Month That Was (MTW) Unplugged - Sep-Oct 2024

Welcome to the September edition of "Month That Was" (MTW), where I shared key updates and insights from the Microsoft ecosystem. This month, we covered a range of topics, from Industry focus in GenAI, new AI advancements to multiple initiatives. So, let us dive in...

Why do we need business focus in Copilots & Agents?

Business focus and copilots, that get kind of gives away the point which I'm trying to bring in with this image and the question which is there - "Why do we need clothing"?

The basic needs for clothing that we know are protection and modesty. These two areas we all know, ever since the dawn of humanity as we evolved into the modern form of Homo sapiens. Typically it goes beyond that into. Also, these have become a form of an expression. It also depicts the the way we perceive our personality in front of others or want us to be perceived. There is also an element of functionality - casual mode, sitting on the beach, I will have a different clothing probably vs. when I'm in office which would be more formal, and if I am meeting a client even more formal. Also, in some people's mind, there is a status attached to what we wear, the brand. There is also an identity which we attach to an individual. For example, a doctor in a white coat, a pilot in a certain dress, firefighter in a certain dress, etc. Sometimes this is to do with protection as well in case of dangerous occupations.

Now why I'm making this entire story? Well, we have moved beyond cuts, colors and other things and it goes upon beyond protection and modesty as the primary need. If we have absorbed this part, that's the point I want to make about copilots and the agents of the new world.

Primarily objective for them, also maybe only to improve productivity and help the business be more efficient, reduce costs through autiomation and bring value. But the other elements which are there like an expression, functionality, status, identity, etc. in clothing are euqally critical in world of GenAI. A business oriented conversation is a must because businesses think about the impact of whatever we are working on and delivering, it should give some benefit to bsiness. The role of business analysts is becoming critical again. Check out the blog by Srini Raghavan here - https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/article/copilot-and-lexisnexis-for-isvs

Updates from the World of AI

• Delloite Consulting published their report on "The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise" which gives deep insights into areas like - behaviours driving the most value for GenAI initiatives, top benefits achieved, elements needed to scale these iniatives from pilot to productgion.

• Salesforce Introduces Agentforce Partner Network — The World’s First Agent Ecosystem. You can check the press release here - https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2024/09/17/agentforce-partner-network-announcement/ . This open ecosystem enables a company’s Agentforce to complete complex tasks that require chaining together actions across Salesforce and a broad network of third-party systems and agents. Partners like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM, and Workday will extend Agentforce with new agent actions, pre-built agent templates, and partner agents that can plan and take action across multiple systems on behalf of users and businesses. Partner-built agent actions and templates will be available to customers natively in the platform through Salesforce’s AppExchange to quickly and easily customize out-of-the-box agents or to build their own agents with specialized skills. Global system integrators — including Accenture, Deloitte Digital, Capgemini, IBM Consulting, PwC, and Slalom — will bring Agentforce to life for customers, accelerating AI-driven transformations for businesses worldwide

• AI Leads A Service-As-Software (Software-as-Autonomous-Service) Paradigm Shift: The push towards services represents a $4.6 trillion opportunity! AI companies are leading a transition from Software-as-a-Service to Service-as-Software, turning the table on the very essence of SaaS. In the software business, a company may sell access to its platform or tool, but customers are still responsible for using that tool to achieve the desired outcome. In the services business, responsibility for achieving the desired outcome sits with the company selling the service. Instead of QuickBooks, you offer tax services—in this case, conducted by an AI accountant. Read the Forbes acticle here.

Microsoft & the world of AI

• Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) - The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) to make investments in new and expanded data centers to meet growing demand for computing power, as well as energy infrastructure to create new sources of power for these facilities. These infrastructure investments will be chiefly in the United States fueling AI innovation and economic growth, and the remainder will be invested in U.S. partner countries. This partnership will support an open architecture and broad ecosystem, providing full access on a non-exclusive basis for a diverse range of partners and companies. NVIDIA will support GAIIP, offering its expertise in AI data centers and AI factories to benefit the AI ecosystem. GAIIP will also actively engage with industry leaders to help enhance AI supply chains and energy sourcing for the benefit of its customers and the industry. The partnership will initially seek to unlock $30 billion of private equity capital over time from investors, asset owners, corporates, which in turn will mobilize up to $100 billion in total investment potential when including debt financing. You can read about it here - https://news.microsoft.com/2024/09/17/blackrock-global-infrastructure-partners-microsoft-and-mgx-launch-new-ai-partnership-to-invest-in-data-centers-and-supporting-power-infrastructure/
• The next phase of Microsoft 365 Copilot innovation - Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave announcements were great and if you missed the event, check out the post by Jack Rowbotham on LinkedIn (Post). You can check more details here - https://news.microsoft.com/m365-copilot-Sept-2024/

• Unveiling Copilot agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio to supercharge your business - if you missed this post by Charles Lamanna , do go through it for once here - Supercharge your business with agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft Copilot Blog

• IDC study on partner profitability with Microsoft AI - Nicole Dezen published a post sharing details of the study. IDC projects that generative AI will add nearly $10 trillion to global GDP over the next decade. You can check out the article here - https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/article/ai-value-for-partners

• Microsoft Ignite is around the corner - The registrations are open and Nicole Dezen published a blog with details and a video message here - partner.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/article/ignite-2024-registration-opening. You can check out the video as well titled "Join Us at Microsoft Ignite 2024: In-Person and Online from Chicago!"

• Updates from 3rd annual Power Platform Community Conference in Las Vegas, with over 6K participants - Charles Lamanna shared a Linkedin Post summarizing the event too. Fantatstic event and we at Infosys were also part of the event, great energy, great collaboration, great ecosystem and a great opportunity for future!

Industry Clouds

We at 印孚瑟斯 and Infosys Microsoft Practice are developing use cases and AI applications in specific industries. We discussed in detail around the importance of tailoring AI solutions to meet industry-specific needs and what we are doing in this space <Truncated as it is Infosys Confidential>

One thing i wanted to share in this context and which we discussed on the call as well was Horizons report by Phil Fersht 's team at HFS Research specifically Thomas Reuner , Suhas AR and Mayank Madhur titled - HFS Horizons: Industry Cloud Service Providers, 2024 (Link, behind a paywall) which has a fantatatic opening paragraph along with indepth analysis inside. Pasting it here - Only a third of enterprises are realizing their cloud ambitions. Their biggest challenge is aligning technology and business objectives. They need more help understanding the cloud target operating model to progress on their transformation journey. Retrofitting innovations such as cloud into traditional operating models is a recipe for failure. We discussed in details around the findings of this report too. <Truncated as it is Infosys & HFS Research Confidential>

Updates from Infosys

• Release of Microsoft Maximization Model (M-CUBE) - We at Infosys Microsoft Practice released Infosys Microsoft Maximization Model (M-CUBE)?bringing together 20 years plus of learning and experience for our clients in a single model and repository. This builds over the previos releases and models used. M-CUBE is an inhouse migration and implementation framework that encompasses best practices sourced from our experience in delivering hundreds of programs. M-Cube is an execution runway for programs that helps clients navigate seamlessly from the initiation stage to closure, via structured program management & implementation phases. It comprises steps, guidelines, templates, checklists, accelerators, tracking and governance to ensure defined outcomes. We will be releasing a brochure soon on this for public cconsumption. I did publish a LinkedIn post which you can checkout for more details.

• Engineering Next 2024" celebrations - with theme of ?Reimagining the World with AI? at Infosys Hyderabad Campus on 25 Sep - a great event organized by Infosys Engineering Services team at 印孚瑟斯 Hyderabad Campus with Raghu Boddupally as the chief guest. We had speakers from T-Hub , Indian School of Business , Mahindra University , JNTUH College of Engineering Hyderabad . You can check our more details around the fireside chat and other sessions at my LinkedIn post.

Conclusion and Future Directions

There were four key areas which were shared for weeeknd reading or subsequent follow-up

• What seem to be ”inflection points” are usually the result of years of patient investment - Fastcompany article on Satya Nadella - Check out the details at https://www.fastcompany.com/91175721/satya-nadella-microsoft-ai-openai-chatgpt-linkedin-github-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-10-most-innovative

• Podcast Alert: Introducing From the Horse's Mouth - Intrepid Conversations with Phil Fersht - Great start to the podcase with three episodes, one of them with Ravi Kumar S my mentor, manager and a permanent inspiration (and continues to do so), who hired me from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow long long time back and gave me an opportunity, support, free-hand and guidance to incubate Infosys Microsoft Practice at Infosys??

• A unique journey: Learnings from Swimming the English Channel - Rohan Patnaik , cofounder of WoB - World of Brands and as he describes himself - "Ultramarathon Ocean swimmer, Ironman Triathlete, Passionate about sports" is my batchmate from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and he shared a wonderful blog after crossing the English channel in a relay swim, with three others. You can check it out here

• The "Responsive" Leader: A Catalyst for Team & Enterprise Success - A lazy Sunday after musing, as I was seeing a documentary on YouTube on Eddystone Reef lighthouse, and I started wondering about few things, which finally got penned in a blog. You can check the LinkedIn post here.

The meeting concluded with reflections on the key takeaways and the potential future directions for AI in business. It encouraged further exploration of how AI can be leveraged across various industries.

Stay connected and looking forward to sharing the next edition of MTW Unplugged.