSP. Microsoft also introduced the new Copilot, opened the Frontier Partner specialization and updated ASPX with new ways to find Copilot opportunities in your customer base.
Here’s what to have on your radar this month, and what each change means for you and your customers.
TLDR: Deadlines, pricing and program changes
Here’s what’s time-sensitive and what’s changing this month.
Dates to watch
- November 2, 2026: Partner Center sandbox environments open for testing usage-based billing. (Jump to section.)
- December 1, 2026: Usage-based billing becomes the default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses in CSP. (Jump to section.)
- December 31, 2026: Last day to start Copilot in 30 trials. (Jump to section.)
Pricing and program changes
- Billing change: Pay-as-you-go becomes the default for new Copilot Business licenses, with a default spending limit of 4,000 Copilot Credits per user per month. (Jump to section.)
- New: The new Copilot brings Home, Code and Autopilot into one experience, rolling out through the Frontier program. (Jump to section.)
- Now live: The Frontier Partner specialization opened to eligible partners on September 30. (Jump to section.)
- Now in effect: The Copilot Cowork CSP Activation Incentive launched September 1. (Jump to section.)
Product and feature updates
Usage-based billing default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses starting in December
Starting December 1, 2026, usage-based billing (UBB) will be enabled by default for new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business licenses, including standalone offers and bundles, purchased in Cloud Solution Provider (CSP).
Pay-as-you-go will be the default billing configuration to help customers access eligible usage-based experiences, including Copilot Cowork, Work IQ APIs and GitHub Copilot Harness, with less billing setup, while also providing flexibility to expand usage over time based on business needs.
Key details
- Updated effective date: December 1, 2026 (previously communicated as November 2, 2026)
- Default spending limit: 4,000 Copilot Credits per user/month. This can be adjusted by admins. For example, a customer with 100 Copilot Business users could consume up to 400,000 Copilot Credits per month under the default spending limit, with UBB charges based on actual usage.
- Partner Center sandbox environment: To help drive partner technical readiness and testing, Partner Center sandbox environments will be available November 2.
What this means for you
This change simplifies customer onboarding and reduces billing friction, making it easier to activate eligible experiences like Copilot Cowork, Work IQ APIs and GitHub Copilot Harness in Copilot Studio.
Next steps to prepare for the change
- Familiarize your teams with the upcoming change and preset monthly limit.
- Talk to customers to help them understand usage-based billing options.
- Review Microsoft resources: UBB for SMB partner opportunity slide deck and FAQ.
Introducing the new Copilot: One connected experience, designed for the next phase of AI-powered work
Microsoft has introduced the new Copilot, which combines Home, Code and Autopilot into one experience. Together, these capabilities bring AI-powered work into a single experience so that teams can match the right tool to the job in the flow of work.
For Microsoft partners, this next era of Copilot expands the opportunity to help customers redesign processes, build and integrate solutions, drive adoption and manage and optimize AI at scale.
What’s new:
- One Copilot experience combines:
-
- Home: Where Chat and Cowork come together with the full power of Office
-
- Code: Extends solution-building to every knowledge worker
-
- Autopilot: A persistent, proactive and personal agent hosted in the cloud
- A commercial model for AI-powered work: User subscriptions support everyday Copilot value, while usage-based billing gives customers flexibility to access advanced capabilities. FinOps for AI introduces new ways to govern costs and connect spending to business outcomes.
- Platform innovation to extend and scale AI: New and enhanced platform capabilities empower partners to build, integrate, deploy, govern and manage differentiated AI solutions at enterprise scale. The new Copilot is rolling out through the Frontier program, with new capabilities and experiences arriving continuously.
What this means for you
As customers move from individual AI assistance to delegated, automated and agent-powered work, there’s an opportunity to turn this product evolution into measurable outcomes, expanded services, differentiated software, increased consumption and deeper customer relationships.
Read the blog post for the full announcement and to learn more about the partner opportunity.
Guide every Copilot in 30 trial with a personalized 30-day success plan
Microsoft has introduced the Copilot Success Planner, a free tool designed to help partners maximize the value of the 25-user, 30-day Microsoft 365 Copilot Business trial.
The planner creates a personalized 30-day learning journey based on each customer’s industry, priorities and ways of working, helping your customers adopt Copilot through guided activities across Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365 apps and agents.
For administrators and trial sponsors, the planner also provides a roadmap with setup guidance, weekly checkpoints, progress tracking, and end-of-trial evaluation support, making it easier to drive engagement and measure success throughout the trial period.
The tool is available at no cost, requires no sign-in and can be shared with customers before a trial is activated. Copilot in 30 trials are available through December 31.
Learn more about Copilot in 30 and see a sample success plan.
Microsoft partner program updates
Frontier Partner specialization now live
As of September 30, 2026, eligible partners can now earn the new Frontier Partner specialization. This specialization recognizes partners who can design, build, deploy, govern and secure AI agents across the full Microsoft Frontier Transformation stack (includes Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Purview).
What this means for you
Partners who earn this specialization gain stronger differentiation with customers and access to a rich set of Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program benefits, including:
- A customer-facing Frontier Partner specialization badge.
- Eligibility for Frontier-aligned co-sell opportunities.
- Microsoft Agent pre-purchase plan (P3) credits and Microsoft 365 E7 licensing.
- Packaged go-to-market resources, including marketing campaigns and case study opportunities.
- Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Concierge support through the qualification and audit process.
New incentives for Microsoft Copilot Cowork adoption
On September 1, 2026, Microsoft launched the Copilot Cowork Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Activation Incentive, creating an additional earning opportunity for partners and rewarding partners for driving customer adoption and usage of Copilot Cowork. This investment recognizes the critical role partners play in helping customers realize value from AI and accelerating consumption growth.
Combined with existing CSP incentives, this investment provides CSP indirect resellers and direct bill partners with even more ways to grow their earnings while helping customers successfully adopt and scale Copilot Cowork.
Learn more about the opportunity in the incentives guide.
Other updates
ASPX updates: Uncover more Copilot opportunities
AI Business Solutions & Security Partner Experience (ASPX) has evolved from a reporting platform into an action-oriented tool that helps partners identify customer readiness, remove adoption barriers and accelerate Microsoft 365 Copilot growth opportunities.
Key FY27 enhancements include:
- Free-to-paid conversion insights to identify customers showing strong Copilot purchase intent.
- Microsoft 365 E7 opportunity targeting using usage and licensing signals to prioritize expansion opportunities.
- Copilot Cowork adoption insights to highlight accounts seeing value and increasing AI engagement.
- Frontier account signals to identify customers ready for advanced AI workloads.
- Simplified API v1.5 integration, reducing complexity from 80+ endpoints to just four, making it easier to integrate ASPX data into CRM and reporting tools.
What this means for you
These updates help you move beyond reporting and take action throughout the customer lifecycle, from adoption and expansion to monetization and long-term growth.
Multi-tenant agent management now in public preview
Microsoft has introduced multi-tenant agent management in public preview within the Microsoft 365 admin center, giving administrators a centralized way to manage agents across multiple customer or subsidiary tenants from a single interface.
The new experience allows admins to view a consolidated agent inventory, deploy or block agents across eligible tenants, review tenant-specific insights and risks, and switch between managed tenants without maintaining separate administrator accounts.
For CSP partners using Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP), this enhancement helps reduce administrative overhead, streamline agent deployments and maintain consistent governance across customer environments, making it easier to manage AI agents at scale.
Learn more and explore multi-tenant agent management in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Identify migration opportunities with Dynamics 365 Activate
Dynamics 365 Activate is a unified, AI-assisted solution that helps assess existing business application environments, define the future-state solution and plan migrations to Dynamics 365 with greater clarity and confidence.
Beginning with a limited public preview for Salesforce-to-Dynamics 365 migrations, it analyzes data, processes, customizations and dependencies to help implementation teams identify risks, define the future-state solution and build a clearer migration roadmap.
What this means for you
This update gives you a timely reason to engage customers reviewing their CRM strategy or considering a move from Salesforce. You can help identify the opportunity, understand business priorities and connect customers with appropriate Dynamics migration and implementation expertise.
Resources: Dynamics 365 Partner Hub | Microsoft Learn | Preview sign-up
Copilot Studio and Cowork: New natural-language experiences
New natural-language experiences in Copilot Studio and Copilot Cowork help customers turn ideas into AI-powered business solutions. Customers can describe a business need, generate a working application through conversation and refine the solution as requirements evolve.
What this means for you
Customer conversations often reveal recurring challenges across operations and productivity. Use these discussions to uncover areas for AI-assisted applications and process improvements. The starting point should remain about the customer’s desired outcome, users, governance requirements and business needs then choose the tool that aligns best with their requirements, including Copilot Studio, Copilot Cowork or Power Apps.
Learn more on the Agents Partner Hub page.
Dynamics 365 ERP: New demos help start business-value conversations
New ERP transformation simulations showcase Cowork in Dynamics 365 ERP, agentic AI across the supply chain and the Finance agent in Microsoft 365. The resources include guided prompts, key highlights and talking points designed to connect product capabilities with business value.
What this means for you
Use these demos to introduce AI and ERP scenarios without leading with a technical deep dive. They can help account teams recognize interest, clarify the business challenge and determine when a more detailed solution conversation is appropriate.
Demos: Agentic ERP demo videos
Explore Copilot and AI opportunities across Dynamics 365
Microsoft continues to expand Copilot and autonomous agent capabilities across Dynamics 365 workflows. A consolidated guide is available to help partners understand the AI capabilities across the Dynamics 365 portfolio.
What this means for you
This guide can support account planning and opportunity discovery by connecting customer priorities with relevant Copilot and agent scenarios. It can also provide a shared reference for sales, technical and customer success teams.
Learn more with the Dynamics 365 Copilot & AI guide.
Webinars and events
Sherweb webinars & events
- MSP Masterclass: Cyber Resilience (October 21 in Montreal)
Microsoft webinars & events
Technical and sales training
Cowork skilling: Build the sales and technical skills to position and deliver Copilot Cowork solutions.
- Cowork Learning Journey (Sales Ready) (Self-paced training)
- Cowork Learning Journey (Project Ready) (Self-paced training)
Copilot for enterprise customers: Build the skills to position, sell and deliver Microsoft Copilot solutions.
- Copilot Sales Learning Journey (Self-paced training)
- Copilot Technical Learning Journey (Self-paced training)
Copilot for SMB customers: Build the skills to position, sell and deliver Microsoft Copilot solutions.
- Copilot Sales Learning Journey for SMB (Self-paced training)
- Copilot Project Ready Learning Journey for SMB (Self-paced training)
Other Microsoft training
- Microsoft Agent 365 & Microsoft 365 E7 Partner Skilling (Sales Ready) (Self-paced training)
- Microsoft Agent 365 & Microsoft 365 E7 Partner Skilling (Project Ready) (Self-paced training)
- Selling M365 Copilot Cowork: From Productivity to Business Impact (Self-paced training)
- Position an autonomous workplace with Copilot Cowork (Self-paced training)
Other events
- Power Platform Community Conference (October 27-29 in Las Vegas)
Staying ahead of Microsoft change
If you have questions about how any of these updates affect your Sherweb account or your customers, reach out to our team. We’re here to help you turn Microsoft’s changes into opportunities for your business.
Catch up on past updates: September 2026 | August 2026
