According to the roadmap, the feature is in development for the web, in the Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) cloud. Preview is targeted for September 2026 and general availability for December 2026. The listed products are Microsoft Copilot (Microsoft 365), Microsoft Dataverse and Work IQ.
The roadmap is only part of the story. Microsoft has already published preview documentation, an admin install procedure and example prompts. The PC hasn't quite learned to file your expense reports for you, but it's getting closer.
What's actually shipping
The roadmap dates line up with what Microsoft has done publicly. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 blog says Work IQ now grounds Copilot and agents in core business data from Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. It's available in preview starting September 30, 2026, with rollout continuing throughout October 2026.
The Cowork-specific piece came a few weeks later. In its Power Platform Community Conference (PPCC) 2026 announcements, the Power Platform blog said the Business Apps plugin in Cowork is now in Public Preview allowing you to get business context and take governed actions across your existing Dynamics 365 and Power Apps applications. ERP Today reported that the October 23 additions extend the rollout into skill authoring, developer access, and the Cowork plugin for business applications.
Cowork itself is no longer a preview product. The AI at Work roadmap's announcement feed lists "Copilot Cowork is now generally available" on June 16. The new part is the bridge to line-of-business data, and that bridge is still labeled preview. Microsoft's Learn article calls it prerelease documentation that is subject to change.
Section summary:
- Work IQ for business apps entered preview on September 30, 2026.
- The Cowork Business Apps plugin reached public preview with the October 23 PPCC announcements.
- General availability is targeted for December 2026. Roadmap dates are estimates, and Microsoft says all roadmap information is subject to change.
What Cowork can do with your business data
Microsoft says the Business Applications in Work IQ plugin connects Cowork to business information and processes across Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. Users can ask in plain language for customer, sales, service, finance or operations information, look into details and relationships, and get help deciding what to do next.
Microsoft's example tasks include:
- Adding a service improvement plan to a renewal opportunity
- Creating a follow-up task for the account owner
- Reassigning account ownership
- Escalating the service issue for an unresolved case
- Updating a contract record
Microsoft's Cowork plugin catalog describes the integration as a way to ask practical questions across your Dataverse, Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Service, and custom Power Apps data. The Power Apps documentation lists three currently supported systems of record:
| System of record | How it connects |
|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 Customer Service | Customer Service MCP tools through Work IQ |
| Dynamics 365 Sales | Sales MCP tools through Work IQ |
| Power Apps model-driven apps | Reasoning over model-driven app data |
The Dynamics 365 blog describes a larger goal. It says business apps in Work IQ can rationalize across an expanding range of data: Dynamics 365 CRM apps (Sales and Service), Dynamics 365 ERP apps (Finance and Operations*), Power Apps, and third-party line of business (LoB) apps. The asterisk is important. ERP Today noted that Microsoft marks the Finance and Operations coverage as rolling out in late October, so ERP scenarios are a planned capability, not a current feature of the preview. Check your own tenant before promising the finance team anything.
How it works: tools, paths and permissions
Microsoft's technical explanation is fairly simple. Work IQ provides search, fetch and execution-style tools. Business Applications in Work IQ adds more paths and URLs for those tools to work with, so Copilot can find, read and act on application data alongside Microsoft Graph content. Dataverse environments are the first major scope. Microsoft says the same approach will extend to Power Apps, SharePoint-backed application data and selected non-Microsoft systems.
The "governed actions" claim also has a concrete meaning. According to the Dynamics 365 blog, Copilot and agents present the proposed changes, follow any required approval, and update the source records within the user's permissions. Microsoft's Cowork documentation says the feature respects your organization's existing role-based access, so it only shows information and offers actions you are authorized to use.
Business Skills and the semantic model
The roadmap mentions Business Skills. Microsoft defines them as reusable business context that helps makers, users and agents interpret data, follow processes and make decisions. You define a skill once and can reuse it across agents. According to ERP Today, business skills capture procedures, such as which criteria matter and when approval is required, so any agent can follow them.
Skills work alongside a semantic model, which gives Copilot a shared understanding of your Dataverse data. ERP Today reported that Work IQ builds a semantic model from configuration that already exists in Dynamics 365 and Power Apps, including views, forms, relationships, and a business glossary.
My analysis: this is the main reason to pay attention. If the semantic model comes from configuration you already maintain, teams with well-organized Dynamics 365 setups get a head start. Teams with years of untidy custom tables will find Cowork reflects that mess back at them.
Section summary: Work IQ adds business-app data to tools Copilot already uses. Business Skills carry your company's procedures, and governed actions stay within the user's existing permissions.
Admin setup: installing the Business apps (preview) plugin
Users can't add the plugin until an admin installs it for them. Microsoft's documented admin steps are:
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Select Agents > Tools > Plugins.
- In the Name column, select Business apps (preview).
- In the panel, select Install.
- In Installed for, choose All users or Specific users and groups.
- Select Next, review your choices in the Review and install panel, then select Install.
- Success looks like: a green message confirming the installation completed. Close the panel with the X in the top-right corner.
The Microsoft 365 admin center isn't the only place you need to configure. Microsoft's Power Apps documentation says Power Platform admins must enable Business Applications in Work IQ, set up the Business Applications Cowork plugin, and allow users coding agent access before the feature works through the MCP server.
User setup: connecting the plugin in Cowork
After the admin installs the plugin, each user connects it:
- Open Copilot and select Cowork > Customize.
- On the Business apps (preview) screen, select Show more.
- Under the MCP servers heading, select Connect next to Business apps (preview).
- Select your credentials. A number appears for you to approve the sign-in.
- Enter that number in the Authenticator app.
- Start working from Cowork > New task.
Common failure points
- The plugin doesn't appear in Customize: the admin install probably hasn't happened, or you aren't in the assigned users or groups.
- "No environments" or missing data: results depend on which Dataverse environments you can access. Microsoft notes that the same prompt can return different results for different people.
- Authentication stalls: the connection uses an Authenticator number-match approval, so have your phone ready.
- Features differ from the docs: Microsoft says some experiences vary with your organization's apps, licenses, policies and available services.
Example prompts and their limits
Microsoft's documented starting prompts include:
- "List all environments I have access to": lists the environments you can reach, with IDs and URLs.
- "What tables exist that involve customer accounts?": returns tables grouped by environment.
- "Show me the relationships around account": maps lookups such as parent account, primary contact, owner, business unit, SLA and transaction currency.
- "Which opportunities are at risk based on close date, stage, or missing next steps?"
- "Show me high-priority cases that are still open or close to breaching SLA."
Microsoft's own examples point out the limits. The table-discovery result says it searched table names for "account" or "customer," and it presents the output as a starting list. It deliberately leaves out tables where "account" means a messaging account such as SMS or WhatsApp. Tables like contact, opportunity, incident and invoice also link to accounts but don't match a name-based search.
The relationship example has a similar warning. The account table doesn't list every table that points to it, so the incoming links only cover tables Cowork opened. Treat the result as an outline of the relationships, not a complete schema map.
Caveats before you roll it out
- It's still preview. Microsoft says preview offerings are provided as-is and may be changed or discontinued at any time.
- Costs can still apply. Microsoft notes that for consumption-based services, underlying application usage may still incur license fees during the preview. The Dynamics 365 blog also refers to usage-based billing for Work IQ, so talk to whoever manages your licensing before a broad rollout.
- Dataverse intelligence is going away. Microsoft says Dataverse intelligence is now part of Business Applications in Work IQ and will soon stop being available as a separate service. It recommends moving to Work IQ.
- Cloud scope: the roadmap item lists only the Worldwide (Standard Multi-Tenant) cloud. Government and sovereign cloud customers shouldn't plan around it yet.
- Separate from the Dataverse plugin. The Power Platform blog also covered a separate Microsoft Dataverse plugin for Cowork that is a set of skills for data modelling, records, business logic, security and solutions. That plugin is aimed at building apps. The Business apps plugin is for working with existing app data, so don't confuse the two.
The bigger picture
Cowork started as a way to delegate work across Microsoft 365. This update reaches the CRM, service and custom-app data where much of a company's actual business happens. The approach is that if Dataverse permissions, approvals and configuration are already in place, an AI layer can use them instead of building its own.
The appeal is clear. A sales lead can ask Cowork for everything related to an account across sales, service and custom tables without opening five browser tabs. The risk is just as clear: Copilot's answers depend on how well your data and permissions are maintained. Admins should do the boring work first. Audit security roles, check which model-driven apps will be exposed to Copilot, and pilot with a small group through the Specific users and groups install option. Then expand toward the December GA target, if Microsoft's estimate holds.
For WindowsForum readers already following Copilot Cowork plugins, Power Platform governance and Microsoft 365 admin center agent controls, this item connects all three.