'Not related to cyber or AI agents': Microsoft apologises for almost 24-hr long global outage

For almost 24 hours, users across the world were unable to access Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Copilot, disrupting work, communication and email services. Microsoft apologised to customers and partners for the outage, while ruling out a cyberattack or problems involving artificial intelligence agents as its cause.

The disruption affected users in more than 70 countries and spilled into customer-facing operations in India, including airline email support. Microsoft said services were being restored gradually after a technical failure linked to an earlier network capacity upgrade, but did not provide a timeline for full restoration.

Microsoft apologises for disruption

"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services," Microsoft said in a statement on X.

The company said the outage was traced to an issue introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade, which surfaced after a more recent network change.

'Not related to cyber or AI'

"This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents. The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions," Microsoft said.

The outage simultaneously affected several widely used Microsoft services, leaving users unable to access tools used for work, communication and email. The company had earlier said it was dealing with the "residual impact" of the failure as engineers worked to restore the affected infrastructure.

Indian airlines report email disruption

The outage affected customer-facing operations in India, particularly at airlines that rely on Microsoft email services. IndiGo said its email support had been affected and that it might not be able to receive customer emails. It added that its other customer support channels remained available.

Akasa Air also reported delays in its email support and advised passengers requiring immediate assistance to use its 24-hour customer care centre or social media channels.

Air India said its flight operations remained unaffected. The airline temporarily rerouted its email services to ensure that customer communications continued to reach it.

The impact was not limited to aviation. Financial services firms and other businesses reported difficulties in accessing research material and handling client interactions. According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, Indian users began reporting problems at around 11 pm on Thursday, with reports rising again after 6 am on Friday.

Services restored in stages

Microsoft said it deliberately restored services in stages instead of carrying out a single large-scale restart.

"Given the scale of demand, we restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage. While this took longer, it helped ensure a stable restoration," the company said.

Microsoft had initially described the situation as showing "encouraging recovery progress", with service availability and email delivery improving across an increasing portion of the affected infrastructure.

"We know our customers rely on our services to get important work done every day, and regret the impact these outages had on those who depend on us," Microsoft said.

The company reiterated that there was no evidence of a deliberate attack. At its peak, the outage generated more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems on Downdetector, with disruptions reported across more than 70 countries.

For businesses that rely heavily on Microsoft's cloud ecosystem, the outage affected email, workplace communication and AI-assisted tools, disrupting routine operations across multiple regions. Microsoft said it had addressed the underlying technical issue and was continuing to restore services for the remaining customers and regions.