How to run a managed service practice in the AI era
AI is rapidly changing how you deliver services, support customers, and operate your business. Join us for September's Microsoft Meetup for MSPs to explore a practical operating model for MSPs navigating the AI era. Learn why secure, well-managed tenants and standardized operating practices are critical prerequisites for introducing AI into service delivery and engineering workflows. See how multi-tenant management tools, supported APIs, monitoring, automation, and generated documentation can help create repeatable and scalable operations across your customer base. We'll also examine the role of professional services automation as a system of record for requests, approvals, evidence, time tracking, and billing, showing how automation can be connected through governed workflows that improve consistency without sacrificing accountability. Finally, we'll look at where human oversight remains essential, including AI-generated scripts, policy changes, customer communications, and any workflow that impacts access, security, or client data. Successful AI adoption starts with fundamentals, not prompts. Leave with practical ideas you can implement immediately, including one data-control improvement, one tenant-standardization opportunity, and one workflow you can automate within the next 90 days. How do I participate? Registration is not required. Add this event to your calendar and select Attend to receive reminders. Post your questions in advance, or any time during the live broadcast.
How are people estimating LLM API costs before putting an AI application into production?
It's relatively easy to estimate the number of API requests, but I'm finding the token side more interesting because input and output usage can vary considerably between requests. Things get even more complicated when comparing different models or using long prompts and conversation history. Do you normally build a spreadsheet for this, use the provider's pricing information directly, or use a dedicated calculator? I'm especially interested in approaches that estimate monthly cost from expected requests, average input tokens, average output tokens, and the model being used.Could Marketplace Become an AI Discovery Agent?
Today, customers still find apps in Marketplace by searching keywords or browsing categories. In a large catalog like the Marketplace, that often feels like guesswork. Publishers describe similar solutions differently, and customers rarely know the exact keywords to use. Many customers end up scrolling through listings, getting tired, and leaving. When that happens, we as publishers never get the chance to connect with them. What if Marketplace used AI to change that? Instead of searching, customers could simply describe what they need: “I need a time-tracking app that works natively in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, has light project management, follows our security policies, and keeps all company data inside our tenant in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” An AI agent could instantly suggest the best matching apps and guide the customer directly to Get it now. And maybe the next step is even bigger: What if Marketplace became an agent or coworker for Microsoft Copilot, helping users discover and install the right apps simply by asking? Curious what others think—could this be the future of Marketplace discovery?AI Skills Navigator is now available in Microsoft Copilot
Start with a question for the Learning Agent in Copilot and get recommendations from AI Skills Navigator, helping you find the right next step whenever you need to learn something new. Matt Erni is Product Manager at Microsoft working across Learning Agent and AI Skills Navigator to bring relevant skilling into the flow of work. Learning new AI skills has never been more important for individuals and organizations alike. But when you need to learn something new, finding the right next step isn’t always straightforward. Let’s say you’re preparing a presentation, building your first agent, securing an AI workload, or even planning your next career step. You’re right in the middle of a task and realize there’s a skill you need to learn to do it well. The challenge isn't just finding training. It's finding resources you can trust that are tailored to your role, goals, experience level, and preferred way to learn. That’s why we recently introduced Learning Agent in Microsoft Copilot, a personalized AI upskilling experience that helps you build Copilot and AI skills in the flow of work. Learning Agent uses role information, work context, skills signals, and organizational learning sources to bring personalized recommendations directly into Copilot, helping you discover relevant learning opportunities and build skills when and where you need them most. Today, we're extending that experience through a new integration with AI Skills Navigator, our agentic skilling platform. Learning Agent can now also recommend training, skilling experiences, and credentials from AI Skills Navigator directly within Copilot, making it easier to move from a question to the next step in building a skill. Videoclip: Overview of Learning Agent in Microsoft Copilot. If the player doesn’t load, open the video in a new window. Turn work questions into learning opportunities Whether you're trying to solve a problem, build a new skill, or explore your next learning goal, you can start by asking a question in Copilot using natural language. Here are some examples: How can I use Copilot in new ways? What should I learn before building my first agent? Which videos can help me learn about Copilot Cowork? What courses can help me learn how to secure my AI agent? Which Microsoft credential can help me lead AI adoption in my organization? Learning Agent uses your question along with context from you and your organization to surface personalized skilling recommendations and guidance. With the AI Skills Navigator integration, those recommendations can now also include training modules, learning paths, skilling sessions, videos, and Microsoft Credentials. So, no matter what you're trying to accomplish, Learning Agent is there to guide you to the right next step. The recommendations from AI Skills Navigator are clearly labeled, so you can understand the source and choose the next step that works for you. Getting started is simple: open Learning Agent in Microsoft Copilot and ask a question about a skill, topic, or credential you'd like to learn more about. Keep learning without losing your place When Learning Agent recommends a module, learning path, or curated video from AI Skills Navigator, you keep the context that brought you there. You can open the recommendation alongside your Copilot conversation, explore the content, and use features such as AI-generated summaries and podcasts as you go. Progress is automatically saved in AI Skills Navigator, making it easy to pick up where you left off and continue learning over time. There's no separate sign-in required. The full AI Skills Navigator catalog gives you access to interactive learning experiences like skilling sessions or opportunities to earn Microsoft Credentials. The first time you access these experiences, you'll create an AI Skills Navigator profile, unlocking additional personalized learning, progress tracking, and recommendations in the full experience. Whether you start with a quick recommendation or continue into a skilling session or credential, you can keep learning without losing momentum. Learning for individuals—and entire organizations Learning Agent and AI Skills Navigator are designed to support you in skilling at any level while also helping your organization scale learning more effectively. Learning Agent can surface recommendations from organizational knowledge sources, including SharePoint, LinkedIn Learning, learning management systems, third-party content, role-play providers, and now AI Skills Navigator. This helps employees spend less time searching for learning resources and more time building skills. So, whether you’re building AI fluency, preparing for a new role, earning a credential, or developing technical expertise, Learning Agent and AI Skills Navigator help connect everyday questions with the learning opportunities that matter most. At the organizational level, this creates a stronger connection between employee learning, company knowledge, and the skills needed to support business priorities. Availability: Learning Agent is available to organizations and their employees with Microsoft Copilot. Access to connected learning experiences, including some third-party sources, depends on how an organization has configured and licensed those sources. Check with your organization if you're not sure what’s available to you. Keep building skills over time Learning Agent helps you get started on the right track. AI Skills Navigator helps you go deeper, track progress, and keep building skills over time. Together, they help individuals and organizations connect learning to real work and skilling goals. Get started now. Add Learning Agent to Microsoft Copilot and start asking questions about the skills, topics, and credentials you’d like to learn more about. New to AI Skills Navigator? Read The moment AI skilling stopped being optional—and started being personal.Turn your SaaS application into a revenue-ready offer with Microsoft Marketplace
Building a great SaaS application is just the beginning. Turning that innovation into a transactable offer requires the right approach to tenant isolation, subscription lifecycle management, billing, security, operations, and Marketplace onboarding. The Agentic Road to Revenue explores how Git-Ape SaaS skills can help software companies move from SaaS concept to a commercially ready Microsoft Marketplace offer. Follow the Contoso Outdoors journey to see how an agentic, repository-driven approach brings architecture decisions, Marketplace integration, fulfillment and metering, security, operational readiness, and Partner Center onboarding into one practical path. Whether you’re planning your first transactable SaaS offer or refining an existing Marketplace strategy, this article offers a useful blueprint for turning technical decisions into a scalable commercialization plan. Read the full article to explore the agentic path from SaaS application to Microsoft Marketplace revenue: The Agentic Road to RevenueAI agent ownership change
I was just in the M365 Admin Center because I needed to transfer ownership of an agent for a colleague – but it now suddenly looks like Microsoft has changed something in their permission structure. As a result, I can no longer transfer ownership of agents, and the system tells me that I don't have permission to manage that particular app. So, the question is: do I now also need the Application Administrator role in order to continue managing this? I get this message:Copilot, Microsoft 365 & Power Platform product updates call
💡Copilot, Microsoft 365 & Power Platform product updates call concentrates on the different use cases and features within the Microsoft 365 and in Power Platform. Call includes topics like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Search, Microsoft Lists, SharePoint, Power Automate, Power Apps and more. 👏 Weekly Tuesday call is for all community members to see Microsoft PMs, engineering and Cloud Advocates showcasing the art of possible with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. 📅 On the 15th of September we'll have following agenda: News and updates from Microsoft Together mode group photo Rémi Dyon – Building an Agent with GitHub Harness in Copilot Studio Steve Pucelik + Marc Windle – Latest on SharePoint Embedded Vesa Juvonen – Surfacing your business apps in Copilot canvas – IT concierge scenario 📞 & 📺 Join the Microsoft Teams meeting live at https://aka.ms/community/ms-speakers-call-join 🗓️ Download recurrent invite for this weekly call from https://aka.ms/community/ms-speakers-call-invite 👋 See you in the call! 💡 Building something cool for Microsoft 365 or Power Platform (Copilot, SharePoint, Power Apps, etc)? We are always looking for presenters - Volunteer for a community call demo at https://aka.ms/community/request/demo 📖 Resources: Previous community call recordings and demos from the Microsoft Community Learning YouTube channel at https://aka.ms/community/youtube Microsoft 365 & Power Platform samples from Microsoft and community - https://aka.ms/community/samples Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community details - https://aka.ms/community/home 🧡 Sharing is caring!Microsoft Power Platform community call - September 2026
💡 Power Platform monthly community call focuses on different extensibility options for builders, makers and developers within the Power Platform. Typically demos are from our awesome community members who showcase the art of possible within the Power Platform capabilities. 👏 Looking to catch up on the latest news and updates, including cool community demos, this call is for you! 📅 On 16th of September we'll have following agenda: Power Platform Updates & Events Latest on Power Platform samples John Liu - How to easily to convert markdown documents to PDF with Power Automate Sanjiv Venkatram - Using Azure AI video analyzer + Functions + Storage & Power Platform to analyze echocardiograms Billur Şamdancıoğlu - Copilot Cowork for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Elliot Margot - Stop Clicking Through Run History: Build Your Own MCP to Debug Power Automate Flows 📅 Download recurrent invite from https://aka.ms/powerplatformcommunitycall 📞 & 📺 Join the Microsoft Teams meeting live at https://aka.ms/PowerPlatformMonthlyCall 💡 Building something cool for Microsoft 365 or Power Platform (Copilot, SharePoint, Power Apps, etc)? We are always looking for presenters - Volunteer for a community call demo at https://aka.ms/community/request/demo 👋 See you in the call! 📖 Resources: Previous community call recordings and demos from the Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community YouTube channel at https://aka.ms/community/videos Microsoft 365 & Power Platform samples from Microsoft and community - https://aka.ms/community/samples Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community details - https://aka.ms/community/homeCopilot, Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Community call
💡 Copilot, Microsoft 365 & Power Platform weekly community call focuses on different use cases and features within the Microsoft 365 and Power Platform - across Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, SharePoint, Power Apps and more. Demos in this call are presented by the community members. 👏 Looking to catch up on the latest news and updates, including cool community demos, this call is for you! 📅 On 17th of September we'll have following agenda: Latest on SharePoint Framework (SPFx) Latest on Copilot prompt of the week PnPjs CLI for Microsoft 365 Dev Proxy Reusable Controls for SPFx SPFx Toolkit VS Code extension PnP Search Solution Demos this time Josh Bray – Managing Power Platform Environments from SharePoint with an SPFx Web Part Yves Habersaat – Agent-Driven Power Apps: Canvas Authoring MCP Server with GitHub Copilot CLI Mohammed Amer – Build Interactive Component Components UX for Copilot canvas for Microsoft 365 Roadmap Features 📅 Download recurrent invite from https://aka.ms/community/m365-powerplat-dev-call-invite 📞 & 📺 Join the Microsoft Teams meeting live at https://aka.ms/community/m365-powerplat-dev-call-join 💡 Building something cool for Microsoft 365 or Power Platform (Copilot, SharePoint, Power Apps, etc)? We are always looking for presenters - Volunteer for a community call demo at https://aka.ms/community/request/demo 👋 See you in the call! 📖 Resources: Previous community call recordings and demos from the Microsoft Community Learning YouTube channel at https://aka.ms/community/youtube Microsoft 365 & Power Platform samples from Microsoft and community - https://aka.ms/community/samples Microsoft 365 & Power Platform community details - https://aka.ms/community/home 🧡 Sharing is caring!Choosing a real-time voice architecture on Microsoft Foundry: three enterprise patterns
A practical comparison of three real-time voice architectures on Microsoft Foundry, including implementation tradeoffs and four enterprise release gates for residency, networking, retrieval authorization, and tool credentials.
