Microsoft

Global – October 27, 2026 -- No single tool replaces an Excel macro end to end: six options (Power Query, Office Scripts, Power Automate, Python, RPA and Alteryx One) each cover a different slice of the work, according to a new comparison of automation approaches.

Power Query and Office Scripts cover data preparation and workbook tasks

Power Query suits macros that mainly import files and cleanse data, and it can reshape and aggregate data before loading it. It handles button clicks, workbook events and precise output formatting poorly.

Office Scripts is the closest native Microsoft 365 option. It runs recorded or edited TypeScript in Excel for the web or the desktop app on Windows or Mac. It has no Excel-level events, and Microsoft documents that VBA offers broader desktop coverage.

Wilmington, Del. – October 21, 2026 -- Thinking Streams Inc. has launched ThinkingStreams, an agentic marketing automation platform for B2B teams that integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and runs AI agents inside the marketing system rather than in a separate chat window.

Agents draft full campaigns from a single marketer brief

A marketer writes a brief, and the agents plan and draft emails, SMS, landing pages, forms, social posts, blog posts and nurture journeys. Nothing sends or publishes until a person approves it. The company says this removes the manual rebuild that follows drafting copy in a standalone AI tool, which loses brand voice and context.

Global – October 21, 2026 -- Lightbeam AI expects enterprise software in healthcare, life sciences and other industries to be rewritten around agentic AI platforms over the next five years (2025-2030), according to a roadmap from a company executive.

Ambient listening is forecast to become an embedded EHR feature

The author calls 2024 the year of generative AI and large language models (LLMs), with ambient clinical intelligence in focus. Microsoft, a Lightbeam partner, embedded ChatGPT and Copilot in all Microsoft Office products, which raised AI expectations across healthcare. The author predicts ambient listening will move from a monetized point solution to an embedded feature of agentic AI-powered electronic health records (EHRs).

Lightbeam is building ambient listening into its care management solution. It will convert speech to text and summarize patient notes for care and case managers. The company gave no release details.

Europe – October 20, 2026 -- Capgemini and Microsoft are offering cities an as-a-service, AI-native City Support Center that merges multi-agency data into one operating picture for floods and urban heat events, aiming to avoid the cost of bespoke platform builds.

Siloed agencies drive delays, duplication and rising maintenance costs

In flood and heat island scenarios, water authorities, transport departments, health bodies and first responders typically each focus on their own responsibilities, with little data transparency between them. The result is delayed interventions, inefficient resource deployment, duplicated effort and counterproductive actions. Maintenance spending also rises because of potentially preventable damage, adding pressure on already stretched local government budgets.

Global – October 20, 2026 -- Buying Microsoft licenses directly from Microsoft can cost more than purchasing them through a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), because the company's partner network gives qualified resellers room to price competitively.

Microsoft passes administrative work and margin to CSP partners

Microsoft avoids handling every quote, subscription change, renewal and billing query itself. Qualified partners receive licenses at pricing that lets them resell competitively, and part of that margin can reach the customer as a lower price. The gap grows with scale: a small per-license difference matters little across a handful of seats, but compounds across hundreds of users, multiple products and recurring subscriptions.

Global – October 19, 2026 -- Tech stocks shed over $1 trillion on Friday as investors grew nervous that AI companies may not turn sustainable profits, NBC reported.

Microsoft also pulled out of a giant AI cloud deal in the UK, according to Gizmodo. The report adds to concerns about the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure.

China weighs curbs on overseas access to its AI models

China is considering restricting overseas access to its AI models, Bloomberg reported. Beijing is also looking at curbing the sharing of chip designs, among other measures. Any such limits would affect foreign developers and buyers that rely on Chinese models.

Global – October 17, 2026 -- Coalition Incident Response (CIR) has documented rival Business Email Compromise (BEC) attackers using the names of inbox rules as a chat channel inside the same compromised mailbox, and says the exchanges expose gaps in default email platform security.

Two intruders negotiate and fight through rule names

Abusing inbox rules to evade detection (MITRE ATT&CK T1564.008) is a widespread tactic. Attackers use it to hide, redirect or forward emails containing keywords such as "invoice" or "confidential." In one CIR investigation, an attacker aware of a second intruder appeared willing to cooperate so that neither ruined the payout. In another incident, two actors fought over an inbox in a prolonged argument recorded as a sequence of rule names.

Global -- Coalition sent just 49 Zero-Day Alerts (ZDAs) between May 1 and August 1, 2026, even as Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday swelled to 569 vulnerabilities, and 94% of its policyholders did not receive a single one.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday count nearly triples in one month

June's Patch Tuesday set a record with 206 vulnerabilities. July's release nearly tripled that to 569. Before Microsoft adopted multi-model AI for vulnerability discovery, it typically shipped around 100 fixes a month. Windows said in July that it would apply AI across security analysis to find flaws earlier and at greater scale, which Coalition says likely contributed to the jump.

Attackers are also moving faster. Anthropic disclosed earlier this year that Mythos could create working exploits for newly discovered vulnerabilities in hours rather than weeks.

Boston – October 17, 2026 -- The MedTech Conference, running October 18–21 in Boston, will include 65 early- and mid-stage companies from the 2026 MedTech Innovator cohort, chosen from more than 1,800 applicants, alongside a program that makes digital health a core thread of the event, according to AdvaMed Digital Health Tech's new executive director.

Four policy areas drive the digital health agenda

AdvaMed Digital Health Tech's work spans regulation; payment and health care delivery; data access and stewardship; and cybersecurity. The executive director, whose background at AdvaMed is in coverage, payment and care delivery policy, said progress in each area depends on the other three.

Payment is a particular focus. AdvaMed is advocating for greater clarity and predictability around Medicare coverage and payment for software, AI and other digital health technologies.

Global – October 13, 2026 -- Microsoft's October 2026 security release includes an actively exploited Windows Shell zero-day (CVE-2026-96951, CVSS 8.8), 20 Critical remote code execution flaws in Office applications and five CVSS 9.8 vulnerabilities in Outlook. Several of the flaws can be triggered by viewing a file or email in a preview pane, which removes the click-to-compromise barrier many enterprises rely on.

Windows Shell zero-day strips Mark of the Web protections in live attacks

CVE-2026-96951 is an Important security feature bypass that Microsoft confirms is being exploited in the wild. It lets an attacker evade Mark of the Web (MOTW), the trust tag that triggers Protected View in Office and SmartScreen warnings for downloaded executables. Once the tag is stripped, SmartScreen, Office Protected View and Application Guard no longer apply.