Microsoft is retiring the biannual Release Waves for Dynamics 365. Starting September 2026, new features for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse will no longer follow the Wave 1 (April) and Wave 2 (October) cycles — they will be published continuously on the “AI at Work Roadmap” platform (Microsoft 365 Message Center, MC1461529). Release Planner will be permanently shut down on November 15, 2026.
Why Release Waves Mattered
For years, Release Waves were the backbone of ERP governance for Dynamics 365 teams. Twice a year, Microsoft published a comprehensive plan of upcoming features for the following six months. IT teams used these cycles to identify high-impact changes, plan user training, opt in or out of updates before mandatory rollout, and align their internal review cadence with known, predictable dates.
For ERP managers and CIOs at mid-market and enterprise companies across Europe, those two annual windows often served as the natural trigger for ERP steering committee meetings, training plans, and validation cycles with business units. The September Wave 2 was particularly relied upon as a stable anchor for planning autumn version upgrades.
Business Impact
Loss of the semi-annual checkpoint. The most immediate change is organizational: without fixed announcement dates, tracking updates becomes a continuous process. Teams that structured their governance cycle around Release Waves must now build their own monthly or quarterly review cadence. Without such a mechanism, the risk is discovering significant functional changes too late to prepare business users.
Migrate Release Planner data before November 15, 2026. Saved views and configurations in Release Planner will be inaccessible after that date (MC1461529). Teams that built custom filters or tracking dashboards in the tool must export or document those configurations before the shutdown.
A new unified entry point. The “AI at Work Roadmap” portal consolidates Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Dataverse, Microsoft 365, and Copilot in a single place. Microsoft has also launched a Microsoft Release Communications MCP Server, allowing AI agents to query roadmap information via natural language from GitHub Copilot or Visual Studio Code (ERP Today, 26 August 2026). For teams that have integrated AI tools into their technology watch, this offers a more direct access path than manually browsing the portal.
What to Do Now
Two priority actions before November 15, 2026: export or document your saved views in Release Planner, and designate an internal owner for continuous monitoring with a defined cadence — RSS subscription to AI at Work, saved filters, monthly IT committee review. Training budgets also deserve a fresh look: in a continuous delivery model, upskilling needs no longer concentrate in two annual windows, which can both reduce peak load and require sustained attention year-round.
November 15 is a hard deadline. Teams waiting for the “next Wave” to migrate their processes will not get one.
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