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Merry Christmas to all our readers
December 24th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »Windows 11’s Mail and Calendar apps to be phased by the end of this year
November 12th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »Microsoft is shutting down the built-in Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 11, which means you’ll no longer be able to send or receive emails or manage your calendar using those apps after December 31, 2024. Microsoft has been using pop-up notifications about this in both apps for months – and the end is in sight.
To use those apps after December 31, switch off the ‘New Outlook’ setting by unchecking it in the new Outlook app’s settings, Outlook > Settings > General > About Outlook.
It s likely to be a ‘view-only’ mode, for emails, drafts, contacts, and other details in the Mail and Calendar apps, but not o send or receive emails, for which you will be redirected to the web-based Outlook. It apparently doesn’t work offline yet, and Microsoft is working on adding support for this in the next few weeks,
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Copilot AI Agents for Dynamics 365
November 5th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »CoPilot has generated lot of interest, and users this year. However, for many its been a bumpy ride. Often the way with rapidly evolving, paradigm shifting technology. Earlier is the year there were concerns over performance, Last month a new Ui looked good but users generally felt it was a backward step, less easy to use and more generic answers. Microsoft just keeps fixing and improving. Last month there were negative comparisons with from Salesforce and Google .
That is the history of Microsoft. It was late to Office products, late to mobile, late to the cloud etc., but it caught up and challenged the leaders. A key gap versus competitor products is now addressed Salesforce planted their wheels firmly on the race track with Agentforce, Microsoft, Salesforce and Workday have agents at the centre of their AI plans, while Oracle and ServiceNow are also in the race.
“Move over, copilots: it’s time to make room for the AI agents.” Financial Times September 22 2024.
The ability to create autonomous AI “agents” within Microsoft’s Copilot Studio will reach the public preview stage at this month’s Microsoft Ignite conference, the company said in October.
Salesforce wants to stress how imperative AI agents are to the future of AI developments.
Agents take generative AI a step further by building upon the fundamentals of chatbots and excelling them with higher intelligence, empathy, and capabilities. Traditional bots are like pre-programmed assistants, so they can only answer questions or queries with answers that they have “stored” – agents use a blend of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI to understand the full context of customer messages. They use the wealth of data that your org has to offer more bespoke answers, providing more of a personal, humanistic service.
Microsoft sees AI agents as more nimble, programmable versions of its Copilot AI chatbot. Microsoft 365 chief marketing officer Jared Spataro described agents as “the new apps for an AI-powered world.”
“Every organization will have a constellation of agents,” Spataro predicted, “ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous. They will work on behalf of an individual, team or function to execute and orchestrate businesses process.”
Very similar to Agentforce, Copilot’s agents allow users to enhance functionality by drawing from an organization’s data. The more (clean) data that these agents can draw from, the smarter and more tuned-in the responses and actions will be. According to Charles Lamanna, the Corporate Vice President of Business & Industry Copilot: “(Autonomous agents) will fundamentally change business processes. There will be as many agents as there are documents or SharePoint sites in an organization.”
Building Agents in Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio connects the Copilot AI to an organization’s various data sources, from the Microsoft Graph to Dynamics 365. Starting from November’s public preview, users can build their own agents within Copilot Studio and train these on those same data sources.
The agents will run on a variety of AI models, including OpenAI o1 which uses “chain of thought” reasoning to answer prompts. These may therefore take longer to solve problems, but are more likely to provide accurate outputs, specifically in response to complex, multistep problems. “Through training, they learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognize their mistakes,” OpenAI said, which is optimized for reasoning through complex problems. Agents are meant to run largely without human intervention. The Agents can be scheduled to run at set intervals, or be programmed to perform actions in response to specific triggers from other applications or tools.
Though agents act autonomously, Microsoft users can view their internal logic for each task that they resolve. Knowing why an agent reacts to a trigger will help users reinforce correct behavior, or debug undesired behavior. Additionally, an “Activity” tab will keep a running log of each time an agent is triggered into action, with details such as task completion, decisions and more.
Prebuilt Agents for Dynamics 365
For Microsoft’s CRM and ERP customers, the company has announced a set of 10 specialized, prebuilt AI agents in Dynamics 365. These agents are meant to “build capacity for sales, service, finance, and supply chain teams,”
Microsoft will roll out public previews of these agents starting in late 2024 and into early 2025:
- Sales Qualification Agent (for Dynamics 365 Sales)
- Sales Order Agent (for Dynamics 365 Business Central)
- Supplier Communications Agent (for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management)
- Financial Reconciliation Agent (for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance)
- Account Reconciliation Agent (for Dynamics 365 Finance)
- Time and Expense Agent (for Dynamics 365 Project Operations)
- Customer Intent Agent (for Dynamics 365 Customer Service)
- Customer Knowledge Management Agents (for Dynamics 365 Contact Center)
- Case Management Agent (for Dynamics 365 Customer Service)
- Scheduling Operations Agent (for Dynamics 365 Field Service)
Microsoft is developing more Dynamics 365 agents for 2025, it said.
Key Features and Benefits of Microsoft Copilot
- Intelligent Writing Assistance: Microsoft Copilot leverages AI to provide intelligent writing suggestions and assistance across Microsoft Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It can help draft documents, refine content, create compelling presentations, and compose emails, boosting productivity and quality.
- Data Analysis and Visualization: In Excel, Copilot empowers users to explore and analyze data more efficiently. It can generate formulas, create visualizations, and provide insights based on the data, enabling faster and more informed decision-making.
- Meeting and Collaboration Enhancement: Copilot integrates with Microsoft Teams to transcribe meetings, summarize discussions, capture action items, and even suggest relevant files or information. This streamlines collaboration and ensures important details are not missed.
- Customizable AI Assistant: Microsoft Copilot offers a unified “Copilot” experience that allows users to access data across their Microsoft Graph and leverage LLM functionality through natural conversations. Users can customize prompts and actions to align with their specific needs and workflows.
- Seamless Microsoft 365 Integration: Copilot is deeply integrated into the familiar Microsoft 365 suite, providing a consistent and intuitive AI-powered experience across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and other apps. This tight integration minimizes disruption and facilitates rapid adoption.
- Contextual and Personalized Assistance: By grounding prompts in a user’s business data from the Microsoft Graph, Copilot delivers contextual and personalized assistance tailored to the individual’s role, projects, and organizational context.
Microsoft Cloud Dividend – United Arab Emirates
October 30th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »
Microsoft, in partnership with its extensive ecosystem, is expected to inject $74.4 billion into the UAE economy over the next four years, as revealed by a new IDC study launched at GITEX Global 2024.
The report, titled ‘Microsoft Cloud Dividend Snapshot for the UAE’, underscores the impact of Microsoft’s cloud services in transforming the UAE’s digital landscape, creating jobs, and fostering innovation.
The study highlights that Microsoft and its partners will allocate approximately $5.1 billion to develop and enhance data centre regions within the UAE. This investment will accelerate the growth of local enterprises, especially those aiming to leverage cloud and AI technologies to stay competitive.
He projected investment is expected to generate 152,530 new jobs, supporting various sectors and strengthening the UAE’s knowledge-based economy.
Naim Yazbeck, General Manager of Microsoft UAE, commented: “As organisations across the UAE and the region seek to leverage the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence, the cloud remains the foundation upon which these innovations are built. At Microsoft, we are committed to providing highly secure, trusted, enterprise-grade cloud services that are critical for organisations accelerating their AI transformation journey. Our investment in local datacentres, our partner ecosystem, and the broader digital economy reflects our ongoing dedication to empowering government institutions and businesses to innovate, drive economic growth, and create sustainable jobs for the future.”
Year end is approaching don’t forget to update your Dynamics calendars
October 30th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »Calendars need to be activated far enough into the future to accommodate long lead time sales and purchase orders, projects, manufacturing orders, resource calendars, ,customer and vendor warehouse calendars, mrp and forecasts, employee work and holiday calendars and so on. Your financial periods also need to go far enough ahead e.g. for budgets, next year’s postings, and so on. for example see: Calendars and master planning – Supply Chain Management | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn and Fiscal calendars, fiscal years, and periods – Finance | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn andhttps://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=407d2c61a46be1a970887c2e1bf79b4f6dad9431dee8a9ca74d16eed2d1032a3JmltdHM9MTczMDI0NjQwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=234522f2-ce69-6daf-2e67-300dcf5a6ceb&psq=Dynamics+365+inance+and+operations++calendars&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9sZWFybi5taWNyb3NvZnQuY29tL2VuLXVzL2R5bmFtaWNzMzY1L2ZpbmFuY2UvZ2VuZXJhbC1sZWRnZXIvY2hhbmdlLW1kZnktY2xuZHItdG8tbGVkZ2Vy&ntb=1 and Set up work schedules and leave – Human Resources | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn
There are enough headaches to close the financial year, and a short time window of time, there are new forecasts and budgets to enter. new trade agreements and contract orders to create, so take time now to consider what you need to update and make any changes in good time.
Dynamics 365 FSCM license subscription price increases
October 30th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »If you have budgeted for a future implementation to, or upgrade to Dynamics 365 FSCM be aware that pricing increased this month to $210 per user per month for the base license.
Projects increases form $120 to 150..
These are the first increases since the onset of covid and reflect the increased cloud infrastructure and management costs e.g. for salary increases, and energy. However, there has also been a huge increase in functionality in that time equivalent to a major upgrade, for example asset management module, Copilot, features, the Dataverse, Electronic reporting, Globalisation, new extensions, more embedded Power apps and Power Bi,, platform upgrades, and enhanced features and functionality in all areas.
For many companies still to upgrade form Ax 2012, NAV, GP or SL Business Central may be an attractive alternative,
Cybercrime rampant – are your solutions up to date and protected?
October 22nd, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »There’s only one year left of support for over two dozen 2016- and 2019-branded Office solutions, Microsoft reminded this week.
More worrying Microsoft recently described the cybersecurity outlook as “pessimistic” in its fifth-annual Digital Defense Report released this week. The 114-page paper provides a grim view of cybersecurity trends between July 2023 and June 2024. Microsoft observed signs of collusion between state-sponsored attackers and cybercriminals, with growing use of cyberattacks as tools of warfare, and the use of attacks to manipulate election outcomes.
“Because these actors conduct both targeted and opportunistic attacks, the threat they present is universal, meaning organizations, users, and devices are at risk anywhere, anytime,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Customer Security & Trust, in the report’s introduction.
Alarmingly, Microsoft found ransomware attempts nearly tripled year over year, yet the success rate declined due to solutions that provide automatic attack disruption. However, when a ransomware attempt does succeed, it’s usually found an unmanaged network device used to infiltrate using remote encryption; over 90 percent of attacks that make it to the ransom stage take this route.
Ransomware attacker’s use social engineering methods. Phishing scams are especially damaging; U.S. businesses are expected to lose $3.5 billion to phishing in 2024, according to a Trend Micro study cited in the report.
Microsoft counted 775 million malware-bearing phishing e-mails over the year, with most (56 percent) containing malicious links to entrap users. A smaller but growing portion (25 percent) used QR codes, which are especially tricky because “they appear as an image during mail flow and are unreadable until rendered.” The remaining 19 percent of phishing e-mails relied on malicious attachments.
Worse are what Microsoft refers to as tech scams (“techscam” in the report), which are financially motivated schemes to weaken devices against future attacks. According to Microsoft, these schemes “have 10 times the financial impact of phishing.”
Tech scams lure users to click on malicious ads masquerading as legitimate entities — for instance, Microsoft support services, deals on crypto, shopping sales or browser extensions. These malicious ad platforms can leverage the cloud to quickly and cheaply create host pages, then shut them down within hours, often before victims realize the damage.
“The current landscape of techscam is alarming,” Microsoft said. Tech scams accounted for over 90 percent of malicious traffic in Microsoft’s Edge browser. Overall, the daily volume of Web traffic from tech scams has ballooned by 400 percent since 2022, far outpacing the growth of traffic related to malware and phishing.
Microsoft’s customer base faces over 600 million attacks every day — . “Deterrence can be achieved in two ways — by denial of intrusions or imposing consequences,” it said. “While companies like Microsoft can help ‘deny’ successful cyberattacks via innovation and further improvements in cybersecurity, enforcing international rules with deterrent consequences must fall on governments.”
Microsoft discontinues HoloLens 2,
October 2nd, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »Microsoft recently halted production of HoloLens 2 headsets. The information was released by UploadVR, which received confirmation from Microsoft regarding the end of HoloLens 2 production.
The augmented reality headset will continue to receive “updates to address critical security issues and software regressions,” until December 31, 2027. The start of 2028 will mark the official end of software support for HoloLens 2. Support for the original HoloLens 2 will end much sooner, specifically December 10, 2024. But it’s worth noting that production of the original HoloLens ended in 2018.
- HoloLens 2 headsets will continue to receive critical security updates and software regressions until the end of 2027.
- Microsoft’s Mixed Reality division has struggled mightily over recent years, including the departure of former HoloLens lead Alex Kipman.
- Support for the original HoloLens will end on December 10, 2024.
When launched in 2019, HoloLens 2 showed promise and drew excitement within the virtual and augmented reality space. The device was much better than the original HoloLens and it did not have many direct competitors at the time. The VR space has changed quite a bit since then, and Microsoft hasn’t shown much progress. The HoloLens division was reportedly called a “s–t show” by one Microsoft employee.
Microsoft reportedly canceled HoloLens 3, though there was some back-and-forth on if that was the case. Microsoft’s $22 billion Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) for the US military has had several issues during testing. It is still “fully committed” to IVAS.
Microsoft pioneered several concepts in the virtual and augmented reality space, but the company ultimately struggled to grow within the market. HoloLens had uses in industrial spaces and in corporate environments, but Windows Mixed Reality as a whole failed to capture everyday consumers.Microsoft ultimately killed the Windows VR platform and announced the deprecation of Windows Mixed Reality in December 2023.
In addition to technical and monetization challenges, Microsoft faced issues surrounding the leadership of HoloLens. A report from Insider (formerly Business Insider), accused Kipman of “verbal abuse and sexual harassment.” Among the claims was an accusation of Kipman viewing pornography on a VR headset that was mirrored to a nearby monitor that could be seen by other people in the room. Kipman was also accused of fostering “culture that diminishes women’s contributions.”
Official word on HoloLens is rare from Microsoft, and the company seems to change its plans about mixed reality regularly. Leadership changes and restructuring within the company have also likely contributed to the wandering path of HoloLens development.
The future of VR at Microsoft
While Microsoft has ended production of HoloLens 2 and killed of the Windows VR platform, the company still has plans for virtual reality. Microsoft has partnered with Meta and Apple to get Microsoft software onto Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, respectively.
Its likely that future Microsoft-made mixed reality headsets will be powered by Android, not Windows. While the devices would not run Windows natively, Microsoft is reportedly working on a solution that will let mixed reality devices run full Windows desktop apps through the cloud.
Click To Do – AI screen analyzer on Windows 11
October 2nd, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »Microsoft announced a big new AI feature on Windows 11 later this year coming exclusively to Copilot+ PCs later this year called Click To Do. This feature adds an intelligent overlay to the OS, that can understand what’s on-screen and provide contextual actions at any time. To invoke the overlay hold down the Windows key and click with your mouse.
- Click To Do works similarly to Android’s Circle To Search,. It allows users to quickly search the web based on an element selected on screen.
- Click To Do goes a step further with contextual actions based on what’s currently on screen.
- Click To Do is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs.
The feature is called Click To Do and is a clear competitor to Android’s Circle To Search function, and it is more capable. While a quick way to visually search the web,
Click To Do also provides contextual suggestions based on what it can see on screen.
For example, select some text, and then Click To Do will offer actions such as summarizing what is highlighted, or rewriting it. When you select an image, Click To Do will provide quick actions like blurring the background ,or erasing an object within the image that has been selected.
In the Click To Do overlay, search for anything on screen with a dedicated search bar that floats at the top of the screen. This interface offers quick access to Windows Recall, because both Recall, and Click To Do use similar technology to identify what’s on-screen.
If you’re working on a presentation, Copilot might offer to help expand the text in one section, remove the background of an image, or even email someone if you have their address in the presentation.
The new Recall tool, helps you find things you were looking at recently on your computer, document, webpage, video, or anything else. The AI can remember and recognize what it was and pulls it back up again for you, even if you don’t remember the location or file name. Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs will even find files and settings that you haven’t opened yet by using a description you write in.
Click To Do is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs with an NPU of 40+ TOPS. So, if you’re not using a Copilot+ PC, then you won’t get access to this feature his year. Copilot+ PCs will be able to test Click To Do in October, and it is expected to begin rolling out in waves from November onwards. Microsoft further announced more coming to Copilot+ PCs before year end,, including adding AI to Windows Search. Iand a brand-new Copilot experience that’s more human and interactive, and can browse the web alongside you and help with tasks with Copilot Vision.
The AI can suggest ideas for related information or analysis, even bring up products that might better suit your interests and budget if you ask, simply using the vision on the screen. It won’t work universally yet, but it can handle most of the more popular websites. This is an opt-in feature, so none of the data is stored or used for training unless you agree. Notably, Copilot Vision isn’t limited to printed text; it can even read handwriting
An AI companion for everyone – The Official Microsoft Blog
The loudest upgrade is the new Copilot Voice feature that allows you to converse vocally with Copilot. It’s a bit like OpenAI’s new AdvancedVoice Mode in that you can speak to the AI like you would a human, even interrupting mid-word, and hear what it has to say back.
You can select four voices for the experience, with multiple accents, though only in English for now. Copilot Voice can also be your newscaster with the Copilot Daily feature. You can get audio summaries of the latest news and weather personalized to your location and interests. The AI relies on Microsft’s partners, including Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst, and the Financial Times, to source and summarize the news.
Copilot Daily: Copilot Daily helps you kick off your morning with a summary of news and weather, all read in your favorite Copilot Voice, with more options like reminders of what’s coming soon. It’s an antidote for that familiar feeling of information overload. Clean, simple and easy to digest. Copilot Daily will only pull from authorized content sources
CoPilot and Business Central
September 28th, 2024 by Stephen Jones No comments »In the rapidly evolving world of AI, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central leads the way with innovations already adopted by more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses.
Powered by next-generation AI, Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central introduces new ways to streamline workflows, boost productivity, and unlock creativity.
Nine out of ten people want simpler ways to automate daily tasks, Copilot helps to free time so employees can focus on their most meaningful work.
Copilot in Business Central is your everyday AI companion, helping you to speed through tasks, build momentum, and improve the way work gets done. With Copilot, you can:
- Get answers quickly and easily using natural language.
- Spark creativity with creative content ideas.
- Save time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.
- Anticipate and overcome business challenges.
(Copilot is free with your Business Central licenses, (but Microsoft says it hasn’t ruled out fair-use policies, quotas, or additional pricing in the future.)
Copilot in Power Automate allows open-ended and conversational experiences while authoring flows that use your Business Central data.
- Ask questions and get assistance to improve and change those flows.
- Copilot stays with you in your flow and helps you build, set up, and run an automation on your behalf through a comfortable chat experience.
- Copilot takes your input and provides either documentation, links, or answers in the Copilot chat pane. Most importantly, it makes changes to the structure of the flow based on your natural language description.
According to a Microsoft survey, nine out of 10 workers in those businesses want to use AI to reduce repetitive tasks in their jobs
Forty eight million people now use some element of Power Platform, according to Microsoft. It’s a big number, but one that the company believes could still grow rapidly as the team pushes forward on its latest AI-centric product vision.
The Copilot story already extends across all Power Platform services, but Microsoft plans to move that story further with agents. Agents can take different forms, typically either working alongside a human user or operating autonomously Microsoft has made broad use of the term “agentive” to describe their current vision across Power Platform in which Copilot tools and services can be deployed to take a more active role in business processes.
Agents in Copilot can work in a range of roles and settings, from prompt-driven to autonomous. They will still rely on grounding in data, actions, and permissions through existing Copilot controls.
Copilot Studio, formerly known as Power Virtual Agent, has now been used by 480,000 organizations, according to Microsoft
New agent-building experiences
Agents will be able to work with humans in more modalities soon. For example, a public preview of “Record with Copilot” allows users to go beyond written instructions when training a copilot to build a Power Automate desktop flow for RPA. With the “record” approach, a user navigates a process on their desktop while also speaking to explain the flow. The recording may also allow for the sharing details like screenshots or videos. The Copilot can ingest the various types of content, align them, and create a new flow that groups the elements logically, creates loops where needed, maps data, and accounts for other flow-building tasks.
You still have Studio, you still have Designer, you still build apps, you build workflows. It’s just enriched and turbocharged
IDC estimates that organizations need to develop 1 billion new applications by 2028, Deploying a corps of new AI-based agents could be the answer for Power Platform professionals tasked with meeting the demand for new apps. These agents are expert visual designers, data modelers, security experts, app developers, code generators, this team together with other people co-authoring…is how we’re going to create the billion apps.
