Microsoft Ignite 2024 is Live! There is so much news, information, and updates so it’s really hard to follow all of them and watch online sessions at the same time (or attend in Chicago). I selected the most interesting announcements and explored them a little bit. Let’s check out if this edition is only about AI.
Introduction
Here’s my short (yes it’s short!) recap of the tremendous number of news and announcements. This edition is around AI and Copilot but other areas are covered as well (just not so visible). I focused on information from Teams, SharePoint, and the Copilot area. I selected the most important or interesting ones. You can find links to the full list of news at the end of this post.
Agents
Agents are here! Microsoft announced the following out-of-the-box Agents:
Agents in SharePoint
Users can create their own agents, tailored to specific SharePoint files, folders, or sites that support common use cases. These agents can be edited (personalized name and certain behaviors) and can be shared across emails, meetings, and chats. Users can ask the agents questions and get real-time responses based on data behind those Agents. Agents in SharePoint follow existing SharePoint user permissions and sensitivity labels to help prevent the oversharing of sensitive information. These new agents in SharePoint are now generally available.
Employee Self-Service Agent
The Employee Self-Service Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat (BizChat) will answer the most common workplace policy-related questions and will act on key HR and IT-related tasks. For example, you can retrieve benefits and payroll information, start a leave of absence, request a new laptop with IT, or get assistance for Microsoft 365 products and services. This agent is in private preview.
Facilitator agent
The Facilitator agent works within Teams meetings and chats for more effective collaboration. In meetings, the Facilitator agent takes real-time notes. In chats, the Facilitator shares a summary of important information as the conversation happens. This agent is in preview.
Interpreter agent
The Interpreter agent enables real-time interpretation in Teams meetings in up to nine languages so participants can speak and listen in the language of their choice. Meeting participants can also have the Interpreter simulate their personal voice! This one seems really interesting but raises a lot of concerns at the same time (security, privacy, ethics). Who will own my voice? Where it will be stored? Who can access it?
This agent will be in preview early next year and I will monitor it very closely.
Project Manager agent
The Project Manager agent will automate project management in Planner, handling tasks from plan creation to executing tasks. The Project Manager agent can automatically create a new plan from scratch or use a pre-configured template. The Project Manager agent then oversees the entire project, including the assignment of tasks, progress tracking, reminders and notifications, and status reporting. It can also complete tasks, including content creation. This agent is in preview. Seems interesting but need to look at it in real scenarios.
Copilot
Copilot Actions
New Copilot Actions let you automate everyday tasks with fill-in-the-blank prompts that you can set and forget. For example, you can automatically receive a summary of your most important action items at the end of each workday, create an action to gather inputs from your team for a weekly newsletter you send each Thursday or automate customer meeting prep with a recurring action that summarizes your last few interactions ahead of your next sync. It’s very similar to the Power Automate concept – there is a trigger and actions (in this case Copilot prompts). Definitely to check after the Ignite😊
In private preview.
PowerPoint – Narrative Builder based on a file
When starting from a template with a prompt and a referenced file, Copilot’s Narrative Builder will soon also weave the insights from a document into a compelling narrative, with branded designs from templates, speaker notes, and built-in transitions and animations. This will give users a high-quality first draft of slides that are informative and closer to presentation ready. This feature will be generally available with Copilot in PowerPoint beginning in January.
PowerPoint – Presentation translation
Yes, I can even say “finally” for many😊 Copilot will translate an entire PowerPoint into one of 40 languages, all while keeping the overall design of each slide. This feature will be generally available with Copilot in PowerPoint on the web beginning in December and for desktop and Mac in January 2025.
PowerPoint – Organization image support
Copilot will use images stored in asset libraries, including SharePoint Organization Asset Library and now Templafy. That’s a great way to create consistent presentations using approved corporate images from your own libraries. This feature will be generally available with Microsoft 365 Copilot in the first quarter of 2025.
Microsoft Teams
Transcription for multilingual meetings
Meeting transcription will soon support multilingual meetings. When enabled, meeting participants will be able to select one of the 51 spoken languages and one of the 31 translation languages, and the meeting transcript will capture the discussion regardless of the languages spoken.
Intelligent meeting recap translation
Users will get an intelligent meeting recap automatically generated in the translation language they selected for the meeting. Users can also change the translation language of intelligent meeting recap from the Recap tab. This capability will be available next year in Teams desktop, web, and mobile apps.
Storyline integrated in Teams
Storyline (from Viva Engage) in Teams lets leaders share communications with an entire company. The Storyline integration provides a new way to discover content and contribute your thoughts and ideas. More integration of communities from Viva Engage with Teams is coming next year.
Public preview in early 2025
Microsoft Places is Generally available.
AI-powered workplace solution for flexible work available with a Teams Premium license is Generally available! Scary introduction but it’s a really awesome feature 😊In a nutshell – it’s an app for hybrid workers where they can:
- Get recommendations for in-office days (with Copilot)
- Manage booking (with Copilot)
- Find a room or a desk
- Check workplace presence
- Get Team Guidance
- Make a quick book
- Get space analytics data (for admin users)
Copilot file summary in chat
Copilot can read and analyze files pasted in group chats in Teams. You can use it to get a quick summary from Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and PDFs. This feature is also available on mobiles and that’s great. Copilot respects the file’s security policies, so you don’t need to worry about security.
Public preview in early 2025
The new chat & channels experience
This is one of the biggest changes in Teams so far. It was announced a few days ago but the Ignite show emphasized it. The new design merges together chats from personal workspaces and team spaces. You can find all your communications from chats in one place with categories and new options. The old look of teams is gone and it gave me mixed feelings – navigation through multiple teams is not so easy. But hey, it’s a public preview and many things can change before the GA.
Available now in public preview
Loop workspace in a channel
FINALLY. You will be able to add a Loop workspace tab to standard channels! Everyone in the Team gets access to the embedded Loop workspace. It works in the same way as any other tab – click the plus sign (+) at the top of the channel and select Loop from the app list.
Generally available in early 2025
Name pronunciation
Looks tiny but in worldwide organizations it’s a serious problem – how to pronounce your colleague’s name? You can now record and share the correct pronunciation of your name. The recording will be available on your profile card for your colleagues.
Available now in public preview, generally available in early 2025
New calendar experience in Microsoft Teams
The new calendar app is generally available! It was redesigned to offer the same experience as the Outlook calendar. Copilot and Places are also available in the new version (draft an agenda, managed booking, recommended in-office days, Places finder, and Places card ). The new Teams calendar also brings features like calendar sharing, month view, multi-day view, print support, filtering, support for multiple time zones, and more. You’ll find the ‘New calendar’ toggle at the top right of the calendar app in Teams.
Generally available now
Copilot in Teams can analyze content shared on-screen
Copilot provides a view of meetings by analyzing spoken words, chat messages, and now, on-screen content. Yes – on-screen shared content!
This gives you the ability to ask Copilot to summarize or find specific information from screen-shared content, get insights from the presentation, and draft new content based on the entire meeting. This works for any content shared while sharing your desktop screen (including but not limited to documents, slides, spreadsheets, and websites, irrespective of platform or app). Support for PowerPoint Live and Whiteboard in Teams will be coming later.
More details about the quality of captured information and security will be available when the feature hits Public preview.
Public preview in early 2025
Live transcription in Teams meetings support for multiple spoken languages
Own language support is great but multilingual support is way better😊. When enabled, meeting participants can set their own spoken language and translation language, and the meeting transcript will capture the discussion regardless of the languages spoken. Definitely, it will help in more complex environments where multilingual meetings are common thing.
Generally available in early 2025
Intelligent recap for calls from chat and ‘Meet now’ meetings
Intelligent recap is coming to Meet now meetings. This capability will be available for users with a Teams Premium or M365 Copilot license – nothing new here.
Generally available in December 2024
Translated intelligent meeting recap
An intelligent meeting recap will be automatically generated in the translation language users selected for the meeting. You will be able to change the translation language of the intelligent meeting recap from the Recap tab.
Generally available in 2025
Active meeting protection notifications of sensitive screen shared content
When a presenter is screen sharing content, active meeting protection automatically detects potentially sensitive information (e.g., personal data, social security numbers), and alerts both the presenter and the meeting organizer to prevent unintentional sharing. This capability will be available for users with a Teams Premium license. I need to dig deeper into this one because there are many useful scenarios where I want it. But – what about security? Can I change how it detects information? We need to wait for more information and a Public preview version.
Public preview in early 2025
Meeting sensitivity upgrade notification based on shared file
A meeting sensitivity upgrade can now be triggered when an attendee shares a file in a Teams meeting chat or during a live share that has a higher sensitivity setting. Then the meeting’s settings can be upgraded (either automatically or via a recommendation to the organizer), to inherit the same sensitivity setting as the file shared in the meeting. It makes a lot of sense since people can unintentionally mix data with different sensitivity settings without knowing that.
Generally available in early 2025
Email verification for external participants to join Teams meetings
The feature allows meeting organizers to require external participants to verify their email addresses with a one-time passcode (OTP) before joining the meeting. Once verified, participants will appear in the meeting with an ‘email-verified’ label. Verified users will get a better in-meeting experience compared (such as bypassing the lobby and being directly placed into the meeting, honoring the lobby bypass settings for invited participants). The external participant will show up in the meeting, roster, and chat with an ’email verified’ tag, and their profile card will display the verified email address, ensuring organizers have participant information for follow-ups. The feature will be available for the Teams Premium license for a meeting organizer.
Generally available in early 2025
New admin policy to prevent bots from joining Teams meetings
A new policy in the Teams admin center allows admins to block unwanted bots from joining meetings! As an admin, you can use the ‘External Access’ setting in the Teams admin center to block known bot domains. You can also enable a CAPTCHA-based human verification test and apply it to anonymous and non-federated users. Once set, any anonymous user who attempts to join the meeting will be required to pass the CAPTCHA test before proceeding. Definitely a must-have for an organization with many meetings with external and often anonymous attendees.
Generally available now
Disable copying of live captions, transcripts, and recap for meetings
The ‘Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat’ policy will be extended to include live captions, transcription, and meeting recap. Meeting organizers with a Teams Premium license will see a control called ‘Turn off copying and forwarding of meeting chat, live captions, and transcript’ in the meeting options. When enabled, meeting participants won’t be able to copy the meeting chat, live captions, live transcript, or any insights generated from intelligent meeting recap.
Generally available in December 2024
Support for 50k attendees in a Town Hall
Town hall instances can now reach a maximum of 50,000 simultaneous attendees. The previous cap was 20,000 for organizers with a Teams Premium license, so the jump is huge. The quality and stability of town halls will remain constant up to this new limit, providing high-quality and reliable content to participants.
Generally available in December 2024
Resources
- Read more at Ignite 2024 Book of News
- Read about Teams announcements on What’s New in Microsoft Teams
- More about Copilot Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams
- Copilot Studio news – Unlocking autonomous agent capabilities with Microsoft Copilot Studio
- Microsoft 365 Copilot announcements – What’s new in Microsoft 365 Copilot in PowerPoint at Ignite 2024
