Microsoft Teams Insider

Hosted by Tom Arbuthnot

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Episodes

178

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Microsoft Teams discussions with industry experts sharing their thoughts and insights with Tom Arbuthnot of Empowering.Cloud. Podcast not affiliated, associated with, or endorsed by Microsoft.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 16, 202637 min

Copilot Cowork vs. Scout with Microsoft's Alev Tamer and Chris Wheeler

Alev Tamer, Sr. Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft, and Chris Wheeler, Senior Copilot Solution Engineer at Microsoft, discuss the latest Microsoft Copilot announcements fresh from Microsoft Build.• Multi-model strategy: how Microsoft brings together models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft AI to offer genuine choice• Critique and Council: using multiple models to validate and challenge each other's outputs for improved accuracy• The DRACO (Deep Research Accuracy, Completeness, and Objectivity) benchmark and how Research with Critic achieves the highest score for deep research completeness and accuracy• Copilot Cowork vs Scout: cloud-based fire-and-forget task execution versus local desktop agent capabilities• Work IQ as the personalisation layer that makes Copilot genuinely relevant to your role and daily work• Real-world use cases including automated demo pack generation, fitness apps built on Azure, NHS website creation and AI-assisted performance reviews• Skills and plugins: creating reusable instruction sets for repetitive tasks and new integrations including Dynamics 365 and Fabric IQ• Data residency and security: navigating Anthropic data processing, EU data boundaries and flex routing for European organisationsThanks to Shure, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

June 9, 202630 min

Microsoft Planner Roadmap - AI Agents, API and MCP With Howard Crow, Director of Product, Microsoft

Howard Crow, Director of Product at Microsoft, joins the podcast to discuss the evolution of Microsoft Planner, its deep integration with Microsoft Teams, and the growing role of AI agents in work management.• Howard shares his nearly 30-year journey at Microsoft, from the founding days of SharePoint to leading the Planner and Project teams• The genesis of Microsoft Planner and how it democratised project management beyond specialist tools like Microsoft Project• Microsoft's unification strategy, bringing To Do, Planner, and Project for the Web together under a single Planner brand• How Planner integrates deeply with Microsoft Teams across meetings, channels, and chats• The Planner Agent and Microsoft's multi-agent runtime service, the first production multi-agent harness shipped at Microsoft• How MCP (Model Context Protocol) is becoming the "USB for APIs" and unlocking new integrations for Planner• The future of work: managing teams of humans and AI agents together, and why a visual planning surface matters for knowledge workersThanks to Luware, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

June 8, 202615 min

Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update June 2026

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for June 2026. Many thanks to Pure-IP for their continued support. The Copilot Super App Is ComingScout and AutopilotsNVIDIA-Powered LaptopsWindows Optimisations for Open Claw and Local AgentsWork IQ and Web IQ APIs GAProject Solara — Agent-First Hardware Devices, Powered by MDEP7 New Microsoft AI ModelsTeams Devices NewsLink to the deckUseful Links: Briefings • 4 Ways to Improve Customer Experience With Landis Contact Center for Microsoft Teams • First Look at the Neat Board 32 Microsoft Teams Rooms With MDEP • The Lenovo Microsoft Teams Rooms Portfolio Explained and the Huddly Partnership • Decoding Dynamics 365 Contact Center: Microsoft Teams Voice, New AI Agents, and Licensing Teams Insider Podcasts • Microsoft Teams Facilitator: The First Group AI Agent for Meetings With Madhu Sudan, Microsoft • Microsoft Teams Call Quality Dashboard (CQD): Intelligent Classifiers, Silent Test Call and Power BI • Microsoft 365 Message Center and M365 Change Explained with Brian McGough, Principal Program Manager • Microsoft 365 Agents Explained - Declarative, Copilot Studio, Pro-Code or Skills in Copilot Cowork? Microsoft Build 2026: Be yourself at work GitHub Copilot app: the agent-native desktop experience What's New in Microsoft 365 Copilot — May 2026 Microsoft 365 Copilot release notes Introducing Microsoft Scout: your always-on personal agent Project Lobster is Microsoft Scout Introducing Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for world makers Surface Laptop Ultra product page Windows platform security for AI agents Announcing the new Work IQ APIs Work IQ: production-ready intelligence for every agent Announcing Microsoft Web IQ Composing a new platform for agent-first devices Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform documentation Microsoft Build 2026 Live blog Building a hill-climbing machine: launching seven new MAI models Build, scale, and monetize apps and agents with Microsoft Marketplace Certified Android-based devices for Microsoft Teams More choice and flexibility: Cisco Board Pro Certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms Q-SYS QSP-11 Scheduling Panel

June 3, 202619 min

Microsoft Teams Facilitator: The First Group AI Agent for Meetings With Madhu Sudan, Microsoft

Madhu Sudan, Partner Director of Engineering at Microsoft, discusses Microsoft Teams Facilitator, a first-of-its-kind group AI agent built to actively collaborate with entire teams during meetings.• How Facilitator differs from Copilot: group-level support vs one-to-one assistance• Real-time note-taking, action item assignment, and meeting moderation built into Microsoft Teams• Proactive capabilities including knowledge gap detection, quorum checking, and late-joiner recaps• The permissioning model that keeps group conversations secure and prevents data leakage• Plans for meeting series memory and bringing cross-meeting context to future sessions• Extensibility with other Microsoft Teams agents and Microsoft 365 dataThanks to AVI-SPL, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

May 26, 202652 min

Microsoft Teams Call Quality Dashboard (CQD): Intelligent Classifiers, Silent Test Call and Power BI

James Parkes, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft Teams Call Quality Management, Siunie Sutjahjo, Principal Product Manager for Microsoft Teams Meeting, and Victor Guzman, Senior Technical Program Manager, all at Microsoft, discuss the latest advances in Microsoft Teams call quality tools and reporting.• How CQD has evolved from on-prem monitoring to cloud-scale Power BI reporting with over 45 report pages in the latest v5.3 release• The new intelligent classifiers: around 40 models that move beyond legacy network averages, using real user feedback as ground truth to pinpoint issues at the device, compute and network level• How remote and local models identify whether a quality issue originates from a user's machine, their network or a dominant participant affecting others in the call• A walkthrough of the Power BI QER reports, including the search report, user health details and media health as starting points for troubleshooting• Silent test call: a full bi-directional media stream test for proactively evaluating network readiness, available for Microsoft Teams Premium users• Admin-initiated remote log collection: how IT admins can now pull client logs directly from the Teams Admin Centre without relying on end usersThanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

May 19, 202639 min

Microsoft 365 Message Center and M365 Change Explained with Brian McGough, Principal Program Manager

Brian McGough, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, gives a behind-the-scenes look at how change communications work across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and what's coming next.• How Message Center has grown from 50 posts a month to over 225, and the operational complexity behind keeping hundreds of live posts up to date• The targeting system behind Message Center, from licensing-based filtering to tenant-specific notifications across multiple clouds including GCC, GCC High, and DoD• Microsoft's modernised approach to change management, introducing frontier, standard, and deferred release options that give admins more control over when changes reach their users• The new MCP servers for Message Center and Roadmap data, and how they unlock conversational, tenant-grounded insights• Why customer feedback on Message Center posts genuinely drives change, including stopping feature rollouts and reversing retirementsThanks to Landis, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

May 13, 202615 min

Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update May 2026

MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for May 2026.Many thanks to Logitech for their continued support.• Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 GA• New Models in Copilot • Cowork gets Skills, Plugins and Mobile• AI Skills in SharePoint • Modernising M365 Change Management – New MCPs• Teams Phone Multi-line GA• Teams Devices News & New Devices• Upcoming Events Useful Links: BriefingsUnderstanding Express Install for Microsoft Teams RoomsMicrosoft 365 Roadmap and Azure Updates (Roadmap) MCP ExplainedFIRST LOOK: Neat Board 32 & Neat Pad Pro - Devices for Every Meeting RoomNEW Neat Board 32 & Neat Pad Pro: Full Product Walkthrough & Key FeaturesTeams Insider PodcastsWhat is Microsoft 365 Frontier, Work IQ, Cowork and Agent 365 with a Copilot Global Black BeltMicrosoft 365 Copilot Cowork Explained with Bas Brekelmans, Software Engineer at MicrosoftCreating a First Class Microsoft Teams Rooms Experience at Their New London HQ with Damian Lewis at BSIMicrosoft Teams for Frontline Workers: Market Opportunity and Enterprise Mobility with Spectralink

May 12, 202638 min

Microsoft 365 Agents Explained - Declarative, Copilot Studio, Pro-Code or Skills in Copilot Cowork?

Graham Hosking, Senior AI Solutions Engineer at Microsoft, discusses Copilot Skills, Cowork, and the rapidly evolving world of agentic AI across the Microsoft stack.• How businesses are navigating AI adoption and why there is no silver bullet for enterprise AI• What Copilot Cowork is and how it takes Microsoft 365 Copilot to the next level with multi-threaded task automation• Skills as reusable blocks of instructions that simplify complex business processes like RFPs without needing multiple agents• The spectrum from declarative agents to Copilot Studio to pro-code solutions on Azure Foundry• MCP servers and plugins extending Cowork's reach to third-party systems like Salesforce• Computer use arriving via Windows 365 plugins, unlocking automation for legacy systems without APIs• Sovereign data considerations and Anthropic model availability across EuropeThanks to Barco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

May 7, 202636 min

What is Microsoft 365 Frontier, Work IQ, Cowork and Agent 365 with a Copilot Global Black Belt

Brett Johnson, Copilot Global Black Belt at Microsoft, returns for a second discussion to decode some of the biggest developments in the Microsoft 365 Copilot ecosystem.• What the Frontier Program is, how it differs from public preview, and how organisations can get early access to the latest AI innovations on a per-user basis• How Anthropic models are now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot, including data sovereignty considerations and the path to EU availability• Work IQ explained: the intelligence layer combining Microsoft Graph, memory and real-time inference to supercharge Copilot experiences• Cowork in action: how the Anthropic-powered agent creates documents, manages calendars and processes complex multi-step tasks in a secure cloud container• Brett's vibe coding journey, building an astrophotography automation tool with Claude and VS Code, and why personal AI projects accelerate workplace adoption• Agent 365 goes GA: what it means for governing, managing and securing the growing number of AI agents across organisations, including third-party integration via the Agent 365 SDKThanks to Luware, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

April 28, 202633 min

Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork Explained with Bas Brekelmans, Software Engineer at Microsoft

Bas Brekelmans, Software Engineer at Microsoft, focused on Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork, explains its architecture and use cases.• How Copilot Cowork runs entirely in the Cloud, unlike local machine-based alternatives, enabling enterprise-grade security, audit and compliance• The multi-model approach using Anthropic's Sonnet and Opus, with the flexibility to switch to the best available model• Built-in and personal skills for calendar management, document generation and automated workflows• Extensibility through MCP servers, enabling integration with third-party and line-of-business applications• Scheduled tasks and autonomous email handling that save hours of manual work each day• Enterprise compliance features including Purview integration, eDiscovery support and rich audit logsThanks to Crestron, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud