This episode is sponsored by Stratos Cloud Alliance. As Microsoft expands the capabilities of M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and surrounding tools, partners must work to understand the updates and translate them into meaningful guidance for their clients. That ability to mature AI skills in a rapidly evolving marketplace requires partners to bring a combination of skills to bear, according to our guests, David Buggy of Velosio and Scott May of Stratos Cloud Alliance. Customers expect partners to bring a practical but also forward-looking approach to Copilot and AI agent capabilities. But often, those partners are still working to help their teams understand the latest changes so they can provide the right guidance to clients. David and Scott break down some of those challenges for us and share some of the ways partners are adapting. We discuss what it means to be customer zero today, learning from other partners, and introducing new monetization options. They also share some of the go-to-market motions that are shoing promise, including messaging that they believe is resonating with customers as everyone races to stay current with the AI landscape. If you would like to continue the conversation on how you can use AI in your org, book time with Scott May: Meet with Scott May | Stratos Cloud Alliance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6coU3xjFsQ

EPPC 2026 begins soon, and MSDW is a media partner of the event with on-site coverage planned. To prepare, we talked to one speaker who will be presenting two sessions at the event, Microsoft MVP Sean Astrakhan. Sean tells us about his two session, one on building accurate AI with Azure tools, and another focused on building better integrations with Power Automate and more advanced tools. We discuss our expectations for the event, the experience of an attendee vs a presenter, and picking sessions that can fill in knowledge gaps. Sean's next free workshop: https://www.untethered365.com/freetraining Save €200 with the code MSDynamicsWorld. Book now! EPPC 2026 on MSDW: https://msdynamicsworld.com/eppc-2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkIR4Q0yzdU

In this episode, Bryan Goode, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, speaks with Dr. Tasos Lazarides, Director of Digital Transformation, IITS at California State University San Marcos, for an inside look at how AI is transforming student support and engagement across the university. Tune in to learn:
• How CSUSM unified student data across departments to create a single, end‑to‑end view of each student • Building a 24/7, omnichannel support model that meets students where they are—across voice, chat, and messaging • Using AI agents to scale personalized support while keeping humans at the center of every interaction • How a human‑first approach to AI is helping improve student outcomes, engagement, and access to support at scale Learn more about Microsoft AI solutions: https://msft.it/6055vUHdz
Learn more about Dynamics 365 Contact Center: https://msft.it/6056vUHdM
Follow Bryan Goode on LinkedIn: https://msft.it/6057vUHd3
Follow Tasos Lazarides on LinkedIn: https://msft.it/6058vUHdO
Want to learn more?
View more of AI in Action here: https://msft.it/6059vUHdP #Microsoft #MicrosoftDynamics365 #AIinAction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeLSQG6yNRU