Microsoft is retiring the Copilot Prioritise feature in Outlook, with the rollback starting on 26 October 2026 and expected to complete by mid-November. Once the retirement is complete, the Prioritise experience will disappear from all Outlook clients and users will no longer be able to use it.
Microsoft says the change is part of an effort to simplify the Copilot experience in Outlook and focus future investment elsewhere.
For businesses that have been using Prioritise to help users identify important email, the main impact is straightforward: the feature is being removed rather than replaced with a like-for-like option.
What is Copilot Prioritise in Outlook?
Copilot Prioritise reviews new email as it arrives in the Inbox and assigns a priority such as high, normal or low.
Microsoft says the feature can take into account factors including:
- who sent the message
- people included in the conversation
- job titles
- the content of the email
- custom instructions configured by the user
Users could also teach Copilot what mattered to them by adding instructions such as “it’s from my manager” or “it’s about a customer complaint”.
Messages identified as high priority could then be marked and filtered more easily in Outlook.
When is Microsoft removing Copilot Prioritise?
Microsoft says the retirement starts on 26 October 2026.
The rollout is expected to complete by mid-November 2026, after which the Prioritise user experience should be removed from all Outlook clients.
This applies across Outlook and Microsoft 365 Copilot for users who currently have access to the feature.
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Why is Microsoft removing it?
Microsoft has not said that the feature is being withdrawn because of a security or reliability problem.
Instead, the company says the retirement is part of a cleanup effort intended to simplify the Outlook Copilot experience and focus ongoing investment.
That means businesses should treat this as a product-direction change rather than a fault or temporary outage.
Will Outlook still have Copilot after Prioritise is removed?
Yes. Microsoft is retiring the Prioritise feature, not Copilot in Outlook as a whole.
Other Copilot capabilities in Outlook remain available, including features such as email triage actions and using Copilot to help create or manage Outlook rules with natural language.
Microsoft has not announced a direct replacement for Prioritise, so users who rely on its high/normal/low scoring should expect that specific experience to disappear.
What should businesses do?
No administrator action is required to remove the feature — Microsoft will do that automatically.
However, Microsoft recommends that organisations:
- notify users who currently rely on Copilot Prioritise
- prepare help desk and support teams for questions
- remove references to Prioritise from internal training material
- update internal Microsoft 365 documentation where necessary
If staff have built their day around the Prioritise view, it is worth warning them before the feature disappears rather than waiting for them to assume Outlook has broken.
What can users use instead?
There is no direct one-for-one replacement announced by Microsoft.
Users can still use standard Outlook tools such as flags, categories, rules, Focused Inbox and search, while Copilot in Outlook continues to provide other email-management capabilities.
For organisations using Microsoft 365 Copilot, this is also a reminder that individual AI features can change quickly as Microsoft refines the wider Copilot experience.
Does this affect every Outlook user?
No. The change only affects users who currently have access to Copilot Prioritise.
If a user has never enabled or used Prioritise, they may notice no visible change at all.
For users who do rely on it, the feature will disappear progressively between 26 October and mid-November 2026.
Quick answers
Is Microsoft removing Copilot from Outlook?
No. Microsoft is removing the Copilot Prioritise feature, not Copilot in Outlook as a whole.
When does Copilot Prioritise disappear?
The rollback starts on 26 October 2026 and is expected to complete by mid-November 2026.
Why is Microsoft retiring Prioritise?
Microsoft says it is simplifying the Outlook Copilot experience and focusing investment elsewhere.
Do administrators need to do anything?
No technical action is required, but Microsoft recommends notifying affected users and updating internal support and training material.
Is there a direct replacement?
Microsoft has not announced a direct like-for-like replacement for Copilot Prioritise.
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