Microsoft Teams Licensing Updates: More Premium Features for Everyone Microsoft has announced some big changes to the Teams licensing model, aimed at making more  advanced features available to everyone along with updates to their Places products set which is now firmly more rooted as a key part…

M365 Copilot Image Generation Levels Up, and Video Summaries are coming to Copilot Notebooks Microsoft has kicked off 2026 with two significant enhancements to Microsoft 365 Copilot - both providing a clear signal to how improvements in multi-media creation in AI will support creativity,…

Satya Nadella’s Call for an “AI Reset” – What Business Leaders Must Prioritise in 2026 Following Satya Nadella's looking forward to 2026 post, this blog explores the detail behind it and why 2026 must move beyond AI slop and shift toward trusted, outcome‑driven AI projects and systems that deliver…

What is Copilot Checkout? Microsoft and PayPal’s new AI-Powered Commerce Experience. Microsoft and PayPal have officially joined forces to launch Copilot Checkout, a groundbreaking integration that redefines the online shopping experience. This collaboration merges Microsoft’s conversational AI…

What is Copilot Real Talk Mode? And how to use it. Back at the "Fall update in October", Microsoft announced that a new talk mode called "Real Talk" was coming to Copilot. This has been available in the US for a while in preview but is now available in the UK. This (currently) optional chat mode…

Copilot gets free GPT‑5.2 upgrade with “Smart Plus” mode Microsoft has begun rolling out GPT‑5.2 across Copilot on the web, Windows, and mobile as a free upgrade. It sits alongside GPT‑5.1 rather than replacing it, giving users a clear choice between speed and deeper reasoning. GPT‑5.2 is…

Automatic Alt Text on Copilot+ PCs: A Small Feature with a Big Accessibility Impact Microsoft has rolled out a useful update to the Office Suite apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint which creates automatic, "on‑device" Alt Text generation for images. This is a great way of helping content become…

Here's how you can use @OpenAI #SORA2 inside @Copilot @microsoft365.microsoft.com youtu.be/yRa2ogqNTqU?...

How to get free security updates for Windows 10 If you are a home/consumer user using Windows 10 - because you are unwilling to, or unable to (due to hardware restrictions) to upgrade to Windows 11, and not able or wanting to buy a new modern PC, this blog shows you how to take advantage of…

GPT-5.2 now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft has just (11th Dec) started rolling out OpenAI's GPT‑5.2 across Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, marking another significant leap in AI-powered productivity. The differences between GPT5 and GPT5.2 provide "a significant upgrade in…

When the Cloud Sneezes: a look at the ‘Outage Season’ The past few months have been a bruising reminder that even the biggest cloud providers can stumble. AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Cloudflare have all suffered major outages, disrupting any services that rely on them from websites to shopping sites…

More Anthropic Models coming to Microsoft Copilot Microsoft is making a major change to how AI models are integrated into Copilot experiences. From 7 January 2026, Anthropic’s models will be enabled by default for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, moving away from the current opt-in setting to…

Microsoft 365 Price Changes: Preparing for July 2026 With over a 1,000 new features and updates across the Microsoft 365 stack in the last couple of years, Microsoft has confirmed that the commercial Microsoft 365 suite will undergo pricing increase from July 1, 2026. This follows "adjustments" to…

Microsoft Ignite 2025 – “The Agentic Shift” Microsoft used Ignite 2025 to tell the world that "agents are now the primary interface for enterprise work". The focus throughout Ignite was about evolution from chat-bots to multi-discipline teams of agents across organisations and the unlaying…

What is Work IQ? Microsoft Ignite 2025 focus this year saw Microsoft fully committed to Agentic AI as the next platform layer. Across all of the briefings, keynotes, technical sessions, and partner announcements, Microsoft repeatedly emphasised that AI is no longer an add-on - and that is becoming…

Windows at 40: Milestones that changed computing for ever It was Forty years ago (now that makes me feel. Old) that Microsoft launched Windows 1.0. This was a graphical shell that was layered over MS-DOS. Whilst it was clunky, slow, and barely usable - it created the framework and vision for what…

With Security Copilot now part of Microsoft 365 E5 – what do you actually get? At Ignite this week, Microsoft announced that Security Copilot will now be included in Microsoft 365 E5 (and E5 Security) at no additional cost. Security Copilot delivers "AI-powered, integrated, cost-effective, and…

Sora 2 now in Microsoft 365 Copilot At Ignite 2025 this month, amongst a long list of AI and Security updates, Microsoft announced that OpenAI’s Sora 2 text-to-video model is now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot in their Create Agent bringing AI video into enterprise productivity. Sora 2 can…

Microsoft 365 Copilot for small and medium businesses Microsoft has just announced a much more affordable aka cheaper (but fully featured license) for small and medium businesses. From December 1st, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business becomes available to organisations with fewer than 300 users. It’s…

Windows 365: What, Where and Why? As Windows 365 settles well into its forth year, there have been huge advancements in capability, connection methods, endpoint innovation, and licensing options - with even more expected as Microsoft Ignite approaches next week In my role, I spend a lot of time…

AI Explained: 9 Key Concepts You Need to Know in 2025 Artificial intelligence, whilst a phrase used in most of our daily lives, can feel huge, strange, unknown, scary, exciting and sometimes even intimidating. In this post I decided I would strip back the noise and waffle and share nine crisp,…

Cisco 360 Partner Program: Driving Partner and Customer Value in in the AI Era This blog summarises the key updates from Cisco Partner Summit 2025 regarding the Cisco 360 Partner Program and its impact on partner profitability, customer value, cross-selling, AI specialisations, and new pathways.…

I Tuned into Day 1 of Cisco Partner Summit 2025 yesterday "online"., where they spotlighted Secure AI infrastructure as the backbone of transformation. From Unified Edge to zero-trust security and full-stack observability. My review is below :-)

Copilot Researcher Agent gets “Computer Use” Yes, the Copilot Researcher Agent, once focused purely on gathering and summarising information, can now take action on your device through a capability called Computer Use.  This provides secure interaction with both public and gated web content…

Windows 11 bringing new “Ask Copilot” to the taskbar Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels can start testing a new Copilot search experience which is available through the Windows Search bar. To get started go to Settings > Personalisation > Taskbar > Ask Copilot to enable the experience.…

No Agenda? No Excuse. Copilot can now help with agenda creation. Let’s talk about one of my biggest pet peeves: the agenda-less meeting invite. You know the type. A calendar ping lands in your inbox with a vague title like “Catch-up” or “Project Sync,” zero context, and no prep materials. You’re…

Microsoft “App Builder” & “Workflow” Agents Microsoft is expanding its Copilot Frontier Programme with two powerful new agents. These are the App Builder and Workflows Agents. These put "app creation" and automation directly into the hands of everyday users, with zero coding needed just an idea…

Teams gets Copilot “Group Chat” Microsoft Teams continues to evolve at a rapid pace. This month Copilot is coming to Teams Group Chat as a participant in Teams Chat and Channels. This is an example of how quickly new features are landing, and why organisations need to stay on top of change…

I have a very bad feeling about this...

Happy #BackToTheFutureDay. 40 years since Oct 26 1985

Cyber Resilience – the new Trust Currency TL;DR - UK Cyber Threats Surge The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published its annual threat review, and the numbers are staggering but not surprising as we have seen a platora of high profile attacks this year, impacting manufacturing,…

Microsoft introduces Mico – Copilot’s new face and voice In a live YouTube stream today, Microsoft unveiled a wave of new consumer features for Copilot - headlined by the official debut of Mico, a new visual character designed for Copilot’s voice (and face) mode.  Mico has been in testing for a…

Cisco and Microsoft top 2025 UC Gartner Magic Quadrant TL:DR As a Cisco and Microsoft leading partner, it's great to see that, yet again, both Microsoft and Cisco remain Leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for collaboration platforms with Microsoft taking the overlap top spot and with Zoom and…

MAKING EVERY WINDOWS PC AN AI PC On October 14th 2025, Windows 10 officially reached end of support. If you still have a PC/Laptop running Windows 10, it will not suddenly stop working - but unless you have enabled (consumer) or purchased (commercial) extended security updates, there will be no…

Added a couple of videos showcasing Copilot Vision and Actions today - let me know if these are useful. youtu.be/OatHYSzCHB8

The consumer version of @copilot #Copilot can now read your OneDrive, Outlook and even Gmail and Google Calendar content if you allow it..

Being a Cisco partner isn’t just about reselling their tech - it’s about co-creating outcomes with our customers using technologies best positioned to power their digital and AI transformation. Cisco’s recognition reinforces the confidence we have when recommending wireless solutions.

Windows 10 End of Support – What it means for Office Apps As of yesterday, 14 October 2025, Windows 10 has officially reached its end of support. Of course, Windows 10 will not just stop working, but after yesterdays monthly security updates, there will be no more unless.... Commercial…

My latest podcast with @Microsoft Manesh Minstry is out about Copilot recent developments and the fast pace of evolution and enhancements. Would love your feedback and subs if you find it interesting open.spotify.com/episode/1K1E...

What is ‘Bring Your Own Copilot’ to Work (BYO-Copilot) ? AI tools being used in the workplace is no longer a question of if but how and what. The question is what if you could allow this in a safe and controlled way without compromising security and compliance and without leaking copirate data.?…

It’s Agent Mode the new way to do human-agent collaboration? Microsoft Copilot development just doesn't sleep... This time they have just announced "agent mode" which they claim could be game changer in the way we (humans) work with AI agents (Copilot). Called "Agent Mode" this latest update marks…

Microsoft Agent Framework has just been announced! It's like Semantic Kernel, but even better, with added AutoGen. It provides a unified standards-compliant open-source SDK and runtime for building #AI solutions.

Cisco Webex One 2025 – Chatbots to Agents Warching this year from the sofa, #Cisco #WebexOne showcased just how far their open ecosystem, agentic AI and plarform integrarion has come. This is my short reflection from the Webex One 2025 keynote.

What is the SharePoint Knowledge and what does it do? The responses and workflows you get back from AI is only as good as the content it can reason over or leverage. If your content (data) is not in good shape and healthy (relevant, up-to-date etc) then it "isn’t ready" meaning your experience of…

Beyond OpenAI: Microsoft Copilot flirts with Claude. Microsoft has started to broaden their AI horizons by adding their first (not Open AI) model into Copilot. Microsoft are integrating Anthropic’s Claude models into Microsoft 365 Copilot which marks a significant pivot from their exclusive…

Is Cisco’s “Sovereign Critical Infrastructure” a “New Era for European Digital Autonomy” Cisco yesterday announced what they referred to as a "significant milestone" in Europe’s journey toward digital sovereignty. Their Sovereign Critical Infrastructure portfolio is a comprehensive, air-gapped…

Microsoft Power Platform Licensing Guide Microsoft have made their monthly-updated Power Platform Licensing Deck publicly available. Now, you might think this is not worthy of a blog post, but for many organisations, this information has always been hidden away meaning organisations had to talk to…

Teams in Microsoft 365 is back for good (but it’s your choice) It's back!  Starting November 1, 2025, Microsoft Teams is officially "back" in the Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Enterprise suites globally, but the choice to have it not sit with organisations and not Microsoft! After years of…

Microsoft Copilot Consumer brings Memory Management and Google Drive Integration Microsoft Copilot is adding with two new major updates (this time for the consumer experience) that bring it closer to the more personalised AI experience users have been asking and waiting for. Copilot Memory…

Copilot Chat comes to Enterprise Office Apps for all Microsoft is in the process of Copilotizing Business / Enterprise versions of your Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote) even for users that don't have a Microsoft 365 Copilot License. Microsoft say that "These updates help…