Reflections on MVP Summit

I had a great time at MVP Summit this week.  I learn a lot of new things. It was great to be able to network, provide customer feedback and talk about the ever evolving Data & AI landscape. With the speed of change seemingly increasing all the time it is good to stop and have a clear week reflecting on things that work and don't work and how to improve our practices when working with data and AI.

I think the biggest take away is that the Data & AI community is always approachable and helpful. There is always someone with deep knowledge of an area who can help and the community just gives up so much time to help others learn and grow from helping children learn coding skills, to creating and running conferences, speaking, mentoring and so much more. 

I have been privileged to be a Data Platform MVP for the last 7 years and would like to thank Microsoft for providing an amazing opportunity to attend the conference.

Reasoning Agents to help with Research and Analysis

There have been some mind blowing changes released today which will aid the future of work. Microsoft have introduced the first-of-their-kind reasoning agents for work.

Researcher

Researcher helps you tackle complex, multi-step research at work. This will help delivering insights with greater quality and accuracy.

Analyst

Analyst thinks like a skilled data scientist looking at raw data to produce insights in minutes.

Introducing Researcher and Analyst in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Read more about Researcher and Analyst

Deep reasoning and agent flows 

Deep reasoning and agent flows in Microsoft Copilot Studio is in preview and offers a comprehensive platform to create, manage, and deploy agents matched to business needs. 

Deep reasoning

Deep reasoning, agents can perform complex tasks and make more accurate decisions. 

Agent flows

Agent flows bring AI workflows into Copilot Studio that enable agents to follow a predefined sequence of actions, ensuring consistent results for structured tasks. 

 Read more 

Attending MVP Summit

It is exciting to be able to attend MVP summit 2025 virtually. It was not possible to attend in person, this year, but so glad that it is possible to attend virtually. 

Copilot shares its thoughts on the summit.

The MVP Summit is an exclusive event hosted by Microsoft for its Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). These are individuals recognized for their exceptional contributions to the tech community, such as sharing knowledge, providing feedback, and supporting others in using Microsoft technologies. The summit offers MVPs the chance to connect with Microsoft engineers, attend technical sessions, and collaborate on shaping the future of Microsoft products and services. It's a unique opportunity for networking, learning, and sharing expertise.

The Microsoft AI Decision Brief

The AI Decision Brief Insights from Microsoft provides insights for AI leaders on navigating the Generative AI platform shift. AI has a potential to transform business but the rapid growth of the technology causes challenges in keeping up to date and knowing how to adopt it. As well and the infrastructure required 2 areas that are covered in the report which I this need investing is is AI skills and the importance of AI governance strategies. It is worth reading the guide to understand about the complexities and seeing how real world examples use AI.

The paper shares the five stages of generative AI readiness as

1. Exploring
2. Planning
3. Implementing
4. Scaling
5. Realizing

The five drives for business value mentioned are

1. Business strategy
2. Technology and data strategy
3. AI strategy and experience
4. Organisation and culture
5. AI governance

The top 3 elements to create best practice to get started are to

• Define the AI strategy and direction
• Target a top business challenge
• Establish AI readiness and governance

It is a useful document to read AI Decision Brief Insights from Microsoft

Reference

Maximizing AI’s potential: Insights from Microsoft leaders on how to get the most from generative AI

Customizing Generative AI for Unique Value

A new global report from MIT Technology Review Insights report looks at how business is leveraging AI customisation. It examines challenges faced by technology, motivations and methods to create business value. The report talks about improving efficiency, user satisfaction, and innovation but also looks at challenges such as data integrity and privacy. Simplifying AI customization is key and Azure AI Foundary , formerly AI Studio, helps design, customise and manage AI apps and agents at scale to help with business opportunities.

AI Playbook for the UK Government

The UK Government launched the AI Playbook for 2025 to provide departments and public sector organisations with accessible technical guidance on the safe and effective use of AI. 

The playbook covers 10 core principles for AI use in government and public sector organisations. These are

Principle 1: You know what AI is and what its limitations are

Principle 2: You use AI lawfully, ethically and responsibly

Principle 3: You know how to use AI securely

Principle 4: You have meaningful human control at the right stage

Principle 5: You understand how to manage the AI life cycle

Principle 6: You use the right tool for the job

Principle 7: You are open and collaborative

Principle 8: You work with commercial colleagues from the start

Principle 9: You have the skills and expertise needed to implement and use AI

Principle 10: You use these principles alongside your organisation’s policies and have the right assurance in place 

The paper shows the interdependencies between some existing and emerging fields of AI. 

Microsoft Purview Data Governance Roadmap H1 CY2025

The Microsoft Purview Data Governance Roadmap H1 CY2025 has been shared

Purview Data Governance is aligned with the Microsoft Security wide semester planning process. Next roadmap update is expected in July 2025. The roadmap covers these four areas to enhance data governance, improve data quality, and leverage AI in data management.

Unified Data Catalog Roadmap

• Enhancements in catalog management, including glossary terms, custom attributes, and duplicate detection.
• Support for glossary migration and scoped access.
• Automation of workflows for publishing business concepts and data product access.

Data Quality Roadmap

• Support for multicloud and on-premises data sources.
• Actionable data quality features, including scheduling, alerting, and issue remediation.
• Incremental data quality scoring and expanded connectors for on-premises support.

Data Estate Health Roadmap

• Introduction of bring-your-own-compute (BYOC) capabilities.
• Enhanced controls and user experience for monitoring data assets and ensuring critical data governance.
• Reporting on data quality trend history.

AI for Data Governance & Copilot

• Natural language search and data discovery with Security Copilot.
• AI-assisted catalog management and data quality rule recommendations.