On March 9, 2026, Microsoft announced the launch of the M365 E7 Frontier Suite — a new Enterprise plan that will be available after May 1, 2026, at $99 per user per month pricing. This tier was developed as part of the “Frontier Transformation” initiative featured in Ignite in November 2025 and that Microsoft Commercial Business CEO, Judson Althoff, described in more detail earlier in 2026. The proposed direction centers on the idea that most businesses are moving past experimenting with artificial intelligence and are already actively implementing AI solutions in their tech stacks – but face challenges when trying to adopt governance at scale.
The announcement also coincides with Microsoft 365 price increases taking effect July 1, 2026, making this a potentially opportune time for your business if you need to reevaluate your current plan tier. SWK Technologies has put together this article to help you better understand what E7 includes, how it compares to existing M365 plans, what the launch means heading into the upcoming pricing changes and how Microsoft’s approach to artificial intelligence implementation could benefit your business goals:
What is Microsoft 365 E7?
Microsoft 365 E7 is a bundled Enterprise plan that combines four components into a new, single platform:
- Microsoft 365 E5 — the core productivity, security, identity and compliance foundation for enterprise-scale work
- Microsoft Entra Suite — identity and network access controls for securing employee use of apps and AI
- Microsoft 365 Copilot — AI integrated directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and other daily tools
- Agent 365 — a centralized control plane for managing, governing and securing AI agents across the business
Together in E7, these bundled solutions will be priced more competitively than if they were purchased separately according to Microsoft. Service partners such as SWK Technologies will also be able to receive an additional 15 percent discount on per user pricing for their tier, which will then be able to be applied and passed onto customers directly.
What Sets E7 Apart from Earlier M365 Plans
Unlike past tier launches that primarily added features or workloads, M365 E7 introduces a major overhaul to an existing plan structure and toolset, combining multiple solutions into one suite. It also adds a unified governance layer for AI agents and cross-app intelligence that earlier suites did not include, enabling businesses to operationalize AI securely at scale.
Microsoft frames the distinction around two pillars it calls Intelligence and Trust. The Intelligence layer — consolidated in Work IQ — enables Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to understand how employees work, with whom they work and the content they collaborate on. The latter powers the Trust layer as well, empowering the built-in M365 AI to enforce better accuracy and act faster while continuously learning, leveraging the real-time connection to your team to improve more seamlessly than solutions that rely on models alone.
What is Agent 365?
Agent 365 is a new Microsoft product that will be included in both E7 and also available as a standalone add-on at $15 per user per month beginning May 1, 2026. This extends the M365 infrastructure your business already uses to manage users and adapt it for AI agents, providing centralized visibility, governance and control for agentic solutions across your implementation. It also integrates with Microsoft Defender, Entra and Purview to apply existing licensed protections and policies to individual agents.
From a single console, your IT team can view every agent in your environment — including those built on Microsoft platforms, agents from ecosystem partners and any registered independently — monitor their performance, enforce access policies and run compliance audits. The tool provides detailed logging, reporting of agent actions, data security risks, security events and audit trails to support compliance and performance assessment. In just two months of preview, tens of millions of agents appeared in the Agent 365 Registry, with tens of thousands of customers already adopting it to bring their growing agent deployments under centralized oversight.
What is Copilot Wave 3?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3 arrives alongside the E7 launch, bringing an updated chat experience with the ability to create and modify artifacts and giving users the ability to build their own agents within the applications they work in every day — including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Rather than relying on a single model, the system is designed to make every model useful at work, with Claude from Anthropic now available in mainline Copilot chat through the Frontier program alongside the latest generation of OpenAI models. Wave 3 is framed as a continuous commitment rather than a one-time release, meaning additional capabilities will roll out to Enterprise subscribers over time rather than arriving all at once.
How Microsoft 365 E7 Compares to Existing M365 Plans
For businesses already navigating the M365 plan lineup, E7 represents a significant step up from the current Enterprise tier in both scope and price. The table below uses July 2026 pricing for E3 and E5, which reflects the rate increases announced in December 2025:
| Plan | Per User / Month | Key Inclusions |
| M365 E3 | $39 | Windows 11 Enterprise, core security and compliance |
| M365 E5 | $60 | E3 + advanced security, analytics and compliance |
| M365 Copilot (add-on) | $30 | AI in Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and more |
| Agent 365 (add-on) | $15 | Agent governance and control plane |
| M365 E7 | $99 | E5 + Entra Suite + Copilot + Agent 365 |
Purchasing E5, Copilot and Agent 365 separately under July 2026 pricing totals $105 per user per month, while E7 brings that to $99. The savings grow with seat count, though the most significant change will be the consolidation itself — one agreement, one renewal cycle and one governance layer covering both employees and agents. It is also worth noting that E7 is available with or without Teams, giving businesses flexibility depending on their existing communications licensing.
Should You Migrate to M365 E7?
Microsoft 365 E7 is not a replacement for Business Basic, Standard or Premium, and those plans remain available at their current tiers. It is an Enterprise plan with no seat cap, which while more cost-effective for larger businesses needing to scale seats with headcount, will often remain relatively expensive for SMBs. SWK Technologies recommends that companies with fewer than 300 employees look into any of the previously-mentioned M365 Business plan tiers, which are more competitively priced for smaller and mid-sized organizations.
If your business is curious about evaluating E7 for a 2026 migration, however, ask your team these questions before May 1:
- Are you already on E5? If so, the question is whether adding Copilot and Agent 365 as standalone items versus upgrading to E7 produces better per-seat economics at your current user count. Customers already on E5 with Copilot, E3 with Copilot, and E3 or E5 businesses focused on scaling AI safely are primary E7 upgrade candidates.
- Are AI agents already active in your environment? IDC predicts 1.3 billion agents in circulation by 2028, and 80 percent of the Fortune 500 are already using Microsoft agents. For businesses that have deployed agents across workflows without centralized oversight, Agent 365’s governance layer has standalone value independent of the broader E7 bundle.
- Are you budgeting for Copilot expansion? E7 bundles Copilot as a core component rather than an add-on, which simplifies procurement and standardizes access across the business rather than managing a separate license pool.
What to Do Next?
Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 will both be generally available by May 1, 2026. Partner promotional offers aligned to E7 are designed to accelerate adoption and create a lower-friction entry point for businesses moving from AI experimentation to enterprise execution. Working with an M365 managed services partner gives you access to those promotions and a direct comparison of what E7 versus the à la carte approach would cost at your seat count and renewal schedule.
For businesses on annual contracts with renewals before July 1, locking in current Enterprise pricing now may defer a portion of the separate cost impact from the broader M365 price increases — independent of any E7 evaluation.
Get a Free Microsoft 365 Assessment with SWK Technologies
Whether your business is evaluating Microsoft 365 E7, preparing for the July pricing changes or trying to get more from your current subscription, SWK Managed Cloud Services can help you compare plans and align your licensing with how your business actually works. As a certified Microsoft Gold Partner, SWK Technologies has access to partner pricing and tools to support your M365 license management and planning.
Contact SWK here and get started on your free Microsoft 365 assessment to see if you are getting the most out of your M365 ecosystem, and how to improve your ROI on your technology investment.