Microsoft Innovation Podcast

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In this episode, Edine Olijve-Watkinson explores practical ways Microsoft 365 Copilot, Loop, Planner and emerging AI agents improve daily productivity, collaboration and decision making. It highlights real use cases, evolving tools and the shift toward AI supported workflows across organisations. 
🎙️ Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/796
👉 What you’ll learn      
• How Microsoft 365 Copilot supports personal efficiency
• How AI agents extend productivity across meetings and workflows
• How Loop, Copilot pages and notebooks support flexible collaboration
• How metadata and information architecture improve Copilot performance
• How professionals can upskill across Copilot Studio, agents and Azure AI Foundry
 
✅ Highlights      
• “My area of specialty is Microsoft 365 and then especially the collaboration and the productivity side of things.” 
• “We see a lot of shifts towards agents.” 
• “Using Microsoft 365 Copilot for personal efficiency, just as your little personal intern.” 
• “The facilitator agent… joins your meeting and keeps track and then takes your meeting notes for you.” 
• “The knowledge agent is also very good at adding metadata columns to your SharePoint sites.”
• “I completely started to learn where Loop stores something, how you can retain it, how you can save it.” 
• “I use Loop in your daily work, and not just Loop, but also Copilot pages and Copilot notebooks.” 
• “You can make some really nice infographics with it.” 
• “Everything you create gets created in your company’s style.” 
• “I definitely want to learn how to use agents more in my workflow.” 
• “I also want to dive deeper into Azure AI Foundry.” 
• “It was completely new to me… I never really touched Azure in any way.”

🧰 Mentioned       
• Microsoft 365 - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365   
• SharePoint - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration 
• Microsoft Copilot - https://copilot.microsoft.com/ 
• Microsoft Copilot Studio - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio/ 
• Azure AI Foundry - https://ai.azure.com/ 
• Microsoft Loop - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-loop
• Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords     
microsoft 365, copilot, agents, loop, planner, sharepoint, metadata, productivity, azure ai foundry, collaboration, meetings, workflows 
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If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM 
 
A focused conversation on why AI agents will define 2026, how governance must evolve, and the practical skills business and tech professionals need to stay relevant. The episode explores the shift from Power Platform governance to AI‑first governance, the rise of agent orchestration, and the critical importance of data security, testing, and prompt engineering. Listeners gain clear guidance on adapting their roles, scaling responsibly, and preparing for an agent‑driven future. 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/795

🎙️ What you’ll learn   
How AI agents are reshaping governance expectations across organisations 
Practical steps to evolve your skills for an AI‑centred workflow 
How to balance innovation with safe, secure agent deployment 
Why data security and red‑team style testing matter more than ever 
How to identify when to use Copilot Studio versus Foundry 
✅ Highlights  
“2026 feels like when people actually start doubling down and taking it seriously.” 
“AI will not take your job. AI will just change your job.” 
“How do I become an agent boss?”  
“Governance does not have to slow innovation.”  
“You can’t ignore this big thing called AI because you’re going to lose competitive advantage.” 
“Testing an agent is completely different.”  
“Prompt engineering is a big one.”  
“There are now more moving parts… you can’t just get away with building an app anymore.”  
“My mindset needs to shift from doing things manually to validating what AI gives me.”  
“Next year is going to be doubling down a lot of that… it’s here, let’s embrace it.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Microsoft Power Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform 
Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio/ [microsoft.com] 
Foundry: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-foundry/ 
Microsoft Entra: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/fundamentals/what-is-entra 
Microsoft Purview: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/purview 
✅Keywords   
ai agents, governance, power platform, copilot studio, foundry, data security, prompt engineering, red teaming, power automate, power fx, entra, microsoft purview 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption
Support the show
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM

This episode explores how AI can transform leadership by analysing real conversational behaviour, reducing bias and giving leaders immediate insight into their communication style. The discussion covers how leadership differs from management, why early‑career support is often missing, and how continuous feedback can shorten the development gap for new leaders. Listeners gain a practical view of how leadership intelligence works and what it means for team clarity, alignment and growth.

👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/794    
🎙️ What you’ll learn  
How AI analyses everyday conversations to reveal leadership patterns 
How to identify gaps between perceived and actual leadership behaviour 
How real‑time feedback improves clarity, alignment and team dynamics 
How to shorten the long development gap for early‑career leaders 
How psycholinguistics and trend data support better leadership decisions 
✅ Highlights 
“We explore real‑world AI applications, share practical insights, and discuss how businesses are implementing responsible, ethical, and trustworthy AI.” 
“Parafoil analyses how you lead in the work.” 
“By measuring pronouns and prepositions you can work out all sorts of things.” 
“It gives you an analysis of how each conversation’s gone after the fact.” 
“You don’t have to recount what happened to a chatbot.” 
“A problem never gets better with time.” 
“Leadership can only really be learned through the doing of the do.” 
“Most managers consider themselves to be accidental.” 
“How do we help people earlier in their career and not have a ten year delta” 
“His communication style really shifted over the course of the next two to three weeks.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Parafoil - https://parafoil.co/  
Microsoft AI - https://microsoft.ai/  
Google – www.google.com  
✅Keywords 
ai, leadership, management, psycholinguistics, feedback, teams, communication, alignment, leadership development, leadership intelligence, product, coaching 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption
Support the show
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM

This episode with Michael Plettner explores how organisations move from AI curiosity to practical, business focused implementation. You will learn why user adoption and leadership support matter, how teams shift from generic Copilot use to targeted process improvement, and how the EU AI Act is pushing companies toward more mature and responsible AI practices.

👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/793

🎙️What you’ll learn      
How to evaluate AI opportunities based on real business value 
How to move from Copilot centric thinking to case driven AI strategy 
How leadership buy in affects adoption and trust 
How to align AI projects with the EU AI Act 
How agents and agent communication can streamline work 
✅ Highlights 
“User adoption is not training.” 
“There is often a lack of trust in the business.” 
“Get off the AI hype and talk about what is really good for the business.” 
“Sometimes an expectation from customers where they think they understood which tool is the best.” 
“If someone is not convinced then it is not working.” 
“We have some railguards to protect how we want to use AI for better good.” 
“Now we have a more mature thinking about AI.” 
“Agents are the future from my point of view.” 
“They can really solve some steps in your daily work.” 
“The technology in this area is on light speed.” 
🧰 Mentioned      
Microsoft 365: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365 
Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app 
SharePoint: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration 
Power Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform 
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords       
ai, copilot, user adoption, business processes, microsoft 365, teams, sharepoint, power platform, dynamics, eu ai act, agents, change management 
Support the show
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM 
John Rood shares how organisations can unlock real value from AI by balancing innovation, governance, and compliance. Learn why robust frameworks, practical training, and a bottom-up approach are key to sustainable AI adoption and risk management. 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/792 
🎙️ What you’ll learn  
How to implement effective AI governance without stifling innovation 
Practical steps for building an AI management system 
The role of ISO 42001 and the EU AI Act in compliance 
Strategies to drive AI adoption and avoid shadow AI 
How to design ongoing AI literacy programmes for all staff 
 ✅ Highlights 
“A poorly designed policy, I think, does stifle innovation. I think a well-conceived policy manages that trade-off.” 
“Shadow AI happens because organisations go buy an AI product and then lock it down.” 
“Our first recommendation… is that you’ve got to have someone to champion AI initiatives.” 
“Most organisations will start either from ISO 42001, or… the NIST AI risk management framework.” 
“The idea is we’re not just trying to put together a set of policies… What we’re trying to create is a living process.” 
“A great AI management system defines who has to get trained in what, and then make sure that actually happens on a regular basis.” 
“If your customers knew how you treat their data, they might not be your customers anymore.” 
“The top-down programmes tend to go poorly, whereas the… bottom-up programmes tend to do much better.” 
“When we are able to empower more people… we start to build the organisation’s muscle.” 
“The first step… is always regulatory.” 
“EU AI Act is written… to be extraordinarily broad.” 
“At the top of the pyramid, there’s a certain set of fairly robust training or literacy requirements that should be for whoever’s actually making the AI.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
ISO 42001: https://www.iso.org/standard/42001  
EU AI Act: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/the-act/  
NIST AI risk management framework: https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-framework  
GDPR: https://gdpr.eu/ 
✅Keywords 
ai governance, iso 42001, eu ai act, compliance, shadow ai, risk management, ai management system, ai literacy, bottom-up adoption, regulatory, data privacy, nist framework 
Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption
Support the show
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith