Microsoft adds Mistral model to Copilot Studio with admin opt-in only

Microsoft added Mistral Medium 3.5 to Copilot Studio for customers in early release environments. Microsoft describes it as an experimental model for agent building and orchestration, with non-production testing recommended while evaluations continue. Admins must complete two steps before makers can use it: opt in through the Microsoft 365 admin center, then enable external model providers for selected environments in the Power Platform admin center. Until both switches are on, the model does not appear in the Copilot Studio model picker.
Before this update, many SharePoint and Teams admins could treat Copilot Studio model choice as a platform detail handled inside Microsoft’s default stack. The new option gives organisations more flexibility, especially around regional data handling, but it also creates another decision small admin teams must document. That matters because agent pilots are already hard to govern when Teams ownership, SharePoint permissions, and stale content are unresolved. A new model choice does not fix those basics; it makes the need for a narrow pilot, named owner, and clean content boundary more urgent.
Analysis
Leave the tenant-level switch off until you have a named pilot owner, a non-production environment, and a written rule for which SharePoint and Teams content the test agent may use. Treat it as a controlled model pilot, not a default upgrade.
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