Even with Copilot, I have stared far too long at the blank white word document with the cursor blinking at me as I wonder where to start in this recap. Attending the Microsoft Ignite Conference was a little bit of a fan-girl moment for me, which even I cringe a bit when writing, but the technologies discussed and revealed throughout left me speechless and wide eyed! Even as attendee, I spent several hours processing all the updates to better understand. In this blog post, I’ll rapid fire through the announcements that caught my attention the most as well as the impacts I believe these will have on organizations and their end users.
1. Agents, Agents, and ACTIONS!
As you may have noticed, this year’s Ignite was focused heavily on the investments Microsoft is making in the realm of AI and specifically, Copilot. Now, when thinking through the capabilities of Copilot across Microsoft 365, I’ve always challenged my end users to consider each area that Copilot touches as a separate Copilot rather than a part of a single tool. Meaning, we have Copilots rather than just a single Copilot. To add to our list of Copilots, we now also have Copilot in SharePoint! Its capabilities include quickly finding your document or creating an agent that’s grounded in the specific folder or library you’re in. For more information on Copilot in SharePoint, check out the video here.
In the world agents, the Employee Self Service, Facilitator, and Interpreter Agents are what held the spark at Ignite for me. Autonomous Agents (agents built in Copilot Studio) can be created by first sifting through the new and upcoming agent library. High level descriptions of several of these agents are below.
Employee Self Service Agent: Currently in Private Preview.
Incorporated directly into BizChat, Copilot can answer questions regarding benefits or even make IT requests (hello, time savings by avoiding tickets!).
Facilitator Agent: Currently in preview.
Finally!! My company will finally give me my own assistant – the Facilitator Agent. Taking notes for you in real time for my Teams meetings and even chats (have you seen it already? hint: AI notes).
Interpreter Agent: In Preview early 2025.
Did you catch my video of this agent in real time at Ignite? The interpreter will translate the spoken word of the attendees of my teams meeting in real time in up to nine languages. The impact is obvious – minimize interpreter cost and maximize time!
At Ignite, I also had the opportunity to build my own Agent in Copilot Studio using one of the labs. Definitely recommend utilizing Skillable or another resource for assistance breaking down the mind barrier that only coding professionals are capable of building these agents!
Copilot Actions: Currently in Private Preview.
*Cue in-awe music*. End Users are going to love this one. New Copilot Actions streamline daily tasks with straightforward, fill-in-the-blank prompts that can be easily set up and automated. Use these to run your start of the day prompts, end of the day wrap up requests, or schedule an action that also acts as a reminder. However you choose to use it, it is the definition of choose-your-own-adventure.
2. Copilot in Microsoft Teams
There are SO MANY changes and announcements for Microsoft Teams! I’ve outlined my favorite headlines and linked the detailed post below.
M365 Copilot in Teams will now be able to reason over the content presented in Teams: Public preview early 2025.
In addition to spoken word and the meeting chat, Copilot will have the capability to read the content that is being shared in your meetings to answer questions and include the content in its responses. Depending on the accuracy, I am excited for these upcoming changes as I believe they are giving us a more comprehensive assistant for our meeting recap, summaries obtained, and gathering details from any missed meetings.
File summary in Teams chat: Public preview in early 2025.
New Chat and Channels experience: Currently in Public Preview.
THRILLED to have this change available to me in my organization. In my testing so far, this experience allows me to never miss a notification and quickly see new activity that is taking place within my Teams and the greater organization. The key with utilizing this experience effectively is all in how you create your sections! By organizing channels and chats into distinct sections, I am able to streamline my workflow and ensure that important conversations are easily accessible. Additionally, the new experience offers enhanced filtering options that allow me to prioritize notifications based on urgency and relevance.
Loop Workspace in Teams Channels: GA in early 2025.
Intelligent recap for meet now meetings: GA this month!
Admin policy to prevent bots from joining Teams meetings: GA Now!
Check out more on this from my Tech Tip: Microsoft Teams | AI Bot Prevention Policy
New Calendar experience in Teams: GA Now!
Bring in the Outlook experience into Teams! This update truly makes Teams the “One Stop Shop”. However, I have been on the lookout for potential missed features with the change.
Stay tuned for a full breakdown of the Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Teams – coming soon! For now, get the full breakdown of all the new Teams updates here: What’s New in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Ignite 2024 | Microsoft Community Hub
3. Microsoft 365 Copilot in Microsoft 365 Administration Centers (Copilot in MAC), SharePoint Advanced Management, and Copilot Analytics
AI administrator role in admin centers: Now available.
Admin users with this role can now effectively administer Copilot without the immense permissions that come with the Global admin rights. Minimize the number of Global Admins in your environment and get this assigned out to the correct admin!
Copilot in MAC: Generally available in January 2025.
Copilot will be accessible in various admin centers and directly through business chat. The piece that I am most excited for is a single place for me to go to when needing to make a change that touches multiple admin centers. Hopefully this will save me time when making a change in the Teams Admin Center that also requires a change to one of the Entra settings (or the ever-evolving Cross Tenant Collaboration needs!). Admins with Copilot licenses can utilize these features to streamline their Microsoft 365 management experience, respecting role-based access controls. The Copilot Control System (offerings data protection, management controls, and adoption reporting to IT) was also something I am eager to dig more into in the coming weeks as news continues to take shape.
Copilot Analytics: Available early 2025.
Also a part of the Copilot Control System is Copilot Analytics. Copilot Analytics includes the Copilot dashboard (previously only included with Viva Insights), Microsoft 365 Admin Center Reporting, and the entirety of Viva Insights! The big call out for what’s to come within Viva Insights is the Copilot Business Impact Report which will analyze adoption and usage for Copilot across all your departments against various KPIs. The fact these features were hidden behind the paywall of Viva Insights from the beginning was a bit odd to me, considering the goal is to adopt Copilot, we kinda need the adoption insights. So, yay Microsoft for unlocking them!
SharePoint Advanced Management INCLUDED with your Copilot license: GA in early 2025.
SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) is a tool designed to provide control over sensitive content within the Microsoft Content ecosystem. SAM uses conditional access, information protection, and access reporting to improve security and compliance across SharePoint sites. This tool enables organizations to develop detailed security policies and data retention reports, providing an additional level of protection for business-critical sites in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business. My favorite tip, archiving sites to free up your SharePoint storage quota.
Thankful for my local user group (MN M365) for providing this great slide.
As we look ahead, the advancements and innovations presented at Microsoft Ignite 2024 signal a new era of efficiency and capability in our administrative tools. The introduction of Microsoft 365 Copilot and the enhancements in Teams are just the beginning of what promises to be a transformative journey for our productivity and workflow management.
For admins, the future is now brimming with possibilities to manage systems more effectively, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing organizational performance. As these tools start to integrate more seamlessly into our daily operations, the role of administration will shift towards more strategic oversight, allowing us to focus on driving innovation and delivering value across the board.
In closing, whether you are setting up the latest intelligent recap feature, managing permissions with the new AI administrator role, or exploring the comprehensive capabilities of Copilot, the advancements are here to empower you. Stay curious, stay innovative, and together, let’s shape the future of productivity.
Thank you for staying with me through this recap. Until next time, keep exploring and stay ahead of the curve!
You can find the full list of announcements from Ignite here: Microsoft Ignite 2024 Book of News