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A practical discussion with Mary Pantelopoulou on quantifying and realising business value from AI and low code, using the Business Value Assessment to tie Power Platform, M365 Copilot, and autonomous agents to top‑line growth, cost reduction, risk mitigation, and redesigned processes that free people to focus on higher‑value work.

👉️ Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/787

🎙️ What you’ll learn

• Frame AI investments with a clear business value model tied to strategic objectives
• Identify and quantify use cases using benchmarks and customer scenarios
• Move beyond time savings to decisions on how freed time is used
• Rethink processes for AI, not just automate existing steps
• Apply autonomous agents to transform CRM/ERP into intelligent platforms

✅ Highlights

• “It feels like when the internet was introduced… a big disruptive thing.”
• “Our focus is business applications, Power Platform, and recently M365 Copilot.”
• “We help customers quantify: if I’m spending $1, how much am I getting in return?”
• “We use our own technology—customer zero—to benchmark and quantify value.”
• “What do you actually do with this time… that’s the most interesting.”
• “Think about your processes, but rethink them.”
• “AI is becoming the backbone of our modern business applications.”
• “We’ve brought modern work and business applications together in a team called ABS.”
• “Pre‑built autonomous agents in sales, service, finance, supply chain, and customer insights.”
• “Traditional CRM and ERP are transformed into intelligent platforms.”

🧰 Mentioned

• Business Value Assessment (BVA) tool - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/guidance/coe/business-value-toolkit
• Power Platform - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform
• M365 Copilot - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot
• Agents / autonomous agents - https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/10/21/new-autonomous-agents-scale-your-team-like-never-before/
• Customer zero - https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/inside-microsoft-being-customer-zero-in-an-ai-powered-world/
• Contact center productivity - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/products/contact-center

✅Keywords
ai, power platform, business value assessment, m365 copilot, autonomous agents, crm, erp, productivity, one microsoft, finance, contact center, low‑code

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

Support the show

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM

This episode explores how AI is transforming hiring, reducing bias, and helping businesses reliably identify A players. Fletcher Wimbush shares practical steps for using AI to streamline job analysis, screening, assessments, and onboarding, giving small and mid sized businesses access to talent strategies once reserved for large enterprises.

👉 Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/786

🎙️ What you’ll learn

• How AI accelerates fact driven hiring
• How CEOs can attract top talent through direct outreach
• How to design effective screener questions with AI
• How assessments surface high potential candidates
• How AI enabled systems cut time to offer

✅ Highlights

• "It starts with having a great team."
• "AI came along and we were able to take that entire process and accelerate the timeframe."
• "A lot of hiring can be done almost completely on automatic using AI."
• "AI is way less biased than the human."
• "Ask some really well worded multiple choice questions that AI created for us."
• "It eliminated 90 percent of those applicants right off the bat because they've self selected."
• "Assessments do a phenomenal job of bringing the people with the right integrity and behavioural makeup to the surface."
• "I almost never hire anybody with direct experience."
• "We built the system from an AI lens."
• "We onboard folks and get them up and running almost instantly."
• "Hiring is mostly going to be automated in the next five years."
• "The people who really embrace that are going to be the architects driving results."

🧰 Mentioned

• The FACT Driven Hiring System eLearning Course - https://discovered.ai/hiring-academy/
• Discovered - https://www.discovered.ai
• Y Combinator - https://www.ycombinator.com

✅Keywords
ai hiring, recruitment, assessments, a players, smb hiring, job analysis, screening, onboarding, bias reduction, automation, talent strategy, ceo outreach

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

Support the show

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith

Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM

This episode explores practical ways to lift the quality of hybrid work through better tools, clearer communication, and smarter use of AI. Neil Fluester shares insights from years in unified communications, including how Copilot is evolving from a task engine to an enhancement engine, why peripheral design matters for productivity, and how thoughtful setups, from webcams to lighting to teleprompters, shape human connection in meetings.

🎙️ Full Show Notes
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/785

👉 What you’ll learn

• How to move from basic Copilot prompts to agentic, enhancement-focused workflows
• How hardware design influences productivity and meeting presence
• How speaker attribution, transcription and translation are reshaping collaboration
• How to improve video quality with simple upgrades to lighting, cameras and placement
• How home automation and monitoring can streamline daily routines

✅ Highlights

• “I use it as a bit of a do engine. Copilot, do this for me, Copilot, do that for me.” “I’m trying to cross the chasm to where we move from that just getting it to do stuff to enhance me.”
• “The translation stuff is just blows my mind.”
• “You can kind of opt in and train it and teach it your linguistic style and your tone.”
• “It’s garbage in, garbage out.”
• “You wouldn’t leave the house looking terrible, so why would you turn up to the meeting looking terrible?”
• “Stop sucking on the way you look.”
• “Any free power is free power at the end of the day.”
• “Lithium iron phosphate is the new chemistry that everyone sort of loves because it’s super safe.”
• “You can knock up a large amount of kilowatt storage now.”

🧰 Mentioned

• Microsoft Teams - https://teams.microsoft.com
• Copilot - https://copilot.microsoft.com
• Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf0yupPbVkqdRJDPVE4PtTlm6quDhiu7

✅ Keywords
copilot, teams, logitech, webcams, teleprompter, ai, video quality, home assistant, automation, translation, transcription, unified communications

Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoption

Support the show

If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.

Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith