News to Know – Volume 3, Edition 4, April 2026
This month’s newsletter brings you the latest updates, insights, and learnings to help you turn employee listening into action with Viva Glint & Pulse. As organizations continue to navigate AI-driven change, we’re focused on helping you measure what matters, understand impact, and sustain momentum across your employee experience strategy—with practical updates to support you every step of the way. New on your Viva Glint platform This section highlights new capabilities and updates now available to help you strengthen security, reporting, and administrative control in Viva Glint. Copilot reporting: Copilot Highlights. Copilot Highlights, now generally available, generates AI-powered summaries of employee survey results directly within Team Summary and Executive Summary reports, surfacing key insights like strengths, opportunities, score changes, and benchmark comparisons so managers and leaders can move from data to action faster. This release also brings multilingual support, with summaries generated in each user's configured Viva Glint language. Unlike Copilot comment summarization, which requires a higher number of survey respondents, Copilot Highlights works wherever managers already have access to dashboard data, making Copilot in Viva Glint valuable for a broader set of leaders across your organization. The feature is automatically available for anyone with Copilot in Viva Glint turned on. Learn more about the feature here and to get started or expand access to more users, see Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center. Copilot reporting: Copilot control migration to Microsoft 365 admin center. On April 30th, the Microsoft 365 Admin Center will become the single point of control for Viva Glint Copilot, consistent with other Microsoft Copilot experiences. As part of this change, the existing admin toggles for Copilot access in Viva Glint will be removed, and Copilot will default to ON at the Viva Glint platform level. Customers can transition to this new control model before April 30th by completing setup in Microsoft 365 admin center using Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) to configure Copilot access for Viva Glint. For more information, please visit Manage Copilot access in Viva Glint, Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center, and Data, privacy, and security for Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Glint. Reporting: Direct link to the default report from the dashboard. A new 'Filter in reports' button lets users open the dashboard’s default report view directly, making it faster and easier to navigate and analyze results. Survey: New Copilot measurement items. We’ve added seven new Copilot measurement questions to Viva Glint. Monitor and accelerate your Copilot transformation with the Glint Copilot Impact template now featuring 21 validated survey questions designed to measure and get valuable feedback on how well employees are adapting to and experiencing Copilot value in their work. You have the flexibility to use any number of these Copilot items when, where, and how it makes most sense at important moments in your Copilot journey, whether it’s a standalone Copilot survey, integrated into your Engagement survey, or deployed in Viva Pulse surveys for more targeted insights. Find more information here. Advanced Analytics: Viva Glint R and Python packages. A new R package (vivaglint) and Python package (vivaglint_py), designed to make it easier to work with your Viva Glint raw data export for analysis and visualization, are now available. These packages offer functions for generating full correlation tables, conducting attrition linkage analysis, factor analysis, and more based on your raw survey data exports. Learn more here. Coming soon to Viva Glint The following section offers an early look at capabilities coming to Glint shaping the future of continuous listening, analytics, and AI‑powered insight. Copilot-supported commenting for Viva Glint survey takers | Generally Available in May. Viva Glint survey takers will soon be able to use a streamlined Microsoft Copilot experience directly within surveys to help refine their written feedback. Copilot can help rephrase comments, making it easier for employees to express their thoughts clearly and confidently. By reducing identifiable writing patterns and simplifying the process of providing thoughtful feedback, this feature helps foster a greater sense of privacy and ease. This, in turn, can encourage higher participation, more detailed responses, and more candid insights—ultimately helping organizations gain a richer, more actionable understanding from their surveys. Additional controls for data flow from Insights to Glint | Generally Available in May. Starting in May, when you enable data flow from Insights to Glint, you will have the ability to exclude specific users and groups from having their metrics sent over. The control will be available in the Viva Glint section of Viva Feature Access Management in the M365 Admin Center. This is useful for tenants who operate in regions or parts of the organization where further approvals are needed to use workplace metrics data. You can exclude those users and groups from the feature until you get the approvals needed. Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Preview. Improve actionability for Work-Life Balance and Collaboration focus areas by integrating Viva Insights workplace metrics into Glint reporting. This feature will help Senior Leaders in your organization access supplementary data points, in conjunction with survey responses, to better understand their team's experience and conduct more data-driven discussions on what can be improved in these areas. Private Preview is targeted in May 2026. Future capabilities will include notifications between survey cycles to keep team health top of mind for leaders, including notable metric differences in the Glint Copilot Results Summary and the ability to map additional Viva Insights and Copilot metrics to survey items including custom questions. To express your interest, please complete the following: Private Preview: Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics. If you are already part of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program, request to join our Workplace Patterns & Continuous Listening EECC Teams subchannel through the main Glint EECC Teams channel so you can iterate on the future of continuous engagement with the product team in monthly calls. If you aren’t already part of the EECC, see the Connect with us section in this newsletter for more details on how to join. 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 dialogue with employees. Future capabilities will expand impact with an actionable insights reporting experience, accelerating the “feedback-to-action” cycle. The initial private preview cohort is closed but please stay tuned for more information about when this experience will be generally available. Raw Data Export API Egress | Preview. Unlock seamless, automated access to raw survey data—no more manual downloads. Built on Microsoft Graph, these APIs make integrations easier and help admins move faster with greater efficiency. Express your interest here. See our public roadmap for more feature updates. Events and learning opportunities Stay up to date with upcoming events, recent documentation updates, customer engagement opportunities and highlights from EECC customer sessions—designed to help you learn, connect, and get more value from Viva Glint & Pulse. Recent documentation enhancements: Have technical questions about Viva Glint? Microsoft Learn is your best source for clear, current guidance. We continue to expand and refine our documentation to add detail on new capabilities, address frequent questions, and strengthen the topics customers rely on most. These updates improve clarity and consistency, making it easier to use Viva Glint with confidence. Below are a few of the most impactful updates now live on Microsoft Learn: eNPS details and setup steps and translations clarification added to question setup guidelines Improved guidance around user role set up Cascading Focus Area instructions added to Focus Area creation overview Clarification to PPT export details Survey distribution setup clarification for Lifecycle surveys Updates to setting up a unique 360 admin role & a rater group note added to the subject experience Greater detail provided around attribute selection for Alerts report Additional guidance added around setting up role access to survey results Important notes added around attribute naming and date attributes in attribute fundamentals Customer Engagement Opportunities: Call for Input | Help shape the future of the Glint admin experience. We’re looking to partner with Viva Glint admins to better understand where the admin experience can be improved—and where AI can make a meaningful difference. 1) Share your feedback. We’d love your quick input on areas that feel unclear, slow, or harder than they should be across the admin experience. Your feedback will help us identify common friction points and uncover gaps we may be missing. Take the survey here. 2) Collaborate with us. If you’re interested in going deeper, we’re also looking for admins to partner with the Glint Admin Agent team. We’re exploring how AI can help streamline key admin tasks—reducing manual effort and simplifying complex workflows. You’ll have the opportunity to share specific scenarios, co-create solutions, and help shape early concepts. Please sign up here. If you’re open to providing feedback or partnering with us, we’d really value your perspective! Upcoming EECC Customer Engagement Sessions: April 23rd-Notifications and Nudges Admin Experience in Viva Glint If you are a member of the EECC program, register here to take part. Join us for an upcoming EECC session focused on understanding how organizations are leveraging survey notifications and Nudges within Microsoft Glint today, and where there may be opportunities to enhance the experience moving forward. This session is designed to facilitate open discussion with Viva Glint admins to validate early ideas and gather feedback that can help inform future improvements to notification capabilities. During this interactive forum, we will explore current notification workflows used in survey programs, share initial insights gathered through existing customer feedback channels, and introduce early concepts related to enhancements in the notifications and Nudges space. Attendees will have the opportunity to provide direct input on areas where the platform may not fully meet their needs today, particularly from an administrative and program design perspective. By attending, you can expect to: Share feedback on existing notification and Nudge functionality to help influence future platform direction Learn how other organizations are approaching survey communications within their programs Engage in discussion around potential improvements and enhancements to notification experiences Provide input on early-stage concepts aimed at increasing adoption and effectiveness of Nudges 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 below. New Thought Leadership Explore the latest research and perspectives from our People Science team on leadership, AI, and the evolving employee experience. Research Drop: Tracking the Rise of Perceived AI Value at Work. AI adoption is rising, but usage alone doesn’t tell us whether work is actually getting better. Our latest research shows that employees’ perceived value of AI has increased over time, with RIVA favorability rising 9 points across three cross‑industry studies, signaling a shift from experimentation to more integrated, value‑generating use. But that value isn’t evenly distributed. Industry, organization size, job level, and function all shape who benefits and how quickly. As employees build fluency and apply AI to more complex work, value tends to compound, but only when organizations create the right conditions. Enabling repeatable, meaningful integration into everyday work is key to continued momentum. Read it here. Connect with us Stay engaged with the Viva Glint & Pulse community through the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program. 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.
Copilot in Viva Glint user role control change (from April 30)
Hi team, hope you are doing well. I read https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/glint/copilot/admin-enable about Copilot in Viva Glint user role control change, beginning April 30. What will bring this impact on customers for example, who turns on only for HR user role? Thank you for your support in advance!News to Know – Volume 3, Edition 3, March 2026
This month’s newsletter brings you the latest updates, insights and learnings to help you turn employee listening into action with Viva Glint & Pulse. As organizations continue to navigate AI-driven change, we’re focused on helping you measure what matters, understand impact, and sustain momentum across your employee experience strategy. New on your Viva Glint platform This section highlights new capabilities and updates now available to help you strengthen security, reporting, and administrative control in Viva Glint. User access: Roles and permission enhancements. In our March release, we’re introducing updates that improve security and provide more flexible, least-privilege access for enterprise organizations. Learn more here. New role: Survey Designer The Survey Designer role helps organizations assign access specifically for creating and deploying Viva Glint surveys—without granting broader administrative permissions. This targeted role is useful for programs such as AI transformation, hybrid work, and other change-management employee listening initiatives. New permissions: We’re introducing more granular permissions for Advanced Configuration, Question Library, Service Configuration (settings), Nudges, and Viva integrations. Existing Company Admins will be granted Advanced Configuration access by default. Company Admin is now renamed Viva Glint Service Admin. Assignment of new service admins will be restricted to the Microsoft 365 admin center for tighter governance and streamlined administration. Copilot reporting: Copilot control migration to Microsoft 365 admin center. Starting in March 2026, Viva Glint will use the Microsoft 365 admin center as the single control plane for Copilot access—consistent with other Microsoft Copilot experiences. As part of this change, the existing admin toggles for Copilot access in Viva Glint will be removed, and Copilot will default to ON at the Viva Glint platform level. Customers can transition to this new control model between March and April 2026 after completing setup in Microsoft 365 admin center using Viva Feature Access Management (VFAM) to configure Copilot access for Viva Glint. For more information, please visit: Manage Copilot access in Viva Glint, Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center, and Data, privacy, and security for Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Glint. Reporting: Privacy safeguard for live response rate reporting. For Live surveys, the Add section side pane in reporting is now limited to response-rate visuals only: Response rate history and Response rate by demographic. All score and results visuals have been removed to reinforce privacy safeguards and ensure response rate reporting remains aligned to intended use by restricting users with access to the response rate report during survey live to view response rate information only. Learn more here. Reporting: Dashboard default tag on Reports landing page. On the Reports screen, report tiles that sit behind a dashboard experience now include a Dashboard default tag—making it easy to see, at a glance, which report is connected to a dashboard. Reporting: Benchmark refresh schedule and opt-in reminder. Global benchmarks, including High‑Performing Global benchmarks (Top 25% and Top 10%), have been refreshed and include data collected from January 2025 through December 2025. Industry, Country, and Region benchmarks are currently scheduled to be refreshed and released in July. To access external benchmark comparisons in reporting, customers must opt in to benchmarking. Opting in increases the overall benchmark data pool, improves data coverage, and supports a broader set of benchmark suites. Customers who have not opted in won’t be able to view or include external benchmarks in their reports. Coming soon to Viva Glint The following section offers an early look at capabilities coming to Viva Glint shaping the future of continuous listening, analytics, and AI‑powered insight. Copilot Highlights | General Availability in April. Copilot Highlights, currently in preview, moves to general availability in April 2026. This feature generates AI-powered summaries of employee survey results directly within Team Summary and Executive Summary reports, surfacing key insights like strengths, opportunities, score changes, and benchmark comparisons so managers and leaders can move from data to action faster. General availability also brings multilingual support, with summaries generated in each user's configured Viva Glint language. Unlike Copilot comment summarization, which requires a higher number of survey respondents, Copilot Highlights works wherever managers already have access to dashboard data, making Copilot in Viva Glint valuable for a broader set of leaders across your organization. The feature is automatically available for anyone with Copilot in Viva Glint turned on. To get started or expand access to more users, see Manage Viva Glint Copilot access in Microsoft 365 admin center. Additional controls for data flow from Viva Insights to Viva Glint | GA in May. When you enable data flow from Viva Insights to Viva Glint, you will now have the ability to exclude specific users and groups from having their metrics sent over. The control will be available in the Viva Glint section of Viva Feature Access Management in the M365 Admin Center. This is useful for tenants who operate in regions or parts of the organization where further approvals are needed to use workplace metrics data. You can exclude those users and groups from the feature until you get the approvals needed. Advanced Analysis: vivaglint R package | Interest form. We’re working on vivaglint, a new R package designed to make it easier to work with your Viva Glint raw data export for analysis and visualization. This package will offer functions for generating full correlation tables, conducting attrition linkage analysis, factor analysis, and more. If you’d like early access and a chance to shape what we add next, please complete this interest form so we can follow up with details. Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics | Preview. Improve actionability for Work-Life Balance and Collaboration focus areas by integrating Viva Insights workplace metrics into Viva Glint reporting. This feature will help Senior Leaders in your organization access supplementary data points, in conjunction with survey responses, to better understand their team's experience and conduct more data-driven discussions on what can be improved in these areas. Between survey cycles, leaders can also enable notifications to keep track of changes in their team's workplace patterns, allowing them to keep a better pulse on behavior change commitments. Private Preview is targeted in May 2026. Future capabilities will include the ability to map Viva Insights and Copilot metrics to survey items and bring in additional data sources from M365, such as meeting metadata and content. To express your interest, please complete the following: Private Preview: Continuous Employee Engagement with Workplace Metrics. If you are already part of the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program, request to join our Workplace Patterns & Continuous Listening EECC Teams subchannel through the main Viva Glint EECC Teams channel so you can iterate on the future of continuous engagement with the product team in monthly calls. If you aren’t already part of the EECC, see the Connect with us section in this newsletter for more detail on how to join. Employee Feedback Agent | Preview. Enhance your employee listening 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 dialogue with employees. Future capabilities will expand impact with an actionable insights reporting experience, accelerating the “feedback-to-action” cycle. Our preview cohort is currently full but watch this space as we may look to add participants in future phases of the preview before GA planned for later this year. Integrating with Organization Data | Preview. Viva Glint is bringing integration with Organizational Data in Microsoft 365 to help you connect people data across Viva experiences with enterprise-grade governance. This preview creates a consistent, trusted data foundation—so you can unlock richer insights today and be ready for what’s next with Copilot experiences, backed by Microsoft 365–level controls and management. Join the preview to see what’s possible, share feedback, and help shape the future of organization data integration in Viva Glint. Express your interest here. Raw Data Export API Egress | Preview. Unlock seamless, automated access to raw survey data—no more manual downloads. Built on Microsoft Graph, these APIs make integrations easier and help admins move faster with greater efficiency. Express your interest here. See our public roadmap for more feature updates. Events and learning opportunities Stay up to date with upcoming events, recent documentation updates, and highlights from EECC customer sessions—designed to help you learn, connect, and get more value from Viva Glint & Pulse. Join us at SIOP: Viva Glint & Pulse Customer Happy Hour 🍸 We’re excited to invite Viva Glint & Pulse customers attending SIOP to a relaxed, in‑person happy hour reception on the opening day of the conference. This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow practitioners, swap perspectives, and spend some informal time with the Viva Glint & Pulse team. 📅 Date: April 29 ⏰ Time: 5:00–7:00 PM (approx.) 📍 Location: New Orleans (venue TBD, close to the SIOP conference site) 🍹 Format: Drinks and hors d’oeuvres, happy‑hour style 👥 Capacity: Limited to 30 attendees What to expect 5:00–6:00 – Networking & refreshments 6:00–6:20 – Short featured talk 6:20–7:00 – More networking and conversation Space is limited and expected to fill quickly. Register your interest using the link below to reserve your spot. We’ll share venue details with confirmed attendees closer to the event. 👉 Register to save your spot We hope you’ll join us for an easy, social way to kick off SIOP in New Orleans. Recent documentation enhancements: Have technical questions about Viva Glint? Microsoft Learn is your best source for clear, current guidance. We’ve expanded and refined our documentation to add detail on new capabilities, address frequent questions, and strengthen the topics customers rely on most. These updates improve clarity and consistency, making it easier to use Viva Glint with confidence. Below are a few of the most impactful updates now live on Microsoft Learn: Importing employee data & adding new attributes: new guidance for reviewing employee data and how to introduce new employee attributes without disrupting your existing configuration. Retroactive updates: options & requirements: we've clarified how to make employee data updates to closed surveys, with scenarios that help admins choose the right approach. Bulk Custom Access: now featuring a single source-of-truth for guidance on making updates to users’ custom access in bulk. Survey deactivation timing & time‑zone behavior: new specifics on how scheduled survey deactivation works when enabling notifications in user time zone. Nudge setup & eligibility clarification: expanded detail on how nudges are triggered, eligibility rules, and common setup questions. Focus Areas: now includes common FAQs when creating focus areas and using the Focus Area Overview Report. Previous EECC Customer Engagement Sessions: March 5th – Viva Glint Admin Experience In this session, members from our product team walked customers through upcoming enhancements to the Viva Glint product for survey admins and fielded a variety of questions and considerations from customers tied to those changes. If you or members of your team oversee the Viva Glint survey administration for your organization and are part of EECC, please visit the Teams channel to access the recording. March 12th – How to Drive AI Transformation at Your Org - Becoming a Frontier Firm This session was designed for HR teams to explore how AI, Copilot, and agentic workflows can accelerate AI transformation across their organization and to walk away with an understanding of where their orgs are currently on their AI transformation journey, ideas on how to further embed AI into key workflows, and a connection to Microsoft experts to support their efforts. During this session, our Copilot Growth colleagues walked through Frontier Firm Playbook, Frontier Playbook Assessment and Functional & Workforce Transformation Scenarios with the aim of empowering our customer contacts to understand how to drive AI transformation. If you are part of EECC, please visit the Teams channel to access the recording and deck. As a compliment to this session, we also published a new blog Spotlight on... AI Transformation & the Frontier Firm Playbook that highlights how Viva Glint and Viva Pulse and other tools can support becoming Frontier‑ready and sustaining value from AI investments. 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 Viva Glint and Pulse customer activities, please see the sign-up information below. New Thought Leadership Explore the latest research and perspectives from our People Science team on leadership, AI, and the evolving employee experience. Research Drop: Evolving Transformational Leadership in the Age of AI. AI is changing how work gets done, but it hasn’t changed what employees need most from their leaders. Our latest research shows that employees who feel supported to integrate agentic AI are 1.8x more likely to use it daily, yet a 28‑point gap separates how supported leaders feel versus how supported employees feel. How leadership behaviors show up in practice can make a big impact: When leaders model thoughtful AI use, personalize support beyond what technology can deliver, and share how AI is shaping their own work, employees show higher meta‑cognition, trust, and realized value. Transformational leadership still works, but in the AI era, it has to evolve. Read it here. Customer Success Stories See how organizations are using Viva Glint, Pulse, and Copilot to turn employee insight into measurable impact. Culture + Viva Glint + AI = A Scalable Model for Growth Ipsen, a global biopharmaceutical company with 5,500 employees, is transforming its culture to fuel an ambitious growth strategy—and using Microsoft Viva Glint, Copilot, and Copilot Studio AI agents to make the shift measurable, actionable, and scalable. Driving a Culture Shift with Measurement at the Core Ipsen launched a Culture Manifesto with 18 behavioral attributes aligned to strategy. These are measured annually through Viva Glint, using a transparent traffic‑light system that cascades results to every manager. This has created clear accountability and reinforced the company’s philosophy that culture is shaped through daily leadership choices. Accelerating Insight with Copilot Copilot is now used to speed the analysis of Viva Glint results—reducing time spent interpreting employee feedback and helping leaders focus on targeted, high‑impact actions. AI Agents Boost Consistency and Reduce Support Workload To further scale productivity, Ipsen introduced Copilot Studio–built AI agents in Microsoft Teams for HR, Legal, Business Ethics, and Finance (Ariba). Employees can ask natural‑language questions and get grounded, source‑linked answers, reducing repetitive requests and smoothing peak workloads. Measurable Results 📈 Engagement scores rose three points above benchmark 🟢 Culture attributes rated “green” increased from 10 to 12 🤖 AI agents are reducing routine support demand and improving consistency 🎯 Ipsen now attracts ~90,000 spontaneous applications per year, reinforcing its position as a talent‑magnet in mid‑pharma Why This Matters Ipsen shows how culture, leadership, and AI‑enabled productivity can work together. By combining Viva Glint’s measurement rigor with Copilot and function‑specific AI agents, Ipsen has created a sustainable, data‑driven model for growth—anchored in empowerment, inclusion, and modern ways of working. Connect with us Stay engaged with the Viva Glint & Pulse community through the Employee Experience Customer Connection (EECC) program. 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.Spotlight On... AI Transformation & the Frontier Firm Playbook
Introduction AI transformation is not a single launch – it’s a multi‑phase journey that blends strategy, change management, and measurable business outcomes. The Frontier Firm Playbook captures how leading organizations move from AI pilots to pervasive impact by aligning use cases to business value, scaling responsibly, and building momentum with the right metrics. This article shares how to apply that playbook in practice – and how Viva Glint and Viva Pulse together serve as the employee listening and insights backbone of the transformation, capturing signals of readiness, trust, adoption, and impact that usage telemetry alone cannot reveal. Pulse enables rapid, scenario‑specific feedback early and often, while Glint provides the enterprise‑grade analytics, benchmarking, and trend analysis required to govern and scale AI transformation. Why Follow the Frontier Firm Playbook? Frontier Firms are those that consistently turn AI’s potential into a durable competitive advantage. What sets them apart is how they manage the transformation: Intentional sequencing: They sequence initiatives from foundational readiness to pilot-scenario quick wins, to scaled adoption. Measuring what matters: They go beyond raw deployment counts – tracking usage, behavior change, and business outcomes together. Building trust & capability: They invest in upskilling, clear communication, and responsible AI guardrails to foster confidence and competence. Continuous feedback loops: They continuously listen to employees (and customers), using feedback to refine the program as it evolves. Crucially, Frontier Firms treat AI adoption as an organization-wide people transformation, not just a tech rollout. HR: Co-Owner of the Journey In successful AI transformations, HR is a named co‑owner of the Frontier Firm journey alongside IT and business leadership. That’s because lasting AI-powered change depends on new behaviors, skills, and cultural shifts at scale – domains where HR excels: Workforce transformation: AI adoption reshapes roles, skills, incentives, manager routines, and culture. HR functions as the strategic enabler for these workforce changes, ensuring people are prepared and supported. Skills and enablement: HR drives role-based training, upskilling, and change communications, so employees feel confident and know why and how to use AI. Employee listening & trust: HR uses Viva Glint and Pulse to gauge sentiment, trust, and pain points, giving leaders evidence to steer the change effectively. Bottom line: AI transformation is as much about people as technology. Empowering HR to co-lead – backed by robust employee insights – greatly increases the odds of success. Viva Glint & Pulse: A Layered Listening Model Frontier Firms use a layered listening approach. Viva Pulse captures fast, situational feedback during early rollout and experimentation, while Viva Glint consolidates sentiment, comments, and outcomes into a durable insight layer that leaders use to steer, govern, and scale AI adoption. Different data sets answer different questions: Telemetry (e.g., Copilot usage stats and license dispersion) shows what is happening – who is using AI, how often, in which apps. Business outcomes (KPIs like productivity or quality metrics) show what changed as a result of AI. Glint and Pulse measure why those results are happening in a way to guide direct action to address the feedback – revealing human factors like confidence, trust, friction points, and enablement gaps. Simply put, Glint and Pulse track workforce sentiment and adoption motivators throughout the AI journey, allowing organizations to continuously check in with employees and to leverage advanced analytics to uncover key insights. This real-time input highlights challenges or wins that metrics alone can't provide—such as identifying whether low usage stems from inadequate training, apprehension about AI, or workflow mismatch. By using Glint and Pulse, HR and leaders gain a trusted, central gauge of organizational readiness and sentiment. This allows them to address issues (e.g., low confidence or ethical concerns) proactively and to celebrate successes (e.g., improved productivity and morale) with credible data. The Frontier Firm Phases & What to Measure Successful AI transformation follows a deliberate, phased path. Frontier Firms progress through three stages: Foundation, Expansion, and Frontier. Across all phases, Frontier Firms follow a consistent measurement journey: early readiness feedback (Pulse), deep sentiment and trend analysis (Glint), and usage/outcome correlation (Viva Insights + Copilot reports). Phase 1: Foundation Goal: Ensure the organization is prepared — strategically and culturally — to adopt AI. Frontier Firms start by aligning AI scenarios to business priorities and establishing clear guardrails. Just as importantly, they assess whether employees understand why AI matters and feel confident using it. What to measure: Employee confidence and trust in AI Enterprise cultural readiness Awareness of priority AI scenarios and enablement coverage Awareness of strategic mission aligned to AI investments Early signals of hesitation, risk, or uneven preparedness HR’s role: HR co‑owns this phase by shaping the change narrative, segmenting the workforce for targeted enablement, and ensuring managers are equipped to lead adoption. Phase 2: Expansion Goal: Prove value quickly in a small number of high‑impact scenarios. In this phase, Frontier Firms focus on 2–4 pilot scenarios that demonstrate tangible benefits and build confidence across the organization. What to measure: Copilot usage depth and repeat use in pilot groups Self‑reported time savings and quality improvements Employee feedback on usefulness, accuracy, and friction HR’s role: HR partners with business leaders to reinforce new habits through role‑based learning, manager routines, and peer sharing. Phase 3: Frontier Goal: Embed AI into everyday work and sustain momentum responsibly. Once value is proven, Frontier Firms scale adoption with consistent enablement, governance, and continuous listening. What to measure: Adoption patterns by role, team, and region Links between AI usage, employee experience, and strategic business outcomes Ongoing trust, confidence, and enablement effectiveness HR’s role: HR helps embed AI into role expectations, capability models, and performance conversations, ensuring adoption is sustainable and inclusive. Why this matters Across all three phases, telemetry shows what's happening — but employee sentiment explains why. By pairing usage and outcome data with workforce sentiment, Frontier Firms reduce transformation risk, accelerate value realization, and scale AI with confidence. Your AI Transformation Measurement Stack To manage an AI transformation, you will draw on multiple sources of data and insights. Viva Glint and Pulse sit at the center of this measurement strategy, complemented by usage analytics and workplace analytics across Viva. The table below summarizes how each tool or signal contributes: Measurement Tool / Signal Role in AI Transformation (What It Captures) Viva Glint and Pulse – Copilot Survey Templates Employee sentiment and readiness. Pulse is typically used for early and recurring checks tied to specific Copilot/AI Transformation moments, while Glint is used to aggregate, analyze, and correlate sentiment with usage and outcomes over time. Purpose-built surveys templates for Readiness, Adoption, Impact can be deployed in Viva Glint or Pulse designed to capture baseline and ongoing sentiment on AI: e.g., awareness, confidence, trust, perceived usefulness, and enablement effectiveness. Reveals why people are or are not adopting. M365 Copilot usage & adoption analytics Usage telemetry. Dashboard and admin reports showing who is using Copilot, how often, and in which scenarios (when available). Key metrics include active users, active days per user, and usage trends by team or role. Shows what AI usage looks like across the org. Viva Glint + Insights – Workplace Patterns report Work pattern changes. Analyzes how work habits are shifting as AI is adopted: meeting hours, focus time, after-hours workload, cross-collaboration patterns, etc. Compare teams using Copilot vs. those not using it to see if work is getting streamlined (e.g., fewer meetings, more focus time). Viva Glint + Copilot – Employee Experience Outcomes report Experience vs. adoption link. Combines the above data to see if higher AI adoption correlates with improved employee experience. For example, do people who use Copilot feel they “can do my best work” more often? Is workload perception changing? Understanding sentiment with Copilot also helps us uncover: -high adoption but low satisfaction signaling, e.g., the need for more enablement -low usage/low satisfaction signaling, e.g., the need to explore deeper barriers and root causes Viva Glint + Engage - Ambient Signals report (in development) Integrated telemetry + outcomes + sentiment. In development: advanced analytics to link behavioral data with outcomes and sentiment in real time. This can pinpoint moments that matter – e.g., correlating a spike in AI usage with a boost in productivity or identifying where low trust feedback coincides with low adoption. Viva Glint - Employee Feedback agent (in development) Continuous listening at scale. In development: an on-demand, conversational feedback tool enabling quick pulse checks on specific topics. For instance, a manager could ask their team about a new Copilot feature, and an AI-driven summary of responses would feed into the program's next steps. Together, these tools provide a 360° view of your AI initiative. But it is the voice of your employees, the qualitative “why” layer as measured by Glint and Pulse, that gives context to the quantitative numbers. It ensures you do not misinterpret raw data and helps HR and leaders make informed adjustments (whether that's more training, tweaking a use case, or communicating success stories to build confidence). Example 90‑Day Plan To illustrate how all these pieces come together, here is an example of a 90-day rollout plan that can be piloted with a subset of the employee population before rolling out function –specific or enterprise-wide initiatives for kicking off the Frontier Firm journey: Weeks 0–4: Awareness & Readiness Deploy short readiness and expectation surveys using Viva Pulse to capture early sentiment on AI confidence, trust, and perceived value. Use Viva Insights to establish baseline Copilot usage and adoption patterns. Segment early adopters to inform a targeted pilot rollout strategy. Set clear adoption and experience success metrics and develop enablement materials. Weeks 5-8: Pilot, Learn, and Adjust Launch pilots with defined scenarios and success criteria. Continue Pulse check‑ins to monitor usefulness, friction, and enablement gaps. Analyze sentiment heatmaps and early resistance signals to refine the pilot approach. Begin correlating early sentiment with usage using Copilot Employee Experience Outcomes data where available. Weeks 9-12: Scale with Confidence Conduct Viva Glint engagement or Copilot Impact surveys to measure sustained confidence, trust, and enablement. Correlate Glint sentiment insights with usage and Workplace Patterns data to identify what is driving (or blocking) adoption. Identify success stories and positive adoption signals to amplify across the organization. Establish a recurring measurement rhythm using Glint and Pulse as the systems of record for ongoing governance. Throughout these 90 days, the insights from Glint, Pulse and other analytics are crucial – they ensure you’re not just checking technical metrics but truly understanding how employees are experiencing the change. Early feedback helps you iterate the program for greater success in subsequent waves. “What Good Looks Like”: Key Success Signals How will you know if your AI transformation is on track? Here are some leading indicators that Frontier Firms watch for: Adoption: ~60–70% of target users actively using AI at least weekly by the second month, with the average frequency of use per user rising steadily. This shows not only broad uptake but deeper habitual use. Employee Experience: Improvement in employee survey ratings on items like “I can do my best work” or “I have the tools and support I need,” indicating that people feel more effective and supported with AI. Productivity Gains: Measurable time savings in key workflows – for example, a 10–20% reduction in routine meeting time for pilot teams, faster completion of tasks like document preparation or case notes, etc. Quality Improvements: Signs of higher quality output in pilot areas, such as fewer revision cycles required or fewer escalations and errors in AI-assisted processes. Confidence & Trust: Increasing user-reported accuracy ratings and confidence in AI recommendations over time, reflecting growing trust as the technology proves its value. Sustainability: A growing and active community of champions, an expanding library of shared best-practice prompts, and a visible improvement backlog for the AI program. These all indicate that the initiative is building self-sustaining momentum beyond the initial push. These metrics should be interpreted in combination. For instance, a jump in usage is encouraging – but if experience or trust scores drop, it flags a risk (perhaps people feel pressure to use AI without support). That's why Glint’s qualitative insights are so vital to pair with quantitative metrics. Frontier Firms watch both, ensuring increased AI adoption also means employees feel more effective and empowered, not frustrated or threatened. Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them) Even with a solid plan, there are missteps to guard against. Here are a few common pitfalls in AI transformation – and how Frontier Firms avoid them: Staying vigilant about these pitfalls will help ensure your AI initiative delivers sustained results. In particular, never underestimate the people side – unaddressed fears or lack of support can derail even the best technology. By measuring and responding to the human signals, you mitigate transformation risks (e.g., catching early signs of fatigue or compliance concerns) and strengthen your case for scaling AI responsibly. Resources Embarking on the Frontier Firm journey requires both strategic vision and tactical execution. Here are some resources to help you move forward: Frontier Firm Playbook – Detailed guidance on AI transformation patterns, example scenarios, and maturity stages (Microsoft’s playbook) Frontier Firm Scenarios – A library of industry-specific AI use cases to spark ideas By following the Frontier Firm Playbook – and leveraging Glint and Pulse to keep a finger on the pulse of your organization – you can turn AI from a promising experiment into a sustainable, enterprise-wide capability. The result is not just successful AI adoption, but a more engaged, empowered workforce ready to innovate continuously. Good luck on your journey to becoming a Frontier Firm!
360 Feedback - feedback provider enquiries
Is there a limit of the max number of feedback providers (eg. peers, colleagues) that can be invited to response to the 360 feedback survey? I am aware that subject is allowed to invite more feedback provider. Can a manager invite more feedback provider on behalf of subject? If yes, how to configure this?Spotlight on… Glint and Pulse: A Year in Review Volume 1, Edition 3, December 2025
2025 has been a remarkable year for Microsoft Viva Glint and Viva Pulse—made possible by you, our customers. Your partnership, insights, and trust have shaped every step of our journey. Together, we delivered transformative integrations, reached new engagement milestones, and saw meaningful outcomes across the organizations we serve. This year, we introduced enhancements that not only strengthened the foundations of continuous listening but helped deliver more robust, actionable insights for organizations by deepening the connection across the Microsoft ecosystem – something we will continue to build upon. Furthermore, these advancements reflect the powerful momentum we can achieve through partnership with our customers. Starting Strong: No Downtime In early 2025, we announced the elimination of planned downtime for Viva Glint updates – a significant reliability win. Traditionally, updates meant 4–8 hours of system unavailability, disrupting survey-taking and reporting. With the new Zero Downtime Release (ZDR) process, updates became transparent, achieving ~99% availability for customers. Glint admins and end users no longer experience maintenance windows – a behind-the-scenes change that vastly improves continuity. Admin Self‑Service & Survey Experience Enhancements We enhanced admin self‑service to provide program owners with greater flexibility and improved efficiency. Additionally, updates were made to the survey experience to offer more data collection options and support better data quality. Here are some examples of features that were rolled out on the platform in 2025: Ability to manage attributes and hierarchies for more user data schema control. Controls to remove participants from results after cycle close—tightening data relevance. Cycle and user data management improvements, with controls to retain or remove identifiable information responsibly. Role clarity via the Viva Glint Tenant Administrator role in Microsoft Entra (dedicated permissions for admin center tasks and support) and the new Support User role for partners. Custom branding and persistent comment box in Glint surveys to allow for a more bespoke survey experience and encourage the provision of more actionable, insightful data. Pulse survey authoring delegation and large/dynamic audience capabilities introducing greater survey admin flexibility and reach. Identifiable and flexible end-date surveys in Pulse to allow for targeted pulsing and to support rolling data collection. Copilot survey templates available in Pulse, helping organizations measure AI transformation to drive ROI with consistent, research‑backed items with signals from these surveys seamlessly integrating into the Copilot Dashboard. Reporting Upgrades We took reporting beyond the dashboard and are continuing to focus on export improvements into 2026. We also brought in valuable benchmark comparisons to the platform this year: Team Summary export to editable PowerPoint—moved from static screenshots to fully editable content; widely adopted through private preview and broad availability. Executive Summary export and support for custom PPT templates are both now in private preview and will launch early next year. Global, Industry, Country & Regional benchmark suites are now available for use in the platform for all customers who opt in. All About Integrations... Glint Notifications & Teams In early 2025 we expanded Glint’s presence within Microsoft Teams, recognizing that for many managers and employees, Teams is the center of their workday. Now survey notifications, reminders, and nudges can appear directly in Teams chats and as rich adaptive cards, in addition to email. This “flow of work” integration has driven higher participation – customers report improved survey response rates when announcements pop up in Teams, where people are already collaborating. Managers also receive automated nudges via Teams, for instance a gentle reminder to share and discuss their team’s Glint results, or a prompt to follow up on an action plan. By meeting users where they are, we help busy teams close the feedback loop without relying solely on email. Glint & Pulse 2025 also saw the introduction of the new workflow allowing managers to launch a quick Pulse survey as a follow-up after reviewing their Glint engagement results. This closes the loop between less frequent engagement surveys and continuous listening: if Glint results identified, say, work-life balance as a concern, a manager could immediately send a targeted Pulse check-in on that topic to their team. Now organizations are empowered to move from insights to action faster than ever. In October 2025, we officially unified Viva Glint and Viva Pulse into a single offering. so that any customer with a Glint license automatically gets Viva Pulse as part of their subscription – at no additional cost. This change, essentially bundling the two products together, was driven by feedback and our belief that strategic engagement surveys (Glint) and agile pulse surveys (Pulse) are complementary tools for a healthy feedback strategy. Glint & Insights This broader Microsoft ecosystem integration has been a running theme, and last month, we achieved a major milestone by bringing Viva Glint data into Viva Insights and vice versa. A new Workplace Patterns report in Glint (developed in partnership with the Viva Insights team) allows HR and business leaders to overlay engagement survey results with collaboration metrics from Microsoft 365. For example, you can examine whether teams with consistently long working hours or excessive meeting load also show lower engagement in certain areas – connecting sentiment with behavioral data. Early adopters of this Glint–Insights integration have seen tremendous value. In fact, by the time of general release in Q4, we saw an 18% uptick in Glint-to-Insights data flows and a 32% uptick in Insights-to-Glint usage, as organizations embraced these combined insights to drive action. This integration is a great example of how Microsoft’s employee experience tools come together to provide holistic, data-driven narratives about the world of work. This month another extremely valuable analysis for Glint and Insights customers around AI transformation became available: the Copilot Employee Experience Outcomes Report highlights how Copilot usage correlates with stronger employee engagement and well‑being, showing that even small increases in usage can lead to measurable improvements in key experience outcomes. Copilot in Glint Another integration highlight from 2025 is around the continued investment and development of AI in the Glint platform. Throughout the year, the Glint team partnered with Microsoft 365 Copilot to add new AI capabilities, including expanded localization (70+ Glint-supported languages) so users can interact with Copilot in Glint in their preferred language. We also refined the Copilot experience with key quality improvements and a major model upgrade, delivering clearer, more accurate and faster responses. 2026 will see even more exciting Copilot developments in Glint. Copilot Highlights, a dashboard experience that assembles strengths, opportunities, and engagement trends at a glance, is now in private preview and will become available later next year. Streamlining Data Ingress & Egress In 2025, we began building Glint’s connection to Microsoft’s unified data platform, known as Microsoft Organizational Data Ingestion System (MODIS), and at the end of the year we kicked off our Glint MODIS private preview. MODIS streamlines how organizations bring HRIS data into Microsoft 365, reducing setup time and enabling consistent, secure data flows across Viva and beyond. For Glint, this unlocks faster onboarding, improved data quality, and a foundation for richer cross‑M365 insights. This will become available to all customers later in the year. Also related to our efforts to streamline data ingress/egress, the Raw Data Exports (RDE) API private preview will launch in 2026. This functionality will give customers more flexible, privacy‑aware access to Glint data for internal analytics and governance. Together, MODIS and RDE API represent the next phase of our integrations journey—modernizing data ingestion and export so customers can move from setup to insight even faster. Expanding Reach and Trust Alongside feature development, the team worked hard to make the products more scalable and accessible to organizations globally. In 2025 we expanded our service footprint with a new Australia Data Center coming online in September to better serve Asia-Pacific customers with in-region data residency. We also achieved Government Community Cloud (GCC-Moderate) compliance for Viva Glint in October, enabling U.S. public sector and regulated industry customers to use Glint in a compliant environment. These investments ensure that we can meet our customer's security, compliance, and performance needs everywhere in the world. Behind the scenes, the completion of the LinkedIn Glint to Viva Glint migration was another 2025 achievement. As of publication, 100% of all legacy Glint customers have migrated onto the Viva Glint platform. This was an effort spanning more than two years involving hundreds of customers, and its conclusion means all our customers are now on the latest and most extensible version of Glint, reaping the benefits of all new features. A huge thanks goes to our customers for partnering with us through that transition. With migration largely behind us and a unified platform, we can innovate even faster and serve everyone on a single, modern system. Building a Community of Feedback Champions A highlight of 2025 has been the growth of our customer community through the Viva Customer Connection Program (VCCP) for Glint and Pulse. This year, over 40 new organizations enrolled in our customer advisory program – adding over 80 individual customer experts (HR leaders, program owners, and IT admins) to co-create with us. Through monthly feedback sessions, early feature previews, and direct line conversations, this community has influenced our roadmap and helped us test new features, integrations and analytics before broad release. Customers who have taken part in these engagement opportunities have had direct influence on many of the wins we celebrated above. We want to thank all our VCCP members for their partnership – your feedback is invaluable. If you aren't a VCCP member yet but are interested in joining to take part in future customer engagements, please fill out this form. And so as 2025 draws to a close, a big thank you to our customers for your trust and feedback that fuel our innovation. The successes of 2025 set a high bar, and we’re excited to build on this foundation. With new features on the horizon (from more Copilot capabilities to deeper analytics and beyond), 2026 is poised to be another leap forward. We remain committed to your success and to our partnership in creating a workplace where every voice drives impact. Here’s to the year that was, and to the journey ahead in empowering employee voice and engagement and driving AI transformation! Happy New Year – and thank you for being part of the Viva Glint and Pulse story.Maximize Your Viva Glint Experience with a Microsoft Partner
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