M365 Changelog: (Updated) Planner: Announcing public preview of Project Manager agent

MC937919 – Updated December 3, 2024: Microsoft has updated the rollout timeline below. Thank you for your patience.

We’re introducing the preview of the new Project Manager agent in Microsoft 365. This agent adds specialized skills and knowledge while automating specific tasks. This out-of-the-box agent takes on unique roles, working alongside or on behalf of a team or organization to handle both simple, mundane tasks and more complex, multi-step business processes.

The new Project Manager agent works within Planner to automate project and task management and completes tasks.

This new agent is available in public preview and customers are required to have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Customers will also need to ensure their current Microsoft 365 licensing allows them access to Microsoft Loop to use this agent.

When this will happen:

Public Preview (Worldwide): Microsoft will begin rolling out early December 2024 (previously late November) and continue through the first half of 2025.

Rollout will begin with North America and will continue in other regions throughout the rollout period

How this will affect your organization:

With this new feature, users who have the ability to create Loop Workspaces enabled can create Project Manager plans in Planner in Microsoft Teams. These plans contain the following features that are not available in traditional plans:

• Create a Project Manager plan from scratch or from a template.
• Assign tasks to Project Manager.
• Complete tasks and generate outputs for teams to collaborate on.
• A Whiteboard tab will be available in Planner so users can create whiteboards directly in the plan, and users can convert sticky notes into tasks within the plans (the text of the sticky note becomes the title of the task).

Project Manager is on by default for users with the required licenses. 

What you need to do to prepare:

The Project Manager agent (preview) will begin rolling out before a control in the admin portal to disable Project Manager is available. If you would like to disable Project Manager before the admin control is available, open a support request with Planner support and Microsoft can disable it on your behalf temporarily until the self-service option is available.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change.