This year’s Microsoft Ignite event is one of the most eagerly anticipated for years. Not unsurprisingly, much of this excitement can be attributed to one of the most disruptive technologies for decades – AI. More specifically, Microsoft’s Copilot offering.

This year, the tech giant’s focus on Copilot at the event shows just how we can expect such tools to evolve. From being a useful sidekick to an integral part of an organization’s technology stack, it looks like 2025 could be the year that AI truly comes of age, at least if Microsoft has its way.

In this article, we’ll break down all the key updates and enhancements to Microsoft Copilot that were revealed at Ignite 2024. From out-of-the-box AI agents to groundbreaking updates for Microsoft 365 Copilot, here’s everything you need to know.

Table of Contents

• Copilot Studio: Expanding AI Functionality

• New Out-Of-The-Box AI Agents

• Copilot Actions: Automating Workflows

• Copilot Security Enhancements

• Odds and Sods: Improvements to Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Prompting the Future: Microsoft’s AI Vision

Copilot Studio: Expanding AI Functionality

It was only at last year’s event that Microsoft unveiled its Copilot Studio platform. Its original brief was to allow users to tailor Copilot assistants to an organization’s specific requirements. One year on, and Microsoft has announced a whole raft of updates and added functionality to the platform.

Key among them are:

Autonomous Agents

If there was an “AI” theme for this year’s event it would have to be the rise of the autonomous agent. In simple terms, this function allows users to create “agents” that are capable of performing complex tasks independently.

These agents can be configured to perform complex tasks independently while learning and improving from interactions. At the time of writing, this service is available as a public preview only.

Third-Party App Integration

Another key update is the enhanced ability to connect agents to third-party apps. The aim is to streamline access to real-time information and by doing so, allow autonomous bots to answer more complex questions without human intervention. Again, this feature is available only in preview but among the compatible applications are Zendesk, Asana, MongoDB, and Salesforce.

Azure AI Foundry Integration

Also announced at this year’s ignite is the introduction of the Azure AI Foundry SDK. This has the goal of shifting the focus from services like the Azure AI Studio, to development environments. Microsoft is keen to point out that Azure AI Foundry is not a replacement for Studio, rather it will see the AI Studio service available as a portal within the Azure AI Foundry ecosystem.

With the ability to plugin to editors and IDEs such as Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, Microsoft has described Azure AI Foundry as a “soup-to-nuts platform for building, evaluating, and deploying at-scale AI applications.”

Multimodal AI Enhancements

Advanced chatbots have been a prominent application of generative AI. The integration of multimodal enhancements sees this functionality raised to new levels. With these enhancements, users can now embed agents created in Copilot Studio interactive voice systems.

Effectively, this has enabled “speech-enabled agents” to greatly expand on customer service capabilities. Such agents can be embedded into systems including standalone kiosks and concierge systems.

New Out-Of-The-Box AI Agents

The more “agentic” approach to AI was also confirmed by Microsoft’s announcement of out-of-the-box agents for many of its business offerings. These are described as being mostly autonomous, context-aware, and task-oriented agents. The aim is to simplify the deployment of AI for organizations without the necessary in-house knowledge needed to deploy more complex AI solutions.

Among the specific use cases that the Richmond company has announced are immediately available are:

• Interpreter Agent: As the name suggests, this agent adds real-time interpreter functions to Copilot Studio. The company states that this agent can replicate a user’s voice in up to nine different languages. With workforces increasingly spread across the globe, Microsoft says the agent is designed to help bridge language barriers.

• Teams Facilitator Agent: Currently available in preview, this agent is designed to manage collaboration and meetings within Microsoft Teams. Among the functions that this agent boasts are note-taking, discussion summaries, and the highlighting of key points.

• SharePoint Agents: These agents are designed to assist users with file & folder management within SharePoint. Microsoft states that the main purpose of this agent is to enhance decision-making and increase productivity. Although this is marketed as a “plug-and-play” agent, Microsoft has also added the option to customize for more complex workflows.

• Project Management Agents: These are designed to automate much of the “drudge-work” associated with project management. They aim to ease the strain on project stakeholders by automating routine tasks and providing real-time updates on a project’s status.

• Employee Self-Service Agents: HR and IT staff will be pleased to hear that they haven’t been forgotten by Microsoft. This agent is designed to free up valuable time by providing interactive support for frequently asked and basic questions posed by staff. The company says that these agents can help with basic HR queries like leave entitlement, payroll, and benefits. They can also troubleshoot basic IT problems – I imagine the first offered solution will inevitably be - “Have you tried switching it off and on again?”

These agents are designed to be implemented easily and without too much technical knowledge. For many small to medium enterprises, this out-of-the-box functionality makes the increased use of AI across business processes a more realistic option.

Copilot Actions: Automating Workflows

Another major Copilot announcement made at this year’s Ignite Event is the introduction of Copilot Actions. Essentially this is scripting with AI, and with the same purpose – to automate repetitive tasks.

Among the key features of Copilot Actions are:

• Trigger and Action Interface: Users can configure workflows by defining trigger actions and corresponding responses.

• Pre-Built Templates: Fairly self-explanatory, these are a series of pre-built customizable templates that cover a wide range of common business processes.

• Third-Party Integrations: Copilot Actions support integration with third-party applications like Dynamics 365, ServiceNow, and Salesforce.

Ultimately, there is nothing startling about this tech, it is the simplification of scripting. However, what it does do is “democratize” the process and move it from the realm of the specialist to the end-user.

Copilot Security Enhancements

Of course, security is always a primary concern for any digital system and this year Microsoft has announced a range of security enhancements to Copilot. The integration of AI systems into company workflows has carried “security baggage” with it, these announcements confirm how seriously Microsoft is taking the issue.

Dedicated Exposure Management Tool

This is one of the key Copilot security announcements. The introduction of a dedicated exposure management tool aims to proactively identify and mitigate threats before they can cause harm.

The tool is designed specifically to monitor and assess potential security risks associated with AI and the Copilot environment.

Insider Risk Management Upgrades

Whether intentional or otherwise, the main cybersecurity threat facing organizations comes from within. According to Statista, 70% of data loss is from careless users and about 20% is a result of malicious “insider actions.”

This upgrade is to cater specifically to the challenges posed by generative AI. They include enhanced monitoring and detection of unusual activities that could indicate potential insider threats.

Data Loss Prevention Features

The new data loss prevention (DLP) features introduced at Ignite 2024 are designed to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access or leakage. These features include improved encryption, stricter access controls, and automated monitoring of data transmissions. These measures aim to ensure that critical data remains secure, even as it moves through various AI-driven processes and systems.

Privacy and Compliance

Microsoft also announced the ramping up of its privacy and compliance procedures. The updates include better integration with existing compliance frameworks and more transparency in its reporting mechanisms.

Odds and Sods: Improvements to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Let’s finish with a quick run-through of some of the other upgrades announced for Microsoft 365 Copilot. We’ve already covered some of the main ones in detail above, but here we take a brief look at some other enhancements worthy of honorable mentions.

• Copilot Powerpoint Features: There are three notable Copilot additions to Microsoft’s Powerpoint application. Armed only with a prompt and a starting file, Narrative Builder will help you write and design an entire presentation. Then there is the self-explanatory translation function. Finally, Copilot can also access images from a shared corporate asset library.

• Improved Outlook Meeting Management: Copilot is to provide a smart meeting scheduler integrated into Microsoft’s ubiquitous Outlook application. The tool will coordinate schedules and draft agendas based on prompts entered into Copilot.

• Excel Spreadsheet Creation: This is expected to be rolled out by the end of the year. At this time, it’s unclear whether this is a glorified smart wizard or a true generative AI feature. However, the aim is to have Copilot suggest and build a template based on the user’s needs.

• Microsoft Places: The rise of remote and hybrid working has added complexities to basic business functions like organizing meetings, team scheduling, and staff availability. The General Availability tool is designed to help teams working in such environments to more effectively coordinate working in multiple locations.

• Copilot Prompt Sharing: A good prompt can be worth its weight in gold! The Copilot Prompt Gallery is designed to allow users to share their most useful prompts with other users within an organization.

• Teams File Summaries: We already discussed how an out-of-the-box agent can effectively be a virtual secretary for Team meetings. This function can perform a similar act for files shared among users. It allows users to obtain a quick snapshot of any shared documents with a real-time summary of the content.

It was once a fair comparison to liken generative AI tools to the famous Swiss Army Knife. The comparison has begun to pale as more and more features, functions, and integrations continue to drive the technology forward.

Prompting the Future: Microsoft’s AI Vision

For decades, AI was a technology that promised much and continually disappointed. The future - in the shape of AI - always seemed to lie somewhere just over the horizon. Then generative AI exploded onto our screens and suddenly AI seems to be everywhere and doing everything.

Well, that might be something of an exaggeration, but if the updates announced at the Ignite Event are a sign of times to come, then – at least in a business sense - Microsoft’s Copilot is working towards this vision. With agents and other innovations revolutionizing workflows and productivity, the age of AI is truly here.