Intercept Insights September 2026

4 Copilot changes to know before they cost you

GitHub is making several Copilot policy and billing changes this fall. These changes can affect access, data retention and how much you pay next month.

1. Seats

New seat assignments will require upfront payment, with tighter account checks for Copilot Business and Enterprise signups.
Read more here

2. Feature access

From 22 October, unconfigured Copilot features will follow your default policy: enabled, disabled or decided by organisation admins.
Read the policy update

3. Data retention

Copilot Chat, GitHub Mobile Chat and the Copilot cloud agent are moving into one unified experience, with chat data retained for the lifetime of the account. 
Read the policy update

4. Code review usage

Copilot Code Review is changing its default effort level from Lite to Balanced. That can mean deeper reviews, higher token usage and a real effect on monthly spend.
Read the code review update

 Agents need somewhere safe to run

AI agents are starting to do more than answer questions. They execute code, use tools and interact with systems.

That makes the runtime just as important as the model. 

Azure Container Apps Sandboxes are now generally available. They provide isolated environments to run code and tools more safely.

For teams building agentic applications, this matters because safe execution becomes part of the architecture.

Production agents need more than one model

GPT-6 Astra, Sol and Luna are now available for production agents in Microsoft Foundry.

The update gives teams more choice when building agentic applications, with different models for different levels of reasoning, speed and task complexity.

Model choice is becoming more than a technical preference. It affects cost, performance and how much autonomy an agent can handle.

A faster route for lightweight container apps

Azure Container Apps Express is now generally available (GA).

It gives teams a faster, simpler way to deploy HTTP-first container apps without setting up more platform components than needed.

This is useful for APIs, lightweight services and supporting components around AI or SaaS applications.

Using standalone Azure Communication Services?

Azure Communication Services standalone services will retire on 30 September 2028.

That gives you time, but it is worth putting on the roadmap if your application depends on ACS for communication flows.

Check whether your architecture, integrations or customer-facing features rely on standalone ACS services, so migration planning does not become a last-minute project.

Azure Unpacked #9: Knowledge Test

Think you know Azure? Let’s test that ;)

• Does Azure AI mean OpenAI?
• Does moving to Azure automatically save money?
• Does Microsoft handle security once you’re on Azure?

In the latest Azure Unpacked episode, MVP Richard Hooper and Wesley Haakman upack: 

→ The difference between Azure AI, OpenAI and Foundry
→ Why the Azure vs on-prem cost comparison is often misleading
→ Why cloud security is still a shared responsibility 

Watch the full episode to see which myths you got right.