Microsoft Teams Insider
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- 10. Nov. 2026
Über den Podcast
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.
Folgen 205
AI Agents, Consumption Billing and the Future of Microsoft Teams
Anuj Bhatia, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, discusses how AI is transforming the real-time communications platform that powers Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.• How the IC3 team is enabling AI agents …
Shownotes
Anuj Bhatia, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, discusses how AI is transforming the real-time communications platform that powers Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365.
• How the IC3 team is enabling AI agents to operate across chat, telephony and email channels
• Security and compliance challenges when AI bots handle enterprise communications, including prompt injection and data loss prevention
• The shift from seat-based licensing to consumption-based billing for AI services and what it means for enterprises
• How AI is reshaping leadership, organisational design and the way knowledge work gets done
• The future of personal AI agents in healthcare, contact centres and everyday productivity
Thanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Microsoft Teams Enterprise Update – November 2026
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for November 2026Teams Admin Centre device management ends by 15 DecemberThanks to Pure IP - Observability …
Shownotes
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for November 2026
- Teams Admin Centre device management ends by 15 December
- Thanks to Pure IP - Observability, 7 December webinar
- New on Empowering.Cloud
- Upcoming events - Ignite, Fireside Chat live from Ignite, Devices AMAs
- The Copilot meeting policy splits in two
- Contact Center Intelligence - Microsoft's agents in Genesys and Five9
- November meeting security - phishing, QR codes, deepfakes
- 5 Teams Quick Hits
- 7 Intelligent Spaces Quick Hits
Many thanks to Pure IP, this month's benefactor.
Logitech’s Biggest Rooms Launch: Rally Bar 2, Rally System 2 Pro, Link and Sound Shape Explained
Henry Levak, VP & General Manager (Team Workspace Solutions Business Group) at Logitech, discusses the company's biggest-ever enterprise launch, covering breakthrough hardware and revolutionary audio …
Shownotes
Henry Levak, VP & General Manager (Team Workspace Solutions Business Group) at Logitech, discusses the company's biggest-ever enterprise launch, covering breakthrough hardware and revolutionary audio technology.
• Rally Bar 2: a single device replacing both Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini, with a die-cast recycled aluminium body, all-digital camera system and MDEP built in from launch
• Tap IP 2 and Tap Scheduler 2: Tap IP 2 gains improved presence detection whether table or wall-mounted, while Tap Scheduler 2 adds presence awareness that turns the display off when no one is nearby, saving around 30% power
• Rally System 2 Pro: a modular ecosystem featuring cameras, speakers, mic pods and RoomMate 2 Pro compute, connected via Logitech Link AV over IP
• Divisible rooms and Scenes: connect up to three Rally System 2 Pro units with pre-configured scenes for flexible, partner-customisable room configurations
• Sound Shape technology: the Rally Speaker 2 Pro (32-driver array) and Rally Speaker 2 Max (64-driver array) beam audio precisely into defined zones, enabling level coverage and dual-language support in a single room
• Rally Speaker 2: a seven-driver line array sound bar for rooms up to eight metres, delivering state-of-the-art front-of-room audio
• Availability: Rally Bar 2, Tap IP 2 and Tap Scheduler 2 are available now; the Pro AV line launches summer 2027
Thanks to Logitech, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudScaling Microsoft 365 Copilot over 400,000 Users at EY with Tom Crinnegan
Tom Crinnegan, M365 AI Services & Governance Leader at EY, discusses how EY is deploying and governing Microsoft 365 Copilot across 420,000 users in over 140 countries.• Managing Microsoft's Frontier early …
Shownotes
Tom Crinnegan, M365 AI Services & Governance Leader at EY, discusses how EY is deploying and governing Microsoft 365 Copilot across 420,000 users in over 140 countries.
• Managing Microsoft's Frontier early access programme at enterprise scale and setting user expectations
• The shift to usage-based billing and why IT shouldn't hold the AI credit budget
• Governance challenges with Cowork, autopilots, and Copilot code
• Running weekly enablement sessions reaching 7-8k attendees across a 420,000-strong workforce
• Keeping humans in the loop when tooling offers to take on 20-30% of the working day
Thanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudThe Human Skills That Make AI Actually Useful in the Enterprise, with Jamie Bartlett
Jamie Bartlett, award-winning technology writer and bestselling author of How to Talk to AI, discusses why the skills that matter most for using language models are cognitive and linguistic, not technical.• How …
Shownotes
Jamie Bartlett, award-winning technology writer and bestselling author of How to Talk to AI, discusses why the skills that matter most for using language models are cognitive and linguistic, not technical.
• How language models actually work and why understanding the basics changes how you use them
• The sycophancy problem: how question framing and emotional pressure skew your results
• Why cognitive offloading is a growing risk for individuals and organisations
• Voice mode vs typing and when each approach serves you best
• Practical techniques including devil's advocate prompting, cognitive friction, and reflecting before prompting
• Why the best AI users are often people with no IT background at all
More about Jamie and his work at jamiebartlett.co.
Thanks to Jabra, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Tristan Gayford, Microsoft Teams Product Manager at EY on Teams, UC and AI Journey
Tristan Gayford, Microsoft Teams Product Manager at EY, discusses managing Microsoft Teams across one of the world's largest organisations and the challenge of shifting from predictable per-user licensing …
Shownotes
Tristan Gayford, Microsoft Teams Product Manager at EY, discusses managing Microsoft Teams across one of the world's largest organisations and the challenge of shifting from predictable per-user licensing to consumption-based AI costs.
• Tristan's journey through the unified communications evolution, from Office Communications Server in 2008 through Lync and Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams at enterprise scale
• Running Microsoft Teams across 400,000+ employees in over 100 countries, and how professional services firms navigate data residency and regulatory complexity
• How EY has adopted Microsoft Copilot for meeting recaps, transcription and notes, balancing retained and transient transcription across different regulatory environments
• The fundamental shift from fixed per-user-per-month licensing to consumption-based AI billing, and why IT funding models need to evolve
• Why AI consumption costs should be owned by the business rather than IT, treating AI as an employee whose output must be justified up the management chain
• The challenge of model selection and cost transparency when business users lack guidance on which AI model to choose and cannot predict costs before running a prompt
Thanks to Landis, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudWhat Sets Cisco Apart in Microsoft Teams and The Intelligent Workplace with Cisco’s Pratik Chanda
Pratik Chanda, WW Partner Sales Lead - Devices, GCPS GTM at Cisco, discusses Cisco's record-breaking growth in the devices market and why the company is uniquely positioned for Microsoft Teams Rooms …
Shownotes
Pratik Chanda, WW Partner Sales Lead - Devices, GCPS GTM at Cisco, discusses Cisco's record-breaking growth in the devices market and why the company is uniquely positioned for Microsoft Teams Rooms deployments.
• Cisco's journey to becoming one of the fastest-growing Microsoft Teams Rooms OEMs, crossing almost a billion dollars in devices revenue
• What sets Cisco apart: the intelligent workplace experience, combining AV, networking, security and AI observability across the entire stack
• The management story: ProPortal, Control Hub (soon to be Cloud Control) and dual registration for a single pane of glass across all endpoints
• Cisco's open platform philosophy: native support for Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google, and the rebrand from Webex Devices to Cisco Devices
• How customers and partners can get started with Cisco for Microsoft Teams Rooms
Thanks to Cisco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Chandra Chivukula, VP Engineering, Microsoft, On Microsoft Teams as an Agentic Platform
Chandra Chivukula, Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft Teams, discusses the evolution of Microsoft Teams into a platform for human and agentic interaction.• Microsoft Teams is being positioned as a …
Shownotes
Chandra Chivukula, Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft Teams, discusses the evolution of Microsoft Teams into a platform for human and agentic interaction.
• Microsoft Teams is being positioned as a secure, compliant enterprise surface for AI agents, bringing agentic infrastructure within the Microsoft 365 compliance boundary
• Microsoft Scout demonstrates the power of enterprise-safe AI, running within the corporate boundary with full access to organisational data for real productive workflows
• Facilitator, the meetings agent, is already delivering real value by automating meeting follow-ups and enabling voice-driven task creation in real time
• Channel agent brings durable, searchable AI-ready knowledge to Microsoft Teams channels, offering better discoverability and long-term institutional memory than group chats
• Copilot in chat enables multiplayer AI collaboration, acting as a virtual coworker within existing group conversations
• Engineering teams at Microsoft are seeing significant productivity gains through coding harnesses built on Copilot CLI, with access to multiple AI models for cross-verification
• Catch Up on mobile provides a card-based, one-handed way to triage important messages, pulling users back into channels with AI-curated relevance
• Structuring work in channels rather than group chats builds an accruing knowledge base that AI agents can reason over, benefiting the entire organisation
Thanks to AVI-SPL, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudHow To Troubleshoot Microsoft Teams with Call Quality Dashboard (CQD), Hands-on with Microsoft
Victor Guzman, Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, and Siunie Sutjahjo, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Meeting, walk through the exact quality review process from Microsoft's Get to …
Shownotes
Victor Guzman, Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, and Siunie Sutjahjo, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Meeting, walk through the exact quality review process from Microsoft's Get to Green programme, giving every Microsoft Teams admin the tools to diagnose and resolve call quality issues.
• Victor shares the seven-step quality and reliability checklist that resolved 99% of escalated customer issues
• A full walkthrough of the CQD QER 5.3 templates, covering usage summaries, media health dashboards, transport reports and VPN analysis
• How to identify whether issues stem from proxy configurations, VPN tunnelling, DNS resolution or network congestion
• Using weekly metrics and drill-down reports to pinpoint problems by country, subnet, hour and individual meeting
• The per-user search experience for troubleshooting specific complaints and meeting IDs
• How to present CQD data to network and security teams to drive action
Thanks to Barco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Microsoft Teams Voice Agents and Unify Integration, What is Possible?
Gidi Adlersberg, Voca CIC Business Line Manager at AudioCodes, discusses the new Microsoft Teams Voice Agent Certification Program, with AudioCodes being the first vendor to achieve certification.• How the …
Shownotes
Gidi Adlersberg, Voca CIC Business Line Manager at AudioCodes, discusses the new Microsoft Teams Voice Agent Certification Program, with AudioCodes being the first vendor to achieve certification.
• How the certification builds on Microsoft's Unify integration model, using the same Azure technology stack as the Microsoft Teams Contact Centre certification
• The difference between Microsoft's native Teams Phone Agent and the extended, fully managed AI receptionist service from AudioCodes
• Real-world use cases including caller authentication, knowledge base-driven troubleshooting, and sentiment-aware bot responses
• Why proper bot-to-human escalation is critical and how context is preserved when transferring to a live Microsoft Teams user
• AudioCodes' predictable, capped commercial model with no token-based charges
• Implementation as a fully managed service, from proof of concept through to production
Thanks to AudioCodes, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Microsoft Teams Enterprise Update – September 2026
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for September 2026Upcoming EventsEvents are back after the August pause:Teams Fireside Chat — Kim Matlock …
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MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for September 2026
Upcoming Events
Events are back after the August pause:
- Teams Fireside Chat — Kim Matlock, Principal Lead Program Manager, Teams Rooms, with Matt Slomka · 10 September — going deep on Rooms, Android and the Pro Management Portal; bring your questions
- How a Global Legal IT Team Turned Message Center Chaos into Governance · 16 September
- Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything · 22 September
- M365 Change Community Round Up · 29 September
- Microsoft Teams Contact Center Face-Off: 5 Solutions, 5 Demos, 50 Minutes Live · 15 October — five certified vendors in one live session, each walking through their solution and what makes it different. Come and ask questions.
Many thanks again to Ribbon, this month's benefactor. Hope this update has been useful
Kapitel
Kapitel werden geladen …
Voice AI From POC to Production - The Key Lessons - Chris Bailey, Maersk
Chris Bailey, Lead Infrastructure Engineer (Voice and Contact Centre) at Maersk, discusses the practical realities of deploying voice AI across a global enterprise, from early proof of concepts to live …
Shownotes
Chris Bailey, Lead Infrastructure Engineer (Voice and Contact Centre) at Maersk, discusses the practical realities of deploying voice AI across a global enterprise, from early proof of concepts to live production in 50 countries.
• Why the business drove Voice AI adoption, approaching IT rather than the other way around
• Inbound vs outbound use cases and why outbound finance collections proved the bigger success
• Vendor selection beyond the incumbent: balancing AI voice quality and telephony integration
• The integration challenge with PSTN transfers, SIP trunking, and API media streaming as the gold standard
• Hidden costs including PSTN, resourcing effort, and the ongoing refinement voice AI demands
• The "new hire" analogy for onboarding and monitoring your AI agent
• Who should own voice AI in your organisation and bridging the skills gap between telephony and prompt engineering
• Why business collaboration and clear ownership of responsibilities matter from day one
Thanks to Ribbon, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMahendra Sekaran, Microsoft CVP, on AI Transformation, Copilot, Work IQ, and Multi-Model Agentic AI
Mahendra Sekaran, Corporate Vice President for Product Management and Data Science at Microsoft, discusses the rapid pace of AI transformation and its impact on the communications and collaboration space.• …
Shownotes
Mahendra Sekaran, Corporate Vice President for Product Management and Data Science at Microsoft, discusses the rapid pace of AI transformation and its impact on the communications and collaboration space.
• Azure continues its strong growth at 43%, fuelled by accelerating AI adoption and cloud investment, with remaining performance obligations reaching $678 billion.
• Microsoft's product teams are using AI agents to compress planning cycles from six to eight weeks down to days, with approximately 80% accuracy on cost estimates.
• Full agentic loops are being built across Microsoft's code bases, transforming the software development lifecycle and accelerating iteration velocity.
• Work IQ provides the platform layer that makes enterprise knowledge, including documents, emails, chats, meetings, and transcripts, accessible to Copilot and agents, whilst maintaining data governance and compliance.
• Microsoft's multi-model approach gives customers choice across OpenAI, Anthropic, and in-house models, optimising for cost, performance, and flexibility.
• Microsoft Teams Phone Agent is in Frontier Public Preview, enabling voice AI agents to front customer interactions with an expected 70-80% call deflection rate.
Thanks to Pure IP, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Beyond the Licence: Lessons from a Global Microsoft E7 Transformation and AI adoption
Ally Ward and Kevin Spence discuss the practical realities of moving 2,500 of 8,000 users from Microsoft E5 to E7, covering migration strategy, agent governance, consumption costs, Entra Suite, and lessons …
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Ally Ward and Kevin Spence discuss the practical realities of moving 2,500 of 8,000 users from Microsoft E5 to E7, covering migration strategy, agent governance, consumption costs, Entra Suite, and lessons learned from a global legal practice.
• Why E7 is far more than a simple licence swap and the operational complexity behind it
• The hotel room analogy: how unassigned E7 licences impact your E5 capacity
• The double-hop migration process and why the order of operations matters to avoid service desk chaos
• Agent 365's promise versus reality: regional reporting gaps, licensing for agent consumers, and governance challenges
• Entra Suite as a sleeper benefit bundled into E7 and the partial-coverage problem
• The Cowork consumption credit conundrum: 175,000 credits burned in under a month by 20 users, how do you measure value?
• Why agent governance is not an IT problem and needs business-wide engagement
This episode is sponsored by Luware Recording - a cloud compliance recording and analytics solution that helps organisations securely capture, archive, and analyse communications across multiple platforms to meet regulatory requirements.How Pure IP Is Transforming Voice With AI and the Intelligent SIP Edge
Adnon Dow, Chief Product Officer at Pure IP, discusses how Pure IP is evolving from a traditional voice carrier into an intelligent SIP edge platform powered by AI.• How AI is reshaping voice infrastructure …
Shownotes
Adnon Dow, Chief Product Officer at Pure IP, discusses how Pure IP is evolving from a traditional voice carrier into an intelligent SIP edge platform powered by AI.
• How AI is reshaping voice infrastructure across three layers: network management, data intelligence, and service enablement
• The shift from over-the-top services to embedding intelligence natively at the network edge, enriching calls at the point of entry
• Why Pure IP's platform-agnostic approach works across Microsoft Teams, Webex, Zoom, and Contact Center environments
• How a best-of-breed partner strategy delivers recording, fraud detection, and analytics without building everything from scratch
• The rising threat of AI-driven robocalls and deep fakes, and how trusted call scoring and LRN networks help combat fraud
• Where voice agents and agentic AI workflows are heading, and why network fundamentals remain critical to making them reliable
Thanks to Pure IP, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft Teams Phone: Recent New Features and What's Coming with Emily Kirby, Microsoft
Emily Kirby, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Engineering, discusses the latest developments and future direction for Microsoft Teams Phone.• Multi-line calling: a multi-year effort now shipped, allowing …
Shownotes
Emily Kirby, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Teams Engineering, discusses the latest developments and future direction for Microsoft Teams Phone.
• Multi-line calling: a multi-year effort now shipped, allowing multiple phone numbers on a single account across geographies
• Consult and merge in meetings: dial out to an external party, navigate an IVR, and merge them back into the call - a big win for financial services and similar industries
• Call transfer improvements: presence visibility for transfer destinations, blind handoff, and streamlined control bar buttons for faster workflows
• Teams Phone Agent: an intelligent AI frontline to answer and route customer calls for your organisation
• Intelligent call delegation: a personal AI delegate that screens calls, communicates on your behalf, and helps you stay focused
• Automatic recording for call queues: now on the public roadmap, decoupling recordings from individual agents and centralising them in SharePoint
• Making Copilot intelligence seamless: efforts to simplify turning on transcription, recaps, and other AI features in everyday phone workflows
• Teams Phone Community: a quarterly initiative from the Microsoft calling team — join to connect with product managers and shape future topics
Thanks to AudioCodes, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Javed Khan, CEO of Neat, on the Future of Meeting Rooms and New Capabilities with On-Device AI
Javed Khan, CEO at Neat, discusses his return to the industry and his vision for simple, open, intelligent collaboration experiences. • How advances in edge computing and smaller AI models are enabling a new …
Shownotes
Javed Khan, CEO at Neat, discusses his return to the industry and his vision for simple, open, intelligent collaboration experiences.
• How advances in edge computing and smaller AI models are enabling a new wave of innovation in conference room experiences
• The benefits of running AI locally on devices, including reduced latency, enhanced privacy, and real-time transcription and translation
• Neat's vision for simplifying room setup and device management through Neat Pulse and their new MCP server integration
• Supporting multiple platforms as the "Switzerland" of the devices industry, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google
• The partnership with Microsoft on MDEP and what it means for manageability, security, and standardisation across devices
Thanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft 365 AI Workplace Update August 2026
MVP 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 …
Shownotes
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for August 2026
Link to the deck: Microsoft 365 Enterprise Update - August 2026.pptx
Fresh on Empowering.Cloud
AudioCodes: Multi-Camera Teams Rooms on Android - with Alex Tan
Teams Insider Podcast
Microsoft 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
Understanding Agent 365 Hands On: Managing and Securing AI Agents with Microsoft's Graham Hosking
Graham 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 …
Shownotes
Graham 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 LangChain
Thanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft Places Updates Explained: Desk Booking, Room Booking and AI with Martin Boam, Microsoft
Martin 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 …
Shownotes
Martin 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 extensibility
Thanks to AudioCodes, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudDynamics 365 Contact Center Explained with Alpana Bajaj, at Microsoft
Alpana 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 …
Shownotes
Alpana 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 generation
Link to the deck: Agentify Your Contact Center Alpana Bajaj
Link to the Commonwealth Bank case study
Thanks to Ribbon, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudWhy Microsoft Is Quietly Winning with Enterprise AI with Rishi Kumar, Logitech
Rishi 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 …
Shownotes
Rishi 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 management
Thanks to Logitech, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Craig Durr, The Collab Collective: Why the Device Market Forecast Dropped From 6% to 3%
Craig 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 …
Shownotes
Craig 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 differentiators
Thanks to Nuwave, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft 365 AI Workplace Update July 2026
It'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 …
Shownotes
It'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 LinksMicrosoft Teams Phone and Recording - API Integrations, Automations - Ben Richardson at SmartSearch
Ben 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 …
Shownotes
Ben 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 checks
Thanks to Numonix, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudHow Microsoft, Zoom, and Cisco Are Approaching AI Differently With Kevin Kieller, enableUC
Kevin 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 …
Shownotes
Kevin 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 systems
Thanks to Momentum, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.Microsoft Scout Explained: Microsoft's OpenClaw-based AI Autopilot Agent That Works for You 24/7
Michel 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.• …
Shownotes
Michel 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.Copilot Cowork vs. Scout with Microsoft's Alev Tamer and Chris Wheeler
Alev Tamer, Sr. Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft, and Chris Wheeler, Senior Copilot Solution Engineer at Microsoft, discuss the latest Microsoft Copilot announcements fresh from Microsoft Build.• …
Shownotes
Alev Tamer, Sr. Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft, and Chris Wheeler, Senior Copilot Solution Engineer at Microsoft, discuss the latest Microsoft Copilot announcements fresh from Microsoft Build.
• Multi-model strategy: how Microsoft brings together models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft AI to offer genuine choice
• Critique and Council: using multiple models to validate and challenge each other's outputs for improved accuracy
• The DRACO (Deep Research Accuracy, Completeness, and Objectivity) benchmark and how Research with Critic achieves the highest score for deep research completeness and accuracy
• Copilot Cowork vs Scout: cloud-based fire-and-forget task execution versus local desktop agent capabilities
• Work IQ as the personalisation layer that makes Copilot genuinely relevant to your role and daily work
• Real-world use cases including automated demo pack generation, fitness apps built on Azure, NHS website creation and AI-assisted performance reviews
• Skills and plugins: creating reusable instruction sets for repetitive tasks and new integrations including Dynamics 365 and Fabric IQ
• Data residency and security: navigating Anthropic data processing, EU data boundaries and flex routing for European organisations
Thanks to Shure, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft Planner Roadmap - AI Agents, API and MCP With Howard Crow, Director of Product, Microsoft
Howard Crow, Director of Product at Microsoft, joins the podcast to discuss the evolution of Microsoft Planner, its deep integration with Microsoft Teams, and the growing role of AI agents in work management.• …
Shownotes
Howard Crow, Director of Product at Microsoft, joins the podcast to discuss the evolution of Microsoft Planner, its deep integration with Microsoft Teams, and the growing role of AI agents in work management.
• Howard shares his nearly 30-year journey at Microsoft, from the founding days of SharePoint to leading the Planner and Project teams
• The genesis of Microsoft Planner and how it democratised project management beyond specialist tools like Microsoft Project
• Microsoft's unification strategy, bringing To Do, Planner, and Project for the Web together under a single Planner brand
• How Planner integrates deeply with Microsoft Teams across meetings, channels, and chats
• The Planner Agent and Microsoft's multi-agent runtime service, the first production multi-agent harness shipped at Microsoft
• How MCP (Model Context Protocol) is becoming the "USB for APIs" and unlocking new integrations for Planner
• The future of work: managing teams of humans and AI agents together, and why a visual planning surface matters for knowledge workers
Thanks to Luware, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.CloudMicrosoft 365 AI Workplace Update June 2026
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for June 2026. Many thanks to Pure-IP for their continued support. The Copilot Super App Is …
Shownotes
MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for June 2026.
Many thanks to Pure-IP for their continued support.
- The Copilot Super App Is Coming
- Scout and Autopilots
- NVIDIA-Powered Laptops
- Windows Optimisations for Open Claw and Local Agents
- Work IQ and Web IQ APIs GA
- Project Solara — Agent-First Hardware Devices, Powered by MDEP
- 7 New Microsoft AI Models
- Teams Devices News
Useful Links:
Briefings
• 4 Ways to Improve Customer Experience With Landis Contact Center for Microsoft Teams
• First Look at the Neat Board 32 Microsoft Teams Rooms With MDEP
• The Lenovo Microsoft Teams Rooms Portfolio Explained and the Huddly Partnership
• Decoding Dynamics 365 Contact Center: Microsoft Teams Voice, New AI Agents, and Licensing
Teams Insider Podcasts
• Microsoft Teams Facilitator: The First Group AI Agent for Meetings With Madhu Sudan, Microsoft
• Microsoft Teams Call Quality Dashboard (CQD): Intelligent Classifiers, Silent Test Call and Power BI
• Microsoft 365 Message Center and M365 Change Explained with Brian McGough, Principal Program Manager
• Microsoft 365 Agents Explained - Declarative, Copilot Studio, Pro-Code or Skills in Copilot Cowork?
Microsoft Build 2026: Be yourself at work
GitHub Copilot app: the agent-native desktop experience
What's New in Microsoft 365 Copilot — May 2026
Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes
Introducing Microsoft Scout: your always-on personal agent
Project Lobster is Microsoft Scout
Introducing Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for world makers
Surface Laptop Ultra product page
Windows platform security for AI agents
Announcing the new Work IQ APIs
Work IQ: production-ready intelligence for every agent
Composing a new platform for agent-first devices
Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform documentation
Microsoft Build 2026 Live blog
Building a hill-climbing machine: launching seven new MAI models
Build, scale, and monetize apps and agents with Microsoft Marketplace
Certified Android-based devices for Microsoft Teams
More choice and flexibility: Cisco Board Pro Certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms
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