The Copilot Connection

This week on The Copilot Connection , Kevin and Zoe dive into the growing impact of FinOps and tokenomics in the Copilot era. From insights at Commsverse to real-world concerns, we explore how tools like Copilot and Cowork are shifting organisations from fixed licensing to consumption-driven models - bringing both opportunity and uncertainty. The discussion focuses on balancing cost vs value , the...

In this episode of The Copilot Connection , Kevin McDonnell and Garry Trinder dive deep into the biggest developer-focused announcements coming out of Microsoft Build—and what they actually mean in practice. We unpack a fast-moving couple of weeks in AI, from the shift in how Microsoft shares Build news (goodbye Book of News , hello live blog and CLI tooling), to the hands-on, lab-heavy focus that...

Kevin McDonnell and Zoe Wilson are back, kicking off this episode with a lively wander through Copilot Cowork in preview — from using it on mobile (sometimes unintentionally…) to early thoughts on skills, plugins, stability, and why data residency still matters if you’re experimenting in the real world. Along the way, there are opinions, tangents, and a few “this is cool, but…” moments that will f...

This week, Zoe and Kevin dig into Copilot Cowork and Agent 365. Fresh from a week at the Microsoft campus in Seattle, Kevin shares his key takeaways from MVP Summit — including a surprising amount of cross-product collaboration and a hands-on experiment building a conference bingo app entirely using GitHub Copilot's coding agent. Zoe and Kevin then dive into two of the biggest recent announcements...

Microsoft helped us make an episode this week but dropping some big Copilot news! In this episode, Zoe and Kevin dig into some of the news related around Copilot Wave 3, talk about what the recent org changes at Microsoft will mean and also highlight some of the upcoming events going on. Useful links: Zoe and Kevin keynote the Copilot Community Conference - Copilot Community Conference 2026 Expert...

In this episode of Copilot Connection, Zoe and Kevin are joined by Diana Wolfe, Head of Research & Strategy at Kyndryl, to explore one of the biggest challenges facing organisations today: the widening gap between AI ambition and AI implementation. Together, they unpack why so many companies struggle to realise value from AI investments, what human‑centred change looks like in an era of agenti...

Send us a text In this episode of The Copilot Connection , hosts Zoe Wilson and Kevin McDonnell are joined by Tricia Sinclair (Microsoft MVP and Avanade’s Global Lead for Contact Center & Customer Service) to explore the evolving role of AI in customer service and contact centres. They discuss how new Copilot AI agents like Case Management Agents and Intent Agents can automate processes such a...

Send us a text This week, Kevin McDonnell and Garry Trinder explore the world of coding agents and how they could change software development. They run through what coding agents are along with the importance of context, memory, and specifications in using AI tools effectively. Also, they think about how you need to change habits and also touch on the challenges faced by junior developers in adapt...

Send us a text Happy new year to you all! In this episode, Zoe and Kevin take a short look at what happened with Copilot and with themselves in 2025, a short view on what they think and hope will happen with Copilot and AI in 2026 but focus most of the time on digging into the latest Microsoft Future of Work report that their science team has been making for the last 5 years. They explore themes s...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, Kevin McDonnell and Garry Trinder discuss the latest developments from the Ignite Conference. They delve into the renaming of Azure AI Foundry to Microsoft Foundry, the new features of the Foundry portal, and the integration of Claude models. The conversation also covers the importance of experimentation with language models, updates on the Tea...

Send us a text After last week's Ignite conference in San Francisco, Zoe and Kevin run through the key updates around the different areas of Copilot, covering topics like: - Microsoft Agent 365 - Work IQ - Microsoft 365 Copilot updates - Thoughts on the location and keynote Plus we highlight a few of the upcoming ESPC sessions to keep an eye out for. Ignite Book of News 2025 Microsoft Agent 365 Wo...

Send us a text With Ignite just a week away, Zoe and Kevin got together to pick out some interesting sessions as well as several chats about what the key themes coming across are. Naturally, Copilot and agents were our main focus but there were also a couple of other areas that caught our eye. See the sessions at https://ignite.microsoft.com. Sessions mentioned (or that we ran out of time to menti...

Send us a text It has been a little while since the last episode with Zoe and Kevin so they share some of their own news on why things have been a little quieter over the summer and then discuss the latest updates and news from Microsoft 365 Copilot. We recap recent events, including the Collab Summit North America, Experts Live UK conference, and share our upcoming events.  On the news side we de...

Send us a text Kevin McDonnell and Garry Trinder delve into the world of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and its implications for developers. We start with a starter overview of functionality of MCP and why it is important. However, we wanted to get beyond that initial view that is covered elsewhere and look at some of the challenges associated with using MCP and broader considerations that you need...

Send us a text Welcome to a brand new way of hearing about the latest Copilot extensibility news! In this episode of the Copilot Connection, Kevin swaps out Zoe for Garry Trinder in the first of a spin-off of episodes where we dig deeper into the extensibility side of Copilot. In this first episode, we go into an overview of the options that you have for extending Copilot. We talk cover why you wo...

Send us a text With the post Build lull in Microsoft news, Zoe and Kevin decided to take a look at some of the upcoming conferences and recommend a few sessions that stood out in the Copilot and agents space. Firstly though, we couldn't resist talking a bit about the collapse of Builder.ai and the re-org of some of the Engineering management teams at Microsoft. We also covered our next Copilot Fir...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, hosts Zoe and Kevin discuss the latest updates and insights from the Microsoft Copilot ecosystem from Build as well as a slight detour to the Chelsea Flower Show. We cover topics like M365 Copilot tuning, notebooks, researcher and analyst agents, and SRE agents. We also explore the implications of AI Foundry and the natural language web, while...

Send us a text News, news, news - we have lots of new news! Zoe and Kevin discuss the latest announcements from Microsoft about Copilot Wave 2 Spring Release. We delve into the significance of the Work Trend Index, the new user interface and search experience, and the introduction of memory and notebooks features. Then we dig into the management and reporting of agents, the concept of the human-ag...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, Zoe and Kevin are joined by Gary Raife to discuss the transformative potential of AI and Microsoft Copilot in the healthcare sector. We explore the challenges of interoperability, the role of AI in enhancing patient care, and the exciting developments of Dragon Copilot. The conversation also touches on the integration of personal health data, t...

Send us a text How responsible are you with AI? Zoe Wilson and Kevin McDonnell are joined this week by Chris Huntingford (Director of AI at ANS among many other things!), focusing on responsible AI practices, data management, and the socio-economic impacts of technology. We covered the importance of transparency, accountability, and ethical practices in AI implementation. The discussion also touch...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, Kevin goes solo and dives deep into the world of Microsoft Copilot, exploring the intricacies of prompt engineering and the practical applications of prompts in enhancing productivity. He discusses various techniques for effective prompting, the significance of community contributions, and how to utilize the Copilot prompt gallery to streamline...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, Zoe and Kevin discuss the latest roadmap items for Microsoft 365 Copilot, highlighting Teams, Microsoft 365 apps, Extensibility, SharePoint, Admin and Purview. Hear about the latest batches coming in February and March and what it could mean to you. Takeaways Roadmap updates indicate a significant increase in available tools and capabilities. T...

Send us a text In this episode of Copilot Connection, hosts Zoe Wilson and Kevin McDonnell discuss the evolution of Microsoft's Copilot ecosystem, including the recent announcement of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. They explore the implications of AI agents in business, insights from the Microsoft Research Future of Work report, and the importance of democratizing access to AI technologies. Finally,...

Send us a text In this episode, Zoe and Kevin discuss their thoughts on the biggest topics of the year in Copilot and what that means for next year before Kevin goes solo to talk about the importance of building a comprehensive AI strategy centered around Microsoft Copilot. They explore the evolution of AI tools, the need for alignment with organizational goals, and the significance of understandi...

Send us a text With Zoe stuffed full of deep pan pizza and Kevin trying to recover from the remote FOMO, we discuss the key takeaways from Microsoft Ignite 2024  focusing on the latest Copilot updates, the role of agents, integration and alignment at Microsoft, security updates, and more. We explore the significance of the Prompt Gallery and the evolution of Copilot Studio, emphasising the importa...