Podcast
Microsoft Teams Insider
Hosted by Tom Arbuthnot · EN
Microsoft Teams discussions with industry experts sharing their thoughts and insights with Tom Arbuthnot of Empowering.Cloud. Podcast not affiliated, associated with, or endorsed by Microsoft.
29episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update August 2026
5d ago00:14:58Tap to summarizeMVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for August 2026Link to the deck: Microsoft 365 Enterprise Update - August 2026.pptxFresh on Empowering.CloudAudioCodes: Multi-Camera Teams Rooms on Android - with Alex TanTeams Insider PodcastMicrosoft Places Updates Explained - with Martin Boam, Microsoft. Desk booking, room booking and where AI fits. Dynamics 365 Contact Center Explained - with Alpana Bajaj, Product Lead, Microsoft. A great walk through where D365 Contact Center sits. Why Microsoft Is Quietly Winning with Enterprise AI - with Rishi Kumar, Logitech. A really interesting take on Microsoft's enterprise AI position. Thanks to Landis for their support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
Understanding Agent 365 Hands On: Managing and Securing AI Agents with Microsoft's Graham Hosking
1w ago00:43:53Tap to summarizeGraham Hosking, Senior AI Solutions Engineer at Microsoft, breaks down Agent 365, Microsoft's approach to observing, governing, and securing AI agents across multi-platform environments.• How Agent 365 builds on existing Entra, Defender, and Purview capabilities to provide full visibility over AI agents• Live demo of a fully autonomous LangChain agent automatically flagged for risky behaviour by Defender• How third-party agents from Amazon, Google, Databricks, and Salesforce can be brought into a central registry• The Agent 365 SDK and how partners like Adobe, Atlassian, and Lovable are already baking in observability• Shadow IT monitoring for local AI agents via Defender for Endpoint• MCP tools and plugin management for controlling end-user access• Licensing breakdown: end-user based, one seat lights everything up, and the E5 to E7 step-up path• Bonus demo of Morgan, a fully autonomous digital CFO with voice and avatar interaction built on LangChainThanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
Microsoft Places Updates Explained: Desk Booking, Room Booking and AI with Martin Boam, Microsoft
2w ago00:39:00Tap to summarizeMartin Boam, Architect - Centre of Excellence at Microsoft, walks through Microsoft Places, the AI-powered workplace solution for coordinating hybrid work, booking rooms and desks, and optimising space management.• The licensing shake-up: key Places user features now included in Microsoft Teams Enterprise licences from April 2025, plus a new Shared Spaces licence for desk and room booking at four desks per licence• Room reservations with Places Finder and Places Explorer, featuring enriched search with room images, occupancy details, and Microsoft Teams Rooms device information• Desk booking with map-based reservation, multi-day booking, desk pools, finding desks near colleagues, and ad hoc check-in via USB-C peripherals• Automatic work location updates using corporate Wi-Fi, now generally available with admin and user opt-in• Microsoft 365 Copilot integration for natural language scheduling, room finding, and conflict rescheduling via Work IQ• The new Places admin portal replacing PowerShell for managing buildings, floors, desks, auto-release policies, and space analytics• Upcoming investments including deeper Copilot alignment, enhanced location intelligence, and expanded extensibilityThanks to AudioCodes, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
Dynamics 365 Contact Center Explained with Alpana Bajaj, at Microsoft
2w ago00:43:43Tap to summarizeAlpana Bajaj, Partner Group Product Manager at Microsoft, discusses how Microsoft is reimagining the contact centre with AI-first design and agentic capabilities.• How Dynamics 365 Contact Center evolved from Omnichannel to a standalone, CRM-agnostic platform born in the AI era• The five out-of-the-box AI agents: Customer Assist, Quality Assurance, Case Management, Knowledge Management, and ServiceOps• Real-world customer stories, including double-digit improvements in call deflection, wrap-up time, and CSAT scores• How Microsoft uses its own contact centre as a testing ground, serving over a billion customers across 40+ languages• Licensing simplified: per-seat for human agents, consumption-based Copilot Studio credits for AI capabilities• A practical ROI framework covering customer experience, operational efficiency, and revenue generationLink to the deck: Agentify Your Contact Center Alpana Bajaj Link to the Commonwealth Bank case studyThanks to Ribbon, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
Why Microsoft Is Quietly Winning with Enterprise AI with Rishi Kumar, Logitech
3w ago00:16:15Tap to summarizeRishi Kumar, Director of Alliances and Go-to-Market at Logitech, discusses how Microsoft is positioning itself as the enterprise AI leader, the growing role of edge computing in meeting rooms, and what it all means for IT professionals.• Why Microsoft's enterprise-first AI approach with Work IQ and trusted data boundaries is resonating with IT teams• How meeting recaps have become the top AI use case, including new video and custom recap features• Microsoft's multi-model strategy and the new E7 Frontier suite for enterprise AI deployment• Logitech's work on AI at the edge, from beamforming microphones to the Logitech Spot sensor for room intelligence• The evolving role of the meeting room, including facilitator room skills and camera-based room managementThanks to Logitech, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.
Transcribe →
Craig Durr, The Collab Collective: Why the Device Market Forecast Dropped From 6% to 3%
4w ago00:46:26Tap to summarizeCraig Durr, Chief Analyst and Founder at The Collab Collective, discusses his revised five-year video conferencing device market forecast and why he has taken his compound annual growth rate prediction down from roughly 6% to just under 3%.• The "triple replacement wave": Windows 10 to 11, Android 10 to 12, and ageing BYOD devices are driving room refresh priorities across enterprises• Budget compression: rising DRAM costs are pushing device prices up, meaning IT teams can refresh fewer rooms with the same budget (for example, 85 rooms instead of 100)• How the Mythos AI model creates an unexpected new variable. Cisco reviewed over a billion lines of code, and upcoming network infrastructure refreshes could pull budget away from collaboration devices• Regional outlook: North America stays competitive, EMEA remains strong, and Asia Pacific (including India) emerges as a key growth opportunity• AI in the room: the "brain in the room" concept is driving excitement, but feature velocity continues to outpace adoption• OEM competition: with more vendors entering a slower-growing market, management platforms and support models are becoming key differentiatorsThanks to Nuwave, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update July 2026
4w ago00:15:21Tap to summarizeIt's the start of Microsoft's new financial year and there's already a lot to unpack. In this month's update we cover the new Microsoft Frontier company, Cowork going GA (and the new consumption cost model), a wave of Copilot and model updates, plus a huge run of Teams calling, meetings and devices news from InfoComm - including the big Teams Phone Agent announcement.Huge thanks to this month's benefactor, Neat, for their continued support of the community. Neat have just announced an MCP server for their management platform (a first for OEM tooling) and their intelligent framing beta. Details on the Neat blog — and check out Graham's video on the Neat MCP server.🔑 Key topics• Microsoft Frontier - new $2.5bn company, 6,000 embedded ("forward deployed") engineers to drive enterprise AI adoption• M365 price rises now live (business/frontline/enterprise up ~8-15%, frontline up 25–33%); annual local currency adjustments coming each January• Cowork now GA - fully consumption-based (Copilot credits); example use cases range from ~$1 to $7+ and can climb fast with heavier models. GPT-5.5 available in the EU data boundary• Copilot - Sonnet 5 selectable, Work IQ reasoning over Power BI, new vision capabilities, Notebooks rolling out to Copilot Chat• Models - Fable back in Claude, GPT-5.6 rumoured, Microsoft leaning more on first-party models• Agents - Planner agent GA, Sales agent GA (in M365 Copilot license), Dynamics Service agent announced, AI content watermarking• Copilot Super App due August - merges Copilot Chat, Cowork & GitHub Copilot; plus a look at Anthropic's Claude Tag• Teams Phone Agent - Microsoft's AI auto/mainline attendant, tied into Copilot Studio• Multi-line GA, Queues app GA on mobile, dedicated Recap app, Facilitator with internet access + voice mode• Admin - new transcript access controls, auto-block bots; Live Events and Together mode retiring• Rooms - 1.5M active rooms (1,000+ added/day), IntelliFrame People Labels (Huddly first), Express Enrollment, new AVIXA training• Devices - Android devices coming to Pro Management portal; Cisco native Zoom Rooms, Crestron Compute GA, Jabra new service plans📅 July events• 21 Jul - Teams Devices AMA (with AudioCodes)• 22 Jul - Microsoft Partner Kickoff (summary to follow)• 23 Jul - Teams Phone Agent webinar (with Pure IP & Microsoft)• Late July - Copilot Fireside Chat• Ongoing - M365 Community Change Roundup🔗 Links• Empowering.Cloud• Ilya InfoComm keynote (speed edit)• Neat MCP server + Graham's video• Teams Phone Agent demo• Slides and Links
Transcribe →
Microsoft Teams Phone and Recording - API Integrations, Automations - Ben Richardson at SmartSearch
Jul 700:29:46Tap to summarizeBen Richardson, Infrastructure Engineer at SmartSearch, and Andy Whiteside, VP of Sales at Numonix, discuss SmartSearch's move from legacy on-premise call recording to Numonix's IX Cloud platform for Microsoft Teams.• SmartSearch needed more than compliance recording, with usability, QA reporting, and third-party integration as critical requirements• How SmartSearch integrated Numonix with Attention to automate sales call scoring and update HubSpot CRM via API• Deploying Numonix took just 20 minutes and five PowerShell commands, compared to days with legacy on-premise recording systems• Bring-your-own Azure storage allowed SmartSearch to meet strict InfoSec and data sovereignty requirements• Practical advice for organisations evaluating Microsoft Teams compliance recording, from cross-department requirements gathering to vendor certification checksThanks to Numonix, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud
Transcribe →
How Microsoft, Zoom, and Cisco Are Approaching AI Differently With Kevin Kieller, enableUC
Jul 100:39:52Tap to summarizeKevin Kieller, Co-Founder and Lead Analyst at enableUC, discusses how the major unified communications vendors are taking distinctly different approaches to AI and what this means for IT professionals and organisations.• How Microsoft, Zoom, and Cisco are each pursuing different AI strategies, from rapid deployment to simplicity-first to proactive ambient intelligence• Why UCaaS platforms have reached feature parity on core capabilities and what that means for vendor selection• The shift towards consumption-based AI pricing and the challenge of balancing enterprise cost predictability with encouraging adoption• Why data and context matter more than having the best model, and the risks when AI assistants access information without clear boundaries• Google's underappreciated position in the AI and collaboration space despite strong foundations in DeepMind and Gemini• Why vendors may be over-rotating on agentic AI and the importance of focusing on real business outcomes rather than technology for its own sake• How AI is reshaping the role of IT admins and why technology professionals need to keep pace with rapid change• The growing importance of edge AI processing for meeting rooms and video systemsThanks to Momentum, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.
Transcribe →
Microsoft Scout Explained: Microsoft's OpenClaw-based AI Autopilot Agent That Works for You 24/7
Jun 2300:39:17Tap to summarizeMichel Bouman, AI Powered Workplace Lead EMEA, India and SEA - Teams Engineering at Microsoft, shares a deep dive into Microsoft Scout, the new desktop AI autopilot that acts on your behalf around the clock.• What Microsoft Scout is, how it evolved from Project Lobster, and how it differs from Copilot Chat and Copilot Cowork• How Michel onboarded a personal agent called Red to manage email triage, calendar scheduling, and complex multi-step reporting tasks• Real-world autonomous workflows including expense filing, booking appointments, and even monitoring EV battery charge for road trips• Agent-to-agent orchestration in practice and how teams share skills and automations across their agents• The security model behind Scout, including resistance to prompt injection and impersonation safeguards• The psychology of working alongside AI agents, why treating them as human can be a risk, and Michel's upcoming book "When Your Next New Hire Isn't Human"Thanks to Momentum, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.
Transcribe →