Microsoft Ignite 2024: A Festive Recap

🎄 My Favorite Things from Microsoft Ignite 2024 🎄

As the holiday season approaches, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the exciting announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2024. This year’s event was packed with innovations that promise to transform the way we work, manage, secure, adopt and interact with technology. Here are some of my favorite things from Ignite 2024, with a festive twist!

On the Nice List:

Before coming to Planet Technologies, I was a Microsoft 365 Service Owner for the State of NC. In that role, I was constantly trying to keep up and assess what my users were hearing and wanting out of M365. I was also responsible for rolling out the new services/solutions and knew that I had to have a plan for security, governance and change management. With that in mind and the recent announcement for Microsoft 365 Copilot GCC availability, I made this list.

To see more about the GCC announcement and when certain features will be released see this article. This list of announcements below summarizes the latest buzz about the new capabilities people seem to be interested in and now more important than ever are the controls to secure, release, monitor and adopt them safely and securely in your Microsoft 365 environments.

1. AI Agents: One of the biggest announcements this year was undoubtedly the introduction of AI Agents and AI Actions. These tools are set to revolutionize the way we automate tasks and workflows, making our lives easier and more productive Copilot Agents are designed to assist users in various roles by automating tasks and providing relevant information. Some of the agents are built into tools like Teams and SharePoint and others can be created in Copilot Studio and range from simple prompt-and-response agents to fully autonomous ones. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is needed to set these agents up. In doing research on Agents, I noticed Microsoft made a special offer Starting January 6, if your organization has at least 50 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, any employee in the organization will be able to create, share, and interact with SharePoint agents.

Here are some key points about the new M365 Copilot Agents:

Facilitator Agent: This agent can be added to Teams meetings to help keep the meeting focused, moderate chats, and manage follow-up and action items. In public preview

Project Manager Agent: In Planner, this agent helps automate key steps in project management workflows, including creating new plans, overseeing project progress, and managing task assignments. In public preview

Self-Service Agents: These agents provide useful information and answer questions on policies, HR, and IT tasks. They can also help complete tasks, augmenting HR and IT departments. In private preview

SharePoint Agents: This is huge! Every SharePoint site now has a built-in agent that provides instant access to real-time information and insights from the knowledge base. The idea behind this is you can target any SharePoint site or Teams channel content and use that source for the target of your new agent with just a couple of clicks. Generally available

Interpreter Agent in Teams – The Interpreter agent in Teams provides real-time speech-to-speech interpretation during meetings, and you can opt to have it simulate your speaking voice for a more personal and engaging experience. Public preview coming in early 2025

Custom Agents: Users can create their own agents using Copilot Studio by describing them in natural language and connecting them to data sources like SharePoint and Dynamics CRM.

2. Copilot Actions

The second biggest announcement at Ignite in my opinion was Copilot Actions. Actions automate everyday tasks with simple, fill-in-the-blank prompts that you can set and forget. Think of these as Outlook rules for the age of AI in Copilot. Actions allow users to create custom workflows that leverage AI to perform specific tasks. The actions can be multistep and provide a fill in the blank template look and feel. For example, you can automatically receive a summary of your most important action items at the end of each workday, create an action to gather inputs from your team for a weekly newsletter you send each Thursday, or automate customer meeting prep with a recurring action that summarizes your last few interactions ahead of your next sync. AI Agents and Actions are designed to assist with complex tasks, providing intelligent recommendations and automating routine processes. In private preview. 

3. Microsoft Places:

Seems like there is more and more talk everyday about hybrid work and Organizations going back to the office for work. The Microsoft Places platform is designed to enhance hybrid work and physical environments by providing tools for managing office spaces and resources. Microsoft Places offers features such as desk booking, room scheduling, and resource management, making it easier for organizations to optimize their physical and virtual workspaces. The platform also includes analytics tools that provide insights into space utilization and employee preferences, helping organizations make data-driven decisions about their work environments.

4. Microsoft Pages:

Think of Microsoft Pages as a dynamic, persistent canvas designed for multiplayer AI collaboration—with rich artifacts. You can prompt Copilot to create everything from interactive flow charts to blocks of code—drawing from data across Microsoft Graph—then share them in Pages which your team can build upon. Think about it as sharing a loop space with access to a consistent BizChat.

MS Pages offers a user-friendly way to create and share content. It’s perfect for teams looking to collaborate on documents, presentations, and more. MS Pages provides a range of templates and design tools, making it easy for users to create professional-looking content. The platform also supports real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. Additionally, MS Pages integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications, enabling seamless sharing and collaboration across different tools. Generally available in early 2025.

5. Copilot Control System (CCS):

For all organizations, controlling, managing, securing and adopting Microsoft 365 Copilot will be required to get the most value out of the licenses. Just like we saw in the early days of Power Platform Microsoft slowly released more and more tools to manage the platform and finally released the Power Platform Center of excellence. I think we are seeing a similar rollout here with Microsoft 365 Copilot with the CCS. As an organization getting ready to leap into Microsoft 365 Copilot you need to make sure you have the right tools to monitor and grow the adoption. The CCS is designed for IT to confidently adopt and accelerate the business value of Copilot and agents. The CCS helps IT departments manage Copilot and agents with data access and governance, management and security controls, as well as measurement reports and tools to track adoption and business value. The system includes SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM), Management Controls, Measurement and Reporting and Copilot Business Impact Report. You may be saying to yourself, I don’t own SAM licenses. The good news is now these capabilities will be lit up for free and part of your Microsoft 365 licensing.

6. SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM)

Until now, the powerful capabilities of SAM were an add on license. SAM is now included for free with Microsoft 365 Copilot and it allows administrators to govern and protect their environments as they roll out M365 Copilot. SAM can help accelerate adoption and address oversharing with built-in content governance reports and controls. These tools will help organizations get ready and monitor their technical and content readiness for Copilot consumption. Generally available in early 2025

7. Management controls:

The CCS will include management controls to govern access and usage of Copilot and agents including controls over which users can use Copilot and agents along with visibility into agent status and lifecycle. Microsoft also announced that the Copilot 365 admin centers will be available to all Copilot customers to automate time-consuming IT tasks, provide personalized insights to improve tenant management, and answer admin questions. In private preview; generally available early 2025

8. Measurement and reporting

Studies have shown that 70% of the success of a Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout is tied to how well an organization prepares for Organization Change Management and training. The good news is Microsoft is including these capabilities in CCS to work towards your adoption plan. These new capabilities will allow IT and business leaders to track adoption patterns and return on investment from the use of Copilot and agents. Microsoft also announced Viva Insights will now be included in Copilot at no additional charge as part of their new Copilot Analytics solution. Copilot Analytics provides out-of-the-box experiences to measure Copilot adoption and business impact, customizable reporting for deeper analysis, and the new Copilot Business Impact Report for analyzing Copilot usage against business key performance indicators across sales, finance, marketing, and more.

Here are some key points about Copilot Analytics:

• Correlation with Business Metrics: It enables users to correlate Copilot usage with business outcomes across various departments like sales, marketing, and finance.
• Tuning Usage to Business KPIs: Users can tune the usage of Copilot and its Agents to align with key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Change Management: Copilot Analytics is seen as a tool for change management, helping businesses understand how work, workflows, and work artifacts are being transformed by AI.

The Copilot Business Impact Report is in public preview; Copilot Analytics generally available in early 2025.

9. Azure AI Foundry: The Unified Development Platform

For many organizations there is a need for AI and copilots in content that is not in Microsoft 365 like Azure. To build those solutions you used to go to Copilot Studio or Azure AI Studio. As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft has rebranded Azure AI Studio as Azure AI Foundry. The Azure AI Foundry platform was announced as a unified platform designed to streamline the development, customization and management of AI applications. It integrates various Azure AI services and tools, providing developers with a comprehensive environment to build and deploy AI solutions efficiently. The platform includes a new software development kit that facilitates integration with familiar development environments like GitHub and Visual Studio, promoting seamless collaboration and innovation.

Azure AI Foundry uses a hub-and-project architecture, where the hub serves as the top-level resource managing security configurations, compute resources and service connections, while projects are child resources that provide isolated development environments with access to tools, reusable components, and specific project-scoped connections. The platform emphasizes centralized governance, enabling teams to efficiently manage security, connectivity and computing resources across multiple projects while maintaining granular access control through Azure role-based access control and attribute-based access control.

The integration between Copilot Studio and AI Foundry Agents introduces features like an agent library with templates for common scenarios, including leave management, sales order processing and deal acceleration. Developers can now build full-stack, trusted agents with access to the Copilot Trust Layer, enabling seamless integration between low-code and pro-code solutions.

Here are some key points about Azure AI Foundry:

• Integration: It brings together different models, tools, and data sources, making it easier for developers to build AI applications.
• Streamlined Development: The platform is designed to simplify the AI development process, enabling faster and more efficient creation of AI solutions.

10. Windows 365 Link:

While not AI related, I wanted to add Windows 365 Link to the list as many organizations are now looking towards Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for remote access. For more information on AVD and why you should use it see this recent article by Planet’s CTO located Azure Virtual Desktop: Secure Access for the Remote Government Workforce – Planet Technologies

Windows 365 Link is a simple, secure, purpose-built device for Windows 365 and could be a great secure and low-cost solution for access to AVD. This device is designed to connect users directly to their productivity in the cloud with no data or information left on any device. The M365 Link Device integrates with Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 applications, providing a unified experience for users. It supports features such as voice commands, video conferencing, and real-time collaboration.

Here are some key points about Windows 365 Link:

• Admin-less and Password-less: The device is admin-less and password-less, with security configurations enabled by default and cannot be turned off.
• It expands the Cloud PC category by providing a secure and efficient way to access Windows 365.
• Only M365 Apps can be loaded.

This device aims to enhance productivity and security by ensuring that all data and information remain in the cloud, providing a seamless and secure user experience. Availability: Windows 365 Link will be available in April of next year.

On the Naughty List:

Naming and Branding Changes

While change is often good, the rebranding of several key services left some of us scratching our heads. The new names for Copilot, Azure Open AI Studio and Copilot Prompt Gallery are still new to us, but we’re hopeful they won’t change again in 2025.

Business Chat (Bing Chat/Enterprise then Copilot) Now BizChat and Microsoft 365 Copilot

Business Chat (BizChat) is at the center of Microsoft 365 Copilot. It can be grounded in both web and work data (if you own Microsoft 365 Copilot). The slider at the top of BizChat has Work/Web setting. If you don’t own Microsoft 365 Copilot, you will only see the web toggle.

BizChat is the UI and the new name that offers up the Work tab to get access to the paid capabilities of the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. With the paid license you can incorporate results based on your work content, such as chats, email, and files. It is extensible and can be accessed in the following locations:

• Edge https://copilot.microsoft.com
• In Outlook.com
• In Teams

Azure Open AI Studio is now Azure AI Foundry

Azure AI Foundry is Microsoft’s new unified AI platform that includes both Azure AI Foundry portal and the Azure AI Foundry SDK, Microsoft’s unified SDK with pre-built app templates. I have more about this below in my top ten announcements.

Copilot Labs is now Copilot Prompt Gallery Copilot Prompt Gallery

The Copilot Prompt Gallery is a feature designed to help users discover, save, and share their favorite prompts for Microsoft 365 Copilot. It enables users to find inspiration from others and share their prompting success, supporting organizations in driving widespread AI adoption in the workplace.

The gallery allows users to:

• Discover prompts for Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents tailored to specific roles, functions, and tasks.
• Save and share prompts via copy link, email, or a Microsoft Teams team.
• Access popular prompts within their organization through a new ‘Prompts’ tab in Teams.
• Explore curated selections of suggested prompts organized by role, function, or industry.

Logos- Microsoft will be adding M365 wording to the copilot logo moving forward regardless of whether you have purchased Microsoft 365 Copilot or not.

Wrap up

As we wrap up another year, it’s clear that Microsoft is committed to pushing the boundaries of AI technology and innovation and giving us an AI platform that can be secured, controlled, monitored and grow adoption. It should be the goal of every organization to understand what is available from a platform perspective to get the most out of your new AI tools. If you need help or have questions on any of these items I mentioned, please feel free to reach out to the [email protected].

These announcements from Ignite 2024 are just a glimpse of what is to come, and I can’t wait to see how these tools will shape the future of work. If you want to see all the announcements at Ignite please visit the Book of News and Planet’s CTO Andrew Kagan’s Microsoft Ignite 2024: A Comprehensive Summary

Happy holidays, and here’s to a productive and secure Microsoft 365 environment in your new year! 🎉