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This episode explores how AI, agents, and prompting are reshaping how software and business solutions are built. Mark Smith and Keith Atherton discuss the shift beyond traditional low-code towards natural language, agent-driven development, where context, outcomes, and governance matter more than interfaces. They examine why developer fundamentals still matter, how generative AI accelerates delivery, and what new makers should focus on as Microsoft investment, tooling, and certifications pivot towards agentic and AI-first approaches.

👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/818

🎙️ What you’ll learn

How agent-based development changes the way applications and systems are designed
Why context engineering and outcomes engineering matter more than short prompts
When low-code tools help and when direct code or CLI is faster
How experienced developers gain leverage in an agent-driven world
Where new makers should focus their learning as platforms and certifications evolve

✅ Highlights

“Beyond that hype, now organizations and customers, I can see them getting more mature and ready to actually adopt.”
“We’re designing for API efficiency for AIs, not just human interfaces anymore.”
“You wouldn’t have to put anything in your system that isn’t explicitly needed.”
“If you can build something in a few minutes, why spend hours dragging and dropping?”
“Context engineering is the next step beyond prompt engineering.”
“My prompts are not one or two sentences, they’re hundreds of lines of data.”
“It’s almost cumbersome today to go through visual steps when CLI is just speed.”
“It could be seen as a bit of a superpower having that developer background.”
“You need to know what good looks like to hold agents to account.”

🧰 Mentioned

Microsoft Power Platform: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform
Copilot Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com
Visual Studio Code: https://code.visualstudio.com
Power Automate: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform/products/power-automate
Dataverse: https://www.microsoft.com/power-platform/dataverse

✅Keywords
ai agents, power platform, low code, generative ai, prompt engineering, context engineering, outcomes engineering, dataverse, power automate, software development, cli, microsoft 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

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Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith