Forum Discussion
Feedback about MS-102 retirement
TL;DR: I don't think you should retire the MS-102 as it really is a big downgrade losing and expert M-365 administor certification just for it to be replaced by an unrelated and under leveled AI Services administrator one.
Hello community,
This is my first post and I think it's a good time to open a thread to share some feedback about the retirement of the MS-102 exam and certification and I encourage others learners and users to do the same.
For those who don't know It was announced last June 25th that exam MS-102 and Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert are retiring October 2026 replaced by AB-650 Microsoft 365 Certified: AI Services Administrator Associate, exam beta on July 26.
You can check the announcement here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/skills-hub-blog/microsoft-credentials-roundup-june-2026/4528350?WT.mc_id=studentamb_165290
I was shocked to read that because last week I scheduled my exam and I didn't see any notice about future retirement. I just rechecked today and there isn't still any update on the retirement on the MS-102 cert or exam pages:
Cert page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/m365-administrator-expert/
Exam page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/ms-102/
So even today, lot's of users are scheduling the MS-102 exam right now without knowing that it is expected to be retired soon
I think's it's a weird move to retire an expert Microsoft 365 administrator certification just for it to be replaced by just an associate certifciation AI Services Administrator Associate. So we lose and expert certification abount managing M365 and we can only get an associate certification about AI services in it's place
I think it would've better to have AB-650 as an additional certification, maybe even a prerequisite for the M365 Administrator Expert just like MS-700 or the SC-401
Lot's of recruitments department look for expertise about managing M365 and MS-102 take a big part on lot's of admins resumes to provee their knowledge about managing M365, so we won't only lose a cert or exam, we lose a way to prove knowledge about managing M365 at an expert level.
I've read lot's of users complaining about this retirement and I hope you could get feedback about it and rearrange this move.
Thank you for reading.
39 Replies
Can people with the MS‑102 certification renew it to the AB‑650 designation, or do they need to take the AB‑650 exam as a completely new certification?
You need to do te AB-650 exam.
Need to take the new exam.
It doesn't make any sense replacing a Expert Cert to Associate Cert.
I totally agree the OP points!
At the mean time I have got the renewal notice of my MS-102.
If the final decision is made for AB-650 reaplacing MS-102, is there any renewal test transitioning to AB-650?
Or I need to take another Eaxm?No renewal, transition exam (which could have been a viable option) to the ab exam. Im more concerned dor the learners doing this right now, the lack of coms on expiry and yeah the downgrade.
And what's the forum to join the content development. Im sick of the dog poo they are producing for our learners. Its gone the same way of the monthly patches for goodness sake. Ms 102 takes a solid 6 to 12 months to pass. And now More pressure. I had one learner cry on the phone lastnight.
Honestly its a shock. I had booked my exam 2 months ago but due to different reasons I had to reschedule it. Now I have it booked after 10days. Don't know how should I plan. Take it or change it to another one, but I had a voucher for it.
The decision seems short-sighted at best. As others have pointed out, it makes no sense to replace the MS-102 with an associate cert that is only moderately adjacent.
But then, retiring AZ-204 when it was still one of the top 5 courses across NA,EMEA, APAC was also short-sighted.
Im sitting for the MS-102 on Friday. I have multiple different MS Certs and the MS-102 is very beneficial from a practical hands-on perspective. Not every SMB is going to be interested in Co-Pilot. Absolutely every SMB is going to want to get the most out of Entra, Defender, Purview, Intune, etc... based on what their license subscriptions afford them.
Also, for those who have passed the exam it's a slap in the face. They've achieved a real milestone by earning an expert-level designation and Microsoft is going to take that away a d basically say 'that knowledge doesn't deserve an expert level credential'. I'd be different if the MS-102 was being replaced with the MS-104 which was still expert-level, but had new CoPilot-related knowledge requirements.
Please reconsider this decision.
Intune is not in MS-102.
Entra, Defender, Purview, Intune already have their own exams.
Just so you are taken in the right direction Dbibs , as a learner and not guessing exam codes on suggested pathways
Intune - MD-102
Entra, Defender, Purview - SC-200, SC-300, MS-102, SC-100 and SC-500 (old rehashed Az-500)
MS certifications are becoming a joke in the industry now. I passed my MS102 last year.
Replacing an Expert cert with an unrelated Associate cert makes no sense at all, unless the agenda is just to push unnecessary AI crap into the certification.
With MS retiring important certs so frequently, I'll be suggesting professionals in the field to pursue a different vendor going forward.
I agree and to say that this disappointing is an understatement. My staff and myself were already booked for the exam when we read the news. The thing is, even on our partner portal, you can see that MS-102 is one of the prerequisites to get the Copilot Specialization and nothing has been updated yet:(https://partner.microsoft.com/en-gb/partnership/specialization/microsoft-copilot#tab-3)
I don’t understand this, why retire a expert level exam and replace it by a associate exam? So Microsoft is stopping with the expert level exams? Microsoft 365 is so big and MS-102 is a big part of the current Microsoft 365 certification flow. I know AB-650 is coming and covers lot of topics about MS-102 but also with a lot of AI slop..
With the expiration of MS-102 we will lose a core Microsoft 365 certification (same as the retirement of MS-900) and the Microsoft 365 exams are already not fully covering everything. A couple of years ago the retired Exchange en SharePoint end now there is no exam that’s covering that part good.
I like to see that te Microsoft 365 exams are take seriously by Microsoft and that whe have some good exams that help us with the rol we have. Now we have a lot of AI slop and lose a important expert level exam for the AI hype…
.LibertyMunson can you of your team please communicate clear about the retirement of MS-102 and the roadmap for Microsoft 365 exams?
Just adding my thoughts here because I’m completely on the same page.
I honestly don’t get the logic behind retiring an expert‑level exam like MS‑102 and replacing it with an associate‑level one. Microsoft 365 is massive, and MS‑102 has been one of the few certifications that actually reflects the depth of what we do day‑to‑day. Losing it feels like we’re removing a key part of the certification path. I am the guy that did both your 100/101 and the beta of 102 and to have this AI chucked at us after removing SPO and EXO exams.
AB‑650 might cover some of the MS‑102 content, sure, but it also brings in a lot of AI‑heavy material that doesn’t replace the core admin and engineering skills the expert exam validated and we actually use daya to day. With MS‑900 already gone, and the Exchange and SharePoint exams retired years ago (which im still peeeeeeeeed about), we’re left without any proper certification that covers those workloads — even though they’re still critical in real environments. Want proof, check how many 3rd party content sites the MCTs are using for SPO and EXO, check and your see.
It really feels like the Microsoft 365 exams aren’t being treated with the seriousness they deserve. We need solid, role‑based exams that actually map to the responsibilities we have, not more AI‑focused content replacing foundational and expert‑level material. And we also need actual content deigners and writer and not AI slop or 3rd parties who put slop together, much like the refreshed md-102.
Could you or someone from the team please give some clear communication around the retirement of MS‑102 on the actual pages, why the change at a fundamental/curriculum planning structure and what the roadmap looks like for Microsoft 365 certifications going forward? A lot of us rely on these exams for professional development, for training work (IE contract work) and planning, so knowing the direction at this point will forge my participation going forward
There was an opportunity for MCTs to discuss with the content leads exactly on this change to the curriculum but only a handful of us bothered to attend.
Monthly MCT Content Community - Copilot Curriculums | Microsoft Community Hub
As a community lead, ill be fighting to reverse this decision. Your logic here for a prereq and expert current vs intermediate is why ill fight. Ill jump on the monthly call soon
