My AI conference talks in early 2025 - autonomous agents, SharePoint agents, and AI choices

As we come into conference season in late spring/early summer 2025, I’m honoured to be speaking at Europe’s biggest events in the Microsoft space on AI topics that I’m super passionate about. The events are coming up fast, and as any conference speaker will tell you, preparing for talks on cutting-edge AI technologies which are in preview and changing from week to week in the run-up is easily the most fun way to spend your evenings and weekends 😊 Like many others, I wouldn’t change it for anything though of course – all part of the fun. In case you’re interested, here’s a quick view on what I’ll be covering. Both events provide a great platform to delve into the latest advancements, network with Microsoft AI implementers, and gain valuable knowledge. European Collaboration Summit 2025 The first event on my calendar is the European Collaboration Summit 2025, scheduled for May 26-28 in Düsseldorf, Germany. This is the largest Microsoft-focused event in Europe by attendee count (around 3,000), with a great line-up of sessions, workshops, expos, and networking opportunities. I have two talks here: Understanding Microsoft AI options – comparing Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio agents, SharePoint agents, and building on Azure OpenAI Navigating the Microsoft AI landscape and making good choices is complex. There are many aspects to consider including the focus of different options, AI capabilities, consumption or licensing costs, possible data integrations, user experience factors, boundaries and limitations, potential to automate business processes and more. Crafting an appropriate AI strategy with even just these options (and nothing outside of Microsoft) is certainly not trivial for most businesses: We’ll explore the respective strengths and implications of each of these options, hopefully delving into some aspects you may not have considered. My other talk at ECS 2025 is: Copilot agents in SharePoint - understanding AI capabilities, governance, costs, and more SharePoint agents are so far one of the lesser-known parts of Microsoft’s AI story but could revolutionise how we work with documents forever. After all, SharePoint is the platform which stores the world’s documents and collectively we add 2 billion documents there per day. Something has to change in how interact with this information, and with generative AI being woven into SharePoint in this way, SharePoint agents are absolutely part of the answer. This talk will focus on understanding the AI capabilities within SharePoint, including governance, costs, and other important factors. We will examine how Copilot agents can enhance your SharePoint experience and what to keep in mind while leveraging these powerful tools. Conference link: https://collabsummit.eu/ European Power Platform Conference 2025 Following the European Collaboration Summit, I will be heading to Vienna in June for the European Power Platform Conference 2025 (the event is June 16-19 specifically). With the Power Platform’s new role as a core pillar in Microsoft's AI strategy, particularly in terms of Copilot Studio agents, this is a great time for an event with this focus. I’ll be presenting on: Techniques for Autonomous Agents (Copilot Studio) It’s certainly fair to say there’s a lot of noise around autonomous agents - and as many apps and automations essentially evolve to be agents - generative AI can absolutely simplify how solutions are defined and implemented, where it’s no longer necessary to specify every last line of code or step in a process. With enough guidance on the outcome you're trying to achieve, AI can often plan the actions required and the specific tasks to execute. It's a new world now! But can you really say "follow up on each marketing lead by sending a personalised e-mail to the client and update our back-end systems appropriately" and AI magically does all the right things? Where are the boundaries? How autonomous can autonomous agents be? In this session we'll show the top techniques for success, and where you need to draw the line between instructions and specific items for your agent to call. Conference link: https://www.sharepointeurope.com/european-power-platform-conference/ Summary These conferences offer a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in the latest AI developments, learn from experts, and network with like-minded professionals. As far as I know, some tickets are still available for both events at the time of writing (early May 2025), so it’s not too late if you want to take the opportunity. I’m excited to be part of these events – very much looking forward to some great conversations, sharing some insights, and learning a lot myself from the incredible sessions and discussions. Hopefully see you at one of them!

As we come into conference season in late spring/early summer 2025, I’m honoured to be speaking at Europe’s biggest events in the Microsoft space on AI topics that I’m super passionate about. The events are coming up fast, and as any conference speaker will tell you, preparing for talks on cutting-edge AI technologies which are in preview and changing from week to week in the run-up is easily the most fun way to spend your evenings and weekends 😊 Like many others, I wouldn’t change it for anything though of course – all part of the fun.

In case you’re interested, here’s a quick view on what I’ll be covering. Both events provide a great platform to delve into the latest advancements, network with Microsoft AI implementers, and gain valuable knowledge.

European Collaboration Summit 2025

The first event on my calendar is the European Collaboration Summit 2025, scheduled for May 26-28 in Düsseldorf, Germany. This is the largest Microsoft-focused event in Europe by attendee count (around 3,000), with a great line-up of sessions, workshops, expos, and networking opportunities. I have two talks here:

Understanding Microsoft AI options – comparing Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio agents, SharePoint agents, and building on Azure OpenAI

Navigating the Microsoft AI landscape and making good choices is complex. There are many aspects to consider including the focus of different options, AI capabilities, consumption or licensing costs, possible data integrations, user experience factors, boundaries and limitations, potential to automate business processes and more. Crafting an appropriate AI strategy with even just these options (and nothing outside of Microsoft) is certainly not trivial for most businesses:

We’ll explore the respective strengths and implications of each of these options, hopefully delving into some aspects you may not have considered. My other talk at ECS 2025 is:

Copilot agents in SharePoint - understanding AI capabilities, governance, costs, and more

SharePoint agents are so far one of the lesser-known parts of Microsoft’s AI story but could revolutionise how we work with documents forever. After all, SharePoint is the platform which stores the world’s documents and collectively we add 2 billion documents there per day. Something has to change in how interact with this information, and with generative AI being woven into SharePoint in this way, SharePoint agents are absolutely part of the answer.

This talk will focus on understanding the AI capabilities within SharePoint, including governance, costs, and other important factors. We will examine how Copilot agents can enhance your SharePoint experience and what to keep in mind while leveraging these powerful tools.

Conference link: https://collabsummit.eu/

European Power Platform Conference 2025

Following the European Collaboration Summit, I will be heading to Vienna in June for the European Power Platform Conference 2025 (the event is June 16-19 specifically). With the Power Platform’s new role as a core pillar in Microsoft's AI strategy, particularly in terms of Copilot Studio agents, this is a great time for an event with this focus. I’ll be presenting on:

Techniques for Autonomous Agents (Copilot Studio)

It’s certainly fair to say there’s a lot of noise around autonomous agents - and as many apps and automations essentially evolve to be agents - generative AI can absolutely simplify how solutions are defined and implemented, where it’s no longer necessary to specify every last line of code or step in a process. With enough guidance on the outcome you're trying to achieve, AI can often plan the actions required and the specific tasks to execute. It's a new world now!

But can you really say "follow up on each marketing lead by sending a personalised e-mail to the client and update our back-end systems appropriately" and AI magically does all the right things? Where are the boundaries? How autonomous can autonomous agents be? In this session we'll show the top techniques for success, and where you need to draw the line between instructions and specific items for your agent to call.

Conference link: https://www.sharepointeurope.com/european-power-platform-conference/

Summary

These conferences offer a fantastic opportunity to immerse yourself in the latest AI developments, learn from experts, and network with like-minded professionals. As far as I know, some tickets are still available for both events at the time of writing (early May 2025), so it’s not too late if you want to take the opportunity. I’m excited to be part of these events – very much looking forward to some great conversations, sharing some insights, and learning a lot myself from the incredible sessions and discussions.

Hopefully see you at one of them!