The Future of AI blog series is an evolving collection of posts from the AI Futures team in collaboration with subject matter experts across Microsoft. In this series, we explore tools and technologies that will drive the next generation of AI. Explore more at: Collections | Microsoft Learn
AI doesn’t have to be cold, corporate, or overly complicated. In fact, some of the most powerful AI experiences I’ve seen lately started with a goose.
Yes, really – a goose!
In an episode of Cozy AI Kitchen, I introduced two very different AI agents. One is designed to hype you up. The other? To help you work smarter.
Emotional Support Goose: Play Meets Permission
One of the AI agents is an Emotional Support Goose – which is equally chaotic and caring. It delivers all-caps affirmations when you need them most. It honks. It flaps. It fearlessly defends you against digital doubters and inner critics alike.
Its origin story is equally chaotic. It began, like many great things, with a text sent to the wrong person. I sent my friend a video of a man dramatically pretending to faint in front of his pet geese, and stated, “You should ask HR for an emotional support goose.”
Except…I didn’t text my friend. I texted a recruiter.
During the offer phase!
To their everlasting credit, the recruiter thought I was genuinely negotiating for goose-related benefits (imagine the benefits portal).
We both paused and asked: What even is an emotional support goose?
Thanks to AI, that question now has an answer.
And while the goose began as a playful experiment, it uncovered something deeper:
When you bring humor and heart into AI, you lower the barrier to entry.
People laugh. They lean in. They explore.
Play isn’t frivolous. It’s how we prototype the future.
Penultimate Penguin: Duplicating Expertise, Not Just Tasks
Where the goose helps you feel seen, the other AI agent I created - a Penultimate Penguin - helps get things done.
As the content expert for Azure AI Foundry, I field a steady stream of requests: string reviews, tone checks, content clarifications. These tasks aren’t difficult, but they’re frequent. And they fracture my focus, leading to bottlenecks in productivity.
So instead of answering each one manually, I built an AI agent to help me scale.
Enter: The Penultimate Penguin, affectionately known by our team as Penny. Penny is a content design agent trained on real heuristics, research, tone guides, and style files. It can:
- Rewrite error messages
- Explain rationale
- Reference brand guidance
- Save hours of back-and-forth
Why “Penultimate”? Because it’s not the final draft—and it shouldn’t be.
LLMs are useful, but let’s be honest: they’re chatty, occasionally confusing collaborators. The penguin gets you 90% there with speed and structure, but a human still makes the final call.
AI handles the mechanics so humans can focus on the meaning. This shift clears the way for writers to think more like strategists.
Build with Birds: A Call to Creators
If you’re curious about designing with AI today, ask yourself:
Are you just automating tasks? Or are you amplifying your team’s best instincts?
One delivers efficiency. The other builds a culture where creativity scales.
The goose and the penguin aren’t just metaphors. They’re design prompts. Strategic signals.
The right agent doesn’t just complete a task. It reflects your voice. It scales your vision.
It even carries a little of your weirdness with it.
So, whether you're building a productivity tool or an emotional support companion:
Design with feeling. Deploy with flow. And remember, the future just might start with a honk.
Now it’s your turn to build with Azure AI Foundry
- Check out our GitHub Repository
- Watch our demo on YouTube
- Get started with Azure AI Foundry, and jump directly into Visual Studio Code
- Download the Azure AI Foundry SDK
- Take the Azure AI Foundry learn courses
- Review the Azure AI Foundry documentation
- Keep the conversation going in GitHub and Discord
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