Category: Data and AI

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Satya Nadella’s Call for an “AI Reset” – What Business Leaders Must Prioritise in 2026

Cut out image of Sayta Nadella

As I finished my first week back to work of 2026, I was thinking about Microsoft’s Satya Nadella’s end‑of‑year reflection blog post “Looking Ahead to 2026“ which he wrote at the end of December 2025.

This for me landed at an important moment for the industry. After a year dominated by “AI slop,” concerns over whether the AI boom was ending and stock prices in key AI stocks becoming a bit rocky. In the Microsoft space, there has been some “backlash” about how much AI Microsoft are “pushing” in their products and the industry in general failing to really get big AI initiatives off the ground. We then of course have the upcoming chip shortages (which remind us back to COVID times) with AI cited as the cause of these shortages (memory especially) with AI Data Centres demand exceeding supply.

We have seen huge advances in AI models from Open AI, Google, Anthronic and Microsoft this year but the news has really been coined with the term AI Slop – with AI appearinf to be baked into everything whether people want it or not – who ever thought Notepad in Windows would get the Copilot treatments!!

Despite the negative press, AI is still very much the buzz word (heck, its driving all those component and chip shortages). At work, our clients are still talking about it, driving it forward and investing more into adoption, enablement and consultative engagements. Businesses remain “excited” about the opportunity AI can bring to businesses, consumers and the world!

In his blog post, Satya Nadella argues that we’re finally moving from discovery to diffusion. The message is clear: 2026 must be the year we separate spectacle from substance.

This rest of my blog looks at Nadella’s framing, the wider industry commentary, and what it means for organisations that need AI to deliver measurable value – not just noise with AI Slop or no slop!

From “bicycles for the mind” to “scaffolding for human potential”

In his blog, Satya Nadella revisits Steve Jobs’ famous metaphor – computers as “bicycles for the mind” – and argues that it no longer captures the scale or nature of modern AI. Instead, he positions AI as scaffolding: a structure that supports, amplifies and extends human capability rather than replacing it.

This is a subtle but important shift. It reframes AI not as a tool we operate, but as a system that surrounds us — shaping how we work, decide, and collaborate.

Coverage from the Economic Times reinforces this by highlighting the need to move beyond the novelty phase and focus on real‑world impact. In short, the industry must stop debating “slop vs sophistication” and start designing systems that genuinely improve human cognition and outcomes.

From what I see with my engagement with business leaders, it means moving away from app and model‑centric thinking (what is better ChatGPT or Copilot) and towards systems engineering within our line of business. We need to look at how our business works today, where AI fits and where automation counts. Businesses need to work with Microsoft, with their technology partners and most importantly from within, to plan and deliver measurable outcomes.

“Aiming to please” is not alignment

One of the most important – and least discussed issues in business led AI is the tension between:

  • AI that aims to please (reinforcement learning from human feedback, training, safety tuning, helpfulness scoring) where AI is just that assistant, that Copilot!
  • AI that is aligned (truthful, reliable, predictable, value‑consistent and therefore really useful) which is much more important as we look for it to help us make decisions, take action and do stuff!

These are not the same thing.

Research throughout 2025 showed that models tuned to be more “helpful” often become more sycophantic, more agreeable, and more likely to produce confident but incorrect answers. An interesting article I found from “PC Gamer” cites Microsoft‑linked research suggesting that over‑reliance on AI tools can actually reduce user capability over time due to the mind set of “AI can do anything” whilst at the same point “we don’t trust AI”. So, which is it?

This re-enforces Satya’s view that as we enter 2026, the priority must shift from “does it sound good?” to “does it stand up to scrutiny?”

The AI race is real – and so is the concentration of power

AI is now a currency and we are seeing this everywhere. Leaders cite it, big tech companies are embracing it and the models are doubling in capability in less than a 12 month cycle (some say 8 months). Compute, data, and model access are becoming strategic assets – we are seen this through component shortages! These global hyper-scalers and a handful of model labs will capture disproportionate value, and enterprises will increasingly depend on them for:

  • model access
  • agent frameworks
  • safety and alignment layers
  • orchestration platforms
  • compute and optimisation pipelines

This shouldn’t be seen as negative, but it does require deliberate strategy. Vendor lock‑in, opaque safety layers, and proprietary agent ecosystems will shape enterprise risk profiles for years.

Then there is the vast number of other tech venders embracing the security and safety layers – in the dozens these are and will appear to sell you AI Safety and Security tools, while we wait for the leading AI models and companies to bake this is. Firms like Microsoft will likely do this well and make it part of their security and compliance approach across their wider platforms. others will or may lean to other vendors through partnerships.

The biggest gap perhaps is still user awareness, adoption and controlling shadow-IT. This becomes very more important as organising and the world begin the next pivot shift from AI assistants to autonomous AI.

Again, Satytas’ blog acknowledges this indirectly: the industry does not yet have “societal permission” for widespread autonomous AI. That permission will depend on trust, governance, and measurable outcomes – not just capability.

Two strategic paths for Corporate and Enterprise AI?

We look at two different paths for how organisation use and leverage AI. The oath for superior intelligence and the path that recognises AI’s purpose as cognitive scaffolding.

Path A: Pursue superior intelligence

  • Focus on emergent capabilities and autonomy
  • High potential upside
  • High systemic risk
  • Harder to govern, audit, and predict

Path B: AI as cognitive scaffolding

  • Focus on augmentation, reliability, and workflow integration
  • Measurable value
  • Lower risk
  • Requires strong systems engineering

Satya calls out that most organisations will need to operate somewhere between these paths, but that the balance must be intentional.

What IT leaders should prioritise in 2026

There have been lots of posts around this from many different players, analyst firms and now little ol’ me! For me, nothing much has changed since last year (though the models have got cleverer, faster, cheaper!)

Outcome‑based evaluation: Benchmarks and demos are not enough. Businesses need to look at real use cases, go deep with proof of value production pilots. they need to determine what good looks like. It will likely require solutions/use cases that deliver task‑level accuracy, has no (minimal) hallucination, and longitudinal user‑impact studies which they can be loud and proud of.

Human‑centred design: This partly means no AI for AI’s sake. That said user familiarisation and confidence (like Internet Skills once were) are key for trust and understanding Departments need to surface provenance, uncertainty, and verification steps in putting AI to work. Moving beyond assistive to authorative AI should not be done lightly – trust is everything and humans being in the loop is vital in order to avoid “auto‑execute” defaults for high‑risk actions.

Governance and entitlements: IT and compliance need to have (and enable in the case of Copilot for example) auditing to track which agents can access which data and enforce least‑privilege by default. Audit everything, Trust nothing, Training everyone and Pilot, Pilot, Pilot, test, test, test.

Red‑team testing and observability – This goes beyond security and governance – this is about trusting AI to act like a human would. Use cases need to ensure they test for sycophancy, bias, adversarial prompts, and silent failure modes – for AI to world in place of human roles, there needs to be trust, failback and no “time outs” in the middle of a conversation with an agent.

Skills protection – Training is key to ensure organisations pair automation with training to prevent deskilling of people and upskilling of how inference and AI models work. We need to document everything, know what expected outcomes are and re-evaluate each business process, AI model and task our AI is performing. We need to preserve the entity of what our business is about this is the human factor) and retain our rooted institutional knowledge.

Final reflection

Sayta Nadella’s call to move beyond “AI slop” is timely and what many leaders are thinking. It’s hard to beleive it is less that 2 years since Copilot make it’s general availabiloity to the masses and the industry has spent these two years chasing and demaning more capability, bigger models, flashier demos, and viral outputs.

As we sit here, closer to 2030 than we are to 2020, 2026 demands something different. AI needs to deliver on the promises. This is less about the AI and more about how organisations re-shape, re-invest and rebuild business modes, systems, and processes with AI in mind. Technology change is not quick and simple and AI is not (in most cases) not a quick fix answer to underlying issues. For IT pros and business leaders, the message is clear:

  • Demand measurable value in pilot and projects
  • Prioritise trust and governance and use a model/tool that fits into what you have
  • Treat AI as scaffolding, not a substitute for good processes and people
  • Build for augmentation, not automation (in the immediate term)
  • Evaluate outcomes, not optics and do in phases.

The AI race will continue to get faster, we will hear more success stories, more doom and gloom, feel left behind because we are not moving fast enough and people will worry more about job losses, environmental impact and cost. The economics will only intensify, but I believe that the organisations that win will be those that operationalise AI responsibly, at the right pace, deliberately, and with a clear understanding of where the real risks and opportunities lie.

Thanks for reading or listening. Happy 2026!

References / Sources in this doc

  • Economic Times — “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls for a big AI reset in 2026…”
  • PC Gamer — “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says it’s time to stop talking about AI slop…”

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What is Copilot Checkout? Microsoft and PayPal’s new AI-Powered Commerce Experience.

Microsoft and PayPal have officially joined forces to launch Copilot Checkout, a groundbreaking integration that redefines the online shopping experience. This collaboration merges Microsoft’s conversational AI capabilities with PayPal’s trusted payment infrastructure, creating a seamless journey from product discovery to purchase all within the Copilot interface on Windows, app and the Web.

It’s rolling out initially in the USA and works with partners including PayPal (and later), Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy.

Intelligent Discovery Meets Trusted Payments

Copilot Checkout will allows users to browse,  evaluate, and complete purchases (check out) directly from within Microsoft Copilot experience, eliminating the need to switch between different apps, devices or websites. By embedding PayPal’s agentic commerce services, the experience becomes not only faster but also more secure and flexible.

Key Features of Copilot Checkout

  • Conversational Shopping: Users interact with Copilot to explore products, compare options, and make informed decisions.
  • Integrated Payments: PayPal will power the end to end checkout flow, offering branded and guest checkout, credit card support, and even PayPal wallet integration.
  • Merchant Enablement: Retailers are able to surface and promote inventory, and reach high-intent customers at the moment of decision without loosing to the “buy later crew”

Benefits for PayPal sellers and consumers

For sellers:

  • Let’s them reach customers during high-intent moments
  • Reduce friction and cart abandonment and avoids the buy later mind set.
  • Expand visibility across Microsoft touch points such as Bing, Edge, and of course Copilot.

For Consumers:

  • Enables fast, flexible and in the moment checkout options (Amazon experience)
  • Stay within the Copilot experience from start to finish to ensure customers do not have to shift platforms, devices or apps.
  • Benefit from PayPal’s buyer protections and payment versatility.

Early Adoption and Ecosystem Impact

In this early stage of the partnership the early adopters include major brands including Etsy and Urban Outfitters.

What’s more Shopify merchants are auto-enrolled, while PayPal and Stripe sellers can opt in for this experience (Microsoft will need to convince them and sell the value).

This rollout marks a significant step in the evolution of agentic e-commerce, where AI agents act on behalf of users to simplify and accelerate transactions.

PayPal and Microsoft Partnership.

In the annoucement, Michelle Gill, GM of Small Business and Financial Services at PayPal, said:

“By integrating PayPal’s agentic commerce services with Copilot’s intelligent shopping platform, we are enabling seamless, reliable transactions for both merchants and consumers.”

Kathleen Mitford, CVP of Global Industry at Microsoft shared:

“Retailers can automate what slows them down and amplify what sets them apart.”

What and when?

Copilot Checkout will be come more than just a new hidden feature. Following OpenAI (and expect Google to follow), Microsoft and PayPal are looking to reshape consumer behaviour and drive more footfall to Copilot and PayPal. This is just the start and Microsoft plan to work with other e-commerce providers.

The joint goal is to redefine how brands connect with customers in real time, with intelligence and trust at the core from both PayPal and Microsoft.

For more insights, visit PayPal’s announcement or explore Microsoft’s commerce vision.

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What is Copilot Real Talk Mode? And how to use it.

Back at the “Fall update in October”, Microsoft announced that a new talk mode called “Real Talk” was coming to Copilot. This has been available in the US for a while in preview but is now available in the UK and other regions.

This (currently) optional chat mode allows Copilot to better adapt to the user’s tone by adding more personality, wit, and even “playful” challenges in its responses. This new mode “real talk” offers a more balanced and engaging conversational style that is designed to be more honest like a true “friend” whilst still staying polite. One of the critiques of many chat bots is that they “tell you what you want to hear”. Real Talk, aims to address this by providing a more balanced, open and honest conversation but still without being rude!

Jacob Andreou, Microsoft’s CVP of product and growth for AI, talks about this mode as being able to understand and “mirror” the user’s attitude, offer its own perspective, and not simply agree with everything said by the human. “Real talk aims to create a more interactive, human-like dialogue that goes beyond providing straightforward information. It will provoke users to think by occasionally questioning or offering alternative views, making conversations with Copilot more stimulating“.

How to use Copilot Real-Talk mode

This new mode is accessible through a dropdown menu and is currently limited to text chats (so not yet available in Copilot’s voice chat interface).

Copilot Real-Talk Moe

It’s available in the Windows Copilot App, Web (at https://copilot.microsoft.com) and mobile.

You can also switch to Real Talk mode at any point, but this does start a new conversation. To do this simply click the drop down and change the voice mode:

Copilot Real-Talk in Action

In this example, I gave Copilot a simple statement where I said, “Many people still think the earth is flat – what do you think about that?“. I run this in Copilot’s default chat mode and then again in “Real Talk” mode.

I’ve also created a video on this where I go into more detail.

Copilot Standard Chat Response

The response tone and length was quite typical – a balanced view, not wanting to say the wrong thing and looking at both angles whilst still stating facts.

"It’s a fascinating example of how belief can diverge from evidence.

From a scientific standpoint, the Earth being spherical isn’t up for debate. It’s supported by centuries of observations and measurements, including satellite imagery, GPS systems, gravity measurements, time zones, airline routes, and even how shadows behave at different latitudes. These aren’t abstract theories; they’re practical realities that modern life depends on every day.

What is interesting is why flat‑Earth beliefs persist. They tend to be less about geography and more about psychology and trust:

- Distrust of institutions – Some people see flat‑Earth ideas as a way to reject governments, scientists, or perceived elites.
- Community and identity – Belonging to a group that “knows the truth” can be powerful.
- Misunderstanding of science – Scientific methods can feel opaque or intimidating, making alternative explanations seem appealing.
- Algorithmic reinforcement – Online platforms can amplify fringe ideas by repeatedly showing similar content.

I don’t see flat‑Earth belief as a failure of intelligence. It’s more a failure of critical thinking skills being nurtured and a breakdown in trust between experts and the public. When people feel excluded from knowledge, they’re more likely to reject it entirely.

The real challenge isn’t correcting the shape of the Earth; it’s rebuilding curiosity, scientific literacy, and trust in evidence-based reasoning. That’s a much harder problem—and a far more important one."

Copilot Real-Talk Mode Response

This was much more concise and to the point. What do you think and what do you prefer?

It's wild that in 2025, with satellite photos and physics we use daily (like GPS literally requiring round-earth calculations), some folks still reject basic science. The psychology behind it fascinates me though—it's less about evidence and more about wanting to feel special, distrust of institutions, or finding community in shared beliefs.
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Copilot gets free GPT‑5.2 upgrade with “Smart Plus” mode

Microsoft has begun rolling out GPT‑5.2 across Copilot on the web, Windows, and mobile as a free upgrade. It sits alongside GPT‑5.1 rather than replacing it, giving users a clear choice between speed and deeper reasoning.

GPT‑5.2 is described as OpenAI’s strongest model series so far, designed to accelerate real work: building spreadsheets and presentations, writing and reviewing code, analysing long documents, using tools, and working with images. Copilot only moved to GPT‑5.1 for Smart mode in November, and Microsoft is now introducing GPT‑5.2 as a new “Smart Plus” option.

GPT5.2 gives higher‑reasoning model for complex tasks

The updated version of Open AI’s GPT arriving in Copilot is the “Thinking variant” of GPT‑5.2 – the same model Microsoft highlights for complex, multi‑step tasks and strategic reasoning.

GPT5.2 – Benchmark performance data

OpenAI’s own release notes describe GPT‑5.2 Thinking as expert‑level for well‑specified office tasks and significantly more reliable than previous models. Industry benchmarks reinforce this:

  • On knowledge‑work tasks across 44 occupations (GDPval), GPT‑5.2 Thinking beats or ties industry professionals 70.9% of the time (vs 38.8% for GPT‑5). 
  • Coding performance is significantly higher, scoring 55.6% on SWE‑Bench Pro and 80% on SWE‑Bench Verified — both ahead of GPT‑5.1 Thinking. 
  • It posts strong reasoning scores: GPQA Diamond 92.4%, AIME 2025 100%, and CharXiv Reasoning with Python 88.7%.

Microsoft Makes Model Choice a core Copilot feature

Microsoft has also rolled out GPT‑5.2 into the commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio products, where it appears in the model selector alongside GPT‑5.1 and GPT‑5.2 Instant. This aligns with Microsoft’s broader strategy of giving users explicit model choice depending on the task.

In Microsoft 365 Copilot, GPT‑5.2 connects to Work IQ (aka Microsoft Graph) – Microsoft’s intelligence layer that reasons across meetings, emails, documents, and organisational data to unlock insights and strategic planning scenarios.

More Value for Copilot users

Microsoft frames this as part of its ongoing commitment to model choice across Copilot experiences, ensuring users can pick the right model for the job rather than relying on a single default. For consumers this is huge value as Open AI still make the 5.1 and 5.2 models exclusive to premium subscribers whereas Microsoft give the latest models for free (both in Windows 11 and on the web and mobile apps).

For the non commercial / enterprise version, Smart Plus becomes the “high‑reasoning” lane inside Copilot. It’s designed for:

  • Multi‑step workflows 
  • Strategic analysis and planning 
  • Complex document understanding 
  • Code generation and review 
  • Tasks that benefit from slower, more deliberate reasoning 

GPT‑5.2 Instant remains the fast, everyday model, while GPT‑5.2 Thinking powers Smart Plus for deeper work.


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Automatic Alt Text on Copilot+ PCs: A Small Feature with a Big Accessibility Impact

Microsoft has rolled out a useful update to the Office Suite apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint which creates automatic, “on‑device” Alt Text generation for images. This is a great way of helping content become more inclusive by providing automatic (but editable) descriptions of images, graphics, graphs etc. This helps screen readers and also AI tools better understand documents.

Alt Text Auto Generation is for Copilot + PCs only

This great feature leverages the on-chip NPU of Copilot+ PCs and is currently not available on older (non-AI) PCs. Sometimes the most valuable improvements are the ones that make good practice the default — especially for accessibility and inclusion.

Image of someone with hands in air emotionally speaking

This is a great way of ensuring content becomes meaningfully accessible by default.

You don’t need to do anything to enable this feature. You will need to be running the latest version of the Office apps on your device.

  • Word, Excel and PowerPoint now generate Alt Text instantly as you insert images.
  • The processing for this happens on‑device, so nothing is sent to the cloud.
  • It’s currently only for Copilot+ PCs, taking advantage of the NPU
  • Authors can still edit or override the generated text, keeping humans in control.
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GPT-5.2 now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft has just (11th Dec) started rolling out OpenAI’s GPT‑5.2 across Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, marking another significant leap in AI-powered productivity.

The differences between GPT5 and GPT5.2 provide “a significant upgrade in performance across various metrics”. For example, GPT-5.2 has achieved higher scores on benchmarks like ARC-AGI2 and GPQA Diamond which indicate improved abstract reasoning and scientific knowledge. In coding tasks, GPT-5.2 outperformed GPT 5.0 and 5.1 in accuracy and speed. The model also excelled on CharXiv Reasoning an AIM 2025 scores which measures LLMs capabilities in advanced mathematics and problem-solving.

The update delivers two models under one banner:

  • GPT‑5.2 Thinking, ideal for deep reasoning and complex problem-solving, and
  • GPT‑5.2 Instant, tailored for everyday tasks like writing, translation, and learning – all now integrated into Work IQ for actionable insights across emails, meetings, and documents.

    Within Microsoft 365 Copilot, (as this rolls out), users are able to manually select GPT‑5.2 from the model menu in both Copilot Chat and Copilot Studio, enabling smarter decision-making for tasks such as:
  • Preparing insights ahead of meetings.
  • Conducting comparisons and analysis such as market research of reviewing reports.
  • Extracting strategic takeaways linked to objectives and milestones.
Model Selection for GPT5.2 in Copilot Chat

Microsoft has sad that Copilot Studio agents will transition automatically from GPT‑5.1 to GPT‑5.2 in early-release environments and early in 2026, the default model in Copilot Chat will shift from GPT 5 to GPT5.2

These improvements therefore deliver improvements for tasks requiring complex reasoning and problem-solving skills. How their fair in day to use will be down to you as user to evaluate and determine. For now – we get the choice to dip in and out.

This rapid launch reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to offering model choice allowing users to access the latest innovation tuned for enterprise-grade security, compliance, and performance.

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More Anthropic Models coming to Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft is making a major change to how AI models are integrated into Copilot experiences. From 7 January 2026, Anthropic’s models will be enabled by default for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, moving away from the current opt-in setting to a standard feature under Microsoft’s own contractual terms rather than Anthropic’s.

What’s Changing?

  • Default Enablement: Anthropic models, which were previously optional, will now be switched on by default for most commercial cloud customers. UK and EU/EFTA customers will find this OFF by default, requiring manual opt-in for others it will be ON.
  • Microsoft Sub processor Status: Anthropic is now a Microsoft sub processor, meaning its operations fall under Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum and Product Terms (previously Anthropic use was under Anthropic own Commercial Terms).
  • Admin Controls: A new toggle should now be active in the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre.

Why It Matters

This update extends Microsoft’s enterprise-grade data protection standards to Anthropic-powered Copilot features and makes more of a secure broker around AI models with less of a dependance on just Open AI. Working with companies like Anthropic in this “AI sub-processor” approach ensures:

  • Contractual Safeguards: Anthropic operates under Microsoft’s direction and compliance frameworks.
  • Choice and Flexibility as well as ensuring access to specific models to perform the best tasks drive quality and refinement to Copilot.
  • Enterprise Data Protection: Your data remains covered by Microsoft’s commitments, including the DPA and Product Terms.

Why Microsoft Is Adding Anthropic Support

Microsoft’s goal is to give organisations more choice and flexibility in Copilot experiences. Anthropic’s Claude models are known for strong reasoning and safety alignment, which complements Microsoft’s own AI capabilities. By onboarding Anthropic as a subprocessor, Microsoft can:

  • Offer advanced generative AI features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Copilot Studio.
  • Maintain consistent compliance and security standards across all integrated models.
  • Enable customers to select external models for specialised use cases without sacrificing enterprise-grade protections.

Regional and Cloud Exceptions

  • UK & EU/EFTA: Toggle remains OFF by default; admins need to opt in.
  • Government & Sovereign Clouds: Anthropic models are not yet available.

Controlling access to other AI Provides like Anthropic

To do this, head to the Admin Centre, Go to Copilot, Settings and choose Data Access Tab

Decide if to enable (or disable)

Looking Ahead

This change signals Microsoft’s commitment to expanding AI capabilities responsibly by leveraging the best model for the job or task. Enabling Anthropic (and other models) unlocks richer functionality – especially in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Copilot Studio – while maintaining strong data protection standards and still giving organisations choice.

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Microsoft Ignite 2025 – “The Agentic Shift”

Microsoft used Ignite 2025 to tell the world that “agents are now the primary interface for enterprise work“. The focus throughout Ignite was about evolution from chat-bots to multi-discipline teams of agents across organisations and the unlaying architectural envelopments being done to make this work.

Agents are already changing how people work, and IDC predicts there will be 1.3 billion agents by 2028. Agent 365 is the control plane for agents, extending the infrastructure you trust to manage your people to agents.

This was about spelling out the developments across platform and the unifying of intelligence layers so agents can be treated as identity‑bound workers and allow security and governance to be baked in in the same way we manage human workers today. Below is a summary of the key aspects and ingredients of this approach.

For more on the latest developments and Microsoft Research on AI Frontier Firms, check out the WorkLabs

Fabric IQ

What it is: Fabric IQ layers semantic meaning and business ontologies on top of data stores so agents reason in terms of customers, orders, assets, and events rather than raw tables.

Why it matters: Agents that lack consistent business context make brittle or risky decisions. Fabric IQ gives agents a shared vocabulary and entity model, reducing ambiguity across analytics, automation, and agent workflows.

Example: A retail replenishment agent uses Fabric IQ to translate “low stock” signals into SKU hierarchies, supplier lead times, and regional demand forecasts. The agent then creates the correct purchase order, selects the right vendor SLA, and schedules delivery windows – cutting stockouts and manual reconciliation time.

Foundry Control Plane

What it is: Foundry will become the unified platform for building, routing, and operating agents with model selection, versioning, and governance hooks built in. It includes a built‑in control plane that brings security, observability, and cost signals directly into the developer experience. It surfaces alerts, policy violations, performance issues, and budget warnings where teams already build – and exposes Microsoft Entra, Defender, and Purview controls as simple toggles so identity, data protection, and threat detection can be enabled without re‑architecting toolchains.

Why it matters: Foundry reduces model selection risk, standardises deployment patterns, and makes governance a first‑class concern rather than an afterthought. It’s the place teams certify agents, attach policies, and monitor behaviour. It means developers can ship agents that are secure from day one, remain protected through updates, and automatically flow into Agent 365 governance at deployment. By meeting teams in their existing workflows, Microsoft removes much of the friction between building agents and securing them — a much needed “fix” for an area that has tripped up many enterprises and halted mass adoption.

Example: A financial services team certifies an underwriting agent in Foundry. The control plane enforces data access policies, routes sensitive scoring to on‑prem models, and produces audit trails for regulators – enabling faster production rollouts without compromising compliance.

Agent 365

What it is: Agent 365 treats agents like employees: Entra identities, scoped permissions, lifecycle management, and telemetry. It produces a security framework for how agents should be deployed and managed within an organisation. It gives IT and SecOps teams a single, consistent way to discover, manage, and secure agents wherever they’re built.

Agents are already changing how people work, and IDC predicts there will be 1.3 billion agents by 2028. Agent 365 is the control plane for agents, extending the infrastructure you trust to manage your people to agents.

Microsoft Ignite 2025

Agent 365 extends Entra ID with the same controls organisations already use to manage their people into the agent world with a – Entra Agent ID for identity and access, Defender for threat detection and posture, and Purview for data protection and compliance. Rather than new tools, this provides the familiar surface control plane where agents can collaborate and interact with users, keeping behaviour visible inside the tools people already use.


Why it matters: When agents have identity and governance, organisations can scale fleets safely. You can onboard, revoke, and audit agents the same way you manage human users.

IT gets a central registry of every agent across the estate; developers can register third‑party or custom agents via SDKs; and security teams gain continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and enforcement capabilities such as conditional access.

For organisations wrestling with shadow AI and governance gaps, Agent 365 is a practical answer – it treats agents as first‑class entities that must be onboarded, scoped, audited, and revoked just like human accounts.

Example: An HR department deploys multiple document‑generation agents. Agent 365 ensures each agent only accesses approved templates and employee records, preventing accidental PII exposure and making incident investigations straightforward.

Azure Copilot for Cloud Ops

What it is: Azure Copilot orchestrates specialised cloud agents for migrations, observability, remediation, and optimisation – this can turn runbooks into agent workflows.

Why it matters: Cloud operations shift from manual dashboards to intent‑driven orchestration. Agents can triage, remediate, and coordinate across services faster than human‑only teams.

Example: During a cross‑region outage, Azure Copilot coordinates agents to triage logs, roll back a faulty deployment, and provision temporary capacity – reducing mean time to recovery from hours to minutes.

Conclusion

Ignite 2025 reframeed “AI” from an add‑on to an operational fabric for every organisation as we start to transition into the next phase of AI maturity and adoption.

Microsoft’s combination of Fabric IQ, Foundry and Agent 365 creates a practical path to agentic operations for business, but success still very much depends on the fuel for AI – disciplined data modeling, governance by design, and small, measurable pilots.

Organisations that treat agents as governed, identity‑bound teammates will be the ones that gain speed and resilience fastest – those that don’t face sprawl and risk and stalled or failed initiatives.

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What is Work IQ?


Microsoft Ignite 2025 focus this year saw Microsoft fully committed to Agentic AI as the next platform layer. Across all of the briefings, keynotes, technical sessions, and partner announcements, Microsoft repeatedly emphasised that AI is no longer an add-on – and that is becoming the “operating system” for modern work.

Alongside this was the announcement of Work IQ at Ignite 2025 was probably one of the biggest impact announcements – which was announced during the day 1 keynote – hosted by Judson Althoff (CEO of Commercial Business at Microsoft) and LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky.

What is Work IQ?

Work IQ was positioned as a multi-level intelligence layer that delivers company-specific, job-specific, and user-specific data to inform Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents. This was not about smarter tools, models or even a new first party agent, but instead was about Microsoft playing true to their initial vision of Copilot whereby (unlike other AI tools), about a new layer of contextual intelligence that adapts to how your organisation actually work. 

This layer actually includes Work IQ, Fabric IQ, and Foundry IQ – each designed to accelerate AI innovation and support organisations in becoming Frontier Firms. But Work IQ is the cornerstone of what this all about.

Microsoft positioned Work IQ as being built on three pillars: 

  • Inference – ability to connect dots, predict next actions, and recommend the right agent. 
  • Data – the rich knowledge inside emails, files, meetings, and chats and Entra ID  
  • Memory – your specific preferences, habits, and workflows. 

This framework enables Copilot to access data, retain memory, and understand how tasks and tools interact. Inference helps predict the most suitable action or agent for each job. 

Work IQ is deeply integrated into Microsoft 365 apps like Word and Excel, enabling Copilot to continuously learn through what Microsoft calls an AI-powered feedback loop. This loop far surpasses traditional connectors by retaining context and evolving with your business. 

Instead of reactive assistants waiting for prompts before acting, Work IQ interprets relationships, intent, and context. It connects documents, meetings, and workflows into a living map of organisational knowledge, powered by the Microsoft Graph- a competitive advantage no rival can match.  Whilst other AI’s such as ChatGPT can “plug-in” to Microsoft 365 via APIs, this is nothing compared to the power of the Microsoft Graph (which is what WorkIQ is). Work IQ (the Microsoft Graph) is about value creation inside the governance boundary. Work IQ respects permissions, compliance, and sensitivity labels, making it a trusted foundation for enterprise AI. 

Agents Powered by Work IQ

Work IQ is also the engine of the agent era. Agents can only act independently when they understand environment, history, dependencies, and intent. Without context, an agent is just a reactive assistant with a fancier name. With Work IQ, Microsoft enables true agentic behaviour – agents that can coordinate, reason, and act across the enterprise. 

This aligns with Microsoft’s broader vision of “Frontier Firms” – organisations that are human-led and agent-operated. Microsoft say that, already, more than 90% of the Fortune 500 use Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Work IQ is set to deepen that reliance by embedding intelligence into everyday workflows.  This got huge cheers at Ignite!

With Work IQ, Microsoft are raising the standard of the AI workplace – positioning itself as the core intelligence layer of the modern organisation and building the foundation of the next decade of digital work.   

What about other 3rd Party AIs?

Many of Microsoft’s Competitors are able to “plug in” to either apps though plug ins.  ChatGPT, Gemini, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Atlassian etc can all build smart vertical intelligence inside their own stack or products, but in terms of the wider enterprise context, they operate in silos. Even with APIs, they do not have the awareness, context and breadth of reach that Microsoft has with the connected Microsoft ecosystem and the Graph. They lack a unified fabric, and without it, they cannot deliver the seamless agentic experience Work IQ enables. 

Microsoft’s isn’t trying to win the AI assistant market as such; they are building the architecture for the agentic workplace. Think of it as the difference between building a smart car versus building the entire road system it drives on. 

Final Thoughts

Work IQ as the missing piece that makes Copilot more than a productivity tool. It’s the connective tissue that transforms AI from assistant to organisational intelligence. 

The real question is how quickly enterprises will adapt to this new standard, and how competitors will respond when Microsoft have just raised the bar so high. 

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With Security Copilot now part of Microsoft 365 E5 – what do you actually get?

At Ignite this week, Microsoft announced that Security Copilot will now be included in Microsoft 365 E5 (and E5 Security) at no additional cost. Security Copilot delivers “AI-powered, integrated, cost-effective, and extensible security capabilities” that elevate an organisations IT Security Operations or SOC’s efficiency and resilience.

So, what does it actually include and what are the catches?

1. Integrated AI-driven defense across the Microsoft stack

Security Copilot agents are natively embedded into Microsoft Defender, Entra, Intune, and Purview, which means that IT / Sec teams don’t need to juggle separate tools. This allows for a single, cohesive workflow where identity, endpoint, data, and threat protection are all reinforced by AI and can be reviewed, configured and monitored with just a prompt!

2. Autonomous and proactive protection

As part of this announcement, Microsoft has also introduced a dozen new AI agents that enable “agentic defense” — adaptive, autonomous responses to threats. Instead of just alerting, Copilot can recommend or even automate actions, helping teams stay ahead of evolving attacks or reasons for concern and to plan for action.

3. Included at no additional cost with E5

For Microsoft E5 customers, Security Copilot will now be included as part of the core entitlement.

Here’s the important part: Organisations receive 400 Security Compute Units (SCUs) per month per 1,000 users, scaling up to 10,000 SCUs/month — enough to cover (Microsoft say) most typical enterprise scenarios without extra spend.

4. Faster incident response and investigation

Copilot in Copilot Security is designed to accelerates triage, root cause analysis, and remediation by summarising complex signals into actionable insights. This can significantly reduce mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), freeing analysts to focus on strategic threats rather than repetitive tasks.

5. Customisation and extensibility

Beyond the built-in agents, Microsoft also provides extensive developer tools and APIs so organisations can create custom agents or connect other systems securely specifically tailored to their environment. This means it is possible and configure Security Copilot to unique workflows, integrate with third-party systems, and align it with your specific compliance or operational needs.

Surface Management Portal is also included 🙂

Enablement

Depending on your organisation, you might qualify for funded workshops for awareness and enablement of Security Copilot. Speak to your Microsoft Partner to find out more.

Read more at Microsoft Learn:

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Sora-2 now in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Sora 2 - Copilot

At Ignite 2025 this month, amongst a long list of AI and Security updates, Microsoft announced that OpenAI’s Sora 2 text-to-video model is now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot in their Create Agent bringing AI video into enterprise productivity.

Sora 2 can make content much more realistic than the previous version of Sora and has earned both praise and criticism, since AI-generated videos are quite a debated and controversial topic. Sora 2 also supports a “cameos” feature that creates the likeness of a person that can then be placed in content – again met with mixed opinions.

Sora 2 is available today (in the US) and rolling out to other regions, for Microsoft 365 Commercial users who are part of Microsoft’s Frontier program

What’s New with Sora 2

For those not familiar with Sora 2 the integration into Microsoft 365 Copilot (at no additonal cost) beings:

  • Improved realism and physics: Videos now follow motion dynamics more closely, from gymnastics routines to buoyancy on water.
  • Longer, coherent clips: Open AI’s Sora 2 can generate richer, more sustained video sequences than its predecessor.
  • Cameos feature: Users can insert likenesses (with consent) into videos, opening up new possibilities for training and storytelling.
  • Enterprise integration: Within Copilot’s Create experience, commercial users in the Frontier program can generate short clips, add voiceovers, music, and brand kit elements for consistency.

Whilst this may still feel like novality, it shows how far this is coming on and unleases new levels of quality allowing creators and marketiers to embedding video creation into the same environment where organisations already manage documents, presentations, and collaboration.

How to Access Sora-2 in Copilot

Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can create video project with Copilot (powered by the Sora-2). It can be used for video and voiceovers, leverage your organisation brand kit and then be editied to add music, and include other visual elements using ClipChamp.

Note: Today, your oganisation must be enrolled in the Copilot Frontier (early adopter programme)

Why It Matters for Microsoft 365 Customers

Microsoft positions Copilot as a multimodal hub, combining text, images, documents, audio, and now realistic video. For enterprises, this means:

  • Marketing teams can rapidly prototype campaign assets.
  • HR and L&D can produce onboarding explainers without outsourcing.
  • Anyone can create and enrich presentations with dynamic video narratives.

Since all this happens inside Microsoft 365, identity, compliance, and governance frameworks apply. That’s a major differentiator compared to consumer-first AI video tools and helps business further enable this level of creativity within risking corporate data leakage.

Video also coming to Copilot Notebooks

Along side this new feature, Microsoft are also bringing video into Copilot Notebooks. ALong with the already available audio podcast feature, Copilot Notebooks can now create enhances overview pages, proactive topic suggestions, and …wait for it, audio and video summaries and podcasts.

What’s Next?

Sora 2 in Copilot is more than a feature—it’s a signal of where enterprise communication is heading. Video will sit alongside slides, spreadsheets, and documents as a default medium. The organisations that thrive will be those that treat AI video not as a gimmick, but as a strategic lever for clarity, engagement, and impact.

Read Microsoft’s Official Post here:
Available today: OpenAI’s Sora 2 in Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub

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AI Explained: 9 Key Concepts You Need to Know in 2025

Artificial intelligence, whilst a phrase used in most of our daily lives, can feel huge, strange, unknown, scary, exciting and sometimes even intimidating. In this post I decided I would strip back the noise and waffle and share nine crisp, usable concepts. I’ve aimed to provide clarity over jargon and give some practical examples over theory.

Before I start, many and to put into familiar brands, here are a few AI tools and brands you will of already know or at least of have heard of:

1. Common AI Tools to know about

  • ChatGPT – What really started the world of “publicly accessible” Generative AI Chat Bots. ChatGPT (version 5 is the current) is a conversational AI that generates text, pictures, and even video. It can answer questions and help with creative writing. It’s a clear example of generative AI in action, showing how large language models can produce human‑like responses. Free and Paid versions.
  • Copilot (Microsoft) – leverages many different AI models including ChatGPT, Microsoft’s own and others, can do very what ChatGPT can do, but is also integrated across line of business apps and data like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Windows. Copilot acts as an AI agent that helps you create, draft, analyse, and even automate tasks. It’s a practical demonstration of how AI agents and retrieval techniques can boost productivity. Free tier (ChatGPT Pro equivalent) and Premium for Consumer/Family. Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business use.
  • Google Gemini – Google’s AI assistant that blends search with generative capabilities, pulling in live information to give context‑aware answers. Free and Paid tiers.
  • GitHub Copilot – A developer‑focused AI that suggests code snippets and functions in real time. It shows how reasoning models and pattern recognition can accelerate software development.
  • MidJourney / DALL·E – Image generation tools that turn text prompts into visuals. These highlight the creative side of AI, where models learn patterns from vast datasets and apply them to new artistic outputs.
  • Perplexity – Great for research including financial data and educational content. Has free and paid versions.
  • Siri / Alexa – typically home style voice assistants that act as simpler AI agents, interpreting commands and connecting to external systems like calendars, music apps, or smart home devices. Great for simple tasks like “what is weather like today” and for linking to smart home devices – “Alexa, turn on the porch light“.

If you are just starting (or are a beginner), the easiest way to decide which AI tool to use is to match the tool to the problem you’re trying to solve. If you need help writing or brainstorming, generative text tools like ChatGPT or Copilot in Word are ideal. If you’re working with numbers or data, Copilot in Excel can analyse and visualise patterns for you. For deeply creative projects, image generators like MidJourney or DALL·E turn ideas into visuals, while GitHub Copilot accelerates coding tasks. The key is not to chase every shiny new AI release, but to ask: what am I trying to achieve, and which tool is designed for that job? If you are starting out, start small, experiment with one or two tools in their daily workflow, and build confidence before expanding into more advanced applications.

Which AI in 5: Pick the AI tool that fits your task- writing, data, images, or code—and grow from there.

2. What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not really a product though word bingo might have people say ChatGPT or Copilot (at work), but it is far more than that! AI is a broad field of computer science focused on creating systems that can perform tasks which normally require human intelligence. These tasks include many things such as recognising speech, interpreting and understanding images and videos, making decisions, and even generating creative content such as music, videos and images. As of 2025, AI is already embedded in many aspects of our everyday lives – in work and in personal life – from recommendation engines on Netflix to fraud detection in banking, to summarising meetings at work.

At its core, AI combines data, algorithms, and computing power to simulate aspects of human cognition, but it does so at a scale and speed that humans could never achieve.

AI in 5: AI is machines learning, reasoning, and acting like humans.

3. AI Agents

Right, so an AI Agent is a system designed to act autonomously in pursuit of a goal. Unlike traditional software that follows rigid instructions, agents can perceive their environment, make decisions, and take actions with or without constant human input.

For example, a customer service chatbot is an agent that listens to queries, interprets intent, and responds appropriately. More advanced agents can coordinate multiple tasks, such as scheduling meetings, analysing reports, or even controlling robots in manufacturing.

The key is autonomy: agents don’t just follow orders—they adapt to changing conditions.

AI Agents in 5: AI agents are digital helpers that think and act for you.

4. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

RAG is a technique that makes AI more reliable by combining generative models (or sub models) with external knowledge sources such as the Web or date from corporate SharePoint sites, email etc.

Instead of relying solely on what the AI model was trained on (which may be outdated or incomplete), RAG can retrieves relevant documents or data in (near) real time and integrates them into its response.

This is especially powerful in business contexts, where accuracy and timeliness are critical – for example, pulling the latest compliance rules or product specifications from an application or data repository, before answering a query. RAG bridges the gap between static training data and dynamic, real-world knowledge.

RAG in 5: RAG = AI that looks things up from multiple sources before answering.

5. Explainable AI (XAI)

One of the biggest challenges with AI is the “black box” problem. What I mean by that is that often do not know how AI arrived at its decisions or answer when instructed.

Explainable AI addresses this by making the reasoning process transparent and understandable to humans. For instance, if an AI is being used by a bank to determine if a customer should/can get a loan or not and that AI  model rejects the loan application, XAI will highlight / explain the factors such as credit history or income that influenced the decision.

In essence this is about seeing it’s workings out. If you have used Microsofts Researcher or Analyst agent at work, you will see some of this as it does its work.

This transparency is vital in ensuring we can trust AI and is required in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and law, where accountability and fairness are non-negotiable.

By opening this black box, XAI builds trust and ensures AI is used responsibly.

XAI in 5: XAI shows you why the AI answers the way it did, what information it used and how it made its choice.

6. Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)

While today’s AI is powerful, it is still considered “narrow AI” – specialised in specific tasks despite the advances we see every week.

Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) is a (some say) theoretical future state where machines surpass human intelligence across every domain, from scientific discovery to emotional understanding.

Many might be thinking “The Terminator” here but in reality it is more than conceivable given the current pace of evolution that ASI could in design new technologies, solve global challenges, or even “create” beyond human imagination.

This naturally raises profound ethical and safety concerns: how do we ensure such intelligence aligns with human values and what happens if ASI becomes smarter than the humans that created it?

ASI remains speculative and there are many opinions and research on the matter, but today it is a concept that drives much of the debate around the long-term future of AI.

ASI in 5: ASI is the idea of AI being smarter than all humans in every way.

7. Reasoning Models

Traditional AI models excel at recognising patterns, but they often struggle with multi-step logic.

Reasoning models are designed to overcome this by simulating structured, logical thought processes. They can break down complex problems into smaller steps, evaluate different pathways, and arrive at conclusions in a way that mirrors human reasoning.

This makes them especially useful in domains like legal analysis, financial analysis, scientific research, or strategic planning, where answers are notjust about recognising patterns and finding information but about weighing evidence and making defensible decisions in a way similar to how we as humans might undertake such work.

Reasoning Models in 5: Reasoning models let AI think step by step like us.

8. Vector Databases

AI systems need efficient ways to store and retrieve information, and that’s where vector databases come in.

Unlike traditional databases that store data in rows and columns, vector databases store information as mathematical vectors – dense numerical representations that capture meaning and relationships.

This allows AI to perform semantic searches, finding results based on similarity of meaning rather than exact keywords. For example, if you search for “holiday by the sea,” a vector database could also return results for “beach vacation” because it understands the conceptual link.

Vector Databases in 5: Vector databases help AI find meaning, not just words.

9. Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Finally, MCP is a framework that helps AI agents connect seamlessly with external systems, APIs, and data sources. Instead of being limited to their own training data, agents using MCP can pull in live information, interact with business tools, and execute workflows across platforms. For example, an MCP-enabled agent could retrieve customer records from a CRM, analyse them, and then trigger a follow-up email campaign—all without human intervention.

MCP makes AI more versatile and practical in enterprise environments.

MCP in 5 : MCP is the bridge that connects AI to other tools.

What next and Getting Started

AI is not a single technology but a constellation of concepts – agents, RAG, XAI, ASI, reasoning models, vector databases, and MCP – that together define its capabilities and potential. Understanding these terms helps demystify AI and highlights both its current applications and future possibilities.

As AI continues to evolve, these building blocks will shape how businesses, governments, and individuals harness its power responsibly.

AI is a toolkit of ideas working together to change the world. When we look at what tool to use when, in reality there is not one better than the other it’s more about context of use, the platform you use it on, what your work provides, what you get included in your other software (for example Copilot in Windows, Office apps etc) and what task you are performing. Some AI’s are better at images, some at research and some at writing and analysis.

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Cisco Partner Summit 2025: The Infrastructure Behind the Digital and AI Era

Last night I tuned into aspects of the Global Cisco Partner Summit on demand, (the live event taking part in San Diago this week).

Day one messaging to partners was firmly on monetising AI and driving the next wave of digital transformation with Cisco. Cisco were not just  talking about AI as a buzzword – they were clearly (re)positioning themselves as the backbone of this revolution with some of the biggest innovations and product evolutions in decades and the value and importance of their partners to enable this for their customers.

AI doesn’t run on magic – it runs on silicon, bandwidth, and secure, scalable networks. From high-performance data centre fabrics to AI-ready networking and security, Cisco is building the digital highways that will power this era.

AI and Digital Transformation will fail without the right Infrastructure. This new age is as significant as the Internet and Cloud revolution and Cisco is there to power their customers and partners through it.

Think back to the 90s and early 2000s. The Internet was exploding, but none of it would have been possible without the underlying infrastructure – networks, servers, connectivity. Fast forward to today, and we’re seeing history repeat itself. AI is the new Internet, and infrastructure is once again the unsung hero, that invisible layer that defines how well stuff works, connects and secures.

There’s no question that AI is making a significant impact and that influence is only accelerating. We  hear a consistent message from customers and partners: ‘AI is evolving faster than their infrastructure can keep up’. –
Tim Coogan, SVP Global Partner Sales

That statement sums up the challenge perfectly. Data strategies that worked two years ago are now struggling under today’s workloads, and the skills gap is widening.

Cisco’s beleive they are ready to help customer through their global partners to address this with a new wave of innovation designed to help partners and customers scale AI without disruption with connected infrastructure at the heart.

Cisco Unified Edge – for AI at Scale

One of the biggest announcements yesterday at Cisco Partner Summit was Cisco Unified Edge, a purpose-built platform for distributed AI workloads. It can integrate compute, networking, storage, and security at the edge, enabling low-latency, real-time inferencing for agentic and physical AI workloads. This includes:

  • Modular architecture combining compute, storage, and networking in a single chassis.
  • Zero-touch deployment and pre-validated blueprints for predictable AI rollouts.
  • Full-stack observability via Cisco Intersight, Splunk, and ThousandEyes.
  • Multi-layered zero-trust security with tamper-proof hardware and policy enforcement.

“Things like network bandwidth, throughput and power consumption are all becoming massive issues as AI permeates data centres and workplaces. “

Cisco Security: Mind the Trust Gap

AI adoption brings incredible opportunities but also new risks, which led nicely into Cisco’s re-engergized Security Play.

“We’re also seeing what we call a trust deficit… securing all this infrastructure and model safety is critical.” – Jeff Schultz, Cisco.

Security is embedded across Cisco’s tech stack, with Cisco Secure Access extending zero trust to the cloud and with Cisco Access Manager delivering identity-based access control natively through the Meraki Dashboard. This works seemlessly with leading Cloud Providers such as Microsoft 365 and Azure, AWS and GCP too as well as leading Enterprise SaaS providers.

Cisco re-iterated their approach to security in the AI era with their  Multi-layered including:

  • Zero Trust Everywhere – From edge to cloud, every device and workload is verified.
  • Tamper-Proof Hardware – Protecting against physical and firmware-level attacks.
  • Policy Enforcement at Scale – Automated compliance across distributed environments.
  • Model Safety – Ensuring AI models and data pipelines remain uncompromised with their new Cisco AI Defense suite.

In a world where AI decisions can impact millions, trust is the currency of AI adoption and the value of trust that is needed for success what ever business you are in.

Observability & Visibility

The last piece in the puzzle was the importance of observability and visibility. AI workloads are complex, distributed, and dynamic and without visibility, “you’re flying blind” . Cisco are doubling down on full-stack observability (through their Splunk acquisition) to give partners and enterprises the clarity they need without gaps. 

Key capabilities focussed on:

  • Cisco Intersight for infrastructure lifecycle management.
  • ThousandEyes for end-to-end network visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud.
  • Splunk integration for deep analytics and anomaly detection across all platforms.
  • Predictive Insights powered by AI to anticipate performance bottlenecks before they happen.

This was a strong message since Enterprise AI doesn’t just need connectivity, compute power and security and governance. It also needs predictability and reliability. Cisco’s Observability Platform is all about ensuring that every infrastructure component, from GPU clusters to edge nodes, to cloud is optimised and secure.

Cisco are also taking observability further with their AI Canvas. Originally announced at Cisco Live earlier this year, AI Canvas is a new (coming in 2026) collaborative workspace that combines telemetry, AI insights, and automation. It enables teams to troubleshoot issues using natural language, unify data across domains, and accelerate resolution – all powered by Cisco’s Deep Network Model.

Monetising AI for all

Steve Cougan said that Cisco’s strategy success aimed at Partner, Cisco and of course their Customers focuses on three core pillars:

  • Responding faster with partners (sell together)
  • Continuous innovation cycles (leading the pack)
  • Scaling efficiently to maximise customer impact (across all sectors and segments).

Another key thing for me was the investment in multi customer management for their Managed Service Partners, focusing how MSPs, can scale and simplify operations for their customers. The introduction of multi-customer management capabilities within Cisco Security Cloud Control was a highlight for me.

“The new multi-customer management capabilities in Cisco Security Cloud Control, coupled with our Hybrid Mesh Firewall, are designed to eliminate operational friction, empower our partners to accelerate revenue growth, and ultimately deliver superior security outcomes for their customers”
Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco

This isn’t just about monetising Cisco and their partners either. Every organisation that is re investing what they do, digitising and innovating with AI will fail without the right Infrastructure in place. The focus Cisco have in “selling together” – Customer, Partner, Cisco is a key part of this success driver and they are laser focussed on this approach which is why their partner eco system is to important.

Day 1 Wrap Up

AI is only as good as the platform it runs on and the infrastructure that connects users, endpoints, enterprise data and AI models and agents together. The refresh opportunity is huge for Cisco and their partners as it is (one) of they key things hiding back enterprise AI and digitial transformation at scale.

The opportunity to do this right is about working with organisations that are deploying or enabling AI applications and services to ensure they are also building and managing the infrastructure that makes AI possible. Cisco is betting big on this, and it’s good to see.

It was great to see a renewed focus on MSPs and multi customer management across their unified platform recognising the continuous importance for their customers and partners.

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Copilot Researcher Agent gets “Computer Use”

Yes, the Copilot Researcher Agent, once focused purely on gathering and summarising information, can now take action on your device through a capability called Computer Use.  This provides secure interaction with both public and gated web content through a virtual computer which allows human and Copilot control. It requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, supports advanced content creation. It can be disabled by IT admins, but comes enabled by default.

This represents part of the next evolution of how we think about and use AI in the workplace and our personal lives.

What Is Computer Use?

This enhancement to Researcher should help users uncover deeper insights, take action, and generate richer reports grounded in both their work data and the web even with gated content that requires the user to take over the browser or to authenticate to content, accept CAPTAs and more.

Computer Use allows Copilot to go beyond simply telling you what it finds. It can now: 

  • Open docs and web-pages directly and read, navigate web-sites and docs (including PDFs).
  • Navigate menus, click buttons, and move through dialogue boxes. 
  • Execute tasks such as generating a charts, drafting an email, or applying formatting. 

It does this in the context of a Microsoft hosted secure virtual PC and does not take over your personal device.

How This Differs from the Current Researcher Agent

The Researcher Agent as we’ve known it has been a powerful tool for finding and contextualising information. It queries internal and external sources, summarises results, and provides references. But until now, it stopped short of doing anything with that information other than the relatively limited for sting capability that it provides ready for your cut and paste skills.

This is where the new Computer Use tools come in by adding the following differences.

  • Researcher Agent (today): Finds, summarises, and presents knowledge. 
  • Researcher Agent with Computer Use: Acts on that knowledge by operating applications and completing tasks, this mess it will be able to leverage the full power of desktops apps to make the output more polished. It can also access secured/gated resources by opening the website or resource in a virtual secure browser and passing control back to you to sign-in with your credentials to access such content.

This allows (as you can see in my example below), Researcher to actually browse the web, reason over the pages it finds and conduct research more efficiently than just using it’s LLMs and AI search mode. The result “should” be a much more fluid, accurate and representative piece of research.

Where Researcher was your simply your analyst, Reseacher with Computer Use becomes more of a full-assistant – able to take the next step and apply the insights directly into your workflow. 

Why This makes a difference

This (and as it evolves) has the potential to make. A big difference in the way output is produced as it can leverage it’s research inside the core apps you would typically use when brining information together such as Word or Excel.

As such the implications are significant: 

  • Reduced friction: Fewer clicks, fewer context switches, less manual effort. 
  • Consistency: Routine tasks (like formatting reports or applying compliance templates) are executed the same way every time. 
  • Accessibility: Natural language becomes the new interface, lowering barriers for all users. 
  • Extends the range of access Researcher has which means users can now generate rich artifacts such as presentations, spreadsheets, and applications using advanced code generation.

This is really about amplifying the output and cutting out more steps, with Copilot handling more of the set the mechanics once the output is created.

Guardrails and Trust

Many will have yet more concerns about what AI can do and how much control it has.

Microsoft has built Computer Use with transparency and control in mind and bear in mind it is NOT talking over actual control of your device. As such:

  1. It only acts when explicitly instructed (you need to enable computer use). 
  2. It shows you what it’s doing the whole time with total transparency
  3. It respects organisational policies and permissions and can’t do anything or access anything you cannot already access.
  4. Passes control back to you if its need you to sign-in to access secure or gates resources
  5. You have control over what Researcher can access with regards web data and work data (based on your access rights naturally).

User credentials are never transfered to or from the sandbox environment, and all intermediate files are automatically deleted when sessions end. This ensures that this AI automation does not come at the cost of compliance or user trust.  You are always in control.

The diagram below, depicts how it works.

Researcher Agent with Computer Mode – Secure data orchestration to Sandbox Environment. (c) Microsoft.

The future...

This is part of a broader trend: AI agents are evolving from passive Copilots to active collaborators. Workflows are becoming conversational, not procedural and the tools start to fade into the background, and outcomes come to the foreground. 

For leaders, strategists, and IT professionals, the challenge now is to rethink processes, training, and measurement in a world where AI doesn’t just inform work it does it with and for us.

This latest addition of Computer Use to the Researcher Agent is a signal of what’s to come. The pace of change and evolution of these tools is rapid. The future of AI at work continues to punch boundaries and evolve from just finding and researching towards doing stuff for us….

What do you think? Have you tried it yet?

Read more at Microsoft

Read more on this at Microsoft

Check out my first use video below:

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Windows 11 bringing new “Ask Copilot” to the taskbar

Image Describing Windows 11 updates

Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels can start testing a new Copilot search experience which is available through the Windows Search bar.

To get started go to Settings > Personalisation > Taskbar > Ask Copilot to enable the experience. You can also manage whether the Copilot app launches automatically at sign-in using the “Auto start on log in” toggle in the Copilot app settings.

This is an opt-in experience, but once enabled gives you one-click access to Copilot Vision and Voice, so you can use what ever interaction style works best for –  text, voice, or guided support with Copilot Vision.

As you type, results appear and are updated instantly, making it easier than ever to find what you are looking for.

New Copilot experience in Windows Toolbar/Search
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No Agenda? No Excuse. Copilot can now help with agenda creation.

Let’s talk about one of my biggest pet peeves: the agenda-less meeting invite.

You know the type. A calendar ping lands in your inbox with a vague title like “Catch-up” or “Project Sync,” zero context, and no prep materials. You’re left guessing: Is this strategic? Tactical? A therapy session? Should I bring data, decisions, or just make a coffee, sit back and relax!?

In a world where time is our most precious resource, this kind of ambiguity isn’t just annoying – it’s inefficient. And now, there’s no excuse for it.

Copilot: Your Agenda Architect

Microsoft Copilot has quietly transformed how we prepare for meetings. It doesn’t just help – it proactively builds structure into your invites.

Copilot Agenda Assistant 🫡

Here’s how it works:

🧠 Context-aware agendas: When you create a meeting in Outlook, Copilot can draft an agenda based on the meeting title, attendees, and your input. It pulls from your Microsoft 365 work graph – emails, chats, previous meetings — to suggest relevant topics.

✍️ Editable and iterative: You’re not stuck with the first draft. You can tweak, refine, or ask Copilot to revise it until it reflects exactly what you need.

🔍 Pre-reads and prep prompts: Copilot now surfaces key insights directly in the meeting form. It can help you locate pre-reads, clarify the meeting’s intended outcome, and even suggest follow-up questions.

👥 Supports all meeting types: Whether it’s a 1:1, a team sync, or a cross-functional war room, Copilot’s meeting prep experience adapts accordingly.

Why This Matters.

We have a been sent meetings with nothing but a title. We’ve all sat through these types of meetings that felt like a waste of time. The truth is, most meetings aren’t inherently bad – they’re just underprepared. Even if someone has called you or IM’d you about it and sent a meeting a day later, a clear agenda is still important, sets expectations, aligns participants, and drives outcomes. It’s the difference between a productive sprint and a meandering chat.

Plus…. With AI tools like Facilitator which can help you manage the in meeting experience, agendas also help here too!

So next time you send a meeting invite, let Copilot help you do it properly. Because in 2025, “no agenda” isn’t just a faux pas — it’s a missed opportunity.

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Microsoft “App Builder” & “Workflow” Agents

Microsoft is expanding its Copilot Frontier Programme with two powerful new agents. These are the App Builder and Workflows Agents.

These put “app creation” and automation directly into the hands of everyday users, with zero coding needed just an idea and an ask. These new agents are designed to further democratise innovation across every person in every organisations, making it possible to build “apps” and streamline processes using nothing more than natural language.

They are rolling out in the US now and will come to UK, Canada and the other regions over the next week or so.

I’ll add a demo to this blog soon!

What are the App Builder and Workflows Agents?

Firstly, these are new, in preview for Frontier (early adopters) and may change. They are not designed to replace Power Apps or Copilot Studio but more about adding value to info workers and non developers. Here is the new agents, which you can get by going to the main Copilot page, agents and get more agents.

App Builder: A no-code agent that enables anyone to design and deploy lightweight apps in minutes. It can generate a Microsoft Lists backend if needed and is grounded in Microsoft 365 content like Word, Excel, and Teams.  These are not full blown apps that can hook into enterprise data or anything but create simple to use, functional and simple agents for things like data input, collection and look up.

Image (c) Microsoft

Workflows: An automation agent that turns everyday requests into flows across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and more – without needing Power Automate expertise. Again these are quite simple, but great for simple automation needs when you know what you want to do but don’t have time or want to learn / use Power Automate.

Image (c) Microsoft

Both these new agents are integrated into the Copilot Studio lite experience, ensuring they inherit Microsoft 365’s enterprise-grade security, compliance, and governance. 

How Do They Work?

These agents work like other agents but are specific functional agents. They work by:

  • Using Natural Language Prompts: users can simply describe what they need. For example “Build me a dashboard to track campaign milestones” or “Send a Teams reminder every Friday at 3pm” – and Copilot translates that into a working app or automated flow. 
  • Multi-turn Editing: Once the agent is created it can be modified, updated, refined with additional interactions without having to starting from scratch. 
  • Ensuring Seamless Integration: Outputs are instantly shareable, just like a document link, and respect existing permissions and governance.

These agents lower the barrier to innovation and help spur on what is possible. Instead of relying on IT or developers, any employee can now build tools that fit their needs whether that’s a lightweight app for tracking, or a workflow that eliminates repetitive admin. Since they are built into Microsoft 365, they inherit the same security, compliance, and governance as the rest of the platform. 

App Builder Use examples

  • Create a product launch dashboard to track milestones and assign tasks. 
  • Build a calculator app for quick cost estimates, grounded in Excel data. 
  • Generate interactive lists for project tracking, with Microsoft Lists as the backend.

Workflows agent use examples

  • Automate weekly Teams updates with deadlines pulled from Planner. 
  • Set up email reminders for approval deadlines. 
  • Manage calendar scheduling by automatically blocking time for recurring tasks. 

Current Limitations

  • Frontier Programme Only: Currently limited to participants in the Copilot Frontier Programme and need to be “deployed by IT admin” initially
  • Language Support: Available in English only. 
  • Controls: Access depends on Microsoft 365 app store settings and admin policies. 
  • Governance & Permissions: Agents respect existing role-based access controls. 
  • Scope: Aimed at designing lightweight apps and workflows; complex scenarios will still require Copilot Studio or Power Platform. 
  • Performance Throttling: Heavy usage may trigger throttling.  


Deploying the App Agent and Workflow Agent

These new agents are currently only available for organisations enrolled in the Copilot “Frontier Programme”.To access the agent, you need to go to the M365 Copilot app (or https://m365.cloud.microsoft/chat) and go to Agents. From there you should be able to see the new Agents as shown below.

NOTE: If you can’t see these new agents, you’ll need to chat to your friendly IT team as they may need to enable / deploy these agents whilst they are still in preview state. Again these are only available for organisations enrolled in the Copilot “Frontier Programme”.

Final Thoughts

The App Builder and Workflows agents represents another step forward in Microsoft’s vision of empowering everyone to innovate with AI.

Whilst these agents are far from a replacement for full-scale development or automation platforms, they provide a fast, accessible way to solve everyday problems. For organisations in the Copilot Frontier Programme, these agents are a glimpse into a future where building apps and automations is as easy as describing what you want.

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Teams Mode for Microsoft 365 Copilot is here.

Microsoft Teams continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Known as “Teams Mode for Microsoft 365 Copilot” this essentially means Copilot is coming to Teams Group Chats as a participant in Teams Chat and Channels. This is an example of how quickly new features are landing, and why organisations need to stay on top of change management and user awareness.

This latest feature is rolling out to Frontier firms (early adopters) now and to everyone else over the next month or so.  

Teams Mode:Copilot in Group Chats

Copilot has been available in Teams for a while, but it’s now becoming a member of the chat space itself.

Since most conversations with Copilot happen in a “private, one-on-one setting”, this new feature let’s members of the chat have Copilot inside that chat instance, meaning it can chat and engage in a group setting rather than just one on one.

Note: you need to @ mention Copilot to add it to a chat, you cannot currently add it to the chat roster during chat creation.

Adding “Copilot” to a Teams Group or Meeting chat

When you add Copilot into a chat, you empower it to take care of tasks such as:

  • Summarise past discussions so no one has to repeat themselves. 
  • Highlight decisions made and owners of tasks. 
  • Help new chat or team members get up to speed in seconds. 
  • Act as a knowledge anchor so people don’t have to chase information.

Instead of asking colleagues “where are we with the transfers”, you can now simply ask Copilot directly from the chat

“@Copilot give me an exec summary of where are we with the transfers?”,  to get a clear, actionable answer instantly from Copilot, based on the threads, chats and files in the chat.

The Pace of Tech Change

These latest features show how fast the products we use every day are evolving and being updated. With changes happening across most apps we use every day, it also creates challenges and well as new ways to work.

  • Awareness: Many users don’t even know these features exist. 
  • Adoption: Without guidance, people fall back to old habits. 
  • Consistency: Teams only works well when everyone uses it in the same way and knows how to use all the features well.
  • Confidence: investing in change management and proper training helps users feel confident in using the tools and help prevent shadow IT

This is where change management and ongoing training become critical. It’s not enough to roll out Teams once and assume people will adapt. Organisations need to: 

  • Build awareness campaigns around new features.
  • Provide bite-sized training and “what’s new” updates.
  • Encourage champions to model best practices. 
  • Treat Teams as a living platform, not a one-off deployment. 

Final Thoughts

Copilot in Group Chat is just of the new features coming to Teams this month. But this is not just about new features . This is part of a bigger story about how AI and collaboration tools are being fused together and reshaping teamwork and become one. The organisations and teams that thrive will be the ones that embrace the pace of change, invest in continuous learning, and help their people get the most out of these tools. 

This is less about updates to the  productivity tools we use as change and feature updates will continue to come thick and fast. Change Management is about ensuring you maximise your tech investment, reduce shadow IT and building confidence in the use of the tools you deploy and make available to people to empower them to get things done quicker, faster or better!

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Microsoft introduces Mico – Copilot’s new face and voice

In a live YouTube stream on 24th October, Microsoft unveiled a wave of new consumer features for Copilot (dubbed fall update) – headlined by the official debut of Mico, a new visual character (avatar) designed to give Copilot a voice (and face).

Mico has been in testing for a while, but from today it’s rolling out (USA first) by default in voice interactions. If you prefer the simpler “bouncing orb” interface, you’ll still have the option to switch it off.

The update today also unveiled updates to Copilot Voice including a feature called “real talk,” which is designed to allow Copilot to push back and challenge assumptions made by the humans interacting with it. This is a first on the market for AI chat. This is designed to ensure Copilot remains accurate rather than just trying to please it’s human counterpart.

First Clippy & Cortana, now Mico

It’s impossible not to draw comparisons here. Clippy – now more than 30 years old – is still remembered (fondly or otherwise) as Microsoft’s first attempt at a digital assistant with personality which lived inside Office. Then we had Cortana, which launched with Windows 10 (and for a short time was poised to compete with Amazon Alexa and even had its own “inkoke” speakers. Cortana promised much but never really landed with consumers users, eventually being retired from Windows 10 and 11 just a couple of years back!

Copilot of course has been around for a couple of years now, in a consumer based version and also an enterprise version known as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Copilot has also had a “voice” for a while but now with Mica it is getting a lot more natural and is also betting a face too, after a few months of testing with Insiders.

Does AI need a voice and a face?

So why is Mico is becoming the face of Copilot? The way it is explained and was showcased today promised a different approach to what we have seen before. There is some physc behind it too in that humans are far more. Likely to engage with something artificial if it appears to us in a way we can be familiar and where expressions can come across in voice voice tone and facial expression.

Mica is about giving Copilot an Identity…

Of course Copilot is true AI (very different to the earlier assistants that were were more trigger based).

Back in July, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman hinted that Copilot would evolve into something with a “permanent identity… a presence… a room that it lives in… and it will age.” Mico is the first visible step in that direction. 

One of the other things that starts to bring these assistants more to life is memory. Memory allows Copilot to recall facts about us, what we do, where we work and our preferences to how it responds. It can then adapts and that makes it more contextual, more personal, and (hopefully) more useful and that’s where the Mico face (which will also adapt) comes in….

This optional visual presence listens, reacts, and even changes colors to reflect your interactions, making voice conversations feel more natural. Mico shows support through animation and expressions, creating a friendly and engaging experience.

Microsoft

Mica is in essence the personality and personalisation that makes Copilot yours and not just “the same” as the other assistants!

Mica can chat to your friends too..

On of the other annoucements yesterday was group chat mode. Yes…

Called Copilot Groups, you can now invite your friends, family etc to join a Copilot chat too. This means you can be planning a trip then invite others to join the chat with Mica in this mix too. All chatting together with Mica about your trip..

Copilot Group Chat

You can take any chat and share it via a link, email, what’s app, Insta, Snapchat.

To conclude

These new things are not just about features, they are about about brand and identity. Microsoft wants Copilot to feel like a companion, not just a AI chatbot.

Mica is a bold move in an attempt to really make Copilot more human and personal. Copilot is very capable and AI is advancing quickly. The main challenge Microsoft faces is the same as they always do… Getting Copilot / Mica into the hands of consumers and to drive adoption and awareness

Enterprise / commercial users know Copilot but many consumers, teenagers and adults not in tech don’t… They flock to ChatGPT when they could get far far far more value with Copilot.. They just don’t know it!

Q&A

  • I heard Mico can look like Clippy?
    It can, tap Mico repeatedly and you’ll unlock a nostalgic surprise – Clippy, the iconic (and occasionally cheeky) paperclip assistant from Microsoft Office’s past, makes a cameo appearance.
  • What’s Copilot Group Chat all about?
    Copilot now supports real-time group chats with up to 32 participants. It can summarise conversations, suggest options and add up votes, split tasks and track decisions which is good for group chats or classroom work or projects with bigger groups. 
  • What does “Real Talk” mode do? “Real Talk” is Copilot’s honesty engine. When enabled, it gently challenges misinformation or flawed assumptions during chats – especially useful in sensitive or personal discussions. It’s designed to keep conversations grounded, respectful, and genuinely helpful.
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MAKING EVERY WINDOWS PC AN AI PC

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. 

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