Microsoft Copilot is a game-changer for productivity and creativity. It allows you to have a natural language conversation with your computer and get insights, answers, and suggestions for your work. But how do you prepare for this new way of interacting with technology? How do you ensure the safety and ethics of AI? And how do you make the most of Copilot’s capabilities across Windows, Microsoft 365, and other services?
In this video, Stephen Rose interviews Karuana Gatimu, a Microsoft engineering lead and an AI adoption expert. She answers these questions and more, and gives you some valuable guidance and resources to help you get ready for Copilot.
Thanks to this episode’s sponsor: PowerApps911
Transcript
00:00:08:00 – 00:00:25:07
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of UnplugIT I’m your host, Stephen Rose. Thanks
for joining us. Let’s talk AI, specifically Microsoft Copilot. Last week, there were new
announcements and blog posts that came up at the AI event on October 3rd.
00:00:25:07 – 00:00:42:12
OneDrive is going to be making their announcements and of course, there’s going to be a
whole lot more at Ignite. So with all of that, I kind of went through who can we talk to about this?
And I went, There’s really only one expert, and that has to be a person who is well-known by the
MVP, someone well-known by all the partners.
00:00:42:12 – 00:01:09:04
IT pros, my friend. Karuana How are you? Karuana Hello. Hello, Stephen. It’s so lovely to see
you. Thank you for inviting me on your show. You know, I always appreciate being included.
Absolutely. And you have so many great, you know, podcast and stuff that you do. So take a
minute and tell us a little bit about yourself and also where other people can catch you on your
podcast and stuff that you’re all doing.
00:01:09:07 – 00:01:41:22
Okay. I sure will. Well, thank you so much. So I’m Karuana to continue and I sit in collaborative
apps and platform under Jeff Teper at Microsoft, I run the Microsoft 365 as if I could say the
name the Microsoft 365 customer advocacy group. I need some more coffee, clearly. And we
really focus on communities, adoption and guidance, technical readiness and all the good stuff
that goes with that, including events and everything.
00:01:41:24 – 00:02:05:14
It is my dream job. I’m a little tired right now because it’s been super busy, but it’s a it’s a great
thing. We also have a show called Mondays at Microsoft that I do with my good friend Heather
Cook, and we cover everything that’s going on across the Microsoft ecosystem every other
Monday, streaming live on LinkedIn. I show coffee in the cloud on YouTube and all sorts of other
good stuff.
00:02:05:14 – 00:02:26:19
But you can see all of that and adoption that Microsoft.com, which my team delivers, it’s just
absolutely no, it’s awesome. And that’s where my previous show was hosted and so much good
stuff there. So I want to jump into how people prepare for A.I., but really quick, I do want to give
a shout out and a quick word from our sponsor, PowerApps 911.
00:02:26:19 – 00:02:37:27
So let’s take a look at that. We’ll come back and we’re going to talk about governance, data
protection, how to, you know, how do you get ready for Copilot? So we’ll be right back.
00:02:37:27 – 00:02:54:03
Thanks, Stephen. Just a reminder to all of you, if you have Office 365, you have the power
platform. Power platform is a low code. No code platform that let you build your own apps
workflows, reports, all without writing in that hard code. If you want to learn more about it, you
can go to training ‘at’ Powerapps911.com.
00:02:54:08 – 00:03:04:05
We’ve got on demand training, we’ve got live training, we’ve got private training. We even have
a whole immersive university program or even do the product for you if you don’t want to get
your hands too dirty. All right, back over to Stephen.
00:03:04:05 – 00:03:16:13
And we’re back about that. Just fly right. All right. So it pros you know, and I’ve been chatting
with a lot of Mara like, okay, I’m seeing all the stuff on Copilot.
00:03:16:15 – 00:03:35:00
I, you know, I think we’re going to do this on a limited pilot. You know, there is the cost, which it’s
not cheap per person. People are saying, well, hey, at $30 a month or so, think of all the extra
work you’re going to get done. But my whole thing is you have to lock it down. You’ve got to
make sure it’s governed.
00:03:35:00 – 00:03:52:27
You got to follow guidance and you have to train people how to really use this. So what is when
somebody asks you that question, is it worth it? How easy is it going to be? What do I need to
watch out for? What are some of the top things that you’re telling them and that you know, and
that the site is walking them through and adoption up?
00:03:52:28 – 00:04:22:16
Microsoft.com? Absolutely. Well, you know, you mentioned the first and most important thing we
have are Copilot readiness. Have an adoption of Microsoft, a combat Copilot. And that’s where
people should go to get the latest and greatest up to date information on getting ready for
Copilot, the implementation, training, driving, adoption of it and what have you. But they do want
people to take a step back and think about the ecosystem of Copilot capabilities, because that’s
really what we announced at our September 21st event.
00:04:22:19 – 00:04:49:24
Talking about Microsoft Copilot as a whole, across Windows, across all of our cloud services.
You know, this is a huge shift akin to the arrival of the PC on everyone’s desk. This ability to
have this natural language interface to help you get work done right. And it’s this relationship
actually that you’re developing in a much more natural way with your computer than what we’ve
done in the past.
00:04:49:26 – 00:05:15:02
And we have three approaches to that. We have Bing Chat, the consumer version of this
experience being chat enterprise, which allows you to log in with your Azure Active Directory
credentials. Microsoft enter as it’s now referred to, so that it your data is protected within the
boundaries of that governance and our data protection guarantees. And then Microsoft for one
second, what does that mean?
00:05:15:02 – 00:05:34:08
The data is protected. Does that mean if, you know, I was reading somewhere that not only are
70% of, you know, employees in companies going out using chat CBT, but 40% of bar putting in
confidential information, How does that mean when you say that as people are putting in, hey,
here’s our sales figures in this sort of stuff.
00:05:34:11 – 00:06:03:19
All right. So one of the things we think about the safety, the layer of responsible as having four
different components, right? There’s privacy, security, compliance and governance in the safety
layer. When you’re just going out to the public, chat up, there is no guarantee of encryption while
your data is in transit or at rest. There’s no guarantees like Microsoft gives you that those
queries are going to be cleared.
00:06:03:22 – 00:06:23:20
We do not train our large language models on other people’s information. The queries that you
put into Bing Chat enterprise are not stored in any way. Right? And so they’re they’re they’re
they’re in them basically the memory of your browser window. And as soon as you end that
session or close that window, those chats go away, those prompts go away.
00:06:23:22 – 00:06:58:25
And so, you know, I think it’s really important. And every prompt turn you have with Bing Chat
Enterprise, you see the little identifier there that says this data is protected and you can click up
in the upper right hand corner and go and read all of the protections that we have for you. So
that’s really important. But it’s an important distinction because that is being chat enterprise that
is using not only publicly available data, but information that is that you have access to in that
you are putting in to Bing chat.
00:06:59:01 – 00:07:33:12
Right. Right now when you’re using Microsoft 365 Copilot, it is actually connected to the
Microsoft graph and there’s further governance and protection there. Right. Because that
experience, those prompt turns are all happening within your tenant, with acts, with information
that only you as that user have access to. So there’s these three levels of Copilot experiences,
chat type experiences that you can partake in each with its own level of responsible API and
safety.
00:07:33:15 – 00:08:01:24
One of the things that you know, I saw in there is the Copilot copyright commitment. Sure. What
that is. I thought that was really interesting. Yes, the copyright commitment is interesting
because, look, we can see now many people concerned today about the ability to basically
create deepfakes, to create information that you’re passing off essentially as your own, that you
actually used Copilot to create or any sort of chat interface.
00:08:01:26 – 00:08:30:06
Obviously, it’s very creative because you can use Dolly type experiences to generate images
and what have you, but making sure that our customers are protected when they’re using our
services appropriately is very important to Microsoft. And so basically what we’re saying is if you
enter into any legal difficulty because of the using our Copilot services, we will help protect you.
00:08:30:06 – 00:08:54:26
We will bring our lawyers to bear to make sure that you are not, you know, subject to those sorts
of lawsuits. One of the things that is important about that, however, is as with all of those types
of commitments we talk about, is your system configured properly? And that involves doing the
good data hygiene and governance that we’ve always been telling people to do in Microsoft.
00:08:54:26 – 00:09:22:14
365 Right. You know, does everybody have clear identities? Do you have two factor
authentication turned on this sort of things? And there is a checklist of readiness actions that
you can take that is there. On the adoption at Microsoft.com, what Copilot site? And that’s part of
the Microsoft trusted model as a whole, which is, hey, hit these settings and we guarantee you
these levels slays security, etc., etc..
00:09:22:19 – 00:09:46:12
Absolutely. And frankly, whether using Copilot or not, those things are good to do, right? Copilot
Yeah. You know, Copilot is asking people and, you know, I’ve been talking about governance for
almost all of my career in Microsoft, right? Teamwork, governance. Check out all your you know,
I’ve been talking about that for a long time because people get really worried about security.
00:09:46:12 – 00:10:15:05
They get what they’re we’re talking about provisioning a SharePoint site or provision in a team
or an office 365 group. Everybody’s always been worried about sprawl, but they need to be
more worried about archival and deletion and having a lifecycle around all of those data
contAIners. Right? And so if you’re not thinking about that, you absolutely should be, because
that’s another way that you make sure that your users have access to the information they’re
supposed to have access to.
00:10:15:07 – 00:10:48:07
Having good information architecture is important across Microsoft. 365 and will be a precursor
to people getting the proper answers when they’re integrating with Microsoft. 365 Copilot. But
here’s the thing. All of that being sAId, I love Copilot and I didn’t know that I was going to from an
end user perspective. But when I was able to have it summarized meetings for me that I wasn’t
in, find my action items, help me understand what’s outstanding in my inbox.
00:10:48:09 – 00:11:10:29
The other day I had it help me, you know, begin writing a document so that then I could go and
refine it. These sorts of productivity gAIns are ubiquitous across the roles that we have in
organizations today. And so the effort to clean house and be ready is 100% worth it, no matter
how large or small organization may be.
00:11:11:01 – 00:11:38:26
I agree. Yeah. No, absolutely. So people are looking at this like, hey, this is going to be, you
know, a little over three grand a user per year. And let’s face it, users and companies are a year
behind on what they’re now finally starting to roll out and use like in teams. I mean, we know
that 18 months, the stuff we announced 18 months ago that has come out, customers are now
just really starting to use it and get in the groove and understand it.
00:11:38:26 – 00:12:02:01
So how do we talk to customers and how’s Microsoft talking to customers saying, Hey, you don’t
want to wAIt a year and a half, two years, You want to start prepping for this now? And how do
you get people who are still not getting all of the value out of teams and the investments they
made there? Now add something that even though it will simplify life later, it does add a little
level of complexity for some of these folks.
00:12:02:01 – 00:12:26:00
So how do you how do you approach that when you’re talking to folks? Well, there’s a couple of
different ways. I mean, I agAIn, I really look at kind of fun with fundamentals, right? Are you
already moving people to the new teams? If you’re not, take my word for it. You 100% should
every and I do want to and I do want to jump in and say something for those who have not there
was yeah, it didn’t work with plug ins.
00:12:26:00 – 00:12:42:12
It too. It’s working with all that now. I’ve even gotten a new version for Mac, which I’ve started
playing with all the functionalities there it is so much faster, use is so much less. And I just got a
new feature popped up today that says, Hey, you have these messages specifically in these
other tenants, which is great, and I’ve been wAIting for that.
00:12:42:12 – 00:13:05:11
Yes, it’s a huge game changer. So my point is this is part of a productivity refresh. So a lot of us
at the beginning of the pandemic, we went through what we call rapid deployments and rapid
deployments, got everybody in team so we could stay connected and have meetings. And then
those rapid deployments turned into actual production deployments as people continue through
the pandemic.
00:13:05:11 – 00:13:25:08
And as time went on, some people returned to the office. You know, the truth is, is that some of
these implementations need a refresh for people to get more and the new teams, because it’s
not a deployment or a migration, it’s a very, very simple client upgrade. You can find all the
information about that on on adoption at Microsoft.com as well.
00:13:25:08 – 00:14:05:18
But this gives people a great foundation. Now, it’s not a prerequisite, but it is an important step
forward to really doing what you’re saying, which is making sure people are getting the most out
of what they already have. Once you have that and you’re getting those productivity gAIns, you
know what we hope is that people will be hungry for more simplification for making your life
actually easier and for improving your ability to be creative, to unlock me, particularly from, you
know, having to manage my inbox and all the emAIl that I get and instead being able to get the
insights and the important information out of there, whether it’s in Outlook, whether it’s in teams
00:14:05:20 – 00:14:28:05
all across Microsoft services. So, you know, I feel like there are certAIn people in your
organization who need that productivity right away and maybe others who can wAIt a little bit. It’s
very much like the teams premium conversation. You’re going to want to take a look at the user
requirements in your own organization, but everybody needs more productivity, right?
00:14:28:05 – 00:14:59:19
Everybody needs to have their creativity unlocked. So while yes, it is an investment, I’m really
excited about the capabilities page and support that Microsoft.com in the end user training
resources that are there. And we also announced Copilot labs at our event last week saw that.
Yeah yeah. And Copilot labs you know this is a two tier conversation so Copilot Labs is a library
of prompts that have successful responses.
00:14:59:19 – 00:15:16:26
We call that a turn, right? You put in a prompt, you get some information back, and it’s
successful. When you keep the information and you get that and certAIn prompts in the way that
you structure them get really good responses. Copilot Labs is the place where you can learn
about that as an end user, but as an IT professional, right?
00:15:16:26 – 00:15:39:25
It’s important to be thinking about, Hey, how do I become a more skillful prompt engineer?
There’s a great Work Labs article about the art of the prompt, right? And this is something we
should all be thinking about in terms of how do we evolve and think about our work in such a
way that we can have this natural language conversation about it and get insights and
information that we need.
00:15:39:27 – 00:15:57:29
So the same way that a lot of companies created custom dictionaries that had all the training for
health care or legal or things like that back in the day, which they would put into word and all
that. So it wasn’t always flagging those everyday things. And some of those pharmaceuticals
are very long, so it made sure that they were spelled correctly.
00:15:58:02 – 00:16:23:19
So same kind of thing. Yeah, same thing. But even more so because if you’re using Microsoft
365 Copilot inside the boundaries of your tenant where you have proprietary and custom
information about your business, when you ask for that insight, it is going to look at your at the
ecosystem that you’re working within in that boundary in a safe and secure way and return
insights to you right.
00:16:23:24 – 00:16:51:06
And so that’s another differentiator between being chat enterprise and using autopilot within
Microsoft. 365 is real access to your business data there. But agAIn, all within the boundaries of
safety, we’re not using that data to train our models. It stays within your boundary. All of that is
guaranteed. And and we go, that’s a fraud to also ensure, you know, ethical use of these
particular capabilities.
00:16:51:08 – 00:17:09:04
Yeah, I had a it pro who over Twitter or X or whatever the hell to call it this week. So every I will
tell them sorry not going to do that I’m the same way it’s going to be Twitter forever same way
it’s the Sears Tower in Chicago not the Willis Tower. I’m sorry to say. That’s just the way it’s
supposed to be.
00:17:09:04 – 00:17:28:28
So but he sAId to me, and it was a really good property. So, you know, it’s like I’ve sat a bunch of
your sessions, Stephen, and you talk about the four generations and how difficult it is for C-level
executives. It goes, but I have C-level executives come in, Hey, I want to try this Copilot thing.
They are the hardest people to get them to change how they work and how they’re doing things.
00:17:28:28 – 00:17:49:27
And I’m like, Look, this is going to help you when you go on vacation or you miss meetings, etc..
So I know we have a lot of great resources, but what is your advice to those? It pros? What is
the best way to help get those executives on the path? Because that is where you’re going to
get the best success quickly and really give you what you’re going to need to deploy it more
widely once you get that.
00:17:49:27 – 00:18:13:14
Bye. Absolutely. You know, I sAId I’ve sAId this multiple times since I started working on the
Copilot adoption strategy for Microsoft 365, which is this is not about teaching someone how to
click something on a screen or on their phone. Now, the advantage you have with executives is
they are already used to a certAIn level of strategic thinking.
00:18:13:14 – 00:18:36:19
And all you’re asking them to do is talk to something. That is what they do all day long. They talk
to people and they ask for information. And so now what you’re asking them to do is talk to
Copilot and ask for information and get used to successful ways of asking for what they want.
And I feel like that is actually a little bit easier.
00:18:36:24 – 00:18:57:05
And we’ve seen even in our early adoption populations, that’s a little bit easier than some of us
who are used to doing all the time. Right. You have a tactical, tactile memory of typing in your
keyboard and trying to find a task or doing a search in outlook or in teams for that matter, with
varying levels of success.
00:18:57:12 – 00:19:24:28
And so you have that muscle memory, right, of actually the doing. I think when you’re an
executive or your a principal manager like me, you’re you’re quite used to asking for something
to be done. So now we have to teach people who are used to actually doing the doing to ask for
what they need to think about their work differently so they can ask for the insight, They can ask
for the draft of a letter that they’re going to write to a customer.
00:19:25:01 – 00:19:59:07
They can ask, for instance, Microsoft, Copilot, Microsoft sales, Copilot. Being able to ask that
system for insights about a customer when you’re trying to respond to an RFP or respond to an
incident. That is something that I also feel is is an easier thing to do. So, you know, focusing on
asking for what you need and the things that you want to know is really the difference in the way
that you teach this versus I want you to click these five buttons and set up your teams meeting
options correctly, right?
00:19:59:09 – 00:20:17:05
Yeah, I had sAId it very similarly, which is every think about every time your boss sends an emAIl
asking for some form of information. What how much of this did we sell last year? Where are we
keeping this? Where is this at? What is what are our top three? Whatever, whatever they would
send out in an emAIl to try it as a Copilot ask.
00:20:17:09 – 00:20:47:29
And not only will they get that information, but they can get a customized exactly the way they
want and get it right now. Not have to wAIt for that response. Well, what about this and going
back and forth and solving something over two or three days, you’re solving it, getting that
information in minutes, arming yourself and preparing yourself or even having that information
once it knows you want that to have it already on demand and perhaps already given to you
before you even ask for it, because it’s going to know end of the month you’re going to want all
the sales, people’s quotas and all that information and drop it in there for you and
00:20:47:29 – 00:21:09:01
put that all together. Right. And you know, it it doesn’t do all of that yet. But I certAInly know in
the future it will. And here’s the thing, it doesn’t when you do get an answer and this is one thing
I want everybody to really understand, no matter what version of generative AI service you’re
using, ours or others, there’s vendors, there’s all sorts of people.
00:21:09:08 – 00:21:33:04
You have to check the answer. You have to check the answer for accuracy. We are essential in
ensuring that we have accurate information being returned to us. So even though that executive
can ask that question, one of the things that I like is that executives analyst like anticipating the
question that might come from their boss, asking it, proofing the data and then sending it off.
00:21:33:05 – 00:21:59:29
Right. But the time that that analyst saved in data assembly data integration, this is why things
like Copilot and in our data tools and then power platform is so essential. Right because it’s
bringing together that data estate with these AI services in a way, especially within the
boundaries of your own tenant in your Microsoft subscriptions, they can provide you those sorts
of answers very quickly.
00:22:00:01 – 00:22:31:18
But we as the humans in the loop have to make sure that we’re always proofing our answers for
accuracy and helping to make sure that what we’re sharing is based in fact. So upgrading to
new teams is absolutely going to is a good part of that. Number two, obviously, getting all your
content into the cloud is going to be key because without all of that com content, if you’re in
hybrid or things like that, you’re not going to get that level of accuracy that you want.
00:22:31:21 – 00:22:53:02
But it then is how are you securing this? What is your guidance, GDPR or hold your own key,
any of those things? It’s really taking a look at that. So those are the first three steps. One of the
things that I love that you talk about all the time is change champions. So what should change
champions be doing now and thinking now as they start to move forward?
00:22:53:04 – 00:23:20:11
Oh, this is so important. So change champions, adoption specialist user experience, folks,
adoption managers, whatever you may be called, if you’re in the business of helping people, you
know, adopt a new technology and you do any sorts of peer training, you really need to join our
Microsoft 365 champions program. That is where we deliver a slide where that you can use
strategies that you can use to drive adoption and you can really rAIse your game.
00:23:20:13 – 00:23:40:01
There’s going to be a lot of content there. In the Champions community, we hold a monthly
community call where you’re going to be able to to use our work to leverage your own. And
agAIn, it’s about for me, being a champion has always been about having hands on knowledge
so that I could relate to the people that I was trying to assist.
00:23:40:03 – 00:24:04:05
So make sure that you two are if your organization doesn’t have Microsoft 365 Copilot or those
Copilot experiences across our ecosystem, use Bing Chat enterprise or just use Bing chat so
that you get the actual visceral feeling of having this interaction in this natural language method
in terms of having it craft answers that are useful to you that you can keep.
00:24:04:05 – 00:24:31:28
So you have those successful turns within the experience. I don’t think that there’s any
substitute for that. So get your own personal experience, have your own aha moment, Join our
champions community so we can empower you with our assets. And remember that, you know,
there’s a lot of kind of hype and conversation about AI right now that is really, you know,
leveraging people’s addiction to sci fi movies and fear.
00:24:32:00 – 00:24:53:25
We are here to stand opposite of that. Our responsible AI practices, our commitment to safety
and ethics, the approach that we’re taking to ensure that this lifts all boats, it makes us the
antithesis of some of those fears. But you have to go through that emotional journey yourself,
right? You have to get comfortable with that if you’re going to help anybody else.
00:24:53:27 – 00:24:56:18
Oh, no, absolutely. I agree 100%.
00:24:56:18 – 00:25:06:22
All right, So this guidance is really key for folks to go in and start to get their change champions
up to speed, start to teach folks, you know, hey, here’s how this is going to help.
00:25:06:22 – 00:25:33:03
Oh, I know there were two questions that got asked. One was, do I have to have Windows 11?
And what if I’m on a mac? They were. Two questions I got. So that was great. The
announcements for the integration of Copilot into Windows 11, Why don’t we start with that one?
Do folks have to have Windows 11 to take full advantage or for our customers first all on
Windows ten, are they going to get all the goodness and all the benefits they do need to have
Windows 11?
00:25:33:03 – 00:25:53:25
That is the current strategy of record. And, you know, it’s a twofold strategy there. We want
people to be on Windows 11. It is our best experience and it really has so many performance
and security gAIns as well as usability improvements. So we really want you to be on Windows
11 and that is where we’re delivering the most value.
00:25:53:25 – 00:26:20:25
Also, it’s not that Copilot capabilities won’t be avAIlable on a mac, but they’re not built into the
operating system the way they are on a Windows machine. And so, you know, we’re Microsoft,
We love Windows. We always have. We’re always going to innovate there first. And that also
helps us help as many business leaders as possible, as well as many people who are small
business owners or who are using the home version.
00:26:20:25 – 00:26:43:08
This is one of our largest free updates of Windows ever. With so many new capabilities across
apps like pAInt and other things, as well as the Copilot capabilities. And this also, because it’s in
the operating system, unlocks our ability to improve the experience with our own hardware as
well. So of course we announced new surface devices last week also.
00:26:43:10 – 00:27:04:04
So as you can see, I mean, it’s an ecosystem of improvement across the operating system,
across the hardware. And then, of course, across all our Microsoft Air services. And Apple does
that all the time. They create features and functionality that are perfect for their platform, not for
everybody else’s. So and that’s absolutely fAIr. What if what if Mac folks are using the Web
client?
00:27:04:04 – 00:27:20:11
Are they still going to see a lot of that goodness that they might not see on the desktop? Client?
Absolutely. Absolutely. I am coming to you right now from a mac machine that I happen to be
testing. I am using all of those features on my Mac on the web. It is awesome. There you go.
You get the Midnight black.
00:27:20:11 – 00:27:44:02
I like that. I it’s yeah, it’s called Midnight Blue or Midnight Black, but it’s very midnight blue. Yeah,
it’s really pretty. So yes, absolutely. You know, and that is one of the things about all of our
services. You know, those web experiences are first party experiences in the sense that, you
know, we develop for them, they’re avAIlable. And I have really gotten used to working on the
Web.
00:27:44:05 – 00:28:00:13
If agAIn, if that’s something that you tried back in the day and you didn’t like outlook on the Web
or PowerPoint, the way I tried it and try it agAIn, try it agAIn, it has so many features that are not
on the desktop client that you go, WAIt a minute, well, this is so cool. And this makes life so
much better.
00:28:00:20 – 00:28:24:07
100%. Yeah, absolutely. You know, so, you know, then I have to open the whole app on my
desktop. I save memory, you know, I have because I’m one of those people that has, you know,
50 browser windows open and a couple of different profiles at any time. So not having it open on
my desktop is a good thing, but there’s a lot of things where people developed an opinion about
something when it was new or early on, just like the new teams.
00:28:24:09 – 00:28:42:22
But we invite you to come back agAIn because the innovation doesn’t stop here. You know,
we’re really on quite a roll as a company. I’ve never been prouder to be a microsoft employee
than I am right now because of everything we’re doing, but also the way in which we’re doing it
and how inclusive we’re being with each other.
00:28:42:22 – 00:29:07:01
Thousands of people focus on improving this one experience together. You know, from the from
the organization that used to really show, it seems to the world to be, you know, consolidated
with this focus of responsible AI and democratizing access to it. You know, I get a little I get a
little misty about it because I think it’s a little bit I’m in this moment, you know, I’m really proud.
00:29:07:01 – 00:29:37:01
I agree. Yeah. Especially for a company that was so siloed for so long to see this work across
those silos. And everybody started going, Yeah, how do we get it into these different products
and create more value by getting them all to talk together becomes really important. So what
sort of webinars and things can folks go to to start to learn more, to start to get ready, You know,
besides going to the adoption dot Microsoft.com slash Copilot page, what else is really important
for folks to be able to take advantage of now before the October 3rd event and before Ignite
Absolutely.
00:29:37:03 – 00:30:04:13
Well, you know, on that page and adoption at Microsoft.com, you can join our Microsoft 365
Copilot community that is on our tech community every month there. We have asked Microsoft
anything. So if there are questions that you have that are specific to your organization, bring it to
one of our AMS. We’re happy to answer your questions. It’s also super useful to read the
transcripts of the prior emAIls because I guarantee if you ask the question, probably someone
else did as well.
00:30:04:16 – 00:30:34:00
We’re actually using all of those questions to continue to enhance our frequently asked
questions, documents and other product documentation so that we can continue to improve and
address folks concerns. And so yeah, definitely get involved in the community, of course, ignite
that Microsoft.com. You have to join us at Ignite. We are sold out in person and the pre day that
we’re doing to teach Microsoft 365 adoption in the era of I sold out in less than 4 hours, which is
pretty amazing.
00:30:34:02 – 00:31:01:06
I’m excited to be to be teaching that with my team. But the the content itself from the conference
will of course be avAIlable online. So register for our Ignite conference so that you can
participate And hearing more of these announcements live. And we’ve really made a push for
more technical sessions there. So I think all the I.T pro folks will be happy this year with the type
of content that they will experience at ignite.
00:31:01:09 – 00:31:23:07
Yeah. And if you don’t get everything you wanted, ignite there is the AM 365 conference which
are great. There’s the education conferences. I’m going to be an education. I’m going to be a
tech mentor. So if you’re looking to get into some of that three or 400 level, there are great
opportunities at those conferences to do that, meet up very often with you and other folks from
engineering to really get into that nitty gritty if you’re not able to do it at Ignite.
00:31:23:07 – 00:32:02:08
So don’t feel that your one and only chance. Yeah, and I’m really excited to be going to SPC this
year. That’s going to be in Amsterdam right after Ignite at the end of November. So I get a
chance to go see our European friends. And so yeah, that is another thing to always be aware
of is the community of both pAId and free events around the world is really coming back
post-pandemic and you can always find these events that are community driven, whether
they’re for a fee, an attendee fee, community produced, or whether they’re volunteer led and
organized and are free to attendees at community days dot org.
00:32:02:10 – 00:32:26:17
That’s a part of our Microsoft Global Community Initiative. I have the privilege of running with my
friend Heather and others across Microsoft. And so, you know, this is the time to lean into the
community, lean in to learning this with friends and others, whether it’s local in your
neighborhood or virtually around the world. This is a tremendous career opportunity for many of
us.
00:32:26:17 – 00:32:54:22
And and, you know, I remember the advent of the PC and the creation of the cloud and what it
did for my career. This is a moment like that. So make sure that you’re thinking about how you’re
going to have this benefit your career, because it’s absolutely an opportunity and wherever you
may be. One of the things I wanted to mention is, is that many of our enterprise customers,
there’s not enough adoption managers in the world, right?
00:32:54:22 – 00:33:17:00
There are lots of places that don’t actually have an adoption specialist or somebody focused on
user experience, and that is a huge miss. The organizations that do have meaningfully more
adoption and productivity gAIns from Microsoft 365 than those organizations that don’t. And so if
that’s something that you’re passionate about, like I am, there’s an absolute career path there.
00:33:17:00 – 00:33:40:11
So use this moment to benefit yourself and your family because you know, this this type of
change doesn’t happen very often in our lives. 100%. I mean, that’s a lot of what I’m doing with
several companies is really sitting down there and we want to make better use of what we’ve
gotten and pAId for. And like most folks who move from Skype for business to teams, they’re not
using all that functionality.
00:33:40:11 – 00:34:01:10
And very often it’s going back to the beginning on how they collaborate, what emAIl is really
great for understanding how to retAIn great talent through collaboration, all of this and it all ends
up not only with cost savings but time savings for people. Don’t go, Holy crap, I’m getting more
done in less time in getting home and, you know, having more time for my kids baseball games
or whatever is important to you.
00:34:01:14 – 00:34:26:02
Right? Exactly. Because what I’m time is an irreplaceable asset in my life, in the lives of
everyone. You can’t replace time. You’re not generating any more of it. It’s not something you
can grow or manufacture. And so, you know, your time is very, very valuable. That’s why I
respect it. When people come to one of my sessions or something, they’re giving me their most
valuable assets, which is their time and their attention.
00:34:26:05 – 00:34:53:28
And so, you know, I really believe that these tools that we have at our fingertips now in any
organization in large or small can be used to drive clarity and culture and collaboration. All three
of those things are a currency for productivity and being competitive in the business
environment we find ourselves in. And so it’s really important that we lean into that, but also
have some fun.
00:34:54:00 – 00:35:16:00
Great. Have some fun in your career. Enjoy what you’re doing. I believe that there is a job out
there for everyone that mixes people’s talent and their passion and their impact together and
gives them meaning. And so I, I definitely am not one of those people that thinks that work
should be drudgery. Sometimes it takes some hard work to get where you want to go, but it’s
worth it.
00:35:16:00 – 00:35:38:22
And now’s the time to make a pivot. Wow I can’t think of any way to top that except to say
Adoption dot Microsoft.com. Check out all the cool content. As always, you are amazing and
smart and inspiring and more people should get a chance to meet you in person and see that
this is you. Are this All of that and you see that in three dimensions is amazing.
00:35:38:22 – 00:35:55:18
And you are so approachable. And I want to say that to folks. I have seen you spend hours, but
folks stopping you in the halls, pulling you over, reaching out to you on Twitter, you are always
there for folks and always avAIlable answer questions. And I so appreciate that. And I know our
audience does too. So it is the real deal.
00:35:55:19 – 00:36:18:21
Nice. Ms.. Ms.. Karuana in person. Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure,
right? I mean, you know, I am the nerd girl from school that’s always really happy that people
are going to talk to me. So I am really excited to help whoever I can. That is the purpose of my
role. I’m here to be of service and I think it’s a great opportunity to get to do that.
00:36:18:21 – 00:36:37:29
So thank you for having me, Steve, and it’s always great to hang out with you. You have me to
come back anytime and really enjoy your show. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you for
taking some time out for everybody else. This has been UnplugIT Thanks so much for joining
us. If you have questions for myself for Karuana , send them on over will make sure that we do
it.
00:36:37:29 – 00:36:46:21
And Karuana , i have a bunch of those mugs coming to you, so look forward to it. Yeah. Thank
you. All right, everybody, have a good one. Bye bye.