Microsoft Power Platform

Microsoft Ends Dynamics 365 Release Waves as Roadmap Planning Goes Continuous

Microsoft is ending the twice-yearly Dynamics 365 release-wave model in September 2026 and moving upcoming capabilities to its continuously updated AI at Work Roadmap. Customers will need to establish their own recurring planning cadence as Release Planner also retires.

Analytics and AI

AI and Automation in Invoice Processing

Hitachi Construction Machinery America used Microsoft Power Platform AI Builder and Power Automate to automate supplier invoice processing into Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, significantly reducing manual AP effort. By streamlining how invoices are received, read, validated, and posted, the organisation now automatically processes around two-thirds of invoices with near-perfect accuracy.

Analytics and AI

GPT-5.1 Lands in Copilot Studio as OpenAI Pushes Speed, Reasoning, Personalization Forward

Microsoft and OpenAI have released GPT-5.1 in Copilot Studio for US customers, offering two versions—Instant and Thinking—for enhanced reasoning and personalization, thereby supporting enterprise-scale adoption and allowing organizations to test advanced AI capabilities in a controlled environment.

CRM and Customer Experience

Microsoft to Deprecate Unified Service Desk (USD), Points Customers to Customer Service Workspace

Microsoft announced it will discontinue the Dynamics 365 Unified Service Desk on April 1, 2026, urging affected customers to transition to the more advanced Customer Service workspace, which offers improved features and enhanced experiences before the support ends on June 30, 2028.