Your guide to FinOps for AI at Microsoft Ignite 2026

AI has moved from pilots to production, and the questions have changed with it. It is no longer enough to know what AI costs. Leaders want to know whether spend is predictable, who is driving it, and which investments are delivering real business value. That is the job of FinOps for AI: bringing finance, IT, engineering and business teams together to plan, control and optimize AI spend and value. 

At Microsoft Ignite, November 17–20, 2026, in San Francisco and online, FinOps for AI shows up across the agenda, from keynotes to breakouts, demos, lightning talks, table talks and hands-on labs. Whether you manage Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents, build on Microsoft Foundry and GitHub, or own the AI budget, there is a session for you. We've gathered them all in one place so you can plan your week. 

Innovation sessions
Start with the big picture. These sessions will showcase how cost and value fit into Microsoft's broader AI vision, and what's new across the stack.

• INV642: Observability at every layer of the stack 
  As AI and agents scale, visibility, trust, and security become business imperatives. Join Charles Lamanna, Executive Vice President, Copilot, Agents, and Platform, and Hayete Gallot, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Security, to explore how observability at every layer of the stack helps organizations understand where AI is being used, how agents are operating, what risks are emerging, and whether investments are delivering results. See how organizations can turn visibility into action to scale AI with confidence.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/INV642  
  
  
• INV641: Harnessing Your IQ with a continuously improving agent platform
  Join Arun Ulag and Jay Parikh to discover how Microsoft IQ helps your organization activate, protect, and build on the knowledge that makes it unique. Learn how to keep improving as models evolve, with model choice and control intact. Explore how your data and expertise become AI that understands your business, so work runs faster, more accurately, and at lower cost.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/INV641
  
  
  

Breakout sessions
Breakouts go deeper, with technical content and live demos. We've grouped them by topics and scopes.

Understand economics and value

• BRK537: From AI Ambition to Value at Scale
  As AI moves from experimentation into everyday business operations, growing usage alone does not tell leaders whether an investment is working. Learn how organizations can connect AI consumption to measurable business value, establish the visibility and accountability needed to manage it, and determine whether the economics continue to hold as adoption grows. Leave with a practical approach for deciding where AI has earned the right to scale, where to adjust, and where continued investment may not be justified.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK537  
  
  
• BRK308: How Microsoft IQ shapes the cost of enterprise AI
  Enterprise AI does not have one cost model. It has three: people, consumption, and capacity. Through a retail AI scenario and a live cost estimation demo, this session shows how Work IQ, Foundry IQ, Fabric IQ, and Web IQ create different cost shapes, and how to optimize each one for scale, value, and control.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK308  
  
  
• BRK260: The next evolution of AI FinOps: From cost to value
  Visibility into AI spend is just the beginning. Learn how leading organizations optimize investments across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and GitHub Copilot to maximize business impact. Discover how new capabilities, help you manage costs, prove value, and scale the AI initiatives that deliver the biggest results.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK260  
  
  

Establish governance and guardrails

• BRK263: Master AI spend management with Agent 365: Govern your AI budget 
  See the tools IT needs to govern, control, and optimize AI spend at scale. Join this deep dive into Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 Admin Center capabilities for AI FinOps. Learn how to establish guardrails with policies, monitor consumption across AI vendors, measure value, and confidently scale AI across your organization. This is the essential session for IT to understand the latest innovations in AI cost management and governance.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK263  
  
  
• BRK262: Scale agents, not risk: Governance and FinOps for the enterprise 
  As agents move from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, IT needs a new approach to governance and FinOps. Learn how to build a scalable operating model across agent inventory, lifecycle, security, cost management, and optimization, giving teams the freedom to innovate while maintaining the visibility, guardrails, and financial discipline IT needs.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK262  
  
  
• BRK290: Humans, agents, and a game plan: AI governance with GitHub Enterprise
  Give developers, knowledge workers, and AI agents room to innovate with enterprise control. Follow an admin journey in GitHub Enterprise and Copilot: set model policies and managed settings, customize for teams, onboard fast, and manage access and spend. Review config changes via pull requests and use agent activity data to assess governance. See the roadmap linking policy, usage, and cost. Leave with a plan to set guardrails, measure impact, and grow AI adoption without friction.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK290  

Optimize spend and technical choices

• BRK266: Maximize your Copilot Investment: Scale with flexibility and control 
  AI investments are growing, but are organizations getting the most value from them? Learn not only how to gain visibility and control over AI spend, but also how to measure business value and continuously optimize. Explore new capabilities designed to help organizations manage spend against budget, allocate resources effectively, and maximize the value of their AI investments.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK266  
  
  
• BRK271: Manage GitHub Copilot spending and understand team adoption 
  Make informed decisions about your Copilot investment. Explore how model choices, agent workflows, and GitHub Actions contribute to development costs, then use billing reports, budgets, and alerts to manage spending. Learn to interpret adoption and engagement trends, spot underused capabilities, and target support where teams need it. IT admins and engineering leaders will leave with practical steps to manage costs and help developers use Copilot effectively.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK271  
  
  
• BRK216: Multi-model AI in Copilot: Performance and value with built-in trust
  No single AI model is best for every task. As AI advances, organizations need access to the latest models without adding complexity for users, cost uncertainty for leaders, or administrative risk for administrators. Join us to see how Microsoft Copilot provides one governed front door to multi-model AI, with Microsoft evaluation and integration, intelligent routing with Auto, and cost management tools to you optimize AI value while maintaining security, compliance, and control.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK216  
  
  
• BRK280: Designing an agent harness that orchestrates models
  Choosing a model is becoming less important than deciding how and when models are used. Explore how routing can match models to different tasks, constraints, and stages of development. We’ll examine the signals and tradeoffs that guide these decisions, and approaches such as HydraFusion that coordinate models as a portfolio. Leave with a framework for building adaptable agent systems across quality, latency, cost, and control. 
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK280  
  
  
• BRK249: From traces to better agents: The Foundry improvement loop
  Building an agent is the start. Improving it in production is the real work. See how Microsoft Foundry connects traces, evaluations, and optimization to help teams find high-impact issues, test improvements, and re-measure results. Learn a repeatable loop to improve quality, manage cost, and ship better agents while developers stay in control.
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK249

Session for partners

• BRK482: FinOps for AI: Partner Playbook for Building AI Solutions and Services
  AI is creating unprecedented opportunities for partners, but success requires more than innovative solutions. It requires managing the economics behind AI. In this session, Microsoft leaders and industry experts share a practical FinOps framework for AI to help partners anticipate and govern costs, optimize token consumption, and build repeatable, profitable services. Hear real-world partner examples and leave with actionable guidance to turn AI cost management into a competitive advantage.​
  Session page: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/BRK482  
  
  

Theater sessions, lightning talks, table talks and labs

Short on time or want to get hands-on? These shorter formats include product demos, focused talks, small-group discussions and labs. Labs require an RSVP, so reserve your seat early. 

Plan your FinOps for AI week 

Every session above maps to the same journey: plan AI spend so it's predictable, control it so costs stay visible and accountable, and optimize it to get more value from every AI investment. Add the sessions that match your role to your Ignite schedule and stop by to talk with our team. We look forward to seeing you at Ignite. 

Next steps

• Join us at Microsoft Ignite, November 17–20 in San Francisco to see it in action and go hands-on with the team that built it.
  
  
• Catch us on 'Live at Microsoft Ignite' which will be broadcasted on Ignite.com, starting Tuesday, November 17th, through Thursday, November 19th.