August Wrap-up with Board: 5 minutes
Monthly Customer News Update – August
August was all about turning planning innovation into practical, usable capability.
This month brought together product updates, new learning opportunities, on-demand recordings, and practical guidance around one important theme: helping teams plan faster, forecast with more confidence, and make better use of AI inside their planning processes.
So here is the simple version 👇
1. Board 15.1 is here
Board 15.1 is now available, bringing new enhancements across Board Agents, Operational Forecasting, the Board for Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in, and the wider Platform experience.
The release is especially focused on making AI more practical for enterprise planning.
Some of the key updates include:
- More powerful Board Agents
- Interactive Agent-generated tables
- Dataset Attributes to improve business-aware AI responses
- A new V3 Agent architecture built on the Microsoft Agent Framework
- New and expanded capabilities for Supply Chain, Merchandising, FP&A, and Financial Consolidation
- Improved Operational Forecasting
- Enhancements to the Board for Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in
- Platform improvements around My Views, reporting, security, administration, and usability
👉 Read more here:
Board 15.1 is here!
Why this matters: Board 15.1 is an important step toward making AI, forecasting, and planning workflows more connected, governed, and usable in day-to-day planning.
2. What is new in Board 15.1?
If you want a practical overview of what changed, the “What’s new in Board 15.1?” post is a good place to start.
It explains the main new capabilities across:
New Board Agents
Board Agents can now return interactive tables directly in the chat, helping users sort, filter, copy, export, and work with results more easily.
Dataset Attributes
Makers can describe entities and cubes in more business-friendly language, helping Board Agents better understand company terminology and planning logic.
Operational Forecasting
New capabilities include ten statistical forecasting algorithms, Covariates, Hold-out Accuracy Evaluation, multi-region support, and centralized user management.
Board for Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in
The Add-in continues to improve with better refresh behavior, localization, copy and paste, export workflows, and compatibility management.
Platform enhancements
Board 15.1 also includes improvements for My Views, Data Views, Managed Identity support, Subscription Hub visibility, and administration.
👉 Explore the overview:
What’s new in Board 15.1?
3. Board for Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in update
The Board for Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in also received a dedicated 15.1 update in August.
This update improves the stability and usability of the Add-in, with focus areas including:
- Formulas
- Table formatting
- Table management
- Refresh behavior
- Compatibility with Board 15.1
One useful improvement: Excel formatting is now preserved when users move a Board Table or copy and paste it within a workbook.
👉 Read the update:
V1.1.0.x M365 Add-in update for Board 15.1
Why this matters: many teams still work heavily in Excel, so improving the connection between Board and Microsoft 365 helps users stay closer to their existing workflows while keeping planning data governed.
4. Operational Forecasting and Foresight: stronger forecasting capability
August also put a spotlight on Operational Forecasting and the Board Foresight Add-on.
The Summer Tech Talks series included a session on Operational Forecasting Enhancements, covering capabilities such as:
- Covariates
- Hold-out Accuracy Evaluation
- Additional forecasting algorithms
- How these capabilities fit into the forecasting workflow
This is especially relevant for teams that want to move beyond historical trend analysis and bring more business drivers into their forecasts.
👉 See the Tech Talk series:
July, August, and September - Summer Tech Talks from Board Academy
Why this matters: better forecasting is not only about producing a number. It is about understanding what is driving the forecast, testing accuracy, and improving confidence before decisions are made.
5. Summer Tech Talks: Board 15.1 learning series
Board Academy’s Summer Tech Talks focused on the newest capabilities and enhancements in Board 15.1.
August sessions included:
- Merchandise Planning Agent
- Supply Chain Agent
- Operational Forecasting Enhancements
- FP&A & Controller Agent
These sessions are useful for customers who want to better understand how the newest AI and forecasting capabilities can support real planning use cases.
The common thread across the sessions is simple:
Board 15.1 is not only a technical release.
It is about helping different planning teams work faster, understand changes better, and make more confident decisions.
6. Recordings & Replays are now available in the Customer Success Hub
If you missed a session, want to revisit a topic, or simply prefer to learn on demand, Recordings & Replays are now available in the Board Community.
You can explore recordings across topics such as:
- Customer Success Spotlight
- Board Platform
- Build Along with Board
- Board Foresight & Signals
- Partners
- Community, Academy & Advocacy
A few recommended recordings to start with:
Board's Latest Release Advances Continuous Planning
A practical way to get up to speed on the latest Board release, with short videos included so you can quickly see what is new.
Customer Self-Sufficiency with Robin Salk
A Customer Success Spotlight session with practical tips and real customer experiences.
US Economic Outlook: August 2026
A market-focused update from Board Foresight and Board Signals experts, looking at the latest economic trends and what they may mean for planning.
👉 Explore Recordings & Replays:
Recordings & Replays are now available in the Board Community
7. August 15.1 bug fixes and updates
August also included additional Board 15.1 updates and resolved issues.
The latest update included bug fixes across areas such as:
- Board AI Agents
- Charts
- Data Entry
- Data Model Security
- Data Views
- Flex Grid
👉 See the update:
27 August 2026 15.1.1.610725
Why this matters: release updates are not only about new features. They also help improve stability, usability, and reliability for teams already working in Board every day.
Watch out for September ⏭️
September also has a few upcoming sessions worth keeping an eye on, especially if your team is focused on forecasting, AI-powered planning, or connecting planning more directly to business value.
Kimberly-Clark: turning AI forecasting into strategic business value
Kimberly-Clark will be featured in a Gartner session on how the company achieved forecast accuracy within 2% using AI-powered planning.
The session will show how Kimberly-Clark combined AI, external market signals, and econometric modeling to build a more accurate and explainable view of demand.
In just 20 minutes, the session will cover how Kimberly-Clark:
- Forecasted demand within 2% of actual results
- Delivered more than $10M in savings
- Reduced safety stock by $1.3M for every 1-point improvement in forecast accuracy
- Built explainable AI forecasts trusted across finance, supply chain, and commercial teams
There are two versions available:
👉 North America session:How Kimberly-Clark Achieved Forecast Accuracy Within 2% with AI-powered Planning
👉 EMEA session:Kimberly-Clark: Turning AI Forecasting into Strategic Business Value | EMEA
Why this matters: even small improvements in forecast accuracy can create significant value across inventory, supply chain, finance, and commercial planning.
Lamb Weston webinar: IBP from the CFO
On September 3, Board is also hosting a webinar with Lamb Weston focused on Integrated Business Planning from the CFO perspective.
This session is especially relevant for teams looking at how planning can become more connected across finance, operations, and business decision-making.
👉 See upcoming events and webinars:Board Events & Webinars
Why this matters: Integrated Business Planning is not only a supply chain or finance topic. It is about helping leadership teams connect decisions, assumptions, forecasts, and outcomes in one planning process.
Your turn 💬
Which August update is most relevant for your organization right now?
Are you focused on:
- Understanding Board 15.1?
- Exploring Board Agents?
- Improving forecast accuracy?
- Using the Microsoft 365 Excel Add-in?
- Reviewing Operational Forecasting?
- Watching Tech Talk replays?
- Catching up through Recordings & Replays?
Share your thoughts in the comments. We would love to hear what you are exploring, what questions you have, and which topics would be most useful for your team next.
Thanks, and see you in the Hub!
