Ecosystems Podcast

Reflecting on 2024, it’s clear that AI has landed and officially taken on the ‘shiny object effect’. With organizations rushing to utilize the technology, there’s been a tendency to layer AI atop an ecosystem without establishing a strategy for the fundamentals, such as data platform, data consolidation and modernization. A hope for 2025 is the normalization of AI to avoid this, and the progression of autonomous agents that learn and mimic human communication preferences, advancing beyond basic chatbots to more immersive and context-aware AI agents.

Additionally, this past year has made it apparent that not all organization’s are creating conditions for hiring across boarders, and allowing top talent to work on key projects regardless of their geographic location. A shift in this would provide multiple benefits: simplifying projects whilst widening the talent pool, supporting the freedom of dedicated workers, and releasing brain power and capital in areas that will benefit from economic growth.

In this episode, Ana, Andrew, and Chris discuss various themes including the technical difficulties faced during remote recordings, the influence of technology on elections, the challenges of cybersecurity, and the complexities of data integration and security. They also explore how algorithms shape political messaging and the implications of these technologies on society. In this conversation, the speakers discuss various themes including the impact of social media on public perception, insights gained from major conferences like Ignite, the evolution of podcasting in the tech space, and the importance of ecosystem-oriented architecture in organizations. They emphasize the need for a clear vision and cultural readiness for successful transitions in technology and business strategies.

Microsoft Ignite 2024 featured over 200 AI sessions. Key announcementsincluded Azure SQL transactional databases for app development, Co-pilot Studio in Power Apps for mini agents, deeper RAG capabilities with Azure AI Foundry, new managed security and operations in Power Platform, and updated governance and licensing for Co-pilot Studio.This podcast episode also tackles the rise of shadow AI, emphasizing the need for governance as 78% of workers use unsanctioned tools. Beyond the tech, it reflects on the joy of hands-on collaboration, like data modelling and brainstorming on whiteboards, proving that going back to basics can still drive innovation. What’s your top Ignite takeaway?

With modern work culture emphasizing the drive for productivity and connectivity, the traditional notion of work-life balance can be challenging to achieve. In this podcast, participants share their personal experiences in trying to achieve balance, expressing the importance of setting boundaries, such as blocking calendar times for personal activities, and being clear about availability to avoid burnout. Some prefer the term "work-life integration," highlighting the need to blend work and personal life in a way that suits individual needs, with external factors, such as family responsibilities and societal expectations of workers, adding to the complexity. Hosts note differences in how men and women traditionally balance these roles, as well as personal choices and preferences playing its part, with some individuals specifically thriving in high-intensity environments. Support systems can help, such as understanding colleagues or family members, as well as business applications for task prioritization, meetings management and remote working tools, which can reduce stress help professionals set boundaries.

It is hugely important that there is trust in AI org-wide, for the successful adoption of AI. This needs human involvement and intentionality as part of a long-term AI strategy and clearly defined enablement program. Podcast listener, Rachel Roberts, comments that the need for a clear vision and planning a path towards the benefits of AI, instead of letting organic doubt take over, will build trust and reduce fears of uncertainty. She believes that being intentional can help mitigate doubts and foster trust in AI and each other. Having a strategic vision is critical and must be collectively agreed upon and championed. Ensuring that change management and training are fundamental to the effort is also essential due to the complexities of technology implementation and adoption. By combining these approaches, users can adapt, and organizations can maximize the impact of AI within their business.

European regulations are becoming more stringent, aiming to ensure AI safety, ethics, and transparency. It's therefore crucial to ground AI solutions in good data and adhere to responsible AI (RAI) standards to avoid significant fines for non-compliance. The impact of robotics on the labor market are bringing opportunities, creating task automation through rules-based agents, and evolving fully autonomous agents ready for a shift towards human oversight of agent activities. Embracing an abundance mindset can unlock these new opportunities in the evolving landscape, though there’s a necessity for digital equity, ethics and preparing data systems for future AI integration.

With organizations today using 200-300 applications, what will be the impact on users when a profusion of AI solutions are added to the pile? As vendor AI offerings continue to expand, imagine the confusion. Employees required to access multiple agents with multiple UIs, stored sporadically across their organization: an agent for HR relations, sales, service, and for vendor applications, the likes of Workday, SAP, Salesforce. A labyrinth of applications. Now imagine this simplified. Imagine all the isolated agents and their data integrated into a single UI, a single place of reference, giving clarity, accessibility and enabling high adoption. As announced by Satya Nadella, Copilot is positioning to become the new UI for AI.

In the dawn of ‘agentic’ AI, that is to say, autonomous bots capable of mimicking humans and independent decision-making, what will be the implications for our every lives? Perhaps an end to dreaded call centre dispute resolutions, instead replaced by bots tackling negotiations perfectly due to having instant access to undisputable contracts and policies, outmatching human agents. For e-commerce, AI assistants capable of re-ordering groceries online, exploiting the best discounts, fastest delivery, and lowest shipping costs, totally disrupting traditional e-commerce loyalty. Future AI has the potential to make daily life incredibly efficient and transform consumer engagement models in ways not yet fully realised. 

Staggeringly, if cybercrime were a country, it would have the 3rd largest GDP. With attacks happening every second, it’s never been more important to approach data security and AI with a zero-trust mindset: practicing insider risk-management, auto-classifying data with Purview, and “red teaming” AI outputs. This critical thinking should apply to future advancements also, as we predict a shift towards observability whereby AI handles tasks and humans merely monitor them. Plus, as AI begins to mimic personas and styles, the risk of deep fakes increases, unbeknownst to users unless questioned. Staggeringly, if cybercrime were a country, it would have the 3rd largest GDP. With attacks happening every second, it’s never been more important to approach data security and AI with a zero-trust mindset: practicing insider risk-management, auto-classifying data with Purview, and “red teaming” AI outputs. This critical thinking should apply to future advancements also, as we predict a shift towards observability whereby AI handles tasks and humans merely monitor them. Plus, as AI begins to mimic personas and styles, the risk of deep fakes increases, unbeknownst to users unless questioned. 

As AI systems become more integrated into our daily lives, it’s never been more critical to ensure they operate ethically. There are significant risks if not governed properly through informed practices, making responsible app development not just a necessity, but a cornerstone for building trustworthy AI systems that adhere to ethical standards and regulatory requirements. When an organization upholds this commitment, it not only mitigates potential harms but also fosters trust among users and stakeholders, thereby establishing the foundations for long-term success.

the Power Platform: Why Free is not Cheaper.” Get a behind-the-scenes update on the current and upcoming “Learn” courses, and hear from the authors about the insights behind the first verticalized view of Ecosystem-Oriented Architecture in the Public Sector, as well as the exciting release of the new AI Strategy Framework.

Is the business value toolkit simply “another tool” attempting to explain away a leader’s decision-making in some quantifiable fashion; freeing them from the responsibility of taking action in the absence of data?

Or, does it provide a true measurement of impact, helping IT tell a compelling story of ROI? Aligning with the organization’s concepts of what “true value” means to them?

“So, here’s this company that has gone to the legal trouble to rename itself with ‘AI’ in the name, but doesn’t actually know what the thing it’s now named after is.”

There’s such extraordinary noise around AI right now, but this comes with a big dose of snake oil where every company is suddenly claiming to be an AI expert. How do organizations navigate the maze and separate the real from the hype?

Every organization on the planet ought to be thinking through its game plan for AI. But is AI on the radar of people and organizations outside the tech industry? Many have tried a proof of concept, but many have not progressed beyond that. How do we uncover scenarios where AI can really help an organization?

It’s very difficult to build a data platform today that reaches its full potential without also building Power Platform into that data platform. Power Platform’s greatest value lies not in the app, but in the data the app collects or serves back to its users. Power Platform isn’t an app phenomenon. It’s a data phenomenon. Apps are only so useful if you’re not able to use them with your organization’s data. Andrew’s new Microsoft white paper articulates so clearly—from simple to advanced—the five patterns of data integration between Power Platform and a modern data platform backed by Azure data services and Microsoft Fabric.

Ana’s and Andrew’s two-year-old prefers Ms. Rachel to the Ecosystems Show, but we’re pressing on this week answering questions that we didn’t have time to get to during our recent live panel show at the DynamicsMinds conference. How important is Copilot in the cloud ecosystem? How do you define the boundaries of an ecosystem? Is it vendor-specific? What do we need to do to be ready for AI? Where’s the best place to start with tooling and techniques needed to build an ecosystem? More!

The Ecosystem Show comes out swinging against Ryanair, and then talks tech for this special in-person recording at DynamicsMinds 2024 in Portoroz, Slovenia 🇸🇮! Join us as we survey the Microsoft cloud technology landscape with reflections from this great conference, talking ecosystem architecture, the modern data platform, AI agents, and other announcements from Microsoft Build.

Is the age of IT partners implementing software via the venerable “IT project” over? As our tech moves faster, is the tyranny of the deliverable making traditional IT projects more and more obsolete? Many consultancies are out there trying to deliver technology using a 30-year-old “project-based” model, just as many customers are still accepting (or even seeking!) this fundamentally outdated way of doing business.

Is cloud technology generally and the Microsoft Cloud specifically evolving differently in economies with different populations? The world is much bigger (or smaller?) than the United States and Europe, so what does that mean for technology? How does geographic and population variation—and different dynamics in business culture—impact cloud ecosystems around the world?

Join Mark Smith, Andrew Welch, and Will Dorrington as they take on “anchor apps”, the essential large-scale applications crucial for organizational operations, known in ecosystem-oriented architecture as “core business systems”. These apps or “workloads” are significant, particularly compared to the many, smaller apps that are bought off the shelf or developed using tools like Microsoft Power Platform. The hosts share several of their favorite examples encountered over their time working with Power Platform across sectors and geographies, including anchor apps responsible for transportation logistics, evidence collection in law enforcement, and in military operations. Despite their importance, there’s a noted lack of recognition for anchor apps developed on platforms like Power Platform or Azure, often amidst a fragmented tech landscape that leads to underutilized premium licenses. The conversation underscores the need to better recognize and leverage anchor apps to showcase the strengths and return the big value of low-code platforms.

Between the imagined threat of murderous toasters, the next horizon of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and deep, straight talk about the societal displacement that AI might wrought, this is by far the most reflective and philosophical Ecosystems podcast yet. It's likely true that AI will, in the end, create far more jobs than it takes, but what is true at a macro-level can be absolutely life-destroying at an individual or community level. Are we ready? Is society ready for the displacement of the next big industrial revolution? Are we ready to leave that which is comfortable in search of more fish? Are our governments ready? Will we recognize the innate dignity in those who don't win this particular round of fabulous technological achievement?

Join us Mark, Andrew, Ana, and Chris as they explore the roles of solution architects and enterprise architects in the cloud landscape. We delve into the difference between the two roles and the challenges faced by enterprise architects in assembling technology across different product families. The discussion also touches on the concept of being technology agnostic (or not) and the importance of educating enterprise architects. The conversation highlights the need for Microsoft to provide more targeted content and frameworks for enterprise architects, particularly in the Power Platform and Azure ecosystems.

Did the original positioning of Power Platform as a “low-code” or “citizen developer” tool do a massive disservice to the enterprise nature of the Power Platform itself? Are big organizations that have signed Power Platform into enterprise agreements with Microsoft looking at downsizing their investment because they don’t understand—and have not put to work—the Power Platform’s capability as an enterprise-scale application and data platform? So, why aren’t more engineers, architects, and IT leaders maximizing it as the enterprise platform that it really is?

Do innovative technologies need to move out of IT in order to thrive, or do we need to move governance and security out of IT and into facilities management as our “workplaces” have become increasingly tech-centric? There is a difference between achieving an acceptable level of security and governance vs. having a forward-looking strategy that is going to grow the business, return investment to the business, modernize the business, or make the business more productive.

How do I build and execute a roadmap and strategy? Not a high-level business strategy that organizations typically receive, but one that actually bridges the gap between business outcome and business value that can be achieved in the cloud. How do I execute this plan, and what are the dots to connect in achieving these outcomes? Why are more organizations not doing so? The Ecosystems Podcast welcomes James Joyce, our first (but not last) ever guest.

How do you have AI conversations with CTOs, CIOs, CDOs, and others in technical or business leadership roles? What do I need to be thinking about for my organization, particularly while “every man and his dog” are publishing their own AI content? It’s overwhelming right now.

Organizations have a lot of work to do in pursuing their AI aspirations in a strategic way, and importantly, to correct some of the mistakes they’ve made kicking the (data) can down the road for the last thirty years. This episode dives into the five pillars set out in the recent Microsoft + Cloud Lighthouse white paper, Crafting your Future-Ready Enterprise AI Strategy, as we help organizations become “future ready” for the AI we understand today and the AI capabilities that are coming in the very near future. The hosts discuss the preparation for artificial intelligence in 2024. They highlight the importance of data consolidation, governance, and the use of AI tools for quick wins. The conversation also touches on the practical applications of AI in daily life and the need for AI to be infused into all aspects of work. The hosts explore the excitement and optimization potential of AI, as well as the legal and ethical considerations surrounding its use. They discuss the challenges of demonstrating AI reasoning and the balance between AI advancements and regulations.

The Ecosystems podcast starts 2024 with a big announcement and a discussion of Andrew’s new Cloud Lighthouse + Microsoft white paper, Crafting your Future-Ready Enterprise AI Strategy. The paper addresses the need for organizations to take a strategic approach to implementing artificial intelligence (AI) and highlights the importance of data readiness. We emphasize the distinction between incremental AI, which brings efficiency to existing tasks, and differential AI, which represents groundbreaking advancements. The white paper also discusses the role of low code in scaling AI and the need for consistency in data access and rights, so we dig into that a bit in this episode. The conversation concludes with appreciation for the valuable insights provided in the white paper.

Complete with twinkling lights, baubles, questionable sweaters, gnomes, and patriotic Christmas stockings: Mark, Andrew, Ana, and Chris celebrate the holidays and the year’s last episode of the Ecosystems podcast. Together we explore AI's practical business applications, our takes on the recent chaos at Open AI, and our thoughts on a great listener question. Microsoft Ignite is just weeks behind us, so we close out the year sharing our favorite Christmas gifts from Microsoft, new or now generally available tech that has us really excited.

Chris, Ana, Mark, Andrew, and Will take on the crucial role of data in technology and business strategies, and in building cloud ecosystems that reflect those strategies. We’re seeing a bit transition in technology where data ought to be prioritized over individual applications within an ecosystem... but many organizations, their technology partners, and individual technology practitioners have been slow to adjust their thinking to this paradigm. They critique common practices in organizations where data is often neglected, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The episode highlights the need for a data-centric approach in technology development and organizational planning, underscoring the value of data quality, integration, and management.