Episode 424 – A new frontier for Microsoft 365 with E7

by [Scott](/content/author/scottmsclouditpro/ "Posts by Scott"/index.html) | Mar 26, 2026 | Podcast

Welcome to episode 424 of the Microsoft Cloud IT Pro podcast, recorded live 02/09/2026. This is a show about Microsoft 365 and Azure from the perspective of IT pros and end users, where we discuss a topic or recent news and how it relates to you. In this episode, Ben and Scott get back together again with a plan for one topic that suddenly goes awry with the recent announcement of the new Microsoft 365 E7 plan. So instead of talking about GPOs and configuration policies, we postpone that for a future episode and dive into the world of the up and coming E7 plan, what's included in this plan, and our perception of its value. With this announcement and the inclusion of Microsoft 365 Copilot in the E7 plan, we also discuss some of the new features coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot wave three that were announced at the same time.

Main Discussion

So let's talk about Microsoft 365 E7. We should talk about E7. I wanna open with this, and maybe this is a little bit of a different way to go with this. Okay. I'm gonna start maybe not from the hero entry point, which would be like a raw, like, super, here's the user value of this to you Yep. But rather from the partner angle. So I always think it's interesting how Microsoft interacts with partners. There's a massive partner ecosystem, and they very much rely on partners to co-sell and upsell opportunities to customers.

So starting on 04/01/2026, to accelerate Microsoft 365 E5 to Microsoft 365 E7 upsell and Agent 365 adoption, Copilot plus Power Accelerate are going to include agent 365 across immersion briefings, envisioning, and proof of concept engagements, as well as deployment accelerators.

I have a couple of issues. I'm gonna take issue with a couple of things in here. One, Microsoft 365 E7 bundles Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Entra Suite, and Agent 365. Yes. That is true. However, Entra Suite was already announced that it was going to be included with E5.

Licensing Considerations

One of the things that I have not been able to figure out is, does Agent 365 have to be licensed for every user that is touching an agent that's managed or governed by Agent 365, or does it only have to be licensed by those admins that are using Agent 365 on the administrative side?

New Features

Some of the licensing gets phrased where every user that benefits from this service has to be licensed for it, which would push this to everybody.

It'll be interesting to see where that goes. The other thing with this that I have not been able to figure out is, does Agent 365 have to be licensed for every user that is touching an agent that's managed or governed by Agent 365, or does it only have to be licensed by those admins that are using Agent 365 on the administrative side?

AI Experiences

If you look across, I think, any large enterprise, you're probably gonna have folks who use these things even if they're licensed for them and those who don't, and you're gonna have varying levels of consumption there.

Pricing Evaluation

That being said, this is not a bad deal if you are interested in using Copilot. E5s also, like, July, Sometime, July. E5 is going up to $60 a month. Copilot's already $30 a month.

Wrap Up

So, like, this starts to open it up a little bit, but I don't know. Like you, I was looking maybe for like different things and different enablers in there for getting it going. This episode is brought to you by Trusted Tech. If you're managing Microsoft 365, you already know licensing isn't simple.

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