Microsoft Is Retiring Release Plans: How to Track Business Central Updates Now

If you’re a Business Central customer or partner, part of your monthly routine is probably checking what Microsoft is about to ship. For years that meant two things: the twice-yearly Release Plans on Microsoft Learn, and the Release Planner tool where you could filter features, save views, and track rollout progress.

Both are going away. And it’s happening fast — the first cut is September 2026.

This isn’t a minor URL change. Microsoft is retiring the entire release wave model — the “Wave 1 / Wave 2” rhythm that’s governed Business Central disclosures for a decade — and folding everything into a single, continuously-updated destination called the AI at Work roadmap. If you rely on the old tools to plan adoption, train users, or advise clients, you need to rebuild that workflow before the switch.

Here’s exactly what’s changing, when, and how to keep tracking Business Central updates without missing a beat.

What’s Actually Changing

Microsoft announced this in late August 2026, and the mechanics are specific enough to plan around. Three things are happening at once:

1. Release Plans stop publishing. Beginning September 2026, no new release plans are published to Release Plans on Microsoft Learn. Existing plans stay online for historical reference, but the stream of new “what’s planned for this wave” documents ends.

2. Release Planner retires November 15, 2026. The interactive tool — with its filtering, feature IDs, and personalised “My Release Plans” saved views — shuts down entirely. Saved views do not carry over to the new roadmap.

3. The release wave model itself is retired. No more Wave 1 / Wave 2. There will be no September 2026 Release Wave 2 announcement or plan. Instead, new capabilities are published continuously, as soon as Microsoft commits to them.

The replacement is the AI at Work roadmap — which is the Microsoft 365 roadmap, renamed (the rebrand landed August 25–27, 2026). Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse content now flows into that same feed, alongside Microsoft 365 and Copilot.

The Timeline

The key date to internalise is November 15 — that’s when your old Release Planner bookmarks and saved views stop working, permanently.

The New Status Model

The old model anchored every feature to a wave date. The new model anchors it to a live status that moves as the feature progresses:

• In Development — committed and being built, but not yet available.
• Rolling Out — actively deploying to environments.
• Launched — generally available.

For Business Central specifically, this matters because monthly updates (28.2, 28.3, 28.4…) have always arrived on a cadence that the wave documents only loosely described. The continuous model is actually closer to how BC already ships — monthly updates with features landing when they’re ready, not when a six-month wave document said they might.

How to Track Business Central Updates Now

The good news: the new roadmap is built for planning, not just browsing. The bad news: the workflow you had — open Release Planner, check your saved BC filter, read the deltas — has to be rebuilt. Here’s the replacement stack.

1. Filter the AI at Work roadmap to Business Central

The roadmap supports filtering by product and feature ID. Set up a filter for Dynamics 365 Business Central and save it. This is the direct replacement for your old “My Release Plans” view — with one caveat: personalised saved views from Release Planner don’t migrate, so you’re building this fresh.

2. Subscribe via RSS

The roadmap supports RSS on filtered views. Build your BC filter, grab the RSS feed, and point it at your RSS reader or a Teams channel. This gives you a push notification every time a BC roadmap item is added or its status changes — arguably better than the old model, where you had to remember to check.

3. Keep Message Center as your tenant-specific source

This is the part that doesn’t change. Message Center remains the authoritative channel for changes specific to your tenant — deprecations, required actions, update schedules. The roadmap tells you what’s coming broadly; Message Center tells you what’s happening to you.

4. Use the Release Communications MCP Server (if you’re technical)

Microsoft has released a Release Communications MCP Server that lets MCP-compatible AI tools query roadmap data in natural language. If your team already uses the BC MCP server or other AI tooling, you can pull roadmap information directly into those workflows rather than clicking through the web UI. This is the forward-looking option for partners who manage many customers.

5. Microsoft Learn stays for documentation

Don’t conflate the two. Microsoft Learn remains Microsoft’s documentation platform — what’s changing is only the roadmap (the “what’s coming” layer), not the docs. Release Plans disappear from Learn; actual product documentation does not.

What This Means for BC Partners Specifically

Partners advising clients on Business Central should treat this as more than a bookmark swap. Three practical implications:

1. Your client-facing “what’s new” briefings change cadence. No more two big wave summaries a year. The continuous model rewards a monthly or quarterly review — and Microsoft’s own guidance says exactly that: build a recurring review cadence using a saved filter plus RSS, monthly or quarterly depending on how fast you adopt.

2. Save your institutional knowledge before November 15. If your team has years of personalised saved views in Release Planner (filtered by industry, module, or client), those are about to vanish. Export what you can now, or document the filters so you can rebuild them on the new roadmap.

3. The feature ID is now your anchor. The new roadmap supports searching by feature ID. If you reference features in client communications or change-management notes, keep the feature ID attached — it’s the stable key that works across the old Release Plans and the new roadmap.

What Doesn’t Change

It’s worth being precise about what’s not changing, because there’s been some over-reaction in the community.

• Feature delivery schedules. Microsoft is changing communication, not the underlying deployment rhythm. BC monthly updates continue on their normal schedule.
• Message Center. Still the source for tenant-specific change notifications and required actions.
• Microsoft Learn. Still the documentation home.
• Historical release plans. Existing plans stay available for reference — you can still look up what shipped in 2025 Wave 2 or 2026 Wave 1.

One genuinely annoying casualty: the name. “AI at Work roadmap” is harder to search than “Microsoft 365 roadmap,” and Microsoft is now explicitly telling people to stop searching for the old name. Expect a few months of broken bookmarks and confused Google results while the index catches up.

Checklist

Copy this. Work it top to bottom.

• Note the two key dates: September 2026 (Release Plans stop) and November 15, 2026 (Release Planner retires)
• Export or document any saved views you rely on in Release Planner
• Set up a Business Central filter on the AI at Work roadmap
• Subscribe to that filtered view via RSS
• Confirm your team still watches Message Center for tenant-specific changes
• Decide your review cadence: monthly (fast adopters) or quarterly (steady-state)
• Attach feature IDs to any feature you track across tools
• If technical, evaluate the Release Communications MCP Server for AI-driven queries
• Update internal docs and client-facing links that point to old Release Plans

FAQ

When is Microsoft retiring Release Plans for Dynamics 365 and Business Central?

New Release Plans stop being published on Microsoft Learn beginning September 2026. Existing plans remain available for historical reference. The related Release Planner tool retires November 15, 2026.

What replaces Release Plans and Release Planner?

The AI at Work roadmap — the renamed Microsoft 365 roadmap — becomes the single public destination for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Dataverse capabilities. It supports filtering by product and feature ID, CSV export, RSS subscriptions, and a Release Communications MCP Server for querying roadmap data with AI tools.

Will there be a September 2026 Release Wave 2 for Business Central?

No. Microsoft is retiring the twice-yearly release wave model entirely. There will be no Release Wave 2 plan or announcement. New capabilities are published continuously to the AI at Work roadmap as soon as they’re committed and ready to share.

Do my saved Release Planner views migrate to the new roadmap?

No. Personalised saved views from “My Release Plans” will not be available after Release Planner retires. You need to rebuild your tracking on the AI at Work roadmap using its filtering and RSS features.

How do I track only Business Central updates on the new roadmap?

Filter the AI at Work roadmap to Dynamics 365 Business Central, save the filter, and subscribe to its RSS feed. Microsoft recommends building a monthly or quarterly review cadence around this, and continuing to use Message Center for tenant-specific changes.

Does this change when Business Central updates actually ship?

No. Microsoft is changing how it communicates releases, not the underlying deployment schedules. Business Central monthly updates continue on their normal cadence. Roadmap items now show live statuses — In Development, Rolling Out, or Launched — instead of a fixed wave date.

Is Microsoft Learn going away?

No. Microsoft Learn remains Microsoft’s documentation platform. Only the roadmap layer (Release Plans) is being removed from Learn; actual product documentation is unaffected.

What’s the MCP server for release communications?

It’s a Microsoft-provided Model Context Protocol server that lets MCP-compatible AI clients search, filter, and retrieve the latest feature release information in natural language. It’s useful for partners managing many customers who want roadmap data pulled directly into their AI tooling rather than browsing the web UI.

Want help staying on top of Business Central changes without the release-wave treadmill? Book a call → We track every BC update as it lands and translate it into what actually matters for your environment — or explore our support and upgrades service to keep your system current.