WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Collaboration Simplified, 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:06.240 our podcast series. Today, I have a very special 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:10.960 guest, Nate Lobach, who is also a co -pilot solutions 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:14.980 engineer at Microsoft. And Nate, thanks for joining. 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.760 Maybe you can introduce yourself and your role 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:20.079 a little bit more of where you're located and 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.879 what it is that you do. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:26.179 for having me, Shervin. I'm a co -pilot solutions 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:32.100 engineer, a different you know, vertical at Microsoft 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:36.020 than you're in. I'm based in Colorado, and I've 00:00:36.020 --> 00:00:40.340 been with Microsoft just over two years. And 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:43.659 I came from, I was a customer for many years, 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:46.579 spent a lot of times in the Teams collaboration 00:00:46.579 --> 00:00:50.500 environment, and have really just been on, you 00:00:50.500 --> 00:00:53.280 know, the AI journey. My sort of claim to fame 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:57.780 is I joined Microsoft 24 hours before. Copilot 00:00:57.780 --> 00:01:01.979 was available for purchase. So I joked that, 00:01:01.979 --> 00:01:05.980 you know, I had a full 24 hours to ramp up and 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.140 get familiar with the product before I started 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:11.579 talking with customers about it. That's funny. 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:14.739 That's funny. Yeah. So you were like born into 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:18.959 AI. Like you came in when AI was, you know, being 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:22.000 born at Microsoft. And even though you had all 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.519 this experience with Teams and other Microsoft 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:28.620 products. you jump right into co -pilot and AI 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.939 and all that stuff, right? Yeah, yep, absolutely. 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:35.319 Yeah, and it's been, as you can probably relate 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:38.939 to, it's been and still is quite an exciting 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:41.939 time and a wild ride. It is, you know, like every 00:01:41.939 --> 00:01:45.640 day I get like, if you work at Microsoft, you 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:47.840 get all these emails, updates about like this 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:50.500 new feature, this new, you know, product. And 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:54.040 there's like so many of them every day. it's 00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:58.260 constantly changing constantly evolving and actually 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.579 sometimes when i put out content and i'm showing 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:02.840 people something they're like oh i don't have 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:07.859 this feature and it's like well to add to the 00:02:07.859 --> 00:02:10.300 gazillions of features that we're adding we have 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:13.699 the concept of rings and we also have frontier 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:16.460 features and we have all this stuff and so i 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:19.680 think to your point like There's tons that's 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:21.979 happening. And that's just in this space that 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:24.639 we're in. We're covering Microsoft 365, not to 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:28.439 mention the Azure side and the security side 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:33.740 and so on. Yeah, absolutely. And it's pretty 00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:36.719 interesting being on the inside at Microsoft 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:41.819 because there's definitely a difference between 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:44.900 what customers are interested in and care about. 00:02:45.670 --> 00:02:48.650 And, you know, what sort of like the Microsoft 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:53.770 marketing machine. And so like finding the balance 00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:57.530 of what's, you know, important for customers 00:02:57.530 --> 00:02:59.810 and what people are thinking about and end users 00:02:59.810 --> 00:03:03.330 are thinking about every day, you know, is a 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:05.270 lot of times different than what product group 00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:10.030 at Microsoft is building or marketing. And so 00:03:10.030 --> 00:03:11.490 I think it's, you know, we're still in early 00:03:11.490 --> 00:03:15.530 days with AI as a whole. And there's a lot of, 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:19.169 you know, experimentation happening. And I think 00:03:19.169 --> 00:03:22.909 you and I have a pretty cool opportunity because 00:03:22.909 --> 00:03:26.990 we get to help sort of interpret and filter out 00:03:26.990 --> 00:03:29.870 like what's coming, what's happening, you know, 00:03:29.889 --> 00:03:33.490 what's relevant, what's important. We're sort 00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:36.030 of in like, you know, the early history of. you 00:03:36.030 --> 00:03:40.169 know of ai exactly exciting exciting time exactly 00:03:40.169 --> 00:03:42.430 yeah because it's been just a couple of years 00:03:42.430 --> 00:03:44.330 even though it feels longer because there's just 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:47.729 so much happening but it is the beginning and 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:50.610 people always draw parallels to the internet 00:03:50.610 --> 00:03:53.689 you know the internet being born in the 90s or 00:03:53.689 --> 00:03:57.610 early 2000s and and then the you know the boom 00:03:57.610 --> 00:03:59.990 and the bust and the boom again and all this 00:03:59.990 --> 00:04:02.129 stuff and they're like oh ai is like this well 00:04:02.729 --> 00:04:05.129 kind of right like this is the beginning who 00:04:05.129 --> 00:04:06.870 knows what's going to happen no one can predict 00:04:06.870 --> 00:04:11.550 the future but you know there's just um a lot 00:04:11.550 --> 00:04:14.289 of improvements that are happening quickly and 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.050 sometimes when a feature comes out like this 00:04:17.050 --> 00:04:20.550 agent mode that came out in excel and powerpoint 00:04:20.550 --> 00:04:23.230 and and word where it actually does what you 00:04:23.230 --> 00:04:25.589 tell it to do i'm like oh this is the way it 00:04:25.589 --> 00:04:28.009 should have been from the beginning you know 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:32.600 i'm glad that it's here so so like yeah What 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:36.000 are some of the things that, you know, your customers 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.339 are seeing or adopting or kind of gravitating 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:45.040 towards in just Copilot in general? Yeah, I think 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:49.439 so. I mean, with the first year, you know, where 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:52.839 Copilot was available from Microsoft, it was 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:55.240 sort of just a lot of like, you know, what is 00:04:55.240 --> 00:05:01.519 this thing? How can I use it day to day? After 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.019 the first year passed, I feel like a lot of those 00:05:04.019 --> 00:05:08.620 conversations sort of waned, where it was the, 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:12.199 what is this thing? Is it safe? Is it secure? 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:14.980 How do I use it? And I'm starting to see a lot 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:20.899 more business use cases come along. Some of them 00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:24.439 are agentic, and some of them aren't and don't 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:27.399 need to be. But it's pretty exciting to see. 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:30.860 you know, like business units actually coming 00:05:30.860 --> 00:05:33.579 up with ideas. And I find I learn a lot more 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:37.459 from hearing them talk about their ideas and 00:05:37.459 --> 00:05:41.660 hackathons and virtual sessions of just, you 00:05:41.660 --> 00:05:45.459 know, instead of, you know, us, Microsoft coming 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:49.160 up with ideas, we're kind of entering a time 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:52.480 where we've kind of reached critical mass with 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.680 AI, whether it's, you know, Microsoft or not. 00:05:56.379 --> 00:05:59.540 Um, and customers kind of get it and a lot of 00:05:59.540 --> 00:06:02.939 great ideas are starting to, uh, to circulate. 00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:05.620 So that's, that's kind of what I'm seeing, you 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:08.500 know, through, through my lens. Um, how about, 00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:10.339 how about from your, your side with, with your 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:13.500 customers? Yeah. You actually mentioned something 00:06:13.500 --> 00:06:16.319 interesting that I'm sure you're seeing too. 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:20.360 And just in technology in general and my customers, 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:24.060 what I'm seeing is. um we're all you know when 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:26.399 you're in tech or when you're uh positioning 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.240 or selling or architecting something you're always 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:31.699 being compared to someone right so in the ai 00:06:31.699 --> 00:06:34.600 world it's like you know people are like oh what 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:37.839 about google's gemini or anthropics cloud or 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:42.319 open ai's chat gpt or you know all these different 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.420 models that exist out there and they're like 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:47.060 oh co -pilot this and and kind of like compare 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.240 and contrast and i'm and i always think to myself 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:53.279 because you know before microsoft i was at cisco 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:57.139 and so the big product there for me um that's 00:06:57.139 --> 00:06:59.300 why i named the channel collaboration simplify 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:01.139 because i was a collaboration architect that 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:04.680 was covering webex and webex yeah webex right 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:08.079 and so like people are like what's webex webex 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:12.160 is uh is was an awesome man is an awesome product 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.860 i i'm guessing still that is a conferencing solution 00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:19.360 uh like microsoft teams and zoom but at the time 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:21.879 we were always being compared to like zoom and 00:07:21.879 --> 00:07:24.980 teams and and this and and now it's like on the 00:07:24.980 --> 00:07:27.519 ai world you're being compared to all these other 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.100 products and in my mind i'm always like okay 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:35.319 you know who really cares because yeah these 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:37.660 tech companies are always kind of leapfrogging 00:07:37.660 --> 00:07:40.399 each other so if you're if you're gonna kind 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:42.899 of like be a rubberneck and like you know, just 00:07:42.899 --> 00:07:46.199 look wherever the next shiny object is, you're 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:50.019 going to get yourself dizzy because everyone's 00:07:50.019 --> 00:07:52.800 always coming out with something better. And 00:07:52.800 --> 00:07:56.279 it's just like, it's, it's literally like leapfrog, 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:58.600 you know, one company jumping over the other. 00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:01.319 So I don't know, are you seeing that or what 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:03.459 are your thoughts? Yeah. You know what it, you 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:05.339 know what it kind of feels like is like when, 00:08:05.420 --> 00:08:09.579 you know, when zoom and teams and WebEx came 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:13.160 out and Slack, right? Like, this whole concept 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:16.639 of like chat, right? Like we, you know, people 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:18.600 have been emailing for a long time and there 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:20.639 was this new way of, you know, communicating 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:24.220 at work. You know, Skype was around and people 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:26.660 were using that, you know, on the personal side. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:29.139 And then, so it's like, oh, okay, there's this 00:08:29.139 --> 00:08:33.799 new thing called chat, right? And I feel like 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:36.600 we're sort of at that time where like everybody 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:40.500 understands that Microsoft and Google or Anthropic 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:44.870 or OpenAI, like have, you know, AI functionality, 00:08:44.990 --> 00:08:48.750 kind of like chat, right? And we're looking around 00:08:48.750 --> 00:08:51.730 kind of comparing like chat features. If we are 00:08:51.730 --> 00:08:53.870 looking at like Teams or Zoom, if we could rewind 00:08:53.870 --> 00:08:56.669 the clock, it would be like, well, you know, 00:08:56.730 --> 00:09:00.309 Teams does chat this way and Zoom does chat that 00:09:00.309 --> 00:09:04.470 way. But then as time went on, it was like, oh, 00:09:04.490 --> 00:09:08.690 okay, this is a whole platform now where like 00:09:08.690 --> 00:09:11.919 we can do meetings. We can actually make phone 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:17.480 calls. We can work together on documents. And 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:20.659 so people started to kind of see the all -up 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:24.820 story of a collaboration platform like Teams 00:09:24.820 --> 00:09:29.220 or Zoom or WebEx. And if I had to make a comparison, 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:32.179 I sort of feel like people have figured out the 00:09:32.179 --> 00:09:37.080 quote -unquote chat function of AI and Copilot 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:39.850 if we're to make a comparison. And we're just 00:09:39.850 --> 00:09:44.049 now with agents and Agent 365, like, expanding 00:09:44.049 --> 00:09:46.970 about, like, oh, like, this is an entire platform. 00:09:47.110 --> 00:09:49.190 How can we use it for our business? How can we 00:09:49.190 --> 00:09:52.549 come up with ideas? And so, like, kind of back 00:09:52.549 --> 00:09:54.889 to what we were talking about, it's a really 00:09:54.889 --> 00:09:58.110 exciting time. And there is a lot of comparison, 00:09:58.309 --> 00:10:02.490 I feel like, happening right now. Exactly. Where, 00:10:02.509 --> 00:10:05.590 like, the all -up, like, kind of story of how 00:10:05.590 --> 00:10:08.850 can we use AI at work is still really evolving. 00:10:09.420 --> 00:10:12.980 Exactly. Comparison, maybe a lot of confusion 00:10:12.980 --> 00:10:16.940 because we use Copilot, you know, the word Copilot 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:21.759 everywhere. Yeah, not confusing at all. It's 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:24.379 not, right? And there's this flavor and that 00:10:24.379 --> 00:10:27.759 flavor and, you know, there's included and business 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:30.080 and personal and family. So there's so many flavors. 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:33.340 And so I don't blame people for not understanding, 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:35.600 you know, all these flavors because we work at 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:38.659 Microsoft. But, you know, obviously there's people 00:10:38.659 --> 00:10:40.740 that are end users. One of the things that you 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:42.940 mentioned, you know, when you said the platform, 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:45.759 this has kind of always been true for any tech 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.379 company, whether or any company, any business, 00:10:48.419 --> 00:10:51.879 really, whether you use the word platform or 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:54.559 ecosystem, it's kind of like, like I think about 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:57.639 Apple, right? Like I have an iPhone and I have 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:00.860 an Apple TV and I have a Mac and, you know, I 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:04.179 have. You're all in. Yeah, I have AirPods and 00:11:04.179 --> 00:11:06.080 I have all this stuff. It's like this ecosystem 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:09.419 that everything works really well together. And 00:11:09.419 --> 00:11:11.779 so, and then there's also services, you know, 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.860 Apple TV and all this stuff. And I'm like, okay, 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:17.179 that's awesome. And same thing for Microsoft, 00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:20.179 right? There's a Microsoft ecosystem with like 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:23.779 M365 and all the different applications and Outlook 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:26.460 and Word and PowerPoint and Copilot. And then 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:28.840 there's like the security layer and there's Azure 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:33.500 and it's this whole gigantic. ecosystem or platform. 00:11:33.899 --> 00:11:38.000 And so even if people become more comfortable 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.340 with AI from a chat functionality and it's gotten 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:45.120 so much better. Well, recently I just noticed 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.080 some features inside Outlook with Copilot where 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.779 you can define what meetings Copilot auto rejects 00:11:52.779 --> 00:11:55.379 or accepts based on your preferences. You know, 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:57.940 so like anytime I get a meeting from my boss, 00:11:58.100 --> 00:12:01.169 auto accept it if my calendar is open. anytime 00:12:01.169 --> 00:12:05.629 i get a meeting that is optional for me um accepted 00:12:05.629 --> 00:12:08.850 as tentative and those kinds of things are beyond 00:12:08.850 --> 00:12:12.730 um you know chat they're like getting embedded 00:12:12.730 --> 00:12:16.429 into the ecosystem if you will of microsoft and 00:12:16.429 --> 00:12:18.750 that would be difficult for other people to replicate 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:22.129 so that kind of makes me think about the platform 00:12:22.129 --> 00:12:25.389 comment you made yeah yeah and and the funny 00:12:25.389 --> 00:12:30.399 thing about those features is they um They quickly 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:34.539 become expected and we sort of like take them 00:12:34.539 --> 00:12:38.419 for granted, right? Going back to like your Outlook 00:12:38.419 --> 00:12:41.899 example, another pretty cool feature that I like 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:46.279 a lot is custom instructions in Outlook. So you 00:12:46.279 --> 00:12:49.539 can sort of like fine tune the like if you use 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:53.980 drafting with Copilot and Outlook to customize, 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:58.580 you know, how Copilot should. create your, your 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:02.080 emails. Um, and just little things like that, 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:05.299 like auto accepting emails, rescheduling, um, 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:08.179 all of those things that are sort of in the ecosystem. 00:13:08.820 --> 00:13:12.080 They're like, these are the little features that, 00:13:12.100 --> 00:13:15.019 that quickly become expected. And we, and we, 00:13:15.019 --> 00:13:17.440 we take for granted and it's just a good example 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.139 of how fast it's, it's really moving. Right. 00:13:21.240 --> 00:13:26.759 Yeah. Um, Yeah, 100%. And so one other topic, 00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:29.039 if we switch gears a little bit, but related 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:31.799 to Copilot, you kind of mentioned is like this 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:36.059 whole world of agents, AI agents, Copilot agents. 00:13:36.539 --> 00:13:38.779 And I know we have like all these different tools, 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:40.960 right? I was explaining this to someone today. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.399 They were like, hey, Sherv, can you have a conversation 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:47.980 with our customer agents? And I said, well, what 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:49.779 tool do they want to use? And this person was 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:51.899 actually an executive and they were trying to 00:13:51.899 --> 00:13:53.960 do something and they were struggling. And I'm 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:56.879 like, do you really think like an executive should 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.620 be rolling up their sleeves and trying to do 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:02.139 stuff in Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry? 00:14:02.139 --> 00:14:04.759 That's a little bit going on the deeper side. 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:08.340 We have other tools. And so just in general, 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:11.019 like when it comes to agents and all the different 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:13.720 tools that we have, like what are you seeing? 00:14:14.409 --> 00:14:16.990 your customers doing whether they're autonomous 00:14:16.990 --> 00:14:21.629 agents or like any kind of agent yeah so i think 00:14:21.629 --> 00:14:26.370 really in the exploratory mode um right because 00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:28.669 it depends on like which industry you're in and 00:14:28.669 --> 00:14:31.509 you know some industries are more regulated and 00:14:31.509 --> 00:14:34.330 and have stricter controls where like you know 00:14:34.330 --> 00:14:37.990 everything has to be approved um i am seeing 00:14:38.750 --> 00:14:41.950 The business, right, like if you look at like 00:14:41.950 --> 00:14:44.269 lines of business or the profit centers in a 00:14:44.269 --> 00:14:50.049 company, they are asking and really pushing on 00:14:50.049 --> 00:14:56.169 IT and technology to get these tools approved, 00:14:56.429 --> 00:14:59.950 whether it's Copilot Studio or, you know, Copilot 00:14:59.950 --> 00:15:04.049 Studio Lite or Azure Foundry or even like fabric 00:15:04.049 --> 00:15:08.440 data agents. I'm just seeing a lot of. really 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:10.879 sort of like pent -up demand from the business, 00:15:11.100 --> 00:15:16.679 pushing IT and tech to get things approved and 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:19.720 implemented. And the other thing that came up 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:24.080 in a conversation with some of my leaders earlier 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.519 was, you know, from a low -code perspective, 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:31.720 I think there's actually really a lack of knowledge 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:38.190 and skilled resources for Copilot Studio. And 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:40.129 what's interesting about that is it may actually 00:15:40.129 --> 00:15:43.490 be easier for customers to use or take a pro 00:15:43.490 --> 00:15:46.149 code approach because people have been doing 00:15:46.149 --> 00:15:49.809 and learning, you know, power automate and power 00:15:49.809 --> 00:15:52.450 platform for quite some time. And it was sort 00:15:52.450 --> 00:15:56.929 of an aha moment that Copilot Studio as a platform 00:15:56.929 --> 00:15:59.570 is relatively new. And a lot of customers may 00:15:59.570 --> 00:16:02.529 face challenges with, you know, upskilling their 00:16:02.529 --> 00:16:06.429 teams from a low code perspective. So, again, 00:16:07.070 --> 00:16:09.149 to kind of recap all that, a lot of pent -up 00:16:09.149 --> 00:16:12.549 demand and interest from lines of business and 00:16:12.549 --> 00:16:15.970 sort of figuring it out, I guess, is what I would 00:16:15.970 --> 00:16:19.350 say from the IT tech side about, like, how do 00:16:19.350 --> 00:16:22.789 we get these tools approved? How do we upskill 00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:26.669 our people in these tools? That's kind of what 00:16:26.669 --> 00:16:30.730 I'm seeing from my lens on that. You know, when 00:16:30.730 --> 00:16:33.570 you mentioned maybe there's not a lot of skilled 00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:36.289 workers out there from the low code side, but 00:16:36.289 --> 00:16:38.950 it might be easier to go more on the pro code 00:16:38.950 --> 00:16:40.690 because they've been doing power automate in 00:16:40.690 --> 00:16:43.250 these tools. It's an interesting comment because 00:16:43.250 --> 00:16:46.929 I almost look at like some of our tools as like 00:16:46.929 --> 00:16:49.750 automatic because I drive a stick shift car. 00:16:50.269 --> 00:16:52.450 annual car right so i like to kind of like roll 00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:54.970 my own gears being controlled and like all this 00:16:54.970 --> 00:16:57.070 kind of stuff right and so very few people do 00:16:57.070 --> 00:16:59.309 everyone drives automatic here right these days 00:16:59.309 --> 00:17:02.669 and and and i think and i have automatic cars 00:17:02.669 --> 00:17:05.970 too but i think you know like some of these like 00:17:05.970 --> 00:17:09.250 tools that we've made easier or easy -ish like 00:17:09.250 --> 00:17:11.890 copilot studio there's like an automation process 00:17:11.890 --> 00:17:15.720 where you kind of like go to this field or you 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.880 drag and drop stuff and behind the scenes is 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:22.200 creating these power automate flows for you yeah 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:24.799 um you know it's it's kind of doing it for you 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:27.119 and like this workflows agent that i've shown 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:30.440 before is is it an even more dramatic example 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:32.680 where you kind of tell it in natural language 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:35.619 what you wanted to do and like it goes and creates 00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:38.460 these connections connections for you but it's 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.359 actually doing power automate on the back end 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:44.250 yeah there's good and bad in that right the good 00:17:44.250 --> 00:17:48.009 like in the automatic car world is like you don't 00:17:48.009 --> 00:17:49.930 have to worry about your gears you just stomp 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:53.509 on the gas and boom you go but you don't have 00:17:53.509 --> 00:17:57.569 as much control um if you're like racing or something 00:17:57.569 --> 00:17:59.410 like that right like you don't have as much control 00:17:59.410 --> 00:18:02.809 as if you had a manual car and in much the same 00:18:02.809 --> 00:18:07.160 way with like these automated tools I could imagine 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:09.500 someone that's very good in Power Automate, they 00:18:09.500 --> 00:18:11.920 want to have more control about how the flow 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.599 is actually going versus like AI deciding how 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:18.680 to create the flow for you. Yeah, yeah, for sure. 00:18:18.779 --> 00:18:20.900 So it's sort of like, you know, you have to understand 00:18:20.900 --> 00:18:25.529 how the manual gear shift works before. uh, you, 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:28.410 you go to like an automatic and maybe, maybe 00:18:28.410 --> 00:18:31.049 you like the automatic, but like having understanding 00:18:31.049 --> 00:18:33.049 of just, you know, how to get through the years, 00:18:33.170 --> 00:18:35.789 so to speak, or, or what's happening, even if 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:38.930 you don't have to do the work, um, is, is really 00:18:38.930 --> 00:18:41.789 helpful. So I think that's, that's a good analogy 00:18:41.789 --> 00:18:44.849 for sure. And, and resonates with, with, uh, 00:18:44.930 --> 00:18:48.069 with what I'm seeing. One other topic that I'll 00:18:48.069 --> 00:18:52.440 maybe bring up before we wrap is. you know, there's 00:18:52.440 --> 00:18:54.500 always a lot of concern. People have a lot of 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:57.160 concern about like, oh my God, like, and I think 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.200 a lot of this is fed by the media, right? Like 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.839 AI is going to take over my job. So what do you 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:04.640 think about just that, you know, the stuff that 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.900 you hear in the media? Yeah, you bring up a good 00:19:07.900 --> 00:19:11.640 point. I think it's an unspoken concern. A lot 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:14.579 of customers don't tell us outright, right? Where 00:19:14.579 --> 00:19:19.160 there's a fear of AI taking over or there also 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:21.829 may just be a fear of like, i don't want to be 00:19:21.829 --> 00:19:24.089 shown up that i don't know how to use this right 00:19:24.089 --> 00:19:28.869 like and i think the you know the analogy or 00:19:28.869 --> 00:19:31.049 the thing i think about is sort of like when 00:19:31.049 --> 00:19:33.609 you know when the internet you know came out 00:19:33.609 --> 00:19:36.990 or or like uh we started using like network sharing 00:19:36.990 --> 00:19:39.250 where we could work on the same document together 00:19:39.250 --> 00:19:43.369 you know like if you think back to when the internet 00:19:43.369 --> 00:19:46.049 came out and how we started using the web for 00:19:46.049 --> 00:19:49.730 uh for work and email It didn't take people's 00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:52.329 jobs away. It just made the research so much 00:19:52.329 --> 00:19:54.569 easier, right? Because we could just go find 00:19:54.569 --> 00:19:57.849 that information. And I think it's an important 00:19:57.849 --> 00:20:00.829 point to have that conversation with customers 00:20:00.829 --> 00:20:05.470 because I think it's there and I think it's sort 00:20:05.470 --> 00:20:10.210 of unspoken. And I think there's also a limited 00:20:10.210 --> 00:20:14.450 understanding of how far they can take AI and 00:20:14.450 --> 00:20:17.730 Copilot with what they can do. And sure, if I'm 00:20:17.730 --> 00:20:20.799 not... I haven't quite figured out how to address 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:23.859 that or bring it up directly with customers. 00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:27.200 But I'd be curious your thoughts on it. Is that 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:30.359 something you talk about directly with customers 00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:33.099 or does it come up in conversations? Because 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:34.420 I definitely think it's a valid point and sort 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:38.720 of underlies all of AI right now. Oh, yeah. Given 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:41.819 what's happening with the media. Every interview 00:20:41.819 --> 00:20:44.420 that I listen to by some of these executives 00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:47.799 or leaders of these big tech companies, you know 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:51.059 the interviewer asks them this kind of a question 00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:55.140 right and and my take as as a solutions engineer 00:20:55.140 --> 00:20:59.039 who is working and building and other people 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:02.359 maybe is like i don't think so like i mean like 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:06.160 maybe it can replace five or ten percent of what 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.039 you do but it also depends on what it is that 00:21:08.039 --> 00:21:12.960 you do and and so like you know what i see right 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:16.930 now ai is very good at is like summarizing gigantic 00:21:16.930 --> 00:21:20.490 documents and reasoning over some data or like 00:21:20.490 --> 00:21:23.829 creating some, you know, some work for you, like 00:21:23.829 --> 00:21:26.430 in Excel, like the stuff that is kind of the 00:21:26.430 --> 00:21:29.569 bread and butter and what is generally people 00:21:29.569 --> 00:21:31.930 that I've met, like interacting with other human 00:21:31.930 --> 00:21:36.130 beings, the social aspect of your work, convincing 00:21:36.130 --> 00:21:38.769 people, meeting people, like the stuff that you 00:21:38.769 --> 00:21:41.740 and I do and maybe others like. good luck getting 00:21:41.740 --> 00:21:46.779 a to replace that yeah yeah not yet yeah not 00:21:46.779 --> 00:21:50.359 yet not yet not in 2026 you know we have to wait 00:21:50.359 --> 00:21:52.660 i don't know how long but you know yeah ideally 00:21:52.660 --> 00:21:55.599 it's bringing up more time for those personal 00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.579 conversations and you know higher value like 00:21:59.579 --> 00:22:04.059 more analytical work so you know not not not 00:22:04.059 --> 00:22:06.750 replacing you but just enhancing and taking away 00:22:06.750 --> 00:22:09.569 some of the the boring work and and helping you 00:22:09.569 --> 00:22:12.589 you know to get get more done and in a shorter 00:22:12.589 --> 00:22:15.450 period of time and and freeing up time for for 00:22:15.450 --> 00:22:18.650 more valuable conversations or or things you 00:22:18.650 --> 00:22:21.910 need to be working on exactly for sure so nate 00:22:21.910 --> 00:22:25.250 uh thank you so much for your perspective uh 00:22:25.250 --> 00:22:28.769 you know again your microsoft solutions engineer 00:22:29.600 --> 00:22:32.380 And you have a lot of visibility into the product 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:34.819 side, but also customer feedback and internal 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:37.640 and all that kind of good stuff. So really, really 00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:39.920 appreciate you coming on the show and talking 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.980 to us. Yeah. Thanks for having me on Collaboration 00:22:42.980 --> 00:22:45.240 Simplified. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:47.500 it. No problem. Talk to you later. Thanks. Okay. 00:22:47.660 --> 00:22:48.799 Cheers. Okay. Bye -bye. Bye.