Podcast
Microsoft Innovation Podcast
Hosted by Mark Smith [nz365guy] · EN
If you want to get your ideas or questions featured on an episode, please leave us a voicemail: https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/voicemail/
Dive into the future of work with the "Microsoft Innovation Podcast," exploring the intersection of People, Business, Technology, and AI.
Engage with expert guests—including thought leaders from Microsoft, industry innovators, and community specialists—who are redefining the world with advancements in AI, Cloud technologies, the Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and beyond.
Every episode delivers a blend of in-depth discussions, practical insights, and actionable strategies tailored for professionals driving enablement and innovation.
Join us across our six shows:
- The Power Platform Show
- The MVP Show
- The Copilot Show
- The Ecosystems Show
- The AI Advantage
- The AI Unfiltered Show
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Adopt vs Adapt: Cut Power Platform Technical Debt
2d ago00:29:10Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM A practical rethink of how teams use Power Platform and Dynamics 365 to reduce technical debt, improve governance, and build sustainable solutions. The discussion centres on shifting from tech-first thinking to business outcomes, balancing low-code and pro-code principles, and preparing for AI and Copilot. The key insight is that long-term success comes from disciplined governance, reuse, and choosing when to adopt versus adapt. 👉 Full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/833 🎙️ What you’ll learn Shift from technology-first to outcome-first solution design Decide when to adopt vs adapt to reduce complexity Apply coding principles inside low-code environments Manage technical debt through governance and architecture Evaluate where AI and Copilot add real value today ✅ Highlights "taking a step back and looking at business need and use a process rather than technology first." "a term we're using in the department more and more is kind of adopt versus adapt." "the more you’re restricting yourself off from these possibilities." "it's treating it as a tool, a set of tools we can use rather than the default." "governance to me means more preventative." "it's really difficult to then stay on top of things like the Wave releases." "it’s more a matter of time than anything." "it's not the same thing as code, but it's not meant to be." "there's still a level of maturity that we need to get to." "what does Power Platform mean really and what is it there for?" 🧰 Mentioned Power Virtual Agents (now part of Copilot Studio): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/blog/copilot-studio/microsoft-power-virtual-agents-now-part-of-microsoft-copilot-studio/ AI Builder: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-builder/overview Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/ 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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AI Makes Breaches Faster: 30-Minute Data Theft
3d ago00:30:54Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM This episode explores how AI is accelerating both productivity and cyber risk. As attacks become faster and more automated, traditional perimeter security no longer holds. The conversation focuses on why organisations must assume compromise, adopt zero trust thinking, and build visibility before scaling AI. It highlights practical steps to govern AI use, reduce insider risk, and modernise access models beyond legacy VPNs. The core message is clear: embracing AI without security foundations can move your business backwards. 👉 Full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/832 🎙️ What you’ll learn Why AI has shortened breach timelines from days to minutes How to shift from perimeter defence to a zero trust mindset Practical ways to gain visibility over AI tools and data use Where unplanned AI adoption creates insider risk Why VPN-only security models struggle in cloud-first work ✅ Highlights “From the time of compromise to data exfiltration, we’re seeing 30 minutes.” “Cybercrime is doing the same thing with AI that businesses are.” “You can’t protect what you can’t see.” “You can’t govern what you don’t know about.” “We almost have to assume we’re going to get hit.” “Security by obscurity doesn’t work anymore.” “AI is introducing far more risk when there’s no planning.” “Once you’re in with a VPN, there’s zero control on the inside.” “The volume and scale and speed is what really concerns me.” 🧰 Mentioned Zero trust: https://learn.microsoft.com/security/zero-trust/zero-trust-overview VPN (virtual private network): https://www.cisco.com/learn/topics/security/what-is-a-virtual-private-network-vpn.html SASE (secure access service edge): https://www.microsoft.com/security/business/security-101/what-is-sase Booz Allen: https://www.boozallen.com/ Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/en Anthropic Claude: https://claude.ai/ ✅Keywords ai security, cybersecurity, zero trust, ai risk, data governance, cybercrime, vpn security, sase, insider risk, cloud security, ai adoption, threat landscape 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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Why Copilot Adoption Is Stuck at 3% And Fix It
1w ago00:26:00Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM This episode explores how business leaders are actually using AI inside organisations, and why adoption of tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot remains low. Chris shares practical insight from the frontline, covering Copilot strategy, Work IQ, agentic thinking, and how AI now enables teams to build internal tools faster than buying SaaS. The focus is not hype, but how to reimagine business models, reduce cost, and unlock new value with applied AI capability. 🎙️For full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/831 👉 What you’ll learn Why low Copilot adoption is an opportunity, not a failure How to think beyond productivity to AI-enabled business models When building internal AI tools beats buying SaaS What Work IQ enables that other AI systems cannot How agentic systems change OKRs, dashboards, and execution ✅ Highlights “AI is transformative, it is expensive, and it requires several years of exposure to capital budgets” “It’s not just about doing things better, but doing things you never could do before” “Microsoft is the largest commercial AI company on the planet” “Copilot can orchestrate over your information in a way that other AI can’t” “Work IQ would be a little bit better than the word graph” “I love the term vibe coding” “It would have been a couple of hundred thousand dollars two years ago” “I’ve taken over two thousand dollars of subscription costs out of my business” “They do exactly what I needed to do and no more” 🧰 Mentioned Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot Host - Polaris podcast: https://polaris.synozur.com Co-Host Microsoft’s Intrazone podcast: https://aka.ms/TheIntrazone Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7 ✅ Keywords ai adoption, microsoft copilot, work iq, agentic ai, internal tools, ai strategy, okrs, vibe coding, business transformation, saas replacement, applied ai, 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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How Agentic AI Is Rewriting ERP Workflows
1w ago00:28:13Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM This episode with Christian Segurado explores how agentic AI is reshaping ERP and enterprise delivery. The discussion covers deploying Copilot Studio agents in Teams, reducing ERP UI friction, accelerating fit gap and requirements work, and why multi agent orchestration matters. It focuses on where AI delivers real operational value today, the foundations required to unlock it, and what this shift means for people, process, and technology decisions in 2026. 👉 Full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/830 🎙️ What you’ll learn How agentic AI changes how users interact with ERP systems Where Copilot Studio and Azure Foundry fit in real implementations How AI accelerates requirements gathering and fit gap analysis Why clean data foundations are critical for agentic scenarios What multi agent, multi model AI means for enterprise teams ✅ Highlights “ERP being actually more the layer on the back where the agent inquires knowledge” “It is probabilistic, not deterministic” “We are deploying is on Teams” “It will fundamental change how we interact with the ERP” “You cannot start with the roof if you don’t have the foundation” “We have an agentic driven methodology” “Consistency creates predictability” “It does have a soul” “Multi agent, multi model will be the norm” 🧰 Mentioned Dynamics 365: https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics-365 Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-copilot Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio Azure Foundry (Microsoft Foundry): https://ai.azure.com Microsoft Fabric: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-fabric Medallion architecture: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/databricks/lakehouse/medallion Azure DevOps: https://azure.microsoft.com/products/devops Microsoft Learn: https://learn.microsoft.com Microsoft Mesh: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-mesh✅Keywords agentic ai, erp, dynamics 365, copilot studio, microsoft teams, multi agent systems, enterprise ai, ai governance, fit gap analysis, microsoft power platform, azure foundry, digital transformation 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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Why AI Alone Won’t Fix Innovation Culture
1w ago00:32:19Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM 👉 Full Show Notes https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/829 This episode explores why AI and innovation fail without culture change. Drawing on decades of innovation experience, the discussion breaks down common myths around productivity, frameworks, and lone heroes. The core insight is simple but hard to execute. Sustainable AI adoption starts with leadership alignment, psychological safety, and recognising that everyone is creative. Real change happens bottom‑up, reinforced by long‑term discipline, not hype or short‑term fixes. 🎙️ What you’ll learn Why AI does not automatically improve productivity or innovation How leadership behaviour shapes innovation culture What psychological safety enables in teams and organisations Why every employee is creative in practical, everyday ways How to build long‑term innovation habits that actually stick ✅ Highlights “If it’s that easy, everyone will be doing it.” “Sometimes I think AI makes me more unproductive.” “There is no lone hero that is going to save the company.” “Everyone knows at least one thing how they can improve something.” “Innovation is much more complex than one framework.” “Psychological safety is a property of a group, not an organisation.” “Everyone is creative, not just artistic people.” “Changing behaviour is one of the most difficult things.” “You cannot trick people, they will see if you walk the talk.” 🧰 Mentioned AI adoption: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/ai/ Innovation frameworks: https://www.deloittedigital.com/us/en/offerings/customer-led-marketing/customer-strategy-and-applied-design/applied-design-and-innovation/ten-types.html Design thinking: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/what-is-design-thinking Business Model Canvas: https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-business-model-canvas ✅Keywords ai adoption, innovation culture, psychological safety, creativity at work, leadership, organisational change, productivity myths, design thinking, innovation frameworks, applied ai, business innovation, technology change 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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How AI Is Taking Over Project Management Work
2w ago00:22:56Tap to summarizeGet featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM 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, planningSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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Why Copilot Adoption Is a Culture Shift, Not Training
2w ago00:26:33Tap to summarizeGet 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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AI’s S-Curve: When the Hype Consolidates
2w ago00:25:14Tap to summarizeGet 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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Automate Marketing with Copilot Agents
3w ago00:21:33Tap to summarizeGet 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 showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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AI Needs Context: Build Your Company “Core” File
3w ago00:31:29Tap to summarizeGet 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/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
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