Each month, we share practical updates and insights to help you strengthen your employee listening strategy with Viva Glint & Pulse and support you on your AI transformation journey. In this edition, you’ll find the latest product enhancements, thought leadership, and customer learnings—designed to help you stay informed, plan ahead, and continue driving meaningful engagement and change across your organization.
New on your Viva Glint platform
Survey Communications: Teams Notification Localization. Viva Glint Teams bot notifications are now delivered in each user’s preferred language, improving accessibility, engagement, and the experience for global, non‑English‑speaking audiences. This update aligns Teams bot notifications with existing Viva Glint email and platform localization capabilities. Learn about Viva Glint supported languages here.
User Data Management: Audit Activity Log Enhancements. We are improving our audit activity logs to provide richer visibility into automated data imports, making it easier for admins to reconcile data across systems, quickly understand what happened during an import, diagnose issues more efficiently, and act with greater confidence. Starting this month, in addition to failed uploads, admins can now access advisory files for partial ingestions, where only some records from an import were processed successfully. Later this year, for supported automated imports (including SFTP and Organizational Data in Microsoft 365), audit logs will include downloadable details that summarize which records were added, updated, skipped, or moved to inactive status. Learn more about audit activity logs here.
Reporting: Custom PPT Template Support. The Export to PowerPoint feature now applies the custom PowerPoint template selected in General settings to the exported PowerPoint file for all reports that support the new export i.e. Team summary report, Executive summary report.
How to test
- Open the Team Summary or Executive Summary report.
- Select Export & Share > Export report to PPT.
- Confirm the exported editable PowerPoint includes the custom template from Admin settings appended to the content slides.
Prerequisite
Upload a custom PowerPoint template in Viva Glint Admin settings before testing, Instructions for doing so can be found here.
Reporting: Navigation improvements. Viva Glint Reporting users can now retrace their navigation flow—drilling down and drilling up in reports—without losing context.
Key changes
- Replaces the “Go Back” action to the Reporting home page with an alternative clickable experience.
- Enables users to return to the last Reporting page they were in, supporting improved back navigation within Reporting.
Reporting: Enabling Benchmarks. Enabling external benchmarks gives you and your leaders valuable context—showing how your results compare to global and industry peers and complementing the insights you gain from internal comparisons.
With a single opt‑in step, Viva Glint unlocks a rich set of benchmark suites (Global, Industry, Country/Region, High‑Performing, and more). Your data remains fully anonymized and aggregated, ensuring privacy and compliance. Customers who opt in consistently report that benchmarks strengthen storytelling, deepen insight quality, and accelerate action planning. We recommend turning on this feature so your teams can get the full value of Viva Glint reporting. Without enabling this feature, customers will not be able to see any external benchmark comparisons and will only have access to internal comparators. By enabling it, organizations agree to allow their survey data to be included in the anonymized benchmark pool, which is required for benchmark visibility.
Coming soon to Viva Glint
User Access: Upcoming Role Enhancements. In our March release, we’ll be making some changes to roles and permissions in Viva Glint to increase security and flexibility for enterprise organizations.
Survey Designer Role
The Survey Designer Role in Viva Glint will empower organizations to assign users only the access they need to create and deploy Glint surveys, without granting broader administrative permissions. This targeted role is especially valuable for initiatives like AI transformation, hybrid work, and other change management employee listening programs.
New Permissions in Viva Glint
o We are introducing permissions for Advanced Configuration, Question Library, Service Configuration (settings), Nudges, and Viva Integrations, offering more granular control over platform access and management. All existing Company Admins will be granted Advanced Configuration access by default.
o Company Admin is now renamed to Viva Glint Service Admin.
o Assignment of new service admins will now be restricted exclusively to the Microsoft Admin Centre (MAC), ensuring tighter governance and streamlined administration.
Copilot Reporting: Copilot will default to ON and move to VFAM as the single control. Starting in March 2026, Copilot in Viva Glint will default to ON for all customers, and the existing Glint admin toggles for Copilot access will be removed. From that point forward, Copilot access will be managed exclusively through Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM), providing a single, streamlined control consistent with other Microsoft Copilot experiences. This change reduces admin workload and ensures a more consistent governance experience. Please review your VFAM settings to prepare for this update. Should you have any questions about managing Copilot access through VFAM, please use this form to reach out to us. If you are part of EECC (formerly VCCP), find the registration link to join the upcoming session where we will cover this feature in detail in the ‘Upcoming events and learning opportunities’ section.
Copilot Reporting: Dynamic Topics with Copilot. In March, we will kick off the Dynamic Topics private preview with a small group of customers. By leveraging Copilot, this functionality is designed to enhance the relevance and context of comment themes by extending beyond the current static set of topics and identifying customer-specific topics that can be tracked over time. These custom topics will remain confined to your platform and will not be accessible to Microsoft or other customers. While the initial private preview cohort is full, we may expand preview access as the program progresses so please stay tuned. General availability for Dynamic Topics is targeted for later this spring.
Sign Up for Copilot Highlights | Preview. The private preview of Copilot Highlights—a dashboard feature that instantly summarizes survey results, highlighting team strengths, opportunities, and engagement trends—is now live, with customer access being enabled in phases. This feature helps managers and leaders quickly assess team status, pinpoint focus areas, and celebrate achievements. Customers can continue to express interest in joining by signing up here.
Sign Up for Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Preview. Improve actionability for focus areas like “Work-life balance” and “Collaboration” by bringing in workplace metrics from Viva Insights. This feature will help Senior Leaders in your organization look at supplementary data points to understand survey responses and have a more data-driven discussion with their organizations on what can be improved in these areas. Between survey cycles, this continuous data will also help you keep your teams on track. Private Preview is targeted for March 2026, but earlier builds are available starting in January, with the opportunity to give feedback. You must enable data flow from Insights to Glint on your tenant to use this feature. Express your interest here.
Sign Up for Employee Feedback Agent | Preview. Enhance your Employee Listen program with The Employee Feedback Agent a dynamic, AI-powered conversation, where employees can share what matters most through natural, chat-like interactions, whether prompted or always-on, enabling real-time feedback and deeper insights into the drivers behind their experiences. By combining Copilot intelligence and People Science principles, the agent streamlines feedback collection and reduces administrative overhead for HR and leaders. Unlike traditional Copilot tools that simply summarize information, the Employee Feedback Agent collects experiential data through probing questions and back and forth conversations with employees. Future capabilities will expand impact with an actionable insights reporting experience, accelerating the “feedback-to-action” cycle. Be among the first to experience a new era of continuous engagement and actionable feedback with the Employee Feedback Agent. To express your interest in joining please complete the following: Private Preview: Glint Employee Feedback Agent – Fill out form
Integrating with Organization Data | Preview. Viva Glint is introducing integration with Organizational Data in Microsoft 365, providing an enterprise‑grade approach to connecting people data across Viva experiences. This preview establishes a consistent, governed data foundation that supports trusted insights today and prepares organizations for future Copilot experiences—aligned with Microsoft 365–level controls and management. Join the preview to explore what’s possible, share feedback, and help shape the future of organization data integration in Viva Glint. Express your interest here.
See our public roadmap for more feature updates.
Events and learning opportunities
Viva Glint & Pulse EECC (formerly VCCP) customer engagement sessions
Previous sessions:
February 5th – Copilot Highlights in Viva Glint
In this session, we shared an overview of the Copilot Highlights capabilities that are currently in private preview as well as plans for upcoming feature enhancements and facilitated an open discussion to gather feedback with the goal of better understanding the features and improvements that matter most to you as early adopters. If you are a member of EECC and in the Viva Glint Teams channel, you can access the session recording here.
Upcoming sessions (please note you must be opted-in to EECC in order to attend upcoming sessions):
February 12th – Copilot Default ON and VFAM Controls
Register here
In this session, we’ll walk through an upcoming update where Copilot will default to ON in Viva Glint, and Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) becomes the single, consistent control for managing Copilot access—aligned with the broader Microsoft 365 Copilot experience. As part of this change, the existing Glint service‑level Copilot toggles within the user roles will be removed, simplifying administration. Copilot access in Viva Glint will be governed centrally through VFAM, which is typically managed by your Microsoft 365 Global Admin.
February 26th – Journey to Becoming a Frontier Firm
Register here
This session is designed for organizations exploring how AI, Copilot, and agentic workflows can accelerate AI transformation across your business. Members of our Copilot Growth team will be discussing the newly developed Frontier Transformation playbook which is designed to help organizations understand critical steps towards becoming a frontier firm using agents to modify how work gets done. We’ll also provide specific use-cases for AI adoption tied to key functions within your organization and leave you with an understanding of where your organization currently stands in becoming frontier-ready.
If you are not yet a member of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC-formerly VCCP) but would like to participate in upcoming sessions, as well as gain access to numerous other engaging and valuable Glint and Pulse customer activities, please see the sign-up information in the ‘Connect with us’ section.
New Thought Leadership
Research Drop: Fighting AI Slop with Meta-Cognition Around AI. Organizations are racing to adopt AI, but 60% of employees skip accuracy checks, leading to "workslop" – rushed, low-quality output that erodes trust. Our latest research shows the difference between employees who get real value from AI and those who don't isn't how often they use it; it's how thoughtfully they use it. And building better habits doesn't require technical training. When leaders openly share how they use AI and teams feel safe discussing what's working, employees become far more intentional. By focusing on the quality of AI use, not just the quantity, leaders can turn adoption into lasting impact. Read it here.
Customer Success Stories
Our very first Viva Glint Partner Story—featuring HRIZONS—is now officially live! HRIZONS EX partnered with a global skin care company to transform its employee listening program from a traditional high‑engagement survey model into a continuous engine for manager enablement, organizational alignment, and workforce effectiveness. By shifting from survey “deployment” to “action activation,” HRIZONS EX co‑created tailored tools and enablement for managers and HRBPs—including guides, content, and rollout support—to strengthen accountability and ensure employee feedback consistently turned into meaningful action. The program moved from periodic measurement to continuous improvement, embedded self‑sustaining capabilities across survey cycles, and unlocked efficiencies through early use of Microsoft 365 Copilot with Viva Glint. The result: greater clarity, scalability, and manager ownership of employee experience outcomes. You can read the full story here.
For more information about partner services, you can check out this blog post and for general partner queries, please reach out to our partner success team (vivaglintpartners@microsoft.com).
Connect with us
We’re excited to share an important evolution of our VCCP community.
The Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) is now the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program — a name that reflects the expanded scope and value of this community as employee experiences continue to evolve with Viva and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
What’s changing
- Viva Customer Connection Program is now the Employee Experience Customer Connection program
- Our shared mission: “Employee experiences powered by M365 Copilot and Viva.”
- Invites & communication will be from Employee Experience Customer Connection
What’s staying the same
- Continued expansion of product team engagement for Employee Experiences powered by Viva and M365Copilot
- Forums for you to influence product direction & unlock value for your organization
- Early insight into product roadmap
- Private preview engagement opportunities
- Connection with other enterprise customers
If you’re interested in joining, please fill out this form so we can guide you through the enrollment process and help you get started.
We look forward to partnering with you to build better products—together.
Microsoft