When Microsoft MVP Nathan Rose posted this meme of the mystery of the pulled over car, he left his audience intrigued to learn more on how to navigate the new era of generative AI.
Nathan Rose, was one of 31 technical business application experts who gathered for a marathon of talks sharing their best practices, insights and use cases across Microsoft technologies of Power Apps, Power Platform, Copilot and Dynamics 365 at the New Zealand Business Applications Summit 2023.
As one of the largest business applications community driven events in the country, the summit was hosted in unison across three major cities in New Zealand including Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, and supported by an online Teams hangout for those tuning in remotely.
“This is the 6th iteration of the annual New Zealand Power Platform and Dynamics 365 conference. It has turned into a tradition”, says one of the event organisers and Microsoft MVP Rami Mounla.
Hosted by Microsoft’s Business Application MVPs, Rich Burdes, Rami Mounla, Jeevarajan Kumar, Ragavan Rajan and Linn Zaw Win, this event was an impressive showcase of content for Microsoft customers, partners and community members from across industries. The audience varied between consultant professionals and business applications end-users.
Community led events like these play an instrumental role in connecting industry and facilitating professional development. “This is the only Business Application New Zealand focus platform for both speakers and professionals to share their knowledge, learn, and network,” said Rami Mounla.
Copilot top of mind
There were lots of buzz across the country as a follow on from the recent Microsoft Ignite announcements, which can be viewed at the Microsoft Ignite Book of News. MVP Rami Mounla explained that Copilot was a common theme at the summit and observed lots of discussion taking place around on low code and automation. “This year we had a strong online presence equal to the in-person attendance and we talked about Copilot even though it was barely 2 weeks fresh from Ignite,’ says Rami.
Copilot empowers users to get connect to smarter ways of being more productive and creative. Ragavan Rajan, another Microsoft MVP who led this event commented that “the audience was amazed by seeing the Copilot demo. The key takeaway was that they got the message that ‘Automation of repetitive tasks’ can be possible going forward using Copilot”.
He continued, “getting insights about the data in their apps through conversation in natural language was welcomed by the audience. I am sure this is a game-changer for Business Apps. On another note, some concerns were also raised. A few questions were raised about ‘whether copilot can lead to unemployment?’, and the privacy of the data collected by Copilot. Overall, Copilot has the potential to increase productivity and efficiency significantly.”
Microsoft are committed to the advancement of AI driven by ethical principles and have identified six principles that should guide AI development and use. Read the latest on AI policy, research, and engineering.
Make yourself indispensable
Nathan Rose revealed his tips on Surviving the Generative AI Revolution, through an interactive and insightful presentation, involving a piano! He explained the different types of AI, explored what generative AI is doing and gave thought a provoking talk on how to be indispensable in the age of AI. For more, watch his session here.
Expand your learning with over 25 sessions of on-demand videos from the New Zealand Business Applications Summit 2023, including more on Copilot. Learn more on the community YouTube channel.
