Microsoft Teams will begin using AI-powered phishing detection in early November 2026 to identify malicious behavior in messages, the company said. The rollout falls within a targeted release phase that Microsoft expects to wrap up by mid-November. General availability worldwide is likely to follow between early and mid-December.
Microsoft first disclosed the feature in a Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry last week. According to the company, the detection uses conversation context to flag phishing and suspicious behavior in higher-risk messaging scenarios, such as external first-contact chats, and it does so without retaining message content. In a Microsoft 365 Message Center update on Wednesday, Microsoft said the capability is intended to catch phishing, social engineering, impersonation attempts and deceptive intent.
The system examines conversation context to surface suspicious behavior that may lack traditional indicators such as malicious links or files, Microsoft said. IT admins will not need to take any action to turn the protection on, and it will focus on external first-contact chats for most users. Microsoft also said the feature will not retain customer data for further AI training or other uses.
In its Message Center update, Microsoft said the capability is used only for security protection and not for productivity, summarization, advertising, user monitoring or other non-security purposes. The company added that customer message content is not retained by the detection system for model training or other secondary uses.
The phishing detection is one item in a broader set of Teams security changes. In December, Microsoft announced that admins could lock external users via the Defender portal starting in January to thwart cybercrime groups, including ransomware gangs, that abuse Teams in social engineering attacks targeting victims' employees. In August, the company began rolling out a new Teams meeting protection policy that lets admins automatically block all identified external bots from joining meetings.
Last month, Microsoft said Teams will blur QR codes sent by external senders to better protect against fraud and phishing attempts. It also said users will be able to report suspicious guest invitations directly in Teams, helping security teams block phishing and other attacks that abuse guest invitations. In early October, the company announced plans to add support for third-party deepfake detection solutions and impersonation protection in Teams meetings.
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