2026 Customer Insights – Journeys Release Wave 1

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” That saying feels fitting for this year’s Release Wave updates from Microsoft Dynamics 365. With so many new features arriving across the Microsoft ecosystem, it can be difficult to keep up. This blog will help you navigate the changes and understand what to expect.

Twice per year, Microsoft introduces a new wave of updates across products like Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys, Dynamics 365 CRM, Business Central, Power Apps, and more. Release Wave 1 features will roll out between April 2026 and September 2026, bringing new capabilities designed to improve efficiency, automation, and customer engagement. Microsoft has released its Dynamics 365 2026 release wave plan, which explains the new features on the way and when you can expect them to be in preview and generally available.

For marketers, Customer Insights – Journeys is receiving several updates to help teams build trust, streamline repetitive tasks, and create more connected customer experiences. Today, we’re highlighting three updates we believe will have the biggest day-to-day impact.

The first update introduces branded content links, allowing businesses to replace generic, auto-generated URLs with customizable links that display their own company domain. Instead of sending long or suspicious-looking links, marketers will be able to create cleaner, more recognizable URLs that help build customer trust and improve click-through rates.

Once a vanity domain is authenticated, branded links can be used across emails, forms, hosted pages, event registration pages, and preference centers, helping create a more consistent brand experience throughout the customer journey.

Imagine you are promoting a webinar or event through an email campaign. Rather than directing users to a generic sign-up URL, you can now share a branded link that feels more trustworthy and aligned with your organization’s identity. Small changes like this can make a major difference in engagement and conversion rates.

This feature is expected to enter public preview in September 2026, with general availability planned for December 2026.

Keeping email content accurate and up to date, especially legal disclaimers, company details, or recurring footer information, can be time-consuming. Microsoft’s new dynamic content blocks aim to simplify that process by allowing marketers to create reusable sections of content that automatically update across every email where they are used.

Before this feature becomes generally available, the standard workflow when changing a content block is to audit all emails that might include that block and edit each individually by removing the old block and adding the updated one. This workflow is just as time consuming, manual, and exasperating as it sounds. Plus, there’s the risk of missing some emails that need the block replaced. Instead of manually editing multiple email templates, teams can update a content block once, and changes automatically reflect everywhere. This not only saves time but also helps prevent outdated or inconsistent information from landing in customers' inboxes. Dynamic content blocks are also flexible. They can either inherit the layout of the email they are inserted into or maintain their own formatting. They can also be locked down to protect from accidental edits and include personalized or conditional content, making them useful for both compliance-driven messaging and more tailored customer experiences.

For example, a law firm that includes legal disclaimers and company information in every email footer can now manage all of that content in one place. When updates are needed, their marketing team only has to edit the dynamic content block once, then every email will reflect the latest information.

This feature became available for public preview on April 10, 2026, with general availability scheduled for July 2026. We anticipate this feature will be very well regarded by our clients!

Another major update coming to Customer Insights – Journeys is the ability to create records and activities directly within the journey builder. This gives marketers more control over how customer interactions trigger real business actions, without relying on separate workflows or manual processes.

Users can create records such as leads, opportunities, tasks, phone calls, and custom entities directly from a journey step. These records can include both required and optional fields, along with dynamic values pulled from contact or lead data.

This added flexibility helps teams streamline processes such as lead handoffs, service requests, and follow-up tasks, reducing delays and manual work. It also makes automation more accessible by reducing the need for complex workflows or custom development.

Currently, this feature supports journeys orchestrated on contacts and leads, but it does not support Customer Insights – Data profiles. Users can also only create records tied to contacts or leads they have access to.

A practical example would be a marketing email containing a “Contact Us Now” link. Once a customer clicks the link, the journey can automatically create a case in Dynamics 365 Customer Service with the customer’s information already populated, allowing the sales or service team to respond immediately.

This feature entered public preview in April 2026, though Microsoft has not yet announced a timeline for general availability.

Release Wave 1 introduces several valuable updates to Customer Insights – Journeys, but these features stand out for their direct impact on everyday marketing efforts. From improving trust with branded links to simplifying email management with dynamic content blocks to enabling faster action through automated record creation, these updates are designed to help marketing teams work smarter and move faster.

For a deeper look at everything included in this release wave, be sure to explore Microsoft’s full documentation and the additional updates coming across the broader Dynamics 365 ecosystem.