Different apps, same dependency

If Outlook goes down, asking an AI assistant to find the missing email sounds like a workaround.

What if the assistant depends on the same service?

On November 12, a Microsoft 365 outage disrupted Outlook and other services, including Teams.

OpenAI and Anthropic also reported errors in their Microsoft 365 connectors, the links their assistants use to access services such as email and calendars.

My takeawayTest the fallback for a business process, not just for an app.

• Pick a process you need to keep running, such as urgent customer support.
• Identify the services both your primary and backup tools rely on.
• Run a drill with one shared service unavailable. Measure how long your team takes to resume work.

At your next continuity review, ask: Which critical workflow would stop even if every tool on our backup list showed green?