As a Cisco and Microsoft leading partner, it’s great to see that, yet again, both Microsoft and Cisco remain Leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for collaboration platforms with Microsoft taking the overlap top spot and with Zoom and Ring Central still hot on their heels!
The decision between them is no longer about feature lists alone; it’s about which vendor best maps to the customer’s identity, networking, device, compliance, and investment across the rest of the technology stack.
Garner UC Magic Quadrant 2025
Choice of which is not about point product picks and this year shows the leaders haven’t just added new features. The defining impact is more the wider foundations and positioning they play in the future of the AI workplace.
Here’s the key points from the Gartner report which you can read for your self here.
Microsoft
Gartner verdict on Microsoft, including the value, strengths, and cautions.
Value:
Collaboration embedded into the productivity fabric; Teams is the default surface for chat, meetings, files, and coauthoring, which accelerates user adoption and reduces friction for knowledge workers.
Strengths
End‑to‑end productivity integration across Microsoft 365 that turns meetings into action and content into workstreams.
Rapid feature velocity and AI investments that deliver meeting summarisation, live assistance, and extensibility for automation.
Cloud governance and identity that simplify centralised security and telemetry when customers standardise on Microsoft stacks.
Broad ISV and partner ecosystem that enables vertical solutions and compliance tooling.
Cautions
Licensing complexity creates procurement and total cost modeling challenges if not addressed early.
Experience variance across desktop, web, mobile, and room systems; careful device selection and validation are essential.
Microsoft 365 Data residency and compliance design must be planned for heavily regulated sectors to avoid surprises. These are often skills outside an organisations core UC team
Cisco
The value, strengths, and cautions reported by Gartner.
Value:
Network‑aware collaboration with purpose‑built endpoints and flexible deployment models that prioritise media quality and predictable meeting experiences.
Strengths
Device and room leadership delivering consistent meeting fidelity and management at scale.
Network and security alignment that leverages Cisco’s heritage to deliver reliable, measurable media quality.
Flexible deployments—cloud, hybrid, or on‑prem—useful for conservative migrations and regulated environments.
Strong contact centre capabilities that remain a differentiator for customer‑facing operations.
Cautions
Cloud transition perception for some buyers who default to hyperscaler narratives.
Integration effort when modernising estates that include legacy on‑prem assets and varied device generations.
Cost profile for large scale device estates unless lifecycle programmes and services are applied.
Overlap and where it matters
Hybrid work enablement: Both deliver mature toolsets for distributed teams, with a shared focus on meetings, chat, and room systems.
AI and productivity: Both vendors are embedding AI into meeting experiences, summaries, and assistive tooling.
Security and compliance: Identity, conditional access, encryption, and auditing are baked into roadmaps.
Partner ecosystems: Both rely on solution and adoption partners to deliver verticalisation, services, and adoption programmes.
Practical outcome: Many organisations can reach comparable functional parity by blending strengths – Microsoft for productivity and content workflows, Cisco for device fidelity and network‑centric quality.
How we work with our Customers
As a leading Cisco and Microsoft
Lead with outcomes and migration tempo rather than vendor slogans.
Treat device lifecycle management, change‑management, and telemetry as primary success metrics.
Present coexistence and integration plans so customers can mix platforms where it makes commercial sense.
Since we operate across the two leading partners in UC we help organisations assess and review across their entire modern workplace technology stack rather than just looking at the technology and products in silo. This is all understand how the business works, preserving future choice and reduce migration risk.
My take
As a partner working across both Cisco and Microsoft, I see clear, complementary strengths. Microsoft wins when organisations are already deep rooted into the Microsoft eco system and where collaboration must be embedded into the productivity fabric and scaled fast across knowledge workers.
Cisco shines where meeting fidelity, device leadership, and network‑centric operational control matter most. Organisations invested into the wider Cisco technology stack gain clear advantages in price and alignment with visibility.
Cisco and Microsoft are also now partners so choice is not black and white. Cisco Rooms on Teams for example is a fantasic alignment and demonstration of cohesion between both vendors and can make Co existence or migration between the two seemless.
The right choice always depands on many things. Business priorities, preference, legacy estate, preference over cloud and on prem, wider investments and usage of Microsoft 365 etc. Our
The role of IT and partners is to design pragmatic, phased paths that preserve choice, control costs, and deliver measurable user adoption.
On October 14th 2025, Windows 10 officially reached end of support. If you still have a PC/Laptop running Windows 10, it will not suddenly stop working – but unless you have enabled (consumer) or purchased (commercial) extended security updates, there will be no more security updates, no more feature improvements, and no AI innovation.
If your device can support Windows 11, then now is the time to upgrade – after all Windows 10 is more than 10 year olds. That’s like choosing to stick to Apple iOS 9!!!
If your device is too old, or doesnt meet the requirements to run Windows 10, then see this as an opportunity to move forward into the AI revolution of Copilot+ (AI) PCs and Windows 11 25H2. Its a big change for good and there’s so much more coming. With Windows 11 and Copilot+PCs from Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo etc, every PC becomes an AI PC, ready to embrace the next evolution of IT and computing.
WHY BUY A NEW COPILOT+PC?
Investing in a new Windows 11 PC doesn’t just mean staying secure and compliant and adopting a new Start Menu interface. Think of it like the investment you make in a new phone, TV or other tech appliance. be excited, embrace the new features and I promise you won’t look back…
The changes are huge, 10 years of new innovation in the OS level (Windows 11 is already 5 years mature) and in hardware – which has advanced a long long way in 10 years (as I am sure your phone has!)
WINDOWS 11 ON COPILOT+PC BRINGS AI FRONT AND CENTRE
Fact – Windows 11 devices are signifantly faster, more secure, and designed for the future of how we work, play, create and consume content.
Windows 10 was created way before the World of Generative AI tools was even comprehended. OK – we had early versions of Alexa, Siri and we’d experienced Cortana when Windows 10 came to market…but nothing like the rapid world of Generative AI we find ourselves immersed in today – with tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot, and AI “baked” into almost every app or service we consume. Like it or not, we are in the age of AI – and it’s advancing quickly!
Windows 11 is at the forefront of the new era of computing where AI is built into the Operating System (and not layered on). With Windows 11, AI is being infused deeper and deeper, securley into the OS. Context aware, application aware, personalised, secure and ready to help (or not if you choose), right out of the box. Unlike some of the other free products out there, Microsoft runs and adheres to trust and privacy and user choice. As the user you control what Copilot can do, see, interact and work.
With Copilot in Windows, every device is an AI PC . Any new device you buy today, whether Surface, Dell, Lenovo or your other choice (I choose Surface everytime), you get a plethora of new experiences powered by Windows 11, and a mix of local and cloud-based AI models, including:
NATURAL INTERACTION
With Copilot, you can talk or type. Not only does your device understands you, it understands your context, is truly conversational, can work “with” your applications (Copilot Vision) and help with research, creation and far more. You can “invoke” Copilot with the Copilot key or by saying “hey Copilot”. This opens up Copilot in Windows.
Copilot in Windows 11 – invoke from “Hey Copilot” or the Copilot key.
COPILOT VISION
This is clever, but a real game changer once you start to use it. With Copilot Vision, you can allow (user choice always) Copilot to see you screen, browser tab or application and then work with Copilot in many ways as a companion or tech friend! It can help you edit a photo, give feedback on a presentation or email, assist you use an application all in real time with real context. In the example below, I am using Copilot Vision to help me understand how to add a chart to a spreadsheet. You can see how Copilot understands the app I am in, knows how to use it and guides me side by side – pretty awesome!
COPILOT ACTIONS
Another one that take a bit of time to get your head round, but once you do …. “wow“. With Copilot Actions, (which is in preview now so will only get better), Copilot can take control of your device (or app) and take action on your behalf. It can open files, search the web and even (with permission) book hotels, restaurants and extracting data from one document to another. Give this a try – it’s awesome (you need to do this from https://copilot.microsoft.com.)
OPERATING SYSTEM INTEGRATION
Copilot is now deeply integrated into Windows, Office apps and everywhere you choose to use it. The latest Windows 11 25H2 insider update sees Copilot now part of the taskbar experience, Windows Settings, and File Explorer. You can invove it with a voice command, press of the Copilot Key or traditional opening of the app. You can ask Copilot to help with things like “make my screen easier to read” or “turn on focus mode” or “change my screen orientation” and it will guide you directly to the right settings.
COPILOT HELPS GAMERS
For PC Gamers (and also coming soon to Xbox), Copilot can run along side your game, offering tips, recommendations, and insights without leaving your game.
You can see with the examples above, as Windows 11 development continues, as AI tools mature and with more AI ready PCs hit the market, AI is being woven into the very fabric of Windows OS.
MAKE SURE YOUR NEW PC IS A COPILOT+PC
What makes a Copilot+ PC different isn’t just the badge on the box, its the significant change in PC design that Windows 11 and Copilot can enable and leverage to take advantage of this new wave of technology shift. Powered by the AI’s brain – the dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) inside every Copilot+ PC.
WHAT THE NPU IN YOUR COPILOT+ PC CAN DO
The NPU in your new Copilot+ PC means your device can not only run cloud based AI tools, but can also run AI models locally.
You might ask why? Well, today, this translates into faster, more private experiences like live captions (for any audio or video playback), the best quality background noise removal, and image editing that happens instantly on your device.
This is just the start though. Copilot+ PCs enable the “what is coming next”. We are seeing increasingly powerful local AI models that will run directly on your device, tailored to your data, your workflows, the application and your preferences without needing to be online, without the need for an “AI subscription” and without worrying about privacy and data sharing.
As the software and local models develop, the near future with Copilot +PCs will bring a future where your Windows 11 device can summarise a day’s worth of meetings, generate creative assets, or even coach you through a presentation – all without sending sensitive information anywhere or while you are offline. This is what the NPU and why Copilot+ PCs matters. This is the infrastructure for the future of personal, school, and work computing. It will innovate and transform just like the Internet did (and has). It is not just about what AI can do today, but about have a device that supports the foundation for the next decade of computing. We are entering the age of AI and more importantly AI at the Edge.
AI AT THE EDGE AND WHY IT MATTERS
This is where things get really exciting—because the shift to local AI isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a fundamental change in how both businesses and consumers will use PCs.
EDGE AI FOR BUSINESS
Data sovereignty & compliance: Running AI models locally means sensitive data never has to leave the device. That’s a huge win for industries like finance, healthcare, and government, where compliance and privacy are non‑negotiable.
Performance at the edge: Instead of waiting for cloud round‑trips, AI workloads can be processed instantly on the device. Think real‑time transcription in meetings, instant document summarisation, or on‑the‑fly image generation—all without latency.
Cost efficiency: Cloud AI is powerful, but it’s also expensive at scale. Local AI shifts some of that compute to the endpoint, reducing dependency on cloud cycles and helping organisations balance cost with capability.
Customisation: Businesses will be able to deploy domain‑specific models tuned to their workflows—legal, medical, engineering—directly onto devices, creating a new layer of productivity that’s both personal and enterprise‑ready.
EDGE AI FOR CONSUMERS
Privacy by default: Your personal notes, photos, and conversations can be processed locally, without being uploaded. That builds trust and makes AI feel less intrusive.
Always‑on intelligence: With NPUs sipping power, AI features like live captions, translation, or accessibility tools can run continuously without draining battery.
Personalised experiences: Local models can adapt to your habits—how you write, what you search for, how you game—without needing to share that data externally.
Offline capability: Imagine Copilot summarising a PDF on a flight, or generating a study guide for your child without an internet connection. That’s the kind of resilience local AI unlocks.
LOOKING AHEAD
The future of AI PCs is about hybrid intelligence: the best of local and cloud working together. Local NPUs will handle everyday, personal, and privacy‑sensitive tasks, while the cloud will still power massive, general‑purpose models when needed. Over time, we’ll see:
Smaller, more efficient models designed to run entirely on‑device.
App ecosystems that treat the NPU as a key part of the chipset – with AI‑powered creativity, productivity, and accessibility tools baked in.
Consumer‑grade AI assistants that feel more personal, because they’re trained on your device context, not just the cloud.
Enterprise‑ready AI platforms where every employee has a secure, AI‑enabled partner at their fingertips with world class security and privacy.
Copilot+PCs like Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, are designed not just for performance, but for AI. With dedicated NPUs (neural processing units), Copilot+ PCs can run AI workloads locally – faster, more securely, and with less battery drain. Plus, it is built on the most secure version of Windows ever, with Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative ensuring privacy and protection by design.
MY PERSPECTIVE AS AN MVP
As someone who spends their days working with technology, helping organisations, consumers, creators, educators and young people align technology with work, strategy and life, I see the future of computing with AI PCs as so much more just a product refresh cycle and new Operating System. This is a fundamental shift in how we think about the role of a PC – both in work, in the home and at school.
As a Microsoft MVP for Surface and for Microsoft 365 Copilot, I’ve had the privilege of seeing these innovations up close, from early previews at MVP Summit to hands-on testing with Copilot+ PCs. The integration of AI into Windows isn’t hype – it’s here, it’s practical, and it’s already changing how people work, learn, and create.
Cisco has again been recognised as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape for Enterprise Wireless LAN – with Cisco “helping organisations rise to this moment by delivering smarter, more secure networks in this era of AI”.
For any of us who work closely with Cisco technologies or who are involved in infrastrcuture deployments, I’m sure you’ll agree that this recognition isn’t surprising. Whilst Cisco did have a spate where the pace of innovation was questioned, they certainly appear to have their mojo back, are driving innovation across their collective product and service portfolio. To me, the acknowledgement is well deserved and validates the breadth, depth, and innovation that Cisco continues to bring to networking space.
From SMBs to the largest global enterprises, Cisco’s wireless portfolio is built on years of trust, excellance and market agity – designed to scale, adapt, and secure the smallest to the latest of organisation.
The IDC report highlights Cisco’s strengths across:
Heritage and innovation: shouting about their decades of leadership in enterprise networking, from WLAN to switching and routing.
Breadth of portfolio: wired and wireless LAN, SD-WAN, datacentre networking, security, visibility, and assurance and finally brining together the management of Meraki and Catalyst.
Choice of management: SaaS-delivered Meraki, or Catalyst management on-premises or via IaaS to meet customer needs across sector and geography.
Unified approach: integration of Meraki and Catalyst portfolios, with unified hardware and licensing.
Channel strength: a robust partner ecosystem (like us at Cisilion) that ensures customers get the right solution for their industry and size with a trusted partner network full of industry experts and CCIEs.
Future Reasy: the report focused on how Cisco are adapting and helping their customer around what matter most : navigating hybrid work, IoT growth, and the ever-present security landscape.
My take as a Cisco Partner
Wireless LAN is no longer a “nice to have”—it’s the connective tissue of the modern enterprise. Whether it’s enabling hybrid work, supporting mission-critical IoT, or ensuring secure guest access, WLAN is the foundation.
The Leaders space is filled with the expected vendors in this space, HPE, Juniper, Extreme and of course Cisco. As a Cisco Solution Provider and Managed Service provider, this recognition cements our senior partner investment and alignment with Cisco, our investment in skills and people across pre-sales, engineering and support and to our customer base.
Being a Cisco partner isn’t just about reselling their technology—it’s about co-creating outcomes with our customers using the technologies best positoned to power their digitial and AI trasnformation, ease of management, sustainable IT and platform integration.
Cisco’s recognition in the IDC MarketScape reinforces the confidence we have when recommending wireless solutions. For me, it’s about trust: customers know that when we consult as a partner, and bring Cisco to the table, our clients are not just investing in Cisco networking technology, they are investing in suite of integrated and connected products and services, that’s proven, secure, and future-ready.
As of yesterday, 14 October 2025, Windows 10 has officially reached its end of support. Of course, Windows 10 will not just stop working, but after yesterdays monthly security updates, there will be no more unless….
Commercial Organisations pay for Extended Security Updates (ESU)
Home/Consumers, agree to “cloud back-up” which will give them 12 more months or Security updates until October 2026.
Originally the impact of this deadline also meant that running Microsoft 365 Apps on Windows 10 would also not be supported. Microsoft have now clarified this and confirmed that your Microsoft 365 apps will keep working. There are, however, some important considerations for organisations still running Windows 10.
Windows 10 and Microsoft Apps – What’s Changing?
Microsoft 365 Apps are governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, which requires organisations to stay current with supported operating systems. Running Microsoft 365 Apps on an unsupported Operating Systems like Windows 10 can lead to performance degradation, reliability issues, and limited support options.
Microsoft has confirmed an extensive grace period to help organisations that have not yet moved to Windows 11:
Feature Updates will continue for Office apps until:
August 2026 for Current Channel
13 October 2026 for Monthly Enterprise Channel
12 January 2027 for Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel
Security Updates for Microsoft Office apps, will be available until 10 October 2028, delivered through standard update channels – this is defined here.
Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 App – Support Expectations
Any organisation raising a support case for Microsoft 365 Apps running on Windows 10, will find that Microsoft will:
Provide troubleshooting assistance only.
Recommend migrating to Windows 11 if the issue is isolated to Windows 10.
Not offer bug fixes or product updates for issues exclusive to Windows 10 environments (since this is out of support).
Actions if you are still running Windows 10
If your organisation is still using Windows 10:
Plan your migration to Windows 11 as soon as possible- this might be new devices, upgrading or a mix of both.
Pay for Extended Support Updates – these are available annually or tri-annual via your CSP partner, or direct from Microsoft.
Ensure Office update channels are aligned with the extended support timelines.
Review your compliance posture — unsupported OS environments may breach regulatory requirements.
Additional Considerations
This guidance also applies to subscription versions of Project and Visio desktop apps. For full lifecycle details across
Agent Mode in Excel is a new “preview” feature Excel (online) for Microsoft Copilot Subscribers (Microsoft 365 Commercial, Personal, Family and Premium) that enables users to build and edit workbooks along side Copilot.
When you’re updating budgets, creating financial models, or analysing data, Agent Mode uses Excel’s most powerful tools like tables, charts, PivotTables, and formulas to help you get the job done. As part of Microsoft’s Frontier program, Agent Mode gives you early access to cutting-edge AI capabilities.
What I love most is you don’t needExcel skills at all (other than knowing how to enable this feature) which you need to do before you can use it!
The new “Agent Mode” transforms Copilot from a one-shot assistant into a collaborative AI partner capable of orchestrating multi-step tasks across your office apps.
Microsoft.
Agent Mode updates your workbook using Excel’s built-in features, so your content stays editable and synced with the latest changes. It works with you and you can see it’s reasoning thinking and what it’s doing in real time!
Enabling the Agent Mode in Excel
Currently, to use Agent Mode in Excel, you need to be using Excel on the Web (and must have a paid Copilot License). To use the agent, you then need to head to “Add-ins”, search form, and then add the “Excel Labs” as shown below.
Adding the “preview” for Excel Labs in Excel on the Web.
The first time you do then, you will be presented with the following message. I’d suggest you have a read and accept. You can then open the agent to get started! You will see there are two options for use – Agent Mode and an Advanced Formula Environment.
Using Agent Mode in Excel
Select the Excel Labs button
In the Excel Labs task pane, choose Agent mode.
Start working with the Agent to create your project.
An example, Microsoft provide is to “Build a loan calculator that computes monthly payments based on user inputs for loan amount, annual interest rate, and term in years. Generate a schedule showing month, payment, principal, interest, and remaining balance. Present the results in a clear, formatted table“. You can see this in the prompt to the left (you can cut and paste this if you like!).
Watch Agent Mode in Excel in action.
I have built a video to showcase the example above which you can watch at your leisure. You’ll see how I work with it, tweak the calculator and add more functionality as I go… This to be mirrors how most people work. Build, check, reflect, enhance…
Excel Agent in action
How is Agent Mode Different to Copilot Chat in Excel?
Agent Mode is really designed to work for more complex, multi-step tasks such as reshaping data, merging sheets, or creating reports with multiple elements. For simpler, one-step tasks like adding a chart or PivotTable, talking about data, help with formulas etc can be quicker.
Because of the way Agent Mode works, it also takes a little longer to provide an initial response and refine it, particularly for more complex requests. But… It’s leaps ahead of what you can do in Copilot Chat alone..
Remember, for more conversational assistance or tasks that don’t make lots of modifications to your workbook, Copilot Chat is a much more suitable option.
Agent Mode in Excel: Availablility and Limitations
Availability: At time of writing (October 2025), Agent Mode in Excel is available on Excel for the web via the Excel Labs add-in in English. Support for other platforms, and additional languages will be included in the future.
It’s still AI.. You need to work with, but what I love is you can now build quite complex models, calculators or calculations with no code, no formatting experience, no charting skills…
It is still in preview, expect it to get perfected.
This week was Microsoft’s third annual OneDrive digital event (October 8th, 2025), where their key message was that OneDrive is much much more than “just” file storage.
Whether you are looking at this as a consumer or information workers, the theme this year was “Intelligence in every click, inspiration in every memory” .
Yes OneDrive is getting a true AI overhaul the event was about showcasing what is coming (soon) revealing and demoing how Copilot and AI are being woven into the very fabric of OneDrive, transforming it into both a personal and professional productivity and imaging hub.
Perhaps the biggest thing for at the event was the Hero Link… Read on!
The 3rd Annual OneDrive Event
The virtual event itself was led by many familiar with the keynote from Jeff Teper (President, Microsoft 365 Collaboration Apps & Platforms) and Jason Moore (VP of OneDrive Product Management).
The core event was 25-minuts long and included an hour ish live AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything) with the OneDrive engineers and product lead.
Copilot is being deeply embedded across OneDrive consumer and OneDrive for Business and we will see Copilot now natively integrated into OneDrive across web, desktop (coming soon), and mobile. This includes:
Core OneDrive changes and innovation from everywhere.
Natural language file search: you can ask direct from OneDrive “show me the Q3 financials with margin analysis” and Copilot surfaces the right file instantly.
File summarisation and insights: With a single click or prompt, Copilot can summarise long documents, extract key points, and even suggest next steps.
Actionable collaboration: Instead of static files, OneDrive becomes more of a springboard into actionable steps. It can can draft responses, prep presentations, or analyse data directly from the file context in OneDrive.
Smarter Photos Experiencefor all
Smarter Photos Experience for personal users with huge updates to ‘rival‘ Google Photos especially around memories and search.
AI-powered photo organisation: new AI powered auto tagging, grouping, and contextual search. For example simply ask “show me photos from our Isle of Wight trip last summer”.
Memory highlights: Curated collections that feel more like a story than a folder, presented a blood and crisp new way with fluid animation and scrolling.
As I said, this is Microsoft’s answer to Google Photos, but with enhanced “enterprise-grade” compliance and privacy baked in.
OneDrive as a Hub for content.
OneDrive as a Hub for Work + Life The tagline here is about positioning OneDrive as the “always ready” hub for both professional and personal content.
Work content becomes more discoverable and actionable without having to switch context.
Personal content (like photos) becomes more meaningful and shareable and ups the standard for AI management and organisation.
Photos Agent: allows users to use Copilot to find all your best shots from anytime anywhere or anytime and Copilot will help find the best photos. Soon it will also help build albums too. It is coming soon to Microsoft 365 Copilot Windows and Web experience for Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers.
IT leaders retain control, with governance and compliance intact along with powerful new sharing controls known as the hero link.
The new Hero Link.
This for me was this big one. Microsoft say that after a decade of feedback and innovation, the biggest update to sharing in Microsoft 365 is here – the hero link!
Having seen this at MVP Summit last year at the early testing phases, I am uber excited by this.
This marks a major evolution in file sharing within Microsoft 365, designed to simplify and streamline collaboration.
Single, primary URL: identical to the address bar link, it governs access to shared content without multiple links. This means users can update permissions (e.g., expand access to their organisation) without needing to resend or regenerate links, significantly reducing the risk of “access denied” errors. It means you can change permissions without resharing links.
Copilot summaries when sharing: enhances this experience, ensuring recipients open files with immediate context. This update reflects over a decade of user feedback and aims to make sharing more predictable, secure, and efficient.
Simple for sharers and collaborators: With the hero link, content sharers distribute a single, permanent URL to all stakeholders, adjusting access levels as needed without worrying about outdated links. This not only improves continuity and reduces complexity but also supports seamless collaboration across teams, especially in dynamic environments where content and contributors frequently change.
New OneDrive Hero Link
Timeline and Availability
Many of the new features showcased are already in preview for Microsoft 365 Copilot users, with general availability expected in early 2026.
The new Photos experience updates will start rolling out to consumer (personal) OneDrive accounts over the next few months.
New OneDrive native app for Windows in preview now for Windows Insiders using Copilot Plus PCs.
My Take
Who would have thought a few years ago that OneDrive would have its own special annual event!
This year (the third year) it wasn’t just about new features it was about deepening the role of OneDrive as the connective fabric that binds Microsoft 365 together. Personally it think the focus was more on consumer to compete in the Google Photo Space with AI packaging features powered by Copilot (which ties in nicely with the new Microsoft 365 Premium SKUs for home, personal and family users.
For corporate IT, the message was for around OneDrive becoming the AI-first content hub (like they have done with SharePoint (after all it’s the same plafrom). With Copilot in OneDrive there are less clicks, it feels more native rather than an after thought and positions their AI in more places.
AI tools being used in the workplace is no longer a question of if but how and what. The question is what if you could allow this in a safe and controlled way without compromising security and compliance and without leaking copirate data.?
What is BYO-Copilot to Work?
Whether your organisation invests and has deployed AI tools for employees or not, your people are already experimenting or using daily AI tools to boost their productivity, search and get things done at home but also at work, often outside the guardrails of IT. This is bad for IT and organisational security and privacy of a few levels.
Free AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude etc that are consumer products do not have the data protection in place that organisations need to ensure corporate data is not used to train the AI models.
When we use free tools, the user “is the product” and many employees (and some organisations) simply don’t know the risk of using unsanctioned AI tools especially when with corporate data.
Microsoft introduces “bring your own Copilot to work”
Microsoft’s latest announcement delivers a way to address (some of) these challenges by enabling a secure, and safe way employees who don’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license at work to use their personal Copilot from their personal Microsoft 365 subscriptions (Personal, Family, or Premium) directly at work and with work documents – with enterprise-grade dataprotections organisations demand and expect.
This “bring your own Copilot” (BYO-Copilot) model provides a safe way (if permitted) for individuals to use AI at work without compromising organisational security, while giving IT the levers to stay firmly in control.
So how does it work?
How does Bring Your Own Copilot Work?
It’s simple really..
Employees can sign into so Microsoft 365 apps with both work and personal accounts (similar to work and personal profiles in Edge).
All Copilot features from a the employees personal subscription can be used on work files – even if the employee’s work account doesn’t have a Copilot licence.
Microsoft’s Enterprise data protection remains intact since Copilot only works within the permissions of the user’s work identity so identity, data protection and governance remains in tact.
IT remains in control. Admins can enable or disable this capability via policy, and all Copilot interactions are auditable.
In short: BYO-Copilot provides a safe and secure way for employees to get access to Copilot, whilst IT keeps governance, and organisational data protected.
This provides a much better method than just saying no. This of course needs the user to be using Copilot and not other non Microsoft AI tools.
Empowering employees
From an employee’s perspective, the process is straightforward (they will of course need a personal Microsoft 365 subscription with Copilot) first.
Sign into their work Microsoft 365 apps with both business and personal accounts.
Open Word, Excel, or another Microsoft 365 app.
Use the account switcher to add your personal Microsoft 365 account alongside your work account.
Open a work file from Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc which could be a document stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint that they have access too.
Invoke Copilot and use it as they normally would – for example, ask it to summarise a document, draft a response, or analyse some excel data.
Copilot will of course only work with the content you can access through your work identity,but Microsoft will not use the data to train their models, learn or share anything with the wider Microsoft environment. Organisations remain protected by Microsoft’s Responsible AI and Enterprise Data Protection.
Limitations of BYO Copilot at work?
It is worth noting that this is not the full Microsoft 365 Copilot so their are limitations.
The employees personal Copilot subscription only works on the open document or explicitly referenced file.
Broader capabilities (like querying across multiple files or your organisational data) still require a corporate Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.
How can organisations enable or block BYO Copilot?
Microsoft has of course designed this capability with IT control at the centre and no need for additional tools or controls. Here are the key considerations:
Policy Control
A tenant-level setting called “Multiple account access to Copilot for work documents” determines whether personal Copilot can be used on work files.
IT can enable or disable this capability for all users or specific groups.
Identity and Permissions
Copilot always respects the user’s work account permissions and data, identity and compliance settings on your tenant.
The employees personal account provides the Copilot entitlement, but it does not gain access to organisational data. You still control this as always.
Data Protection
All interactions remain within the Microsoft 365 service boundary.
Prompts and responses are encrypted, governed by existing compliance commitments, and never used to train the underlying AI models or shared for advertising etc.
Auditing and Monitoring
Copilot actions are logged and auditable, just like other user activities and can be surfaced via SEIM, audit logs and the Copilot Control System.
Other settings such as retention policies and compliance tools (such as Purview and DLP) apply to Copilot interactions.
Governance of Web Access
If Copilot’s web search grounding is disabled in your tenant, that restriction still applies – even when using a personal subscription.
Why
For IT leaders, this is a pragmatic response to the reality of AI adoption. Employees want (and often demand) to use AI, and many already have personal subscriptions to Microsoft Copilot at home. Rather than pushing this activity into the shadows, Microsoft has created a safe and protected way for employees to use their own “Microsoft” AI tools that:
Empowers employees to use AI productively.
Keeps IT in control with clear policy levers.
Protects organisational data with enterprise-grade safeguards.
Ensures IT are in the know, providing IT teams the ability to safely allow shadow IT on their copirate environment.
Of course, IT should take the time to review their policies, communicate the boundaries, and decide whether to enable or restrict BYO-Copilot in their environment.
What about other AI Tools like ChatGPT personal and Perplexity?
No (well not yet anyway). Since Microsoft have control over the Copilot experience across commercial, enterprise and personal/family experiences this is something they can do whilst guaranteeing nothing compromises or impacts their existing security and data goverance.
Whilst this won’t stop a poorly configured and governed Microsoft 365 environment allowing third party apps and AI tools on their network, it provides a safe way to empower many more unlicensed Microsoft 365 Copilot users to bring their Copilot to work without organisational expense.
Organisations can then use existing controls to block scan and block the use of unsanctioned AI tools and give employees a viable “self funded” option to BYO Copilot AI to work.
What do you think of BYO Copilot?
Personally I think this is great. Unless your controls are strong, personal AI is already at coming to work, whether sanctioned or not.
With BYO-Copilot, at least IT can provide a way of safely allowing it with the right guardrails in place.
Of course it’s also a clever approach as it gets more people (potentially) paying for Copilot themselves and then convincing their work to buy them a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Microsoft Copilot development just doesn’t sleep… This time they have just announced “agent mode” which they claim could be game changer in the way we (humans) work with AI agents (Copilot). Called “Agent Mode” this latest update marks is not just about new features, but a significant shift in how we interact with Office apps through Copilot.
Agent Mode in Excel
What is Agent mode?
Agent Mode is Microsoft’s answer to the growing demand for intelligent, iterative workflows without needing to craft lengthy prompts. Agent Mode brings agentic reasoning into Excel and Word, (others will follow), allowing users to work along side Copilot through multi-step tasks ranging from data analysis to document creation – with a level of depth and refinement that feels like working alongside an expert.
“In the same way vibe coding has transformed software development, the latest reasoning models in Copilot unlock agentic productivity for Office artefacts.”
Sumit Chauhan |CVP |Microsoft Product Group
These are both application and context aware. As an example:
In Excel, Agent Mode “speaks spreadsheet” language. Whether you need to build financial models, loan calculators, resource calculators or budgets, Agent Mode in Excel means Copilot now understands the nuances of formulas, formatting, and validation. Rather than just generating outputs, it can evaluate your work, suggest fixes, and works with you until you get the result you need.
In Word, Agent Mode will be able to transform writing into a dialogue. Users can prompt, Copilot drafts, user can then asks clarifying questions, and Copilot will refines the content with native styling and formatting. Microsoft say this is vibe writing in action — fast, fluid, and focused.
Chat first creation…
Then, there is the new “Office Agent”, which will live inside Copilot chat. This is designed for when discussions start in a Copilot Chat, rather from within document or spreadsheet. In this context, the Office Agent will have the ability to create “proper” documents directly from your chat, using deep reasoning and live previews to guide the process and creation. These will be powered by Anthropic models and not OpenAI.
Financial Analysis Prompt: “Create a financial monthly close report for a bike shop business, including a breakdown of product lines across VTB, VTF, sequential, and year-over-year growth. Use standard financial formatting and best practices.”
Loan Calculator Prompt: “Build a loan calculator that computes monthly payments based on user inputs for loan amount, annual interest rate, and term in years. Generate a schedule showing month, payment, principal, interest, and remaining balance. Present the results in a clear, formatted table.”
Monthly Report Update Prompt: “Help me update this monthly report for September. Update the data table with the latest numbers from the /Sept Data Pull email. Summarise the key highlights including insights compared to last month’s /August monthly report.doc.”
In Word
Project Update Prompt: “Update the executive summary for clarity, bold all key findings, and insert a bulleted list of next steps based on the /Project update meeting. Make sure to add a conclusion“.
Document Style Prompt: “Can you clean up this document? Title case for section headers, branding updates per the ‘/Latest brand guidelines’ email, and italicize all external partner mentions. Feel free to ask if you need help identifying partners or guidelines.”
In Powerpoint (coming later)
Interestingly, Microsoft say that Copilot can now (finally) create good presentations in PowerPoint!
“PowerPoint is one of the most used tools for creating presentations, but over the last two years, AI (Copilot) has often fallen short when creating slides. Office Agent changes that. Office Agent creates tasteful, well-structured PowerPoint decks and well-researched Word documents. ”
Microsoft say that now… When you work with Copilot to create presentations you will get a totally transformed experience. It will
Clarify your intent
Conduct deep research
Produce high-quality content.
How to use “Agent Mode”
First thing first….. Not everyone can yet and it’s not available day one… OK now read on…
Currently, Agent Mode is available for organisations (and users) enrolled in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license or that have Microsoft 365 Personal or Familywith a Copilot Pro license.
Agent Mode works in Excel on the web but will be coming soon to desktop. Word is also coming soon.
For Excel, you will also need to install the Excel Labsadd-in and choose “Agent Mode”.
Oddly, from what I have read, the Office Agent is only available for Copilot Pro subscribers on Microsoft 365 Personal or Family or Premium and not (yet) Microsoft 365 Commercial. It’s also limited to USA currently! 🙁
Watching late last night on the last day of September 2025, from my living Room (wishing I was there), I tuned into the keynote from Cisco Weex One 2025.
Every year, Cisco WebexOne feels like a pulse check on the state of collaboration from one of the global big three collaboration and meeting platform vendors. This year, incase you had been asleep for the last 12 months), Cisco made it clear: The world is shifting beyond chatbots , with the new frontier being agentic AI – autonomous digital teammates designed not just to answer questions, but to take action on our behalf. We are seeing this everywhere!
We’re squarely in the next era of AI where we’re moving from this notion of chatbots that intelligently answer our questions to agents that are going to conduct tasks and jobs almost fully autonomously on our behalf.
Jeetu Patel | President and CPO | Cisco
Whilst the event continues this week and with other global Collaboration events taking place across the globe, the focus was very much agents agents everywhere…
Webex – Agents, Agents Everywhere
Cisco unveiled a suite of new AI agents that they say feel less like bolt on AI features and more like colleagues or team mates, possible through the huge advances in AI models and reasoning in the last year alone. These Cisco first party agents include:
Cisco Webex One 2025
Task Agent – Which can automatically generates action items from meeting summaries. This will be available in Q1 of 2026.
Notetaker Agent – which captures and summarise in-person huddles in real time without the need for a formally scheduled meeting. This will be built into Cisco RoomOS 26 and will also be Generally Available in Q1 of 2026.
Polling Agent – nothing to do with elections! This agent can suggests live polls mid-meeting to capture sentiment and input leveraging slido. Again also also GA in Q1 2026.
AI Receptionist – this will provide the ability to act as a true virtual front desk receptions for businesses. Built on Webex Calling, it will be able to handle queries, transfers, and scheduling of meetings or call backs and even handle “standard” enquiries. This will start beta testing and controlled rollout from Q1 2026. .
Meeting Scheduler – scan meetings and be able to suggest or proactively turn action items into automated scheduling. This should be be GA before Xmas so you don’t forget to book those new year meetings!
These subtle first party AI ingestion is not just about incremental productivity and keeping up with jones’ (though the other big two have similar), but it’s more about smart and intelligent delegationand follow up – handing off the admin so people can focus on the work that matters and not forget to follow up on meetings.
RoomOS 26: biggest update ever.
Cisco also unveiled some big updates to their RoomOS (the OS that powers their meeting room devices), claiming it is their biggest, richest release yet. Coming in this update we will see, yes more agents including:
Director Agent – which can anticipate meeting flow and dynamically adjusts camera views for a more engaging, cinematic experience.
Workspace Agent – Uses (Nvidia) AI to optimise physical workspace setups, proactively recommending improvements.
Audio Exclusion Zones – allows and can automatically configure digital boundaries to block out background noise and distractions using AI and noise cancelling technologies which I’d argue Cisco do better than anyone!
Again, these are subtle but important features, placing AI into meetings in a subtle yet important way. It’s all about making the meeting room experience just work with minimal manual configuration and tweaking in meeting.
Troubleshooting Gets Agentic Too
Just like with saw with AI Canvas in Cisco networking at Cisco live, Cisco have been busy behind the scenes too.
Cisco is extending its AI Canvas into Webex Control Hub, enabling multi-domain troubleshooting through natural language.
Think of it as a collaborative whiteboard for IT teams, powered by Cisco’s Deep Network Model. This won’t be available until the back end of 2026 but brining network, security and now Collab and meetings together into a since AI canvas is going to be huge for proactive issue resolution.
For any organisation that is already invested or investing in Cisco for their infrastructure stack this is huge and a great compete angle for Cisco where together really can be better!
Expanded Open Ecosystem
Cisco clearly recognise the power of a connected eco system and meeting customers where they are in terms of the wider technology vendors and eco systems they are investing in. Cisco continues to leaning hard into openness, with more integrations that would have been unthinkable a few years back.
Microsoft Copilot – Yes… More Microsoft integrations. Users will be able to search across SharePoint and OneDrive directly from Webex, while Copilot users can pull in Webex meeting summaries.
Zoom for Cisco Rooms – Cisco are brining a huge update to how the Zoom experience works on Cisco devices, moving away from the “nasty” WebRTC experience.
Salesforce and Amazon CCaaS – Webex Contact Center will bring new native integration with Salesforce CRM data as well as Amazon Lex.
This isn’t Cisco versus the world in a closed eco system.. Not anymore. This is Cisco with the world and with your tech!
Customer Experience Gets Smarter
Cisco is also betting big and continuing to innovate in their Webex Contact center portfolio: I will cover more on this in a later blog, but in summary, they are adding:
AI Quality Management (QM) – which wl empower supervisors to coach both human and AI agents from a single platform. – GA Q1 2026.
Webex Contact Center for Salesforce CRM – this is already in early access now with GA expected late Q1 2026.
Amazon Lex Integration – Available now immediately, enabling smarter call routing and intent recognition.
Microsoft Teams – just mentioning as I get asked a lot. This is all ready fully supported as a Teams certified Contact Centre.
Customer experience is no longer about managing queues and IVRs. it’s about orchestrating intelligence and line of business workflow integration and automation.
My Take
WebexOne 2025, as expected was about updates and AI infusion. The focus for me was refinement in the way Cisco do best. No gizmos and pointless features just maturity, evolution and AI in the right places, along with true customer choice and openness. Cisco sprinkling of AI across their suite was all about agency—giving AI the ability to act, not just advise, which of course shifts the course of AI just being a human advisor to taking actions… That’s also a whole other topic of conversation!
For IT, Customer Service and Business Leaders, this is all about trust: how much autonomy are we willing to give an AI agent? How much do we trust it, will out customers and who’s in control and accountable. For users, it’s about relief: less admin, more impact and more customer impacting time.
Cisco’s bet continues to be bold, but it’s also pragmatic. By further opening up and integrating their ecosystem to Microsoft, Zoom, Salesforce, and AWS, they are acknowledging that the future of collaboration isn’t about vendor battles it’s about platform, cohesion and interconnection.
The era of chatbots is over. The era of agents has begun.
