Microsoft Ignite 2024 – Are you ready for AI?

Introduction

When I heard that Microsoft Ignite was returning as an in-person event, I immediately thought, “I’m going, no matter what!”— and I’m so glad I did.

Etienne and I flew to Chicago last Monday to attend Microsoft Ignite 2024 at the iconic McCormick Place Convention Center, the largest in North America. It had to be enormous to accommodate over ten thousand participants who travelled from around the globe to be part of this incredible event. There were countless exciting announcements, and I can’t wait to share them all with you in this article.

 

For your Employees

Microsoft 365 Copilot Actions (private preview)

New Copilot Actions automate everyday tasks with simple, fill-in-the-blank prompts that you can set and forget. 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.

 

 

Out-of-the-box agents in M365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot introduces specialized agents to enhance productivity and streamline tasks. SharePoint Agents help users gain insights and manage processes securely. The Employee Self-Service Agent in BizChat handles common HR and IT queries, while the Facilitator Agent supports collaboration in Teams by summarizing chats and taking meeting notes. The Interpreter Agent (launching next year), offers real-time language interpretation in Teams. The Project Manager Agent automates project management in Planner, handling tasks like plan creation, tracking, and reporting, and is currently in public preview.

 

 

Several updates to Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot is transforming your work with many updates across Teams, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and more.

• Teams: Copilot now analyzes screen-shared content during meetings, offering real-time insights and actionable summaries. It can also summarize shared files in chat for instant comprehension.
• PowerPoint: Generate polished slides from narratives, translate presentations into 40 languages, and seamlessly incorporate branded assets.
• Excel: Quickly create task-specific templates with tailored headers, formulas, and visuals.
• Outlook: Simplify meeting scheduling and agenda drafting with natural language prompts.
• OneNote: Effortlessly organize typed, handwritten, and voice notes into cohesive structures.
• Copilot Pages: Collaborate dynamically with rich artifacts and mobile access.

 

 

For your Business

Copilot Studio

Autonomous agents (public preview): The built-in Copilot Studio agents can now operate independently, dynamically planning and learning from processes, adapting to changing conditions, and making decisions without the need for constant human intervention. These autonomous agents can be triggered by data changes, events, and other background tasks—and not just through chat.

Agent library and autonomous triggers (public preview): Microsoft also announced an agent library so users can get a head start by choosing agents based on commonly used scenarios and autonomous triggers. This allows agents to automatically respond to signals across your business and initiate tasks. These advancements make it easy to automate complex tasks and processes.

Microsoft 365 Agents SDK (public preview): The SDK enables developers to create scalable, enterprise-grade, multi-channel agents that work across platforms like Microsoft Copilot, Teams, and the web. It supports extending agents by connecting them with Copilot Studio agents, bridging code-first and Copilot Studio workflows. Developers can integrate AI services from Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel, or other providers.

Azure AI Foundry integrations: Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry (former Azure AI Studio) are becoming more integrated to enable more complex, custom scenarios. With these integrations, agents built-in Microsoft Copilot Studio will be able to access the Azure catalog of 1,800+ AI models, enabling makers to call industry-specific fine-tuned models (in private preview), as well as allow Azure AI Search support for large enterprises needing it (in public preview).

 

 

Azure AI Foundry

Microsoft announced Azure AI Foundry, a unified AI platform that includes both the Azure AI Foundry portal (formerly Azure AI Studio), and the Azure AI Foundry SDK, a unified SDK with pre-built app templates enabling developers to:

• Access our most popular models through a single interface;
• Easily integrate Azure AI into their apps;
• Evaluate, debug and improve application quality and safety across development, testing, and production environments.

 

 

The Azure AI Foundry SDK is now available in Python and C#, with a JavaScript version coming soon. In this initial release, the SDK includes Azure OpenAI, AI model inferencing, Azure AI Search, Azure AI Agent Service, Evaluation, Tracing, and AI app templates.

 

 

Azure AI Agent Service (public preview coming soon): Azure AI Agents Service integrates cutting-edge AI models from Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Mistral, and Cohere, with seamless extensions to knowledge sources like Bing, SharePoint, and Azure services. It enables powerful actions across Microsoft and third-party applications using Azure Logic Apps, Azure Functions, and OpenAPI tools, supported by an intuitive building experience via Azure AI Foundry. Enterprise-ready features include BYO storage, private network integration, advanced authentication, and enhanced observability through OpenTelemetry.

This flexible, use-case-agnostic service supports automation across domains, from productivity and research to sales, customer service, and development, enabling new possibilities and optimizing routine tasks.

 

 

Fabric

Unified data platform with Fabric Databases (public preview): Fabric Databases introduce a new class of cloud databases to Microsoft Fabric, unifying transactional and analytical workloads into a single platform. Features like built-in vector search, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) support, and Azure AI integration streamline AI app development. Data is instantly available in OneLake for advanced analytics, and developers can leverage Copilot for natural language-to-SQL translation, inline code completion, and code fixes with explanations.

 

 

Real-Time Intelligence (generally available): Now generally available, Fabric Real-Time Intelligence offers pro-dev and no-code tools to handle high-volume streaming data with precision, enabling dynamic data transformation, real-time querying for instant insights, and automated action triggers. The Real-Time Hub serves as a centralized platform to discover and manage streaming data efficiently.

 

 

OneLake catalog: The OneLake catalog is a comprehensive solution for exploring, managing, and governing data in Microsoft Fabric. It features two tabs: Explore, now generally available, for discovering and managing trusted data, and Govern, coming soon in preview, for providing governance insights, recommended actions, and advanced tooling for data owners. As an evolution of the OneLake data hub, the catalog integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps like Excel and Teams for easy data access. It also extends its governance capabilities through integration with Microsoft Purview’s Unified Catalog, enabling advanced data quality management and a global view of heterogeneous data estates.

 

 

Azure Cosmos DB

In this edition of Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft unveiled several exciting updates for Azure Cosmos DB, specifically designed for Gen-AI applications requiring advanced search capabilities. These enhancements further solidify Cosmos DB as the go-to data platform for vectorized information—what we might now call a “vector lake” 😎.

 

 

Built-in vector index (generally available): Ability for apps to perform a vector similarity search with high performance and accuracy at a massive scale. Learn more.

Full-text search and hybrid search (public preview): Search vast amounts of data using full-text search and hybrid search, combining full-text and vector search to deliver highly accurate and contextually relevant results. Learn more.

Dynamic scaling (generally available): Dynamic scaling enables Azure Cosmos DB to scale workloads based on the most active region and partition, making it great for non-uniform workloads. Learn more.

 

For your IT

Copilot & Copilot Studio

Copilot Analytics (public preview): Copilot Analytics is designed to empower every IT and business leader to measure the adoption and business impact of Copilot and agents — with out-of-the-box experiences (Copilot Dashboard & Microsoft admin center) and customizable reporting for deeper analysis against your KPIs. Copilot Analytics can be accessed via the Microsoft 365 admin center, the Copilot Dashboard and Viva Insights and will be generally available in early 2025.

 

 

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention for Microsoft 365 Copilot (generally available): With this new capability, data security admins can now create DLP policies to exclude documents with specified sensitivity labels from being summarized or used in responses in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat.

Data oversharing assessments (public preview): Organizations can run assessments both pre- and post-deployment of Copilot. In pre-deployment, they can use the assessment to identify unlabeled files being accessed by specific users, highlighting potential risks before Copilot is rolled out broadly. In post-deployment, the assessment helps pinpoint sensitive data referenced in Copilot responses, allowing organizations to prioritize permission clean-up with recommendations on how to fix permissions and to enhance data protection efforts with labelling policies for data at the highest risk of oversharing.

 

 

Copilot Studio pay-as-you-go (December 1, 2024): Microsoft will introduce an option to buy Copilot Studio messages with pay-as-you-go consumptive billing through existing Azure subscriptions. This pricing option empowers developers to harness the full potential of Azure AI while providing the flexibility needed to scale and adapt to changing demands.

 

Conclusion

The announcements at Microsoft Ignite 2024 were nothing short of transformative, showcasing how AI is no longer just a tool but a strategic enabler across the enterprise. From Copilot’s evolving capabilities to the groundbreaking Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Fabric updates, the opportunities for innovation are vast. These advancements offer organizations the chance to reimagine productivity, enhance decision-making, and deliver value at scale.

 

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Ready to take the first step toward a smarter, AI-driven future?

At Stellium, we specialize in helping businesses navigate this rapidly changing landscape. If you’re excited by the potential of these tools but unsure how to define or implement a cohesive AI strategy, we’re here to help. Our team can work with you to understand your unique needs, craft a roadmap tailored to your business, and ensure you’re maximizing the impact of Microsoft’s AI ecosystem.

Don’t let the complexity hold you back—partner with Stellium to take the first step toward a smarter, AI-driven future. Get in touch with us today to start building your AI strategy for 2025 and beyond!