Power Platform February 2026 Update: Copilot and Governance

Introduction: why this matters

Power Platform continues to mature in two key directions that IT admins care about: deeper Copilot/agent integration in day-to-day business apps, and stronger governance controls to manage sprawl across environments. The February 2026 update brings meaningful changes for model-driven app users, canvas app makers, and administrators responsible for security, compliance, and lifecycle management.

What’s new

Copilot and agent experiences

• Public preview: Microsoft 365 Copilot chat in model-driven apps Copilot chat can now be embedded directly in Power Apps model-driven apps, enabling users to ask questions and reason over in-app data while also connecting insights from Microsoft 365 content (documents, communications, collaboration context) without leaving the app. The experience supports first-party agents (e.g., Researcher and Analyst) and custom agents built with Copilot Studio.
• Public preview: Power Apps MCP (Model Context Protocol) server + enhanced agent feed Power Apps MCP exposes app capabilities to agents as tools (starting with data-entry scenarios). Agents can parse unstructured data into app forms, create records, and flag items for human review. The enhanced agent feed adds a workspace for human oversight (visibility into agent actions, side-by-side approval comparisons, and navigation to affected records).

Building modern apps (canvas)

• Public preview: modern Card control A new Card control helps makers create responsive, consistent layouts using a single Fluent-aligned control, reducing the complexity of composing multiple classic controls.
• Generally available: theme copy-paste Makers can copy a canvas app theme (colors, typography, styling tokens) as YAML and reuse/edit it across apps—helpful for standardizing branding at scale.
• Generally available: confirm() as a Fluent dialog The Confirm() function now aligns with Fluent dialog behavior and respects app theming. Note: Fluent dialog requires modern controls enabled; otherwise it falls back to a browser-native dialog.

Managed platform and governance

• Public preview: move canvas apps and custom SharePoint forms out of the default environment A new Power Platform Advisor recommendation supports migrating specified assets from the default environment to managed environments via the Power Platform admin center, or automated using the Power Platform for Admin v2 connector. When moving apps, admins can keep the original, quarantine (restrict access), or delete.
• Generally available: host and run code apps in Power Apps Code apps reach GA, enabling developers to build web apps with frameworks like React/Vue in their preferred IDE, then deploy to Power Apps—while ensuring the app becomes a governed Power Platform asset with IT visibility.

Impact on IT admins and end users

• Users of model-driven apps gain in-context Copilot assistance, potentially reducing app switching and improving decision speed.
• Admins should evaluate how Copilot chat and agent tooling affects data access patterns, auditing expectations, and environment strategy.
• Governance improves with the ability to reduce default environment sprawl and move apps into managed environments aligned to DLP, ownership, and compliance requirements.
• Development teams can adopt code-first approaches without bypassing platform governance, which may change how you standardize ALM and approvals.

Action items / next steps

1. Review Copilot chat management options for model-driven apps and decide where preview usage is appropriate.
2. Pilot MCP and the enhanced agent feed with clearly defined human-approval workflows (especially for record creation).
3. Inventory default environment assets and test the new migration recommendation path (manual and/or automated).
4. Standardize canvas UI governance: enable modern controls where appropriate and adopt theme copy-paste (YAML) for consistent branding.
5. Assess code apps GA for fit with your ALM, security review, and environment lifecycle policies.