Microsoft has officially rolled out Action Segments for Organizational Messages in Microsoft 365, a feature that lets IT administrators dynamically direct adoption prompts at users who haven’t touched Copilot recently. The capability reached general availability in May 2026, according to the Microsoft 365 roadmap entry updated July 13, 2026, under ID 503563. Instead of manually curating distribution lists or building complex dynamic groups in Microsoft Entra ID, admins can now select predefined, usage-based audiences and let the system handle eligibility automatically.

The change is subtle on the surface but eliminates a significant administrative chore for enterprises pushing Copilot adoption. It also marks a shift from static, group-based messaging to behavior-driven targeting within the existing Organizational Messages framework—without introducing new surveillance mechanisms or sprawling new admin consoles.

The two Copilot inactivity segments that ship at launch

General availability kicks off with precisely two segments, both laser-focused on Copilot dormancy:

  • Inactive Copilot users — licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users who have not used the service at all in the previous 28 days.
  • Inactive Copilot users in Teams — licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users who have not used Copilot specifically inside Teams in the previous 30 days.

These segments are defined and maintained by Microsoft, not by the tenant. An admin creating an organizational message simply picks one of them as the target audience. No query rules, no PowerShell scripts, no synchronization delays. The underlying telemetry that powers the Copilot adoption dashboard feeds the segments, so eligibility refreshes as users either start using Copilot or lapse again.

Microsoft’s documentation refers to the feature interchangeably as usage-based targeting and Action Segments. For the initial release, it is explicitly not a general-purpose segmentation engine. The only audiences available are the two Copilot inactivity segments, and Microsoft has not announced expansion into other Microsoft 365 workloads or persona types.

Where these prompts actually appear

Action Segments don’t invent new message surfaces. They plug into the established Organizational Messages channels:

  • Windows Spotlight (lock screen)
  • Windows taskbar
  • Windows Notification Center
  • Microsoft Teams notifications

That means a nudge for an inactive Copilot user could surface as a taskbar badge, a lock-screen tip, or a Teams pop-up—depending on how the admin configures the campaign. The message itself is created in the Microsoft 365 admin center, with options for custom text, links, and scheduling. Because the target segment is dynamic, a user who starts using Copilot stops being eligible, and the prompt won’t appear or will disappear from the queue.

The feature is not, however, an instant broadcast system. Microsoft warns that non-urgent organizational messages follow a pull-based delivery model. After scheduling, it can take several hours for delivery eligibility to be evaluated, and Windows devices might not receive the message until their next 24-hour check-in cycle. In practice, a campaign aimed at inactive Copilot users might not reach everyone on the same day—something that matters when measuring adoption uplift.

What this means for IT administrators

For the IT pro who has been tasked with “doing something about Copilot adoption,” Action Segments remove the most tedious part of the workflow: identifying the right people. Previously, an admin had to export usage reports, correlate them with Entra ID group memberships, build a dynamic group (and wait for its membership to populate), and then point an organizational message at that group. It was a multi-day, sometimes multi-week, project that often required touching multiple admin centers.

Now the process shrinks to:

  1. Verify tenant prerequisites (more on those below).
  2. Go to Organizational Messages in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
  3. Create a new message, select the “Action Segment” targeting option, and pick either the general Copilot inactivity segment or the Teams-specific one.
  4. Compose the prompt, set a schedule, and publish.

The targeting stays fresh without manual intervention. If a user becomes active three days after the campaign launches, they drop out of the segment. No one has to remember to remove them from a group. Conversely, if a previously active user goes cold, they become eligible and the message can reach them.

For administrators who have been reluctant to invest time in adoption campaigns because group management was too brittle, this might lower the barrier enough to start testing. The feature also integrates with the existing Copilot adoption dashboard, so admins can see campaign engagement metrics—though Microsoft’s documentation does not detail how granular that reporting becomes with Action Segments.

What this means for end users

End users who never open Copilot may start seeing a gentle prompt—perhaps “Try Copilot in Teams to summarize your chat” on the taskbar or “Find out how Copilot can draft your emails” on the lock screen. These are the same types of organizational messages that IT already uses for security reminders, training pushes, or service announcements. They won’t look or behave differently; only the targeting logic changes.

Users who already use Copilot regularly should never see these particular prompts. They aren’t in the “inactive” segment, so the message simply skips them. That avoids the all-too-common scenario where a power user gets bombarded with “get started” tips they don’t need.

One nuance: because there are two separate segments, a user could be active in Copilot overall but still receive a Teams-specific nudge if they haven’t used the assistant inside Teams. That separation gives admins finer control without requiring them to build separate campaigns for different contexts.

Important requirements and gotchas

Before turning on an Action Segment campaign, admins need to check several prerequisites. The feature is not universally available to all Microsoft 365 tenants; it requires specific licensing and device configurations.

Licensing and roles:
- The administrator creating the message must hold the Organizational Messages Writer role.
- The tenant must have at least one qualifying E3 or E5 license across Microsoft 365, Office 365, or Windows Enterprise. This covers the advanced targeting and message customization capabilities. Tenants on lower-tier plans won’t see the Action Segment option.

Windows device requirements:
- Recipients must be on Windows 11 Enterprise, and the device must be Microsoft Entra ID-joined. Hybrid-joined devices (those also joined to on-premises Active Directory) are explicitly unsupported for Organizational Messages. Devices running Windows 10, Windows 11 Pro, or any other edition won’t receive these prompts.
- The tenant must have the necessary Organizational Messages policy settings configured. This includes enabling the feature at the tenant level and ensuring that Windows client policies allow the delivery of organizational messages to endpoints.

Delivery timing:
- As noted, messages are not real-time. Microsoft’s documentation states that “delivery eligibility can take several hours” after scheduling, and the Windows pull model means messages might not appear for 24 hours or more. For a pilot, it’s wise to wait at least two full days before checking engagement data.
- The feature is designed for non-urgent messages. If you need an immediate, guaranteed delivery, Organizational Messages—Action Segments or not—isn’t the right tool.

Segment refresh behavior:
- Microsoft has not published detailed documentation on how often the inactivity segments recalculate. However, given the 28-day and 30-day lookback windows, it’s reasonable to assume a daily refresh cycle. Ad hoc changes (a user suddenly using Copilot) may not immediately remove them from the segment; there could be a lag similar to other Microsoft 365 usage analytics.

How we got here

The path to Action Segments started with the broader organizational messages framework, which Microsoft has been extending for several years. Organizational Messages began as a way for IT to post company-wide announcements on Windows lock screens and taskbars, later adding Teams and Microsoft 365 surfaces. Initially, targeting relied entirely on Entra ID groups—powerful but static.

As Copilot became a top-down priority in many organizations, Microsoft’s own adoption dashboards showed a consistent pattern: a chunk of licensed users never engaged with the assistant. The manual group approach couldn’t keep up with the need to nudge only the truly inactive without annoying power users. Public preview of usage-based targeting appeared in December 2025, giving early adopter tenants a chance to test the Copilot inactivity segments. The feature reached general availability in May 2026, with the roadmap card marked “Launched” and last updated on July 13, 2026.

Since then, Microsoft’s documentation and release notes have not indicated additional segments are coming soon. The roadmap entry still shows only the two initial Copilot inactivity segments. The company’s June 2026 Copilot release notes simply confirmed GA for “usage-based targeting” without hinting at expansion. This suggests the feature is considered complete for its first purpose—boosting Copilot adoption—and further investment may depend on customer feedback.

What to do now

If you’re an IT admin who wants to use Action Segments, here’s a practical, step-by-step plan:

  1. Check licensing and device posture. Confirm your tenant has the required E3/E5 licenses. Audit the Windows client landscape to ensure target users are on Windows 11 Enterprise and Entra ID-joined. If you have hybrid-joined devices, you’ll need to either exclude those users or accelerate their cloud-only join—a larger project but one that aligns with Microsoft’s direction.

  2. Verify the Organizational Messages Writer role. Make sure the admin who will create the campaign holds this role. It’s often not assigned by default even to Global Admins because it’s a specific workload role.

  3. Test with a single, low-noise prompt. Start with the broader “Inactive Copilot users” segment rather than the Teams-specific one unless you have a clear Teams-push strategy. Craft a simple message—e.g., “Get started with Copilot: try summarizing an email today”—and set the schedule for a future date. Do not send it to the entire inactive population at first; if your tenant supports it, use a pilot group (though Action Segments itself doesn’t have a pilot mode, you can limit the campaign scope by choosing a segment and then manually excluding some users if needed through group exclusion, which is still supported).

  4. Wait at least 48 hours before measuring. Because of delivery lag, check back after two days to see how many devices received the message and whether any users clicked through or engaged. The Copilot adoption dashboard may show an uptick, but attribute it cautiously—campaigns like this often coincide with other adoption efforts.

  5. Iterate based on what you learn. If the first prompt drove measurable engagement, try a follow-up aimed at the Teams-inactive segment. If delivery rates were low, validate Windows policy settings and device enrolment. If users complained about spam, adjust the message frequency or tone.

  6. Keep an eye on segment refresh. Because eligibility is behavior-based, a campaign that runs for several weeks may gradually see its target audience shrink as users start using Copilot. That’s the intended outcome, but it also means follow-up campaigns may need different wording (“Welcome back—here’s what’s new in Copilot”) rather than the same initial nudge.

What to watch next

Microsoft has not yet signaled plans to add more Action Segments beyond Copilot inactivity, but the architecture is clearly extensible. It’s easy to imagine segments for users who haven’t used Teams meeting insights, OneDrive sharing, or Viva Engage in the past month—especially as Microsoft continues weaving AI into every Microsoft 365 surface. Any such expansion would likely come through the existing roadmap channel, so admins who want to influence the feature’s direction should use the Microsoft 365 feedback portal or their Microsoft account team.

For now, Action Segments deliver a narrowly targeted but long-requested capability: removing the admin busywork from Copilot adoption campaigns. If your organization has been struggling to get value out of its Copilot licenses, this feature is worth a test run—provided your Windows environment meets the requirements.