Power Platform October–November 2026 Update: AI Previews, Desktop Flows and Developer Plan Changes

For context, Power Plat Stack listed the conference dates as October 27 to 29: Power Platform Community Conference, MGM Grand, Las Vegas. The update came out shortly before Microsoft Ignite, which the same newsletter places at November 17 to 20.

Here's what changed, what's still preview, and what admins and makers should check first.

Check the Developer Plan change first​

Microsoft's post says you can try the new features in an existing environment or "get started for free using the Developer plan." The timing matters here. Microsoft's own deprecations page says that starting November 15, 2026, signing up for the Power Apps Developer Plan no longer creates a developer environment, and that users can't create new unmanaged developer environments from Power Apps, the Power Platform admin center, PowerShell, or the Power Platform CLI.

Power Plat Stack also flagged November 15 as the date when the Release Planner retires, Dataverse for Teams creation ends, unmanaged developer environment creation ends.

What this means for you: if you were planning to set up a personal sandbox to test the previews below, do it before November 15 or talk to your admins about managed environments. The blog post doesn't mention this.

Power Apps: modern controls​

Modern attachments (public preview)​

The classic attachments control only worked inside a form. The new modern attachments control works inside forms or on its own on a canvas, so makers can build custom upload screens. It supports:

• Selecting multiple files, with image thumbnails
• File validation, plus drag-and-drop on the web
• Settings for maximum file count, maximum file size, accepted file types, multi-file behaviour, styling and file events
• SharePoint list attachments and Dataverse attachment scenarios during preview
• The device's own file picker on mobile

More modern controls, with more to come​

Microsoft named four more controls:

• Avatar group: shows a team at a glance
• Persona: combines identity with supporting details
• Metrics card: shows key values with supporting text and trend context
• Card gallery: turns records into responsive card views

The next wave is navigation, breadcrumb, facet, accordion and carousel, "targeted by the end of 2026." That's a target, not a commitment. General availability work for attachments is also listed as ongoing. Don't plan production releases around these dates.

Data grid paging for larger datasets​

The modern data grid now has two ways to load data a bit at a time:

1. Load more records automatically as users scroll.
2. Show numbered pages with a page size you set.

Search can run against the records already loaded or use the maker's own data-source filtering formula. Sorting can be delegated when the connected source supports it.

Existing apps won't change. The pagination property defaults to none, so nothing changes until a maker turns it on.

SharePoint form and app-from-data templates​

• SharePoint custom forms now start from a responsive, multi-column layout instead of the old single-column template. Microsoft's suggested order is: organise the fields, customise the form in Power Apps Studio, then test it in its SharePoint host.
• The modern app-from-data template now applies to every app-from-data flow in Power Apps, not only apps built from SharePoint. To start from a SharePoint list, select Integrate > Power Apps > Create an app. You get responsive browse, new-item and edit-item screens built with modern controls. Review the generated screens and fields before you publish.

Revealing masked Dataverse values​

This one is aimed at security-conscious makers. The Dataverse.Unmask Power Fx function lets a canvas app request the unmasked value of a secured Dataverse column. You can keep the normal view masked and add an explicit "reveal" action.

What it doesn't do matters just as much:

• It doesn't bypass security. Dataverse still enforces table, record and column permissions, including the read unmasked permission.
• It returns one column value only.
• It doesn't change the stored record, remove the masking rule, or unmask the value anywhere else in the app.

The preview started in October. Existing apps don't get a reveal button automatically. Makers have to add it.

AI features built on Dataverse​

Business apps in Work IQ (public preview)​

This lets users find and work with data from model-driven Power Apps through natural-language conversation, without opening the app. Microsoft's example: ask which projects are blocked, then review and confirm an update to a project record.

Microsoft says it uses the app's existing views, forms and Dataverse data, respects user permissions, and applies supported business rules. Users review and explicitly confirm every change before it's submitted.

The phrase "supported business rules" is doing some work there. If your app relies on client-side logic, test whether that logic still runs when the change comes through a conversation. The learning-resource list in the update includes new admin articles on Work IQ participation, AI experience access, access reviews and costs. That's a fair hint that admins should get involved before users do.

AI row summary in the data grid (public preview)​

Users can generate a short AI summary of an eligible Dataverse row directly from the modern data grid in canvas apps. Setup takes two steps:

1. Connect the grid to a Dataverse table that already has row summary configured.
2. Set ShowAIRowSummary to true.

It's off by default. The preview rollout began October 12, 2026 and is gradual, so if you don't see it yet, you may just need to wait.

Generative pages can call custom APIs (public preview)​

Generative pages can now call Dataverse custom APIs. Users can trigger server-side operations such as approving an order, recalculating a price or validating a transaction, while the business logic stays in Dataverse.

• Works in the generative page designer in Power Apps and through the generative pages plugin for external AI code-generation tools.
• Supports global and table-bound actions and functions.
• Calls run as the signed-in user and are subject to Dataverse security.

Application Insights for generative pages (public preview)​

Once an admin configures Application Insights data export for the environment in the Power Platform admin center, Power Apps automatically sends supported telemetry for published generative pages. That covers page-load performance, unhandled errors, data operations and navigation. Makers don't need to add telemetry calls, install the Application Insights JavaScript SDK, or put a connection string in the page.

GitHub sign-in for agent-assisted canvas editing (public preview)​

Makers can sign in with GitHub and get an AI agent that edits alongside them in Power Apps Studio, using their existing apps, data sources, connectors and governance. Microsoft says nothing needs to be rebuilt or migrated.

You can hand the agent tedious jobs, such as rolling out a change across every screen, and make quick edits by hand without spending tokens. An admin has to turn on the tenant setting in the Power Platform admin center first.

Watch the billing. The feature uses GitHub sign-in and is billed through GitHub. Microsoft points to a separate page for usage, data handling and billing details. Finance and procurement should read that before anyone switches it on for the whole tenant.

Power Automate: desktop flow changes​

Reusable desktop flow templates​

Makers can save common patterns, such as error handling, logging and reporting, as templates. The workflow:

1. Create a template from scratch, or save an existing desktop flow as a separate template.
2. Edit, test, debug and publish it.
3. Others create new flows from the published template.

Flows created from a template are independent copies. Updating a template only affects flows created afterwards, not the ones that already exist. That's good for stability, but it means a fix to a template won't reach flows built from the old version.

Scheduled triggers for desktop flows (public preview)​

Until now, running a desktop flow on a schedule meant building a separate cloud flow to trigger it. Now you can set it up in Automation center:

• Pick the desktop flow and the execution connection
• Choose attended or unattended run mode
• Set the start date, time, recurrence (minutes, hours, days, weeks or months) and time zone

The schedule view shows enabled and disabled triggers, lets you filter by flow or connection reference, and lists upcoming runs. It's rolling out gradually by region.

Flowchart mode (public preview)​

Flowchart mode is a visual canvas for desktop flows. Actions are shown as nodes and execution paths as the lines connecting them. You can switch an existing flow between flowchart and sequence views. Pan, zoom, a minimap and layout controls help with large flows.

While debugging, the nodes that ran and the paths taken are highlighted, status markers show which actions succeeded or failed, and the errors pane can take you straight to the node that failed.

Admin and governance updates​

Power Platform admin plugin in Cowork (public preview)​

Admins can ask questions in plain language and get answers based on their tenant's data about environments, ownership, policy impact and overall governance posture. Microsoft calls it "an early but important step" toward agent-first administration. Treat it as a way to find problems and plan fixes, and confirm what it can actually change before relying on it.

Routing monitor alerts (public preview)​

The Power Platform for Admins v2 connector has a new When an alert fires trigger, so a flow can send Power Platform monitor alerts to any destination that has a connector. Microsoft's example sends high-severity alerts to the operations team's Teams channel and creates Azure DevOps work items for medium- and low-severity alerts, all in one flow.

Exporting monitor metrics (public preview)​

Monitor keeps data for 30 days. You can now export its metrics through an API, in OpenTelemetry format, and keep them in your own storage. From there they can go into tools such as Azure Data Explorer, Splunk or Datadog, alongside your business and operational data. You can also build dashboards for colleagues who don't have access to the admin center.

Retirements to plan for​

Microsoft's deprecations page lists a few more dates for teams testing these features:

• On November 30, 2026, Describe it to design it in Power Automate retires for all customers.
• After November 30, 2026, record-level copresence in model-driven apps won't be available.
• You can't create new Dataverse for Teams environments starting November 15, 2026.

Learning updates​

The post also lists new and updated documentation and training. New articles cover desktop flow templates, scheduled triggers, flowchart mode, the attachments and persona controls, revealing masked Dataverse values, setting up Work IQ for a pilot, and Power Platform Admin in Cowork.

What to do now​

Almost everything here is labelled preview, rolling out gradually, or targeted for a later date. Test it in a non-production environment, and wait for general availability before putting it into production apps.