Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Expert Community Updates - March 2026

The Empowering.Cloud community has released its March 2026 update, featuring expert briefings, podcasts, and upcoming events focused on Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and workplace collaboration technologies.

Expert Briefings

Real AI Use Cases in the Contact Centre with Luware Nimbus

Marcel Gaufroid, Head of Sales – EU at Luware, shares a practical, step-by-step approach to implementing AI in the contact centre using Luware Nimbus, drawn from real-world experience with over a thousand customers.

Luware's three AI pillars for the contact centre include automation, augmentation, and analytics. The briefing emphasizes why post-call transcription and summarisation are the essential low-risk first step for any AI strategy. Post-call processing slashes LLM costs by up to 80% compared to real-time transcription.

The session covers building a feedback loop using verified agent interactions to train virtual users over time, replacing traditional IVR with AI intent detection—achieving over 90% routing accuracy for one insurance customer. Cost realities of deploying customer-facing virtual agents and why a step-by-step approach matters are also discussed.

Learn more about AI contact center implementation

Microsoft Places in 2026: APIs, Desk Booking, and Copilot Context

Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy Lead for Microsoft Places, shares what changed during Places' first full year in general availability and what is coming next as hybrid work patterns continue to shift.

How Places supports flexible work planning in Microsoft Calendar and Microsoft Teams, including building and room context. The evolution of desk booking on maps, location check-in signals, and improving confidence in finding the right space.

Why Places is focused on in-person connection and collaboration, not desk booking for everyone. How the Places directory and Microsoft Graph APIs enable partners to manage buildings, floors, rooms, desks, and maps at scale.

Three integration patterns: spatial data in and out, occupancy and check-in signals, and extensible experiences like visitor management and digital signage. How location context feeds Work IQ and future Copilot experiences for planning, scheduling, and room selection.

Explore Microsoft Places developments

Microsoft Teams Monthly Update March 2026

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for March 2026. Many thanks to Ribbon for their continued support.

Topics include PowerPoint Deck, Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3, Anthropic in M365 Copilot, Copilot Cowork Agent 365, Microsoft 365 E7 AI Workplace Roadmap, Teams Devices Roadmap, New Teams Certified Devices, and Events.

Watch the Teams update

Podcasts

Microsoft Teams Insider Podcast: CTO of LabourNet on Microsoft Teams Phone and Contact Centre

Mike Love, CTO at LabourNet, is joined by Janet Souter-Dantu, Co-founder at ScopServ Integrated Services (Pty) Ltd, and Vanesia Raborethe, Head of Sales at ScopServ Integrated Services (Pty) Ltd, to discuss LabourNet's move to a Microsoft Teams-based contact centre with Landis.

Microsoft's Jeff Teper - SharePoint at 25, Past, Present, and AI Future

Jeff Teper, President of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps and Platforms, discusses 25 years of SharePoint—from its humble origins as an intranet product to a cloud platform supporting over a billion users and exabytes of data.

AI enabling real-time communications with Adam Jacobs

Adam Jacobs, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, works in IC3—the real-time communications platform team behind Microsoft Teams. With four years at Microsoft and a decade at Polycom before that, Adam shares insights from the backend of one of the world's largest communications platforms.

Scaling Microsoft Teams Phone and Teams Rooms at BAE Systems

Andrew Wigmore, Teams Product Owner at defence contractor BAE Systems, shares insights from his 40-year career and the company's journey to Microsoft Teams and the cloud.

Upcoming Community Events

Teams Fireside Chat - April 9th

Joining us for April's Teams Fireside Chat is a trio of Teams Phone experts from Microsoft: Sean Gilmour, Principal Product Manager Lead - Advance Calling, Microsoft; Wendy Arnett, Principal Product Manager Lead, Microsoft; and Scott Plette, Partner Group Product Manager - Teams Calling and Premium, Microsoft. Talking about the latest in Teams Phone. Bring all your Teams Phone and Teams questions.

Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Me Anything - March 17th

NEW for this session: Microsoft Teams Device Spotlight: Shure IntelliMix Bar Pro; Josh Blalock at Shure will give a 10-minute deep dive on this device. No pitching, just technical info and answering questions.

APAC - 17 March | 16:30 AEDT Hosted by MVP Graham Walsh, Phil Clapham, Justin O'Meara and Andrew Higgs at Microsoft

EMEA/NA - 17 March | 16:00 BST / 08:00 PDT Hosted by MVP Graham Walsh, Jimmy Vaughan at Microsoft and MVP Michael Tressler

Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything is a monthly community event which gives you all an update on the important and Microsoft Teams devices news, as well as the chance to ask questions and get them answered by the experts. We have 2 sessions to cover different time zones, so there's really no excuse not to come along to at least one!

Copilot Fireside Chat - March 25th

Join Microsoft MVPs Zoe Wilson and Kevin McDonnell for Copilot Fireside Chat on March 25th 16:00 UK / 08:00 PT. The session will be live from MVP summit with a special guest. Come along and bring all your Copilot questions.

Copilot Fireside Chat is a virtual event that usually takes place on the last Wednesday of each month at 16:00 GMT. All are welcome to come along and discuss everything Copilot. Bring along your Copilot questions and get them answered by the experts, with special guest appearances alongside hosts Zoe and Kevin.

M365 Change Community Round Up - March 19th

Join MVPs Darrell Webster and Daniel Glenn from the M365 Message Centre Show on Thursday 19th March at 13:00 UK / 08:00 ET / 07:00 CT The M365 Change Community Round Up is a live monthly call open to all, where we take a closer look at the most impactful Microsoft updates and what they really mean for your organisation.

From urgent action items in the Microsoft 365 Message Center to exciting new features on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, many changes will significantly impact your organisation's productivity and even have implications for your security and compliance policies. Stay in the know —not just on new, shiny features, but also on the all-important, high-admin and high-user-impacting items.

The Empowering.Cloud community continues to provide valuable insights and expert perspectives on Microsoft's evolving workplace technology ecosystem, helping organizations navigate the complexities of modern collaboration tools and AI integration.