Microsoft 365 Agents Explained - Declarative, Copilot Studio, Pro-Code or Skills in Copilot Cowork?

Madhu Sudan, Partner Director of Engineering at Microsoft, discusses Microsoft Teams Facilitator, a first-of-its-kind group AI agent built to actively collaborate with entire teams during meetings.• How Facilitator differs from Copilot: group-level support vs one-to-one assistance• Real-time note-taking, action item assignment, and meeting moderation built into Microsoft Teams• Proactive capabilities including knowledge gap detection, quorum checking, and late-joiner recaps• The permissioning model that keeps group conversations secure and prevents data leakage• Plans for meeting series memory and bringing cross-meeting context to future sessions• Extensibility with other Microsoft Teams agents and Microsoft 365 dataThanks to AVI-SPL, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

James Parkes, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Teams Call Quality Management, Siunie Sutjahjo, Principal Product Manager for Microsoft Teams Meeting, and Victor Guzman, Senior Technical Program Manager, all at Microsoft, discuss the latest advances in Microsoft Teams call quality tools and reporting.• How CQD has evolved from on-prem monitoring to cloud-scale Power BI reporting with over 45 report pages in the latest v5.3 release• The new intelligent classifiers: around 40 models that move beyond legacy network averages, using real user feedback as ground truth to pinpoint issues at the device, compute and network level• How remote and local models identify whether a quality issue originates from a user's machine, their network or a dominant participant affecting others in the call• A walkthrough of the Power BI QER reports, including the search report, user health details and media health as starting points for troubleshooting• Silent test call: a full bi-directional media stream test for proactively evaluating network readiness, available for Microsoft Teams Premium users• Admin-initiated remote log collection: how IT admins can now pull client logs directly from the Teams Admin Centre without relying on end usersThanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Brian McGough, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, gives a behind-the-scenes look at how change communications work across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and what's coming next.• How Message Center has grown from 50 posts a month to over 225, and the operational complexity behind keeping hundreds of live posts up to date• The targeting system behind Message Center, from licensing-based filtering to tenant-specific notifications across multiple clouds including GCC, GCC High, and DoD• Microsoft's modernised approach to change management, introducing frontier, standard, and deferred release options that give admins more control over when changes reach their users• The new MCP servers for Message Center and Roadmap data, and how they unlock conversational, tenant-grounded insights• Why customer feedback on Message Center posts genuinely drives change, including stopping feature rollouts and reversing retirementsThanks to Landis, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for May 2026.Many thanks to Logitech for their continued support.• Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 GA• New Models in Copilot • Cowork gets Skills, Plugins and Mobile• AI Skills in SharePoint • Modernising M365 Change Management – New MCPs• Teams Phone Multi-line GA• Teams Devices News & New Devices• Upcoming Events Useful Links: BriefingsUnderstanding Express Install for Microsoft Teams RoomsMicrosoft 365 Roadmap and Azure Updates (Roadmap) MCP ExplainedFIRST LOOK: Neat Board 32 & Neat Pad Pro - Devices for Every Meeting RoomNEW Neat Board 32 & Neat Pad Pro: Full Product Walkthrough & Key FeaturesTeams Insider PodcastsWhat is Microsoft 365 Frontier, Work IQ, Cowork and Agent 365 with a Copilot Global Black BeltMicrosoft 365 Copilot Cowork Explained with Bas Brekelmans, Software Engineer at MicrosoftCreating a First Class Microsoft Teams Rooms Experience at Their New London HQ with Damian Lewis at BSIMicrosoft Teams for Frontline Workers: Market Opportunity and Enterprise Mobility with Spectralink

Graham Hosking, Senior AI Solutions Engineer at Microsoft, discusses Copilot Skills, Cowork, and the rapidly evolving world of agentic AI across the Microsoft stack.• How businesses are navigating AI adoption and why there is no silver bullet for enterprise AI• What Copilot Cowork is and how it takes Microsoft 365 Copilot to the next level with multi-threaded task automation• Skills as reusable blocks of instructions that simplify complex business processes like RFPs without needing multiple agents• The spectrum from declarative agents to Copilot Studio to pro-code solutions on Azure Foundry• MCP servers and plugins extending Cowork's reach to third-party systems like Salesforce• Computer use arriving via Windows 365 plugins, unlocking automation for legacy systems without APIs• Sovereign data considerations and Anthropic model availability across EuropeThanks to Barco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

Brett Johnson, Copilot Global Black Belt at Microsoft, returns for a second discussion to decode some of the biggest developments in the Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem.• What the Frontier Program is, how it differs from public preview, and how organisations can get early access to the latest AI innovations on a per-user basis• How Anthropic models are now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot, including data sovereignty considerations and the path to EU availability• Work IQ explained: the intelligence layer combining Microsoft Graph, memory and real-time inference to supercharge Copilot experiences• Cowork in action: how the Anthropic-powered agent creates documents, manages calendars and processes complex multi-step tasks in a secure cloud container• Brett's vibe coding journey, building an astrophotography automation tool with Claude and VS Code, and why personal AI projects accelerate workplace adoption• Agent 365 goes GA: what it means for governing, managing and securing the growing number of AI agents across organisations, including third-party integration via the Agent 365 SDKThanks to Luware, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Bas Brekelmans, Software Engineer at Microsoft, focused on Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork, explains its architecture and use cases.• How Copilot Cowork runs entirely in the Cloud, unlike local machine-based alternatives, enabling enterprise-grade security, audit and compliance• The multi-model approach using Anthropic's Sonnet and Opus, with the flexibility to switch to the best available model• Built-in and personal skills for calendar management, document generation and automated workflows• Extensibility through MCP servers, enabling integration with third-party and line-of-business applications• Scheduled tasks and autonomous email handling that save hours of manual work each day• Enterprise compliance features including Purview integration, eDiscovery support and rich audit logsThanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

Damian Lewis, Digital Workplace Specialist at BSI, shares the story of designing and deploying Microsoft Teams Rooms across BSI's new London headquarters, the Acre.• Moving from an antiquated AV setup to a fully cable-free, Microsoft Teams-centric environment• The spectrum of room types: from Jabra PanaCast BYOD “hot offices” to Neat Board Pro casual spaces, and full multi-camera divisible Q-SYS rooms with presenter tracking• How proof-of-concept testing in the old office helped shape vendor selection for Jabra, Neat, and Q-SYS• Room booking with Matrix integrated into Microsoft 365, including scheduling panels across hot offices, parenting spaces, and multi-faith rooms• User adoption lessons: building champions, online inductions, and fortnightly AV "ask me anything" sessions to bring colleagues up to speed• Managing a global Microsoft Teams Rooms footprint from Sydney to San Jose using Jabra Pro Portal and OEM tooling• Replicating the adoption playbook at BSI's North America office and planning for smaller-scale rollouts at existing sitesThanks to Jabra, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for April 2026.Many thanks to AudioCodes for their continued support.PowerPoint DeckPlaces Insider Live​Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork Updates​Anthropic Models for Copilot​AI Flex Routing in EU and EFTA​New SharePoint Experience​Microsoft Teams & AI Powered Workplace News and Roadmap​Teams Devices News & New Devices​Upcoming Events​Useful Links:BriefingsNEW Neat Board 32 & Neat Pad Pro: Full Product Walkthrough & Key Features with Darin WorthingtonMicrosoft Places Deep Dive with Microsoft - Customer Feedback, Deployment, Licensing with Chris Fitzsimmons, Brennan McReynolds & Craig McClellan​Enterprise Voice Infrastructure Options On-Prem. Private Cloud and Cloud-Native with Ribbon and AWS with Gordon Eddy (Ribbon Communications)Multi-Platform UCaaS at Scale with NUWAVE iPILOT with Tony at NWNTeams Insider PodcastsFrontline Workers: Market Opportunity and Enterprise Mobility with Patrick Watson (Cavell) & Stewart Wright (Spectralink)​Teams Queues App Explained — Shared Call History, Copilot, and What's Next with Sean Gilmour (Microsoft)Novo Nordisk's Microsoft Teams Rooms Journey — Thousands of Rooms with Christopher Amdi Mark (Novo Nordisk)Work IQ, Agent Types and the Road to the Frontier Firm with Alev Tamer & Chris Wheeler

Patrick Watson, Director of Research at Cavell, and Stewart Wright, Business Development Director for Spectralink EMEA, discuss the untapped opportunity in enabling frontline workers with Microsoft Teams.• 80% of the global workforce is classified as frontline, yet many organisations neglect these workers in their Microsoft Teams migrations.• Frontline workers are often forgotten, given devices not fit for purpose, or left on legacy on-premises systems running in parallel with Microsoft Teams.• Spectralink's DECT and Wi-Fi solutions, including the Versity smartphone and 8440 feature phone, are designed for challenging environments like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.• Unique features include Man Down alerts, pull cord alarms, hot-swappable batteries, disinfectant-resistant builds, and the AMIE cloud management platform.• Market research highlights massive potential: nearly 2 million frontline workers in UK healthcare, 2.6 million in UK manufacturing, and 7.5 million in German manufacturing.Thanks to Spectralink, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.