Microsoft Stops New Sales Close Agent Setups Sept. 30; Existing Instances End Oct. 30

Microsoft will stop new Sales Close Agent instances from being created in Dynamics 365 Sales on September 30, 2026, and says existing instances will be removed October 30. For sales teams using the agent, the first date closes the option to add another instance; the second ends the ones already in place. Dynamics 365 Sales itself is not being retired.

Microsoft’s retirement notice recommends creating a Sales Development agent. That gives buyers a path to evaluate, but the suggested agent concentrates on a different part of the sales process. The notice specifies the removal date without giving a separate support-end date.

A shift from closing to prospecting

Microsoft describes Sales Close Agent as a production-ready preview for high-velocity, low-complexity deals. Its documented work spans accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities, including outreach and guidance through purchase.

The Sales Development agent instead centers prospect management and outreach in Teams. Microsoft calls it a preview not intended for production use. A team relying on the retiring agent for opportunity or purchase-stage work should therefore assess those tasks separately from the new agent’s prospecting functions.

What a CRM-connected setup requires

Microsoft’s activation instructions list Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams and Frontier access as prerequisites. They also describe a $0 Agent 365 public-preview SKU with licenses for 25 agent instances. That SKU alone is not an all-in price for a deployment with the other required access.

To connect the new agent to Dynamics 365 Sales, Microsoft says the agent user needs a Dynamics 365 Sales license and configured CRM access. The integration can connect leads, log interactions and sync engagement actions. Those are concrete capabilities to evaluate against the closing work an existing Sales Close Agent instance handles before its scheduled removal.