Did you know that Microsoft is used in over 8 million U.S. businesses?
When their Microsoft AI Tour stopped in Chicago last week (ahead of other stops like Dubai, Tokyo, and London) - I wasn’t going to miss it.
Whether you use Microsoft or not, they offer a glimpse into the future of work.
I crammed into these 6 sessions:
Becoming Frontier, AI Agents, Advanced Agents, Power Platform, Unifying Data, Agentic AI with Nvidia.
Read on for my predictions + next steps for AI at your business.
In This Post:
1-Business Leaders need an AI strategy, an AI policy, and should leverage that into small & focused use cases.
This quote was from Tim Dickson, CDIO at a massive industrial production firm.
AI Strategy - Identify & scope one focused, high ROI use case.
AI Policy - Culture, adoption & learning, hiring & data policies.
My thoughts:
100% agree - just don’t overthink it.
Bring in someone as a subject matter expert if you need help getting started.
Many companies are spending thousands, millions, or billions on this technology.
It’s worthwhile for you to spend 1 day of conversation about this shift.
2-AI is the new UI for knowledge work.
Instead of throwing keys on the desk and booting up an email or CRM - knowledge workers are starting their workday with an AI Copilot - because that’s where work is.
Microsoft believes this will literally be ‘Copilot.’
Drawing Comparisons
Copilot is built on top of the same tech as ChatGPT, which happens to be the world’s fastest growing technology product of all time.
So yeah, it’s powerful.
ChatGPT also boasts record-breaking retention. Users (or employees in this case) love using it!!
How To Embrace This Shift:
Equipping your workers with Copilot licenses,
encouraging them to ‘learn AI,’ and
growing into more advanced use cases like Agents.
3-AI Agents are going to dominate work norms.
Whatever you think your job is, whatever purpose you think your employees serve - think again.
For better or for worse, AI Agents will dominate work productivity for the forseeable future.
What do we mean by ‘AI Agents??’
Think of it as a new automation discipline.
The agent can onboard a new employee, read your companies onboarding policy, send them new logins, training, get their computer ordered, etc.
Building these agents is made simple thru Microsoft 365 and Copilot studio. (There’s also a growing library of templates to copy into your org.)
My Take:
Microsoft and every other tech in your stack will start to sell you agents.
Your managers and employees will ask for them.
Important to determine your AI Strategy, your AI Policy, so you can avoid reflex mistakes.
I think there will be a lot of amazing use cases for these ‘smart automations’ - versus a lot of burned energy building out agent flows that bite off more than they can chew.
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4-Microsoft is slow AF. Are you?
Microsoft is 50 years old. A dinosaur, really.
If your approach to the largest technology shift in history is to follow Microsoft’s lead, you might be doing enough.
The smartest companies aren’t just adopting AI - they’re fundamentally restructuring their budgets, shifting capital buildouts or new hires to flexible, OpEx-based AI subscriptions.
Predictions
Some industries will see marketing spend change overnight. Others will see consumer preferences change overnight. Others will consolidate or completely disappear. (RIP country-music songwriters).
How to react:
Many orgs justify this ‘new spend’ as they purchase Copilot licenses thru the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
If you’re already a big firm - you need it to compete.
If you’re small - you’re agile, which can mean huge gains with AI.
You’re still early… but its go-time.
5-(Boring topic) The Data boom is booming.
My next content series is going to be all around CONTEXT. AI and LLM technology only become a super power when connected to data, resources, knowledge…. that’s when they become personalized to your context.
If you have lots of data, getting that data clean and AI-ready is a large, yet worthwhile task.
If you don’t have lots of data - look again. Today’s revolution includes many data-unifying solutions, and those are also worthwhile investments.
Today’s internet is building connectors, endpoints, and protocols all over the place - but that doesn’t mean it’s getting more complex. The web is actually simplifiying somewhat, as big tech has agree on things like MCP (Model Context Protocol).
Why MCP matters
If you know someone who would enjoy this content,
Here’s what’s coming next :
I’m not sure what the future of this space looks like. How can I help you guys? Send me a note.
Tuesdays: The next episode with Chip & Scoops, a couple of AI-curious friends just like you.(Catch up on the last episode here) I might sunset this series. TBD.
Thursdays: We’ll cover LLM and AI concepts. (Don’t worry. I put the cookies on the lower shelf, where anyone can reach ‘em.) I teach advanced concepts in simple, bite-sized chunks that anyone can understand.