Microsoft Innovation Podcast

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This episode explores how Microsoft Planner is evolving into a practical, AI-assisted project management tool for modern teams. Cindy Lewis explains how Planner fits into daily work through Microsoft Teams, how AI agents support planning, reporting, and risk assessment, and why small usability improvements matter. The discussion also covers Copilot, Dataverse, Power BI, and the shift from automation to agent-style AI that actively helps manage work. 
🎙 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/828 
👉 What you’ll learn     
How Microsoft Planner fits into modern, collaborative project management 
Where AI adds value in planning, reporting, and risk management 
Differences between Planner basic and premium plans and why they are merging 
How Copilot supports everyday productivity beyond automation 
Why data, feedback, and adoption timing matter for real-world AI impact 
✅ Highlights     
“Everybody starts with a plan, whether or not you’re trained in project management.” 
“The future is collaboration and artificial intelligence, not desktop-only tools.” 
“We need to be able to ask a question of my plan and get the answer back.” 
“AI is doing a really nice status report that used to take hours of work.” 
“The average person doesn’t even know enough to know what it could do.” 
“They’ve made it so you can’t make the most common project management mistakes.” 
“Power BI is the winner if you want resource capacity across portfolios.” 
“Most companies are not ready, even though the future is already here.” 
“A lot of what people call AI is really automation.” 
“It’s the little annoying things that Microsoft is fixing that people don’t notice.” 
🧰 Mentioned     
Microsoft Planner: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/planner  
Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams  
Microsoft Project: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/project/project-management  
Microsoft To Do: https://to-do.microsoft.com 
Microsoft Copilot: https://www.copilot.com  
Planner Agent: https://support.microsoft.com/office/access-planner-agent-86bf60a1-239d-4c37-b7b6-9a4111e1cc02 
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords      
microsoft planner, project management, ai agents, copilot, microsoft teams, dataverse, power bi, task management, productivity, automation, collaboration, planning
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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

In this episode, Ricky Lawson explains why Copilot adoption is not a technology problem but a cultural one. He shares how enterprise value comes from governance, security, and meeting people where they are, not from forcing tools. From leadership led behaviour change to agents, licensing, and Copilot as core infrastructure, the conversation reframes AI as everyday electricity for modern work.

👉️ Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/827 
🎙️ What you’ll learn  
How to drive Copilot adoption through culture, not training courses 
Why Copilot works best as the enterprise interface for AI 
How governance and data protection change AI adoption decisions 
Why agent creation is moving from technical to accessible 
How to introduce AI through small, habit forming use cases 
✅ Highlights 
“It got me maybe 60% there, right?” 
“Things are getting so much more natural.” 
“Copilot really does well that other tools don’t is that it’s agile.” 
“You’re not training the model.” 
“It’s a perfect enterprise work solution.” 
“Copilot adoption is not necessarily a technical motion.” 
“It’s almost a habitual motion, a cultural motion.” 
“Why do you need to see ROI on electricity?” 
“This is exactly the type of thinking of a frontier firm.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/ 
Microsoft 365: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365 
Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio/  
Agent 365: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-agent-365 
Microsoft Cowork (Copilot Cowork): https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/blog/2026/03/09/copilot-cowork-a-new-way-of-getting-work-done/  
Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams 
Slack: https://slack.com/ 
OpenAI: https://openai.com/ 
Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ 
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/ 
✅Keywords 
copilot, microsoft copilot, ai adoption, enterprise ai, ai governance, copilot studio, ai agents, microsoft 365, frontier firm, generative ai, ai culture, agent 365 
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 
Jeff Mahony joins AI Unfiltered to explore why AI adoption has not yet hit its consolidation point, and how blockchain’s immutability can restore trust at scale. The conversation connects AI agents, bias, regulation, and distributed systems, arguing that transparency, not speed alone, is the real unlock. Jeff explains how larger, collaborative teams can mitigate bias, why current AI agents often reduce productivity, and where AI plus blockchain can create real-world value across finance, supply chains, and public systems.
 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/826   
🎙️ What you’ll learn 
Why the AI market has not yet reached its S-curve consolidation phase 
How bias enters AI systems and how team design can reduce its impact 
Where AI agents help productivity, and where they quietly reduce it 
Why blockchain creates authenticity through transparency 
How AI and blockchain together can enable scalable audits and pattern detection 
✅ Highlights 
“Each of us has built-in flaws, but our flaws don’t touch too many people.” 
“If I’ve somehow biased that model, now my flaw could touch millions.” 
“The fix is going to be those collaborative, larger teams.” 
“Blockchain is authenticity born through transparency.” 
“On a blockchain, it would be very clear what the anomaly was.” 
“The intermediary is the source of virtually all corruption.” 
“We’re seeing a reduction in productivity by those people using agents.” 
“You wouldn’t let that person give you the synopsis and then act from it.” 
“Layer that on top of a blockchain, and now you can do data analysis.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
AI agents: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents 
Blockchain: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/blockchain 
Distributed data warehousing: https://www.educative.io/answers/what-is-a-distributed-data-warehouse-dwh 
Sovereign entities: https://fiveable.me/ap-hug/key-terms/sovereign-entity 
Voting systems: https://electionlab.mit.edu/research/voting-technology 
FinTech: https://www.britannica.com/money/financial-technology-fintech 
right.io (RYT.io): https://right.io/ 
✅Keywords 
ai agents, blockchain, s-curve adoption, ai bias, transparency, immutability, fintech, regulation, productivity, distributed systems, supply chain, sovereign solutions 
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 agents are reshaping modern marketing workflows, drawing on the hands-on experience of Ramón Rautenstrauch. Using Microsoft Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Foundry, the discussion shows how marketers can automate campaigns, experiment faster, and reduce low-value work while keeping humans in the loop. The core insight is not replacing marketers with AI, but using agents to unlock creativity, speed, and continuous optimisation that were previously impractical.

👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/825  
🎙️ What you’ll learn   
How Copilot and generative AI change creative and campaign planning 
Where AI agents add the most value in marketing workflows 
Practical differences between Copilot Studio and Microsoft Foundry 
Why experimentation becomes easier with agent-driven automation 
How to reduce repetitive work without losing human judgement 
✅ Highlights     
“From one day to another, we had a whole new world of ideas.” 
“I’ve been fully into agents to try to automate all the marketing work.” 
“Not to replace me, but to assist me.” 
“Before I spent more or less half of the day doing things that didn’t add value.” 
“Now I can try to do things differently.” 
“This helps us to do different things that we would never have tried.” 
“With Copilot Studio, it took me half an hour.” 
“With Foundry, it took me one week.” 
“With Foundry, you have to sit down and think.” 
🧰 Mentioned     
Microsoft Copilot: https://www.copilot.com  
Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio/  
Microsoft Foundry: https://ai.azure.com/ 
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/  
OpenAI: https://openai.com/  
Google Ads: https://ads.google.com/ 
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords      
ai agents, microsoft copilot, copilot studio, microsoft foundry, marketing automation, generative ai, campaign automation, ai workflows, experimentation, productivity, marketing strategy, human in the loop 
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 Balazs Horvath explores how AI is shifting from hype to practical value in business applications. The core insight is that models are now good enough, but value comes from context, not tools. CRM is becoming a database, interfaces are disappearing, and skills like problem framing, signal detection, and prompting matter more than building apps. AI works best as a colleague when organisations invest in shared language, data foundations, and human judgement.
 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/824   

🎙️ What you’ll learn   
Why context, not models, is the real limiter of AI value 
How CRM is shifting from interfaces to signal-driven systems 
Where ERP and data platforms still have defensible moats 
How reverse prompting improves thinking and outcomes 
Why consulting skills matter more than coding in the AI era 
✅ Highlights  
"It’s been more hype than actual value." 
"Models are good enough. It’s about the context that you give them." 
"I haven’t logged into my CRM for the past two weeks." 
"CRM will just become a database." 
"Finance is audited, legislated, and hard to replicate." 
"The way we interact with apps is changing." 
"I flipped our academic program upside down." 
"AI understands intent." 
"Ask me 20 questions, one at a time." 
🧰 Mentioned 
Dynamics 365: https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics-365  
Microsoft Power Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform 
Business Central: https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics-365/business-central  
Finance and Operations (Dynamics 365 Finance): https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics-365/finance  
Power BI: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform/products/power-bi  
Microsoft Fabric: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-fabric  
Dataverse: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform/dataverse  
Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com  
Claude: https://claude.ai 
Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com  
Microsoft Graph: https://learn.microsoft.com/graph  
Vibe.powerapps.com: https://vibe.powerapps.com 
✅Keywords   
ai context, crm future, power platform, dynamics 365, copilot, anthropic, claude, reverse prompting, vibe coding, business central, microsoft fabric, applied ai 
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