Are you in charge of managing information within your companies Microsoft 365? Find it hard to keep up with the ever evolving Microsoft updates? Wish there was a condensed overview of all the important Microsoft 365 updates relevant to information managers and governors (Including all the new features and capabilities available to you now or coming soon)? Well look no further, here it is!

To save you time, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 takeaways from the Microsoft Ignite 2023 conference held on 15-17 November 2023. 

You’re welcome 😊 Enjoy.

1. Enriched Data Loss Prevention (DLP) incident management with insider risk insights 

Traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions generate alerts when certain conditions are met, such as when a user copies confidential files to a USB device. However, these alerts typically only highlight the specific incident and files impacted, without providing context about where the files originated or what other actions the user took. With a new feature powered by Insider Risk Management, DLP alerts will be enriched with user context, allowing DLP analysts with appropriate permissions to see a summary of past user activities that may have led to potential data security incidents.  

For example, with this feature, the abovementioned DLP alert will now contain a summary of the critical sequence of actions taken by the user, showing that they downloaded confidential files from SharePoint, downgraded the sensitivity label and compressed the files into a zip file before exfiltrating them to the USB device. With this context, analysts will be able to better understand the user’s intent and make faster, more informed decisions on how to respond to potential incidents. 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAncl1y

2. Advanced eDiscovery capabilities 

With the integration of Microsoft Security Copilot into eDiscovery, users will be able to set natural, language-based queries to find and collect potentially relevant content for investigations. This will ease the burden of using complex queries to search and find content, help identify the relevant source locations and simplify the time-consuming validation of search criteria and results. The power of Copilot will be used to summarize threads, files and content sets within an investigation. Users will be able to act based on the extracted insights to further accelerate the pace of investigation and review. This feature is in preview. 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAndp20 

3. Enhanced Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Microsoft Purview Information Protection helps organisations understand what data is sensitive and business critical and then how manage and protect it. New features that are now generally available include: 

  • New contextual predicates in service-side auto-labeling 
  • Auto labeling (for files at rest in SharePoint Online) can now label PDF files 
  • Application of a default sensitivity label for a SharePoint document library 
  • Sensitivity labels to protect Microsoft Teams shared channels 
  • Configure policy tips as popups for labeled emails and attachments 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAncl1z 

4. Integration of Microsoft Purview capabilities with Microsoft Copilots 

Purview capabilities will be integrated with Microsoft Copilots, starting with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 integrations, which are now generally available. With Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers will be able to: 

  • Discover data security risks, including sensitive data shared with Copilot and risky use of Copilot. 
  • See Copilot honoring Purview Information Protection sensitivity label access restrictions, inheriting sensitivity labels from referenced files and citing sensitivity labels in responses. 
  • Capture Copilot prompts and responses as evidence in Purview Audit. 
  • Run content search in Purview eDiscovery. 
  • Manage retention and deletion policies for Copilot prompts and responses in Purview Data Lifecycle Management. 
  • Detect business and code of conduct violation in Copilot prompts and responses in Purview Communication Compliance. 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAndp2g  

5. SharePoint Premium offering with AI powered content management and experiences 

The new SharePoint Premium experience will bring AI, automation, and added security to your content experiences, processing, and governance. It will include the services already released as part of Syntex and will enrich SharePoint with AI powered content management capabilities, including: 

  • AI document processing (classification and extraction) 
  • Auto-translate, auto-summarise, auto-tag 
  • eSignatures (Microsoft native, DocuSign or Adobe Sign) 
  • Content assembly 
  • Contracts management, including AI clause analysis (e.g. high risk contracts) 
  • Branded Document Portal for simpler sharing with external parties 
  • Optical character recognition (OCR) 
  • Image tagging 
  • Taxonomy tagging 
  • Data Access Governance (oversharing) 
  • Advanced security policies 
  • Microsoft 365 Archive 
  •  Microsoft 365 Backup 

To find out more, check out Introducing SharePoint Premium blog post.

6. Immersive spaces in Microsoft Teams  

Immersive spaces in Microsoft Teams, currently in preview, will be generally available in January 2024. Key capabilities in immersive spaces in Teams will include: 

  • Avatars: Choose an avatar previously built for standard 2D Teams meetings or create a new one. Avatars are easy to customize to reflect a person’s appearance, style or mood for the day. 
  • 3D environments: Choose from one of the ready-made 3D environments based on meeting needs, whether it’s a big team, social gathering or a small round-table discussion. 
  • Seat assignments: Select where to sit in a meeting or event to drive connections with others. 
  • Spatial audio and audio zones: Have multiple, simultaneous conversations and communicate effectively in subgroups without talking over each other. 
  • Interactive activities: Play built-in interactive games within immersive spaces. Designated areas include spaces to roast marshmallows, throw beanbags, answer icebreaker questions and more. 
  • Live reactions: Use live reactions, such as hearts, thumbs up or clap, during discussions. 

To find out more check out https://aka.ms/AAncl2m  

7. Private teams discovery 

Admins will be able to make private teams discoverable in their organisation. Users can view and search for these private teams through the “Join team gallery” in their client. This update will be generally available in January 2024. 

8. New Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities

New capabilities for Copilots include: 

  • Microsoft Copilot Dashboard powered by Microsoft Viva. This dashboard will enable leaders and organisations to plan their copilot readiness, drive adoption and measure the impact of Copilot for Microsoft 365. 
  • With the combined power of Copilot in Microsoft Whiteboard and Copilot in Teams, meeting participants will be able to visualize meeting discussions. 
  • Catchup and comments in Copilot in Word will help users comprehend what has changed in a document by asking questions like, “How do I see what has changed in this document?” 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAncl4o. 

9. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin 

Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin is designed to help IT admins simplify their admin tasks, generate insights faster and get more out of Microsoft 365. Copilot can help admins navigate the vast array of tools, controls and configurations to quickly guide an admin to exactly where they need to go, offer up suggestions and guidance and simplify reporting and querying by surfacing information through natural language prompts – all in a seamless experience across Microsoft 365 admin center, specialised admin centers and more to meet admins where they are in the flow of work. 

For more information check out https://aka.ms/AAnmtj0  

10. Shared links in Microsoft Edge for Business

Shared links in Microsoft Edge for Business will bring links that have been shared in Microsoft Outlook and Teams to helpful locations, such as the address bar, new tab page and the Edge sidebar. The experience will also be available in the Edge mobile app. Instead of having to hunt through emails and chats or ask a colleague for a link again, users will be able to easily find and open these links within the Edge browser. 

Shared links in Microsoft Edge for Business is available as prepopulated results in the Edge address bar, is in preview in the Edge new tab page and in Edge mobile and will be coming soon to the sidebar. 

For more information check out Latest innovations for Microsoft Edge for Business – your secure enterprise browser optimized for AI – Microsoft Edge Blog (windows.com). 

Want to learn more?

If you’d like to learn about the Microsoft topics mentioned within this article, our virtual, instructor-led training courses are the best place to start. 

Conducted in three different time zones. Select the country below that most closely matches your time zone to find out more about these useful courses. 

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Training Course

Microsoft 365 Records Management Training Course

Microsoft Syntex Training Course – (SharePoint Premium) 

Microsoft 365 Information Privacy & Protection Training Course