Post by Chris O'Brien

Lots of announcements of course, but also some pointed counter pitches against Open AI in Microsoft’s keynote here in San Francisco at their annual Ignite conference. Big emphasis on things only Microsoft can do. A few things stood out for me: 📍Microsoft 365 Copilot new features and unique value ➡️ Work IQ - an intelligence layer above the models in M365 Copilot, bringing together data and understanding (e.g. your job, the organisation), memory (e.g. your frequent tasks, your style and habits, and inference (making sense of this personal and work graph). References to the "work chart", not the org chart and a big emphasis that this goes way beyond what connectors can achieve (a dig at OpenAI) ➡️Agent Mode in Copilot ("Copilot speaks Excel, Word, and PowerPoint") - perform deep work around real tasks: deck creation and enhancement in PowerPoint, data modelling and story-telling in Excel, research and writing in Word - all with Copilot doing more of the work to drive the apps and create/enhance the document for you (no longer just replying in chat) ➡️Woven into apps/experiences in ways only possible for Microsoft – including new multi-user capabilities (”Teams mode for Copilot”), where Copilot participates in Teams group chats and channel chats. Here, Copilot doesn’t use any individual's memory/data, and keeps human in the loop by asking checking in before responding back to group chat with any data ➡️Agent 365 – Microsoft’s agent governance layer/control plane, which goes way beyond what I expected. Clearly competing with ServiceNow Control Tower and other “manage all your agents in any tech” solutions, but lots of goodness around observing agent risk, data transfer, how agents are talking to each other, permissions used, support for agent reviews, policies, shut downs etc. ➡️Copilot App Builder - use AI to create apps and agents from Copilot (no longer restricted to Copilot Studio or Power Platform users) ➡️Broader models - now including Anthropic models as well as OpenAI (only AI hyperscaler to offer both) ➡️M365 Copilot finally understands SharePoint metadata, not just document content 📍Expanded suite of native M365 Copilot agents ➡️3 x new agents to help leaders and employees make data-driven decisions - People Agent (find people based on skills, experience, function, locations, tenure etc. and understand skills gaps and risk), Workforce Insights Agent (understand how collaboration and working can be improved for teams and individuals, a la Viva Insights) and Learning Agent (micro-learning and tips to support understanding of AI and Copilot)  ➡️ Opal - a Copilot agent which is a form of Computer Using Agent to get tasks done (eg interact with websites). Opal asks for approval before taking some actions ➡️Knowledge Agent (organise SharePoint data/documents and drive automation) Microsoft positioning -> THE enterprise agent platform, not just assistive tools. Native admin, security, and employee-facing agents for org transformation.