Rob Quickenden

Microsoft Expands Copilot Connectors: What the New Integrations Mean for Microsoft 365 and Enterprise AI Microsoft has expanded the Copilot Connector catalog with 35 new connectors so Microsoft 365 Copilot can reach many more external systems and data sources directly, with new developer tooling and enterprise controls to keep governance front and centre. This wave includes a General Availability release of new connectors and tools to validate connector readiness.

Microsoft Expands Copilot Connectors: What the New Integrations Mean for Microsoft 365 and Enterprise AI

Microsoft has expanded the Copilot Connector catalog with 35 new connectors so Microsoft 365 Copilot can reach many more external systems and data sources directly, with new developer tooling…

Is AI Forcing the Network conversation organisations have been avoiding? Artificial intelligence is no longer just changing applications – it’s exposing the limits of enterprise network infrastructure. In their Q2 earnings report, Cisco’s leadership team described the current campus refresh cycle as “the top of the first inning”, signalling a long‑term shift in how organisations should think about "networking in an AI‑driven world." The networks many enterprises rely on today were never designed for AI workloads.

Is AI Forcing the Network conversation organisations have been avoiding?

Artificial intelligence is no longer just changing applications – it’s exposing the limits of enterprise network infrastructure. In their Q2 earnings report, Cisco’s leadership team described the current campus refresh cycle…

What are Copilot connectors? A Copilot connector is the plumbing that brings your organisation’s external content into Microsoft 365 so Copilot can ground answers in real, company-specific data. Practically speaking, a connector extracts or fetches items from a third‑party system (files, tickets, PRs, CRM records, etc.), indexes those items into the Microsoft Graph, and makes them available to Copilot and Microsoft Search under your tenant’s security and governance rules.

What are Copilot connectors?

A Copilot connector is the plumbing that brings your organisation’s external content into Microsoft 365 so Copilot can ground answers in real, company-specific data. Practically speaking, a connector extracts or fetches items from a third‑party system (files, tickets,…

Cisco updates contract terms in Response to Market Volatility Cisco’s recent update to partner contract terms, prompted by rising memory prices, has caught attention across the partner and customer community. Of course any change that vendors make that has potential to impact pricing protection or order certainty will get the channel talking. But taken in context - and with Cisco’s own commentary in mind - this looks less like a shift in philosophy and more like a pragmatic response to a market that remains anything but stable.

Cisco updates contract terms in Response to Market Volatility

Cisco’s recent update to partner contract terms, prompted by rising memory prices, has caught attention across the partner and customer community. Of course any change that vendors make that has potential to impact pricing protection or…

Cisco Live Amsterdam 2026: AI‑Ready Networking Innovations to reshape Enterprise Infrastructure Whilst I wasn't able to make it this year, Cisco Live Amsterdam was full of announcements and updates to their core products sets. Whilst there were meaningful updates to the Webex suite, the majority of updates were very much centered on Cisco's core - the network. The message to customers and partners goes back to their roots "the network is now the backbone of the AI era…

I had FOMO this year not being at @Cisco live with the rest of #TeamCisilion but enjoyed catching up on some of posts and live streams.

Was great to see Cisco really defining their role in AI Ready Secure Networking. Here's my highlights.

What were yours? #CiscoLive

2026 Role‑Based training for Microsoft 365 Copilot users I’m a huge believer in role‑based learning because it gives people practical, relevant ways to bring AI into the work they already do. Wherever you are on your Copilot journey – curious beginner or confident user – these sessions can help you, your team mates or your friends understand how to get the best from Copilot in your line or work.

2026 Role‑Based training for Microsoft 365 Copilot users

I’m a huge believer in role‑based learning because it gives people practical, relevant ways to bring AI into the work they already do. Wherever you are on your Copilot journey – curious beginner or confident user – these sessions can help…

The AI Codex Moment – Why the Coding Models Became Front‑Page News The last week has felt like a turning point in the AI landscape. Not because of a single product launch, but because two of the biggest players in the industry effectively declared that the next frontier isn’t chat, search, or reasoning. It’s agentic coding. It's the potential to change the landscape of SaaS applications really quickly (especially for SMBs) which has caused the world to wobble a bit.

The AI Codex Moment – Why the Coding Models Became Front‑Page News

The last week has felt like a turning point in the AI landscape. Not because of a single product launch, but because two of the biggest players in the industry effectively declared that the next frontier isn’t chat, search, or…

Create Agents in One-Click from your OneDrive  Microsoft has now made it possible to create grounded knowledge “agents” directly from OneDrive. If you’ve not seen this yet, it allows you to select up to 20 OneDrive for Business files and create an agent you can use to ask natural‑language questions across all of those documents at once. You can even share it with others to use. …

Create Agents in One-Click from your OneDrive 

Microsoft has now made it possible to create grounded knowledge “agents” directly from OneDrive. If you’ve not seen this yet, it allows you to select up to 20 OneDrive for Business files and create an agent you can use to ask natural‑language…

Microsoft Q2 FY26 Earnings: Cloud & AI Power Record Growth Microsoft has opened 2026 with a landmark quarter that firmly positions them as the global leader in enterprise cloud and AI adoption. In the earning report, Microsoft has achieved milestones with cloud revenue surpassing $50 billion for the first time, record growth in Copilot usage, and major acceleration in commercial bookings, this earnings report signals a new era for Microsoft’s growth and might put the AI Bubble Burst chats to bed?

Microsoft Q2 FY26 Earnings: Cloud & AI Power Record Growth

Microsoft has opened 2026 with a landmark quarter that firmly positions them as the global leader in enterprise cloud and AI adoption. In the earning report, Microsoft has achieved milestones with cloud revenue surpassing $50 billion for…

Microsoft Teams Licensing Updates: More Premium Features for Everyone Microsoft has announced some big changes to the Teams licensing model, aimed at making more  advanced features available to everyone along with updates to their Places products set which is now firmly more rooted as a key part of Teams. These changes reflect Microsoft’s commitment to democratising advanced collaboration tools and to keep adding value to their core products without the need for premium licenses to unlock core value.

Microsoft Teams Licensing Updates: More Premium Features for Everyone

Microsoft has announced some big changes to the Teams licensing model, aimed at making more  advanced features available to everyone along with updates to their Places products set which is now firmly more rooted as a key part…

M365 Copilot Image Generation Levels Up, and Video Summaries are coming to Copilot Notebooks

Microsoft has kicked off 2026 with two significant enhancements to Microsoft 365 Copilot - both providing a clear signal to how improvements in multi-media creation in AI will support creativity,…

Satya Nadella’s Call for an “AI Reset” – What Business Leaders Must Prioritise in 2026 Following Satya Nadella's looking forward to 2026 post, this blog explores the detail behind it and why 2026 must move beyond AI slop and shift toward trusted, outcome‑driven AI projects and systems that deliver real organisational value rather than just re-writing docs and emails!

Satya Nadella’s Call for an “AI Reset” – What Business Leaders Must Prioritise in 2026

Following Satya Nadella's looking forward to 2026 post, this blog explores the detail behind it and why 2026 must move beyond AI slop and shift toward trusted, outcome‑driven AI projects and systems that deliver…

What is Copilot Checkout? Microsoft and PayPal’s new AI-Powered Commerce Experience. Microsoft and PayPal have officially joined forces to launch Copilot Checkout, a groundbreaking integration that redefines the online shopping experience. This collaboration merges Microsoft’s conversational AI capabilities with PayPal’s trusted payment infrastructure, creating a seamless journey from product discovery to purchase all within the Copilot interface on Windows, app and the Web. Intelligent Discovery Meets Trusted Payments Copilot Checkout will allows users to browse, evaluate, and complete purchases (check out) directly from within Microsoft Copilot experience, eliminating the need to switch between different apps, devices or websites.

What is Copilot Checkout? Microsoft and PayPal’s new AI-Powered Commerce Experience.

Microsoft and PayPal have officially joined forces to launch Copilot Checkout, a groundbreaking integration that redefines the online shopping experience. This collaboration merges Microsoft’s conversational AI…

What is Copilot Real Talk Mode? And how to use it.

Back at the "Fall update in October", Microsoft announced that a new talk mode called "Real Talk" was coming to Copilot. This has been available in the US for a while in preview but is now available in the UK. This (currently) optional chat mode…

Copilot gets free GPT‑5.2 upgrade with “Smart Plus” mode Microsoft has begun rolling out GPT‑5.2 across Copilot on the web, Windows, and mobile as a free upgrade. It sits alongside GPT‑5.1 rather than replacing it, giving users a clear choice between speed and deeper reasoning. GPT‑5.2 is described as OpenAI’s strongest model series so far, designed to accelerate real work: building spreadsheets and presentations, writing and reviewing code, analysing long documents, using tools, and working with images.

Copilot gets free GPT‑5.2 upgrade with “Smart Plus” mode

Microsoft has begun rolling out GPT‑5.2 across Copilot on the web, Windows, and mobile as a free upgrade. It sits alongside GPT‑5.1 rather than replacing it, giving users a clear choice between speed and deeper reasoning. GPT‑5.2 is…

Automatic Alt Text on Copilot+ PCs: A Small Feature with a Big Accessibility Impact

Microsoft has rolled out a useful update to the Office Suite apps like Word, Excel and PowerPoint which creates automatic, "on‑device" Alt Text generation for images. This is a great way of helping content become…

YouTube video by Rob Quickenden Sora2 Generate Video Clip in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Here's how you can use @OpenAI #SORA2 inside @Copilot @microsoft365.microsoft.com

youtu.be/yRa2ogqNTqU?...

How to get free security updates for Windows 10 If you are a home/consumer user using Windows 10 - because you are unwilling to, or unable to (due to hardware restrictions) to upgrade to Windows 11, and not able or wanting to buy a new modern PC, this blog shows you how to take advantage of Microsoft's free Security updates for Windows 10 until 13th October 2026. First...head over to…

How to get free security updates for Windows 10

If you are a home/consumer user using Windows 10 - because you are unwilling to, or unable to (due to hardware restrictions) to upgrade to Windows 11, and not able or wanting to buy a new modern PC, this blog shows you how to take advantage of…

GPT-5.2 now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot Microsoft has just (11th Dec) started rolling out OpenAI's GPT‑5.2 across Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, marking another significant leap in AI-powered productivity. The differences between GPT5 and GPT5.2 provide "a significant upgrade in performance across various metrics". For example, GPT-5.2 has achieved higher scores on benchmarks like ARC-AGI2 and GPQA Diamond which indicate improved abstract reasoning and scientific knowledge. 

GPT-5.2 now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft has just (11th Dec) started rolling out OpenAI's GPT‑5.2 across Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, marking another significant leap in AI-powered productivity. The differences between GPT5 and GPT5.2 provide "a significant upgrade in…

When the Cloud Sneezes: a look at the ‘Outage Season’ The past few months have been a bruising reminder that even the biggest cloud providers can stumble. AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Cloudflare have all suffered major outages, disrupting any services that rely on them from websites to shopping sites to CRM and Finance systems and AI tools. For businesses (and their customers / users) there cause huge problems, lower confidence, impact services and reputation.

When the Cloud Sneezes: a look at the ‘Outage Season’

The past few months have been a bruising reminder that even the biggest cloud providers can stumble. AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Cloudflare have all suffered major outages, disrupting any services that rely on them from websites to shopping sites…

More Anthropic Models coming to Microsoft Copilot Microsoft is making a major change to how AI models are integrated into Copilot experiences. From 7 January 2026, Anthropic’s models will be enabled by default for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, moving away from the current opt-in setting to a standard feature under Microsoft’s own contractual terms rather than Anthropic’s. What’s Changing? Default Enablement: Anthropic models, which were previously optional, will now be switched on by default for…

More Anthropic Models coming to Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft is making a major change to how AI models are integrated into Copilot experiences. From 7 January 2026, Anthropic’s models will be enabled by default for Microsoft 365 Copilot licensed users, moving away from the current opt-in setting to…

Microsoft 365 Price Changes: Preparing for July 2026 With over a 1,000 new features and updates across the Microsoft 365 stack in the last couple of years, Microsoft has confirmed that the commercial Microsoft 365 suite will undergo pricing increase from July 1, 2026. This follows "adjustments" to Personal and Home subscriptions at the end of the summer, and now the Enterprise/Commercial side is being reshaped to reflect the growing set of features delivered in the suite especially around AI and Security which have both had significant investments and updates.

Microsoft 365 Price Changes: Preparing for July 2026

With over a 1,000 new features and updates across the Microsoft 365 stack in the last couple of years, Microsoft has confirmed that the commercial Microsoft 365 suite will undergo pricing increase from July 1, 2026. This follows "adjustments" to…

Microsoft Ignite 2025 – “The Agentic Shift”

Microsoft used Ignite 2025 to tell the world that "agents are now the primary interface for enterprise work". The focus throughout Ignite was about evolution from chat-bots to multi-discipline teams of agents across organisations and the unlaying…

What is Work IQ?

Microsoft Ignite 2025 focus this year saw Microsoft fully committed to Agentic AI as the next platform layer. Across all of the briefings, keynotes, technical sessions, and partner announcements, Microsoft repeatedly emphasised that AI is no longer an add-on - and that is becoming…

Windows at 40: Milestones that changed computing for ever It was Forty years ago (now that makes me feel. Old) that Microsoft launched Windows 1.0. This was a graphical shell that was layered over MS-DOS. Whilst it was clunky, slow, and barely usable - it created the framework and vision for what would become the Windows that has powered work and creativity for decades. 40 Years ago, was the time…

Windows at 40: Milestones that changed computing for ever

It was Forty years ago (now that makes me feel. Old) that Microsoft launched Windows 1.0. This was a graphical shell that was layered over MS-DOS. Whilst it was clunky, slow, and barely usable - it created the framework and vision for what…

With Security Copilot now part of Microsoft 365 E5 – what do you actually get?

At Ignite this week, Microsoft announced that Security Copilot will now be included in Microsoft 365 E5 (and E5 Security) at no additional cost. Security Copilot delivers "AI-powered, integrated, cost-effective, and…

Sora 2 now in Microsoft 365 Copilot At Ignite 2025 this month, amongst a long list of AI and Security updates, Microsoft announced that OpenAI’s Sora 2 text-to-video model is now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot in their Create Agent bringing AI video into enterprise productivity. Sora 2 can make content much more realistic than the previous version of Sora and has earned both praise and criticism, since 

Sora 2 now in Microsoft 365 Copilot

At Ignite 2025 this month, amongst a long list of AI and Security updates, Microsoft announced that OpenAI’s Sora 2 text-to-video model is now integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot in their Create Agent bringing AI video into enterprise productivity. Sora 2 can…

Microsoft 365 Copilot for small and medium businesses Microsoft has just announced a much more affordable aka cheaper (but fully featured license) for small and medium businesses. From December 1st, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business becomes available to organisations with fewer than 300 users. It’s priced at $21 per user/month, and can be added to organisations with  sBusiness Standard or Business Premium plans up to 300 seats. This is $9 pupm than the enterprise version of M365 Copilot but with all the same features.

Microsoft 365 Copilot for small and medium businesses

Microsoft has just announced a much more affordable aka cheaper (but fully featured license) for small and medium businesses. From December 1st, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business becomes available to organisations with fewer than 300 users. It’s…

Windows 365: What, Where and Why? As Windows 365 settles well into its forth year, there have been huge advancements in capability, connection methods, endpoint innovation, and licensing options - with even more expected as Microsoft Ignite approaches next week In my role, I spend a lot of time talking with clients about Modern Work solutions and where Windows 365 fits within their organisation: how it can be adopted and leveraged for simplicity, security, governance, access & management, contractors, and frontline staff.

Windows 365: What, Where and Why?

As Windows 365 settles well into its forth year, there have been huge advancements in capability, connection methods, endpoint innovation, and licensing options - with even more expected as Microsoft Ignite approaches next week In my role, I spend a lot of time…

AI Explained: 9 Key Concepts You Need to Know in 2025 Artificial intelligence, whilst a phrase used in most of our daily lives, can feel huge, strange, unknown, scary, exciting and sometimes even intimidating. In this post I decided I would strip back the noise and waffle and share nine crisp, usable concepts. I've aimed to provide clarity over jargon and give some practical examples over theory. Before I start, many and to put into familiar brands, here are a few AI tools and brands you will of already know or at least of have heard of:

AI Explained: 9 Key Concepts You Need to Know in 2025

Artificial intelligence, whilst a phrase used in most of our daily lives, can feel huge, strange, unknown, scary, exciting and sometimes even intimidating. In this post I decided I would strip back the noise and waffle and share nine crisp,…