Microsoft Agent 365 License Enforcement — July 1, 2026 Security Impact Summary
Microsoft Agent 365 is $15 per user per month standalone, or included in Microsoft 365 E7 ($99/user/month, which also bundles E5, Copilot, and the Entra Suite). Microsoft 365 E5 is a prerequisite for new standalone Agent 365 purchases (enterprise segment, effective June 1, 2026); E3 alone does not qualify.
As of July 1, 2026, several agent-level security capabilities in Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Entra require Microsoft Agent 365 licensing.
Microsoft Defender
In the Microsoft Defender portal the products are available via Settings → Security for AI agents (Preview).
🔴 AIAgentsInfo → AgentsInfo Table Migration
Disclaimer: Some Microsoft Learn documentation references
AgentInfo, while the currently deployed Advanced Hunting schema containsAgentsInfo.
The AI agent inventory in Advanced Hunting is moving from the AIAgentsInfo table to a new AgentsInfo table, powered by Microsoft Agent 365 as the source of authority for AI agent inventory.
The
AIAgentsInfotable will be deprecated and many Copilot Studio Agent Security settings (e.g. UserAuthenticationType) are not available in the newAgentsInfotable. That’s why I created an app to fill this important gap for now.
Action required: Review saved queries, custom detections, and workbooks that reference AIAgentsInfo and update them to AgentsInfo before July 1.
For more details, read my previous blog.
🔴Block Mode Enforcement
Tenants currently configured to Block on existing Agent 365 rules will stop blocking on July 1, 2026.
To resume blocking, define rules under the new real-time protection policy experience, under Settings > Security for AI > Policies (available July 1, 2026).
⚠️This is a silent enforcement gap, Block rules don’t error out, they just stop enforcing.
🟠 Real-Time Protection Changes
Alerts generated by legacy real-time protection rules (in both audit and block modes) will be replaced by equivalent Advanced Hunting behaviors.
Behaviors record these events as queryable telemetry in the BehaviorInfo table, so you can build custom detections, hunting queries, and downstream automation.
Requires the Microsoft 365 connector to be connected. Near-real-time detection alerts remain unchanged.
Real-time protection for Microsoft Copilot Studio (through Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps) remains unchanged for tenants that continue using this experience; no action is required. For more details, read my previous blog.
🟠 Threat Detection Alert Deprecations
Copilot Studio agent threat detection alerts in Defender for Cloud Apps will be deprecated.
Equivalent alerts will run over Microsoft Agent 365 observability logs after July 1, 2026, and will remain available through the Defender portal for licensed tenants.
Foundry agent-specific alerts in the Microsoft Defender for AI Services plan will be deprecated.
🟡 Third-Party Agent Discovery
Third-party cloud agents will no longer be discoverable through Microsoft Defender for Cloud connectors.
To continue discovering them (AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Salesforce Agentforce & Databricks Genie), Registry Sync in the Microsoft 365 agent registry (preview) must be configured.
🟡Microsoft Defender Portal Changes
AI Agent security related Microsoft Defender information will remain available in the Microsoft Defender portal:
- Assets -> AI Agents -> Agents / Local agents
- AI Agents recommendations (Foundry agents)
- Advanced Hunting ->
AIAgentsInfomigrated toAgentsInfo - Settings -> Security for AI
The AI Agents sub-tab under Cloud Assets will be removed for all customers (it was already removed in my tenant).
Microsoft Foundry agent data in the Azure portal will no longer appear in the Data and AI dashboard or Cloud Security Explorer.
Microsoft Entra
The following two products are related to AI Agent protection in Microsoft Entra.
🟠Conditional Access for Agents
Conditional Access for Agents requires Microsoft Entra ID P1 or P2 and Microsoft 365 Agent license.
Enforcement of the Microsoft Agent 365 license is coming soon, service plan rollout starts July 2026 and completes by early August.
For more details, read my previous blog.
🟠ID Protection for Agents
ID Protection for Agents requires Microsoft Entra P2 and Microsoft 365 Agent license.
Enforcement of the Microsoft Agent 365 license is coming soon, service plan rollout starts July 2026 and completes by early August.
For more details, read my previous blog.
Sources
🔹Detect, block, and investigate threats to AI agents using Microsoft Defender (Preview)
🔹Advanced hunting schema — Naming changes
🔹Conditional Access for agents
I hope this blog creates awareness of the upcoming Agent 365 license enforcement changes and provides insights into the security capabilities available for AI Agents. 🙏
