Microsoft Innovation Podcast

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This episode features Martin Miller and explores the practical reality of using AI inside organisations. The conversation cuts through hype to focus on where AI genuinely adds leverage, where it breaks down, and why subject matter expertise, data quality, and critical thinking still matter. From AI‑generated code and agent teams to data governance, outages, and deepfakes, the discussion frames AI as a powerful amplifier rather than a replacement. The core message is clear: AI rewards clarity of intent, strong foundations, and human judgement. 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/815
🎙️ What you’ll learn 
How AI‑generated code fails without clear problem definition 
Why data quality and governance are prerequisites for AI success 
When AI amplifies expertise versus creating costly mistakes 
How organisations misuse AI by chasing headcount reduction 
Why critical thinking weakens when AI replaces core learning 
✅ Highlights 
“It’s not about can you write a for loop. It’s about can you define what you’re trying to accomplish.” 
“The more you know, the more you can use this tool.” 
“Nothing like making a decision off of bad data.” 
“AI is a power tool in the box of tools, and it’s a super tool.” 
“It will confidently deliver you results that may or may not be what you need.” 
“Headcount reduction and creating solutions are mutually exclusive.” 
“If you can’t manage your data with or without humans, you need to know that.” 
“You can generate the anomaly of the moment using AI all day long.” 
“There’s no Brent to call when your AI isn’t working.” 
“People that used AI couldn’t remember anything about the paper.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Claude: https://claude.ai/ 
OpenAI: https://openai.com/  
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/  
Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ 
DevOps: https://www.atlassian.com/devops 
The Phoenix Project: https://itrevolution.com/product/the-phoenix-project/  
Foursquare: https://foursquare.com/ 
Book: AI in a Weekend: An Executive’s Guide: https://www.amazon.com/Weekend-Executives-Guide-Martin-Miller-ebook/dp/B0D4JPSRH2
✅Keywords 
ai strategy, ai coding, data governance, critical thinking, ai agents, devops, site reliability engineering, ai outages, deepfakes, prompt engineering, subject matter expertise, enterprise 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

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM 
 
Simon Doy and Mark Smith explore the rapid shift from experimentation to production use of AI agents. The conversation focuses on practical agent design, Copilot Studio, RAG quality, and where automation fits better than full agents. Simon shares real client work in the NHS, small business realities, and how partners deliver Copilot adoption and agent-led transformation. A recurring theme is choosing the right level of AI, from automation with AI sprinkles to long running agent workflows, while staying pragmatic about cost, governance, and user experience. 
🎙 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/814
👉 What you’ll learn     
How agentic workflows are moving from demos into real production use 
When simple SharePoint grounding is enough and when Azure AI Search is required 
How to combine automation and agents to avoid slow, interactive AI experiences 
Practical approaches to Copilot adoption for leaders and teams 
Why token usage, orchestration, and model choice are becoming operational concerns 
✅ Highlights     
“On Friday, I let Claude Opus go and build me a Teams agent overnight.” 
“The agentic side and being able to have these long running tasks is really shifting things.” 
“Customers are now getting much more open to trying things out.” 
“Copilot Studio is the first port of call.” 
“You don’t get the quality back from the agent that you need with complex content.” 
“How you chunk it is so important for RAG.” 
“Not everything needs to be a full on agent.” 
“Automation with AI sprinkles is sometimes the better option.” 
“My world is fast becoming measured by tokens.” 
“You don’t have to use the most expensive model on everything.” 
🧰 Mentioned     
Copilot Studio - https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio 
Azure AI Search - https://azure.microsoft.com/products/ai-services/ai-search 
EmpowerM365 -  https://empowerm365.com 
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords      
ai agents, copilot studio, microsoft 365, automation, rag, azure ai search, sharepoint, claude opus, agentic workflows, copilot adoption, power automate, tokens 
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 
Dani Kahil breaks down the growing complexity of Copilot and AI agents in the Microsoft ecosystem and how practitioners can make sense of it. The conversation focuses on practical mental models, minimum viable agents, and real-world use cases, including document-heavy processes in higher education. The core insight is that successful AI adoption depends less on tools and more on clear roles, scoped responsibilities, feedback loops, and realistic expectations of non-deterministic systems.
 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/813

🎙️ What you’ll learn   
How to distinguish between Copilot experiences, products, and build tools across Microsoft platforms 
Why diagrams and visual models help reduce AI and Copilot confusion for teams and leaders 
How to define a minimum viable agent to prevent scope creep 
Why treating agents like junior co-workers improves outcomes 
How feedback loops and incremental task expansion make agents useful in production 
 ✅ Highlights 
“It took me a lot of time to kind of process the information.” 
“I always like visuals and kind of diagrams.” 
“There are so many different versions of the different copilots.” 
“These are completely separate products.” 
“I started looking at them as roles and job functions.” 
“Treat your agent like a co-worker.” 
“In two minutes, you can build an agent, and it’s useless.” 
“Start with a very simple instruction at the beginning.” 
“It will never be 100%. That’s the nature of generative AI.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Diagram to download: https://danikahil.com/microsoft-copilots-and-ai-agents-ecosystem-diagram/ 
Youtube video of my walkthrough of the diagram: https://youtu.be/nZ8g11YthYI 
Microsoft Power Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform
Azure AI Foundry: https://azure.microsoft.com/products/ai-foundry
Windows Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-11?wincampaign=Copilot
✅Keywords   
copilot, ai agents, power platform, microsoft 365, copilot studio, agent builder, azure foundry, power apps, automation, generative ai, minimum viable agent, ai adoption 
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 
In this episode of AI Unfiltered, Kristen Perdue explains why AI adoption fails when leaders treat it like standard software instead of a fundamental shift in how organisations operate. The conversation focuses on executive mindset, cultural alignment, and communication gaps that quietly derail AI initiatives. Kristen shares how to prioritise the right use cases, close AI literacy gaps, and re‑engineer processes so AI drives growth rather than amplifying broken workflows. 
👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/812  
🎙️ What you’ll learn 
Why AI adoption is a leadership and culture challenge, not an IT rollout 
How executive misalignment undermines AI strategy and execution 
How to prioritise AI use cases based on real operational bottlenecks 
Why overconfidence in AI skills creates risk across organisations 
When process re‑engineering must happen before automation 
✅ Highlights 
“AI is a different way of doing business. It’s not really a tool.” 
“It doesn’t work like software. It is a completely new way of doing business.” 
“Most approached it going, well, should I roll out AI?” 
“We started throwing darts at a dart board anywhere it landed.” 
“AI multiplies good and it multiplies bad.” 
“Only 21% of the companies deploying AI even touched re‑engineering their processes.” 
“That lack of communication is the reason initiatives fail.” 
“People are confident, but they score 40 out of 100.” 
🧰 Mentioned 
Generative AI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_artificial_intelligence 
Process re‑engineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering 
McKinsey study on AI and process re‑engineering: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-how-organizations-are-rewiring-to-capture-value 
Section AI literacy report: https://www.sectionai.com/ai/the-ai-proficiency-report 
✅Keywords 
ai adoption, executive alignment, ai strategy, generative ai, ai literacy, change management, process re-engineering, business transformation, leadership mindset, ai governance, organisational culture, 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

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

🎙 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/811
 
This episode explores how organisations can move from AI curiosity to real, everyday value through the practical adoption work of Carina de Vries. Drawing on hands-on experience, it reframes AI from a tool conversation to a problem-first mindset. The focus is on building trust, improving quality, and creating small habits that stick. Listeners will learn why one-off training fails, how behaviour change really happens, and how to design an AI adoption journey that fits daily work rather than disrupting it. 
👉 What you’ll learn     
How to shift AI conversations from tools to real user problems 
Why small, repeatable habits matter more than broad AI training 
How to design an adoption journey that builds trust and confidence 
Ways AI can improve both productivity and quality of work 
How to help people move from experimentation to daily AI use 
✅ Highlights     
“I discovered ChatGPT and it helped me get back to work in just an hour a day.” 
“It’s just another tool in the toolbox, so what do you want it to deliver to you?” 
“We talk too much about the tool instead of a daily problem a user can relate to.” 
“People are already in a mindset that the current tool they’re using is better.” 
“It’s about building the habit, not just doing a one-off training.” 
“Make it small, because we tend to tell everything about the product all at once.” 
“If you can continue it another 30 days, then it’s going to be a habit.” 
“I wouldn’t know what to do without it because it’s saving me so many hours a week.” 
🧰 Mentioned     
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com  
Microsoft Copilot:https://copilot.microsoft.com 
M365 Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot  
Copilot Chat: https://copilot.cloud.microsoft  
Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio  
Gamma.app: https://gamma.app  
Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-teams 
Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com 
Ignite: https://ignite.microsoft.com 
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 
✅ Keywords      
ai adoption, copilot, chatgpt, user adoption, habit building, productivity, ai literacy, change management, microsoft 365, prompts, workplace ai, digital transformation 
Support the show
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith