Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Collaboration Simplified,
our podcast series. Today, I have a very special
guest, Nate Lobach, who is also a co -pilot solutions
engineer at Microsoft. And Nate, thanks for joining.
Maybe you can introduce yourself and your role
a little bit more of where you're located and
what it is that you do. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks
for having me, Shervin. I'm a co -pilot solutions
engineer, a different you know, vertical at Microsoft
than you're in. I'm based in Colorado, and I've
been with Microsoft just over two years. And
I came from, I was a customer for many years,
spent a lot of times in the Teams collaboration
environment, and have really just been on, you
know, the AI journey. My sort of claim to fame
is I joined Microsoft 24 hours before. Copilot
was available for purchase. So I joked that,
you know, I had a full 24 hours to ramp up and
get familiar with the product before I started
talking with customers about it. That's funny.
That's funny. Yeah. So you were like born into
AI. Like you came in when AI was, you know, being
born at Microsoft. And even though you had all
this experience with Teams and other Microsoft
products. you jump right into co -pilot and AI
and all that stuff, right? Yeah, yep, absolutely.
Yeah, and it's been, as you can probably relate
to, it's been and still is quite an exciting
time and a wild ride. It is, you know, like every
day I get like, if you work at Microsoft, you
get all these emails, updates about like this
new feature, this new, you know, product. And
there's like so many of them every day. it's
constantly changing constantly evolving and actually
sometimes when i put out content and i'm showing
people something they're like oh i don't have
this feature and it's like well to add to the
gazillions of features that we're adding we have
the concept of rings and we also have frontier
features and we have all this stuff and so i
think to your point like There's tons that's
happening. And that's just in this space that
we're in. We're covering Microsoft 365, not to
mention the Azure side and the security side
and so on. Yeah, absolutely. And it's pretty
interesting being on the inside at Microsoft
because there's definitely a difference between
what customers are interested in and care about.
And, you know, what sort of like the Microsoft
marketing machine. And so like finding the balance
of what's, you know, important for customers
and what people are thinking about and end users
are thinking about every day, you know, is a
lot of times different than what product group
at Microsoft is building or marketing. And so
I think it's, you know, we're still in early
days with AI as a whole. And there's a lot of,
you know, experimentation happening. And I think
you and I have a pretty cool opportunity because
we get to help sort of interpret and filter out
like what's coming, what's happening, you know,
what's relevant, what's important. We're sort
of in like, you know, the early history of. you
know of ai exactly exciting exciting time exactly
yeah because it's been just a couple of years
even though it feels longer because there's just
so much happening but it is the beginning and
people always draw parallels to the internet
you know the internet being born in the 90s or
early 2000s and and then the you know the boom
and the bust and the boom again and all this
stuff and they're like oh ai is like this well
kind of right like this is the beginning who
knows what's going to happen no one can predict
the future but you know there's just um a lot
of improvements that are happening quickly and
sometimes when a feature comes out like this
agent mode that came out in excel and powerpoint
and and word where it actually does what you
tell it to do i'm like oh this is the way it
should have been from the beginning you know
i'm glad that it's here so so like yeah What
are some of the things that, you know, your customers
are seeing or adopting or kind of gravitating
towards in just Copilot in general? Yeah, I think
so. I mean, with the first year, you know, where
Copilot was available from Microsoft, it was
sort of just a lot of like, you know, what is
this thing? How can I use it day to day? After
the first year passed, I feel like a lot of those
conversations sort of waned, where it was the,
what is this thing? Is it safe? Is it secure?
How do I use it? And I'm starting to see a lot
more business use cases come along. Some of them
are agentic, and some of them aren't and don't
need to be. But it's pretty exciting to see.
you know, like business units actually coming
up with ideas. And I find I learn a lot more
from hearing them talk about their ideas and
hackathons and virtual sessions of just, you
know, instead of, you know, us, Microsoft coming
up with ideas, we're kind of entering a time
where we've kind of reached critical mass with
AI, whether it's, you know, Microsoft or not.
Um, and customers kind of get it and a lot of
great ideas are starting to, uh, to circulate.
So that's, that's kind of what I'm seeing, you
know, through, through my lens. Um, how about,
how about from your, your side with, with your
customers? Yeah. You actually mentioned something
interesting that I'm sure you're seeing too.
And just in technology in general and my customers,
what I'm seeing is. um we're all you know when
you're in tech or when you're uh positioning
or selling or architecting something you're always
being compared to someone right so in the ai
world it's like you know people are like oh what
about google's gemini or anthropics cloud or
open ai's chat gpt or you know all these different
models that exist out there and they're like
oh co -pilot this and and kind of like compare
and contrast and i'm and i always think to myself
because you know before microsoft i was at cisco
and so the big product there for me um that's
why i named the channel collaboration simplify
because i was a collaboration architect that
was covering webex and webex yeah webex right
and so like people are like what's webex webex
is uh is was an awesome man is an awesome product
i i'm guessing still that is a conferencing solution
uh like microsoft teams and zoom but at the time
we were always being compared to like zoom and
teams and and this and and now it's like on the
ai world you're being compared to all these other
products and in my mind i'm always like okay
you know who really cares because yeah these
tech companies are always kind of leapfrogging
each other so if you're if you're gonna kind
of like be a rubberneck and like you know, just
look wherever the next shiny object is, you're
going to get yourself dizzy because everyone's
always coming out with something better. And
it's just like, it's, it's literally like leapfrog,
you know, one company jumping over the other.
So I don't know, are you seeing that or what
are your thoughts? Yeah. You know what it, you
know what it kind of feels like is like when,
you know, when zoom and teams and WebEx came
out and Slack, right? Like, this whole concept
of like chat, right? Like we, you know, people
have been emailing for a long time and there
was this new way of, you know, communicating
at work. You know, Skype was around and people
were using that, you know, on the personal side.
And then, so it's like, oh, okay, there's this
new thing called chat, right? And I feel like
we're sort of at that time where like everybody
understands that Microsoft and Google or Anthropic
or OpenAI, like have, you know, AI functionality,
kind of like chat, right? And we're looking around
kind of comparing like chat features. If we are
looking at like Teams or Zoom, if we could rewind
the clock, it would be like, well, you know,
Teams does chat this way and Zoom does chat that
way. But then as time went on, it was like, oh,
okay, this is a whole platform now where like
we can do meetings. We can actually make phone
calls. We can work together on documents. And
so people started to kind of see the all -up
story of a collaboration platform like Teams
or Zoom or WebEx. And if I had to make a comparison,
I sort of feel like people have figured out the
quote -unquote chat function of AI and Copilot
if we're to make a comparison. And we're just
now with agents and Agent 365, like, expanding
about, like, oh, like, this is an entire platform.
How can we use it for our business? How can we
come up with ideas? And so, like, kind of back
to what we were talking about, it's a really
exciting time. And there is a lot of comparison,
I feel like, happening right now. Exactly. Where,
like, the all -up, like, kind of story of how
can we use AI at work is still really evolving.
Exactly. Comparison, maybe a lot of confusion
because we use Copilot, you know, the word Copilot
everywhere. Yeah, not confusing at all. It's
not, right? And there's this flavor and that
flavor and, you know, there's included and business
and personal and family. So there's so many flavors.
And so I don't blame people for not understanding,
you know, all these flavors because we work at
Microsoft. But, you know, obviously there's people
that are end users. One of the things that you
mentioned, you know, when you said the platform,
this has kind of always been true for any tech
company, whether or any company, any business,
really, whether you use the word platform or
ecosystem, it's kind of like, like I think about
Apple, right? Like I have an iPhone and I have
an Apple TV and I have a Mac and, you know, I
have. You're all in. Yeah, I have AirPods and
I have all this stuff. It's like this ecosystem
that everything works really well together. And
so, and then there's also services, you know,
Apple TV and all this stuff. And I'm like, okay,
that's awesome. And same thing for Microsoft,
right? There's a Microsoft ecosystem with like
M365 and all the different applications and Outlook
and Word and PowerPoint and Copilot. And then
there's like the security layer and there's Azure
and it's this whole gigantic. ecosystem or platform.
And so even if people become more comfortable
with AI from a chat functionality and it's gotten
so much better. Well, recently I just noticed
some features inside Outlook with Copilot where
you can define what meetings Copilot auto rejects
or accepts based on your preferences. You know,
so like anytime I get a meeting from my boss,
auto accept it if my calendar is open. anytime
i get a meeting that is optional for me um accepted
as tentative and those kinds of things are beyond
um you know chat they're like getting embedded
into the ecosystem if you will of microsoft and
that would be difficult for other people to replicate
so that kind of makes me think about the platform
comment you made yeah yeah and and the funny
thing about those features is they um They quickly
become expected and we sort of like take them
for granted, right? Going back to like your Outlook
example, another pretty cool feature that I like
a lot is custom instructions in Outlook. So you
can sort of like fine tune the like if you use
drafting with Copilot and Outlook to customize,
you know, how Copilot should. create your, your
emails. Um, and just little things like that,
like auto accepting emails, rescheduling, um,
all of those things that are sort of in the ecosystem.
They're like, these are the little features that,
that quickly become expected. And we, and we,
we take for granted and it's just a good example
of how fast it's, it's really moving. Right.
Yeah. Um, Yeah, 100%. And so one other topic,
if we switch gears a little bit, but related
to Copilot, you kind of mentioned is like this
whole world of agents, AI agents, Copilot agents.
And I know we have like all these different tools,
right? I was explaining this to someone today.
They were like, hey, Sherv, can you have a conversation
with our customer agents? And I said, well, what
tool do they want to use? And this person was
actually an executive and they were trying to
do something and they were struggling. And I'm
like, do you really think like an executive should
be rolling up their sleeves and trying to do
stuff in Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry?
That's a little bit going on the deeper side.
We have other tools. And so just in general,
like when it comes to agents and all the different
tools that we have, like what are you seeing?
your customers doing whether they're autonomous
agents or like any kind of agent yeah so i think
really in the exploratory mode um right because
it depends on like which industry you're in and
you know some industries are more regulated and
and have stricter controls where like you know
everything has to be approved um i am seeing
The business, right, like if you look at like
lines of business or the profit centers in a
company, they are asking and really pushing on
IT and technology to get these tools approved,
whether it's Copilot Studio or, you know, Copilot
Studio Lite or Azure Foundry or even like fabric
data agents. I'm just seeing a lot of. really
sort of like pent -up demand from the business,
pushing IT and tech to get things approved and
implemented. And the other thing that came up
in a conversation with some of my leaders earlier
was, you know, from a low -code perspective,
I think there's actually really a lack of knowledge
and skilled resources for Copilot Studio. And
what's interesting about that is it may actually
be easier for customers to use or take a pro
code approach because people have been doing
and learning, you know, power automate and power
platform for quite some time. And it was sort
of an aha moment that Copilot Studio as a platform
is relatively new. And a lot of customers may
face challenges with, you know, upskilling their
teams from a low code perspective. So, again,
to kind of recap all that, a lot of pent -up
demand and interest from lines of business and
sort of figuring it out, I guess, is what I would
say from the IT tech side about, like, how do
we get these tools approved? How do we upskill
our people in these tools? That's kind of what
I'm seeing from my lens on that. You know, when
you mentioned maybe there's not a lot of skilled
workers out there from the low code side, but
it might be easier to go more on the pro code
because they've been doing power automate in
these tools. It's an interesting comment because
I almost look at like some of our tools as like
automatic because I drive a stick shift car.
annual car right so i like to kind of like roll
my own gears being controlled and like all this
kind of stuff right and so very few people do
everyone drives automatic here right these days
and and and i think and i have automatic cars
too but i think you know like some of these like
tools that we've made easier or easy -ish like
copilot studio there's like an automation process
where you kind of like go to this field or you
drag and drop stuff and behind the scenes is
creating these power automate flows for you yeah
um you know it's it's kind of doing it for you
and like this workflows agent that i've shown
before is is it an even more dramatic example
where you kind of tell it in natural language
what you wanted to do and like it goes and creates
these connections connections for you but it's
actually doing power automate on the back end
yeah there's good and bad in that right the good
like in the automatic car world is like you don't
have to worry about your gears you just stomp
on the gas and boom you go but you don't have
as much control um if you're like racing or something
like that right like you don't have as much control
as if you had a manual car and in much the same
way with like these automated tools I could imagine
someone that's very good in Power Automate, they
want to have more control about how the flow
is actually going versus like AI deciding how
to create the flow for you. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So it's sort of like, you know, you have to understand
how the manual gear shift works before. uh, you,
you go to like an automatic and maybe, maybe
you like the automatic, but like having understanding
of just, you know, how to get through the years,
so to speak, or, or what's happening, even if
you don't have to do the work, um, is, is really
helpful. So I think that's, that's a good analogy
for sure. And, and resonates with, with, uh,
with what I'm seeing. One other topic that I'll
maybe bring up before we wrap is. you know, there's
always a lot of concern. People have a lot of
concern about like, oh my God, like, and I think
a lot of this is fed by the media, right? Like
AI is going to take over my job. So what do you
think about just that, you know, the stuff that
you hear in the media? Yeah, you bring up a good
point. I think it's an unspoken concern. A lot
of customers don't tell us outright, right? Where
there's a fear of AI taking over or there also
may just be a fear of like, i don't want to be
shown up that i don't know how to use this right
like and i think the you know the analogy or
the thing i think about is sort of like when
you know when the internet you know came out
or or like uh we started using like network sharing
where we could work on the same document together
you know like if you think back to when the internet
came out and how we started using the web for
uh for work and email It didn't take people's
jobs away. It just made the research so much
easier, right? Because we could just go find
that information. And I think it's an important
point to have that conversation with customers
because I think it's there and I think it's sort
of unspoken. And I think there's also a limited
understanding of how far they can take AI and
Copilot with what they can do. And sure, if I'm
not... I haven't quite figured out how to address
that or bring it up directly with customers.
But I'd be curious your thoughts on it. Is that
something you talk about directly with customers
or does it come up in conversations? Because
I definitely think it's a valid point and sort
of underlies all of AI right now. Oh, yeah. Given
what's happening with the media. Every interview
that I listen to by some of these executives
or leaders of these big tech companies, you know
the interviewer asks them this kind of a question
right and and my take as as a solutions engineer
who is working and building and other people
maybe is like i don't think so like i mean like
maybe it can replace five or ten percent of what
you do but it also depends on what it is that
you do and and so like you know what i see right
now ai is very good at is like summarizing gigantic
documents and reasoning over some data or like
creating some, you know, some work for you, like
in Excel, like the stuff that is kind of the
bread and butter and what is generally people
that I've met, like interacting with other human
beings, the social aspect of your work, convincing
people, meeting people, like the stuff that you
and I do and maybe others like. good luck getting
a to replace that yeah yeah not yet yeah not
yet not yet not in 2026 you know we have to wait
i don't know how long but you know yeah ideally
it's bringing up more time for those personal
conversations and you know higher value like
more analytical work so you know not not not
replacing you but just enhancing and taking away
some of the the boring work and and helping you
you know to get get more done and in a shorter
period of time and and freeing up time for for
more valuable conversations or or things you
need to be working on exactly for sure so nate
uh thank you so much for your perspective uh
you know again your microsoft solutions engineer
And you have a lot of visibility into the product
side, but also customer feedback and internal
and all that kind of good stuff. So really, really
appreciate you coming on the show and talking
to us. Yeah. Thanks for having me on Collaboration
Simplified. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate
it. No problem. Talk to you later. Thanks. Okay.
Cheers. Okay. Bye -bye. Bye.