Kurt Shintaku's Blog

The following ebook reviews how your organization should think about how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can impact your organization’s modern working environment. It covers:

• 6 use cases for how Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help users in their day to day work (And more)
• 4 key questions to think about regarding whether your organization is ready to implement Copilot for Microsoft 365
• Testing your organization for Copilot Readiness through an evaluation “checklist”
• 6 tips for how to successfully implement Copilot through strategic planning & execution
• A case study & testimony from an early adopter of Copilot for Microsoft 365

To start your journey with Copilot for Microsoft 365, being with this eBook. Download it below:

• DOWNLOAD: Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Are you ready for the new way of working? (.PDF, 25pgs)
  https://info.microsoft.com/rs/157-GQE-382/images/EN-CNTNT-eBook-SRGCM11924.pdf?version=0

We recently published a FREE special 16-module on-demand video training course, “AI-050 Develop Generative AI Solutions with Azure OpenAI Service”, where instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

Azure OpenAI Service provides access to OpenAI’s powerful large language models such as ChatGPT, GPT, Codex, and Embeddings models. These models enable various natural language processing (NLP) solutions to understand, converse, and generate content. Users can access the service through REST APIs, SDKs, and Azure OpenAI Studio.

Before starting this learning path, you should already have:

• Familiarity with Azure and the Azure portal.
• Experience programming with C# or Python. If you have no previous programming experience, we recommend you complete the Take your first steps with C# or Take your first steps with Python learning path before starting this one.

All video recorded modules for “AI-050 Develop Generative AI Solutions with Azure OpenAI Service” are available below:

• AI-050 Speaker & Course Introduction (1 of 16)
• AI-050 Get started with the Azure OpenAI Service (2 of 16)
• AI-050 Deploy and interact with generative AI models by using prompts (3 of 16)
• AI-050 Knowledge Check (4 of 16)
• AI-050 Build natural language solutions with Azure OpenAI Service (5 of 16)
• AI-050 Knowledge Check (6 of 16)
• AI-050 Prompt Engineering: Part 1 Write more effective prompts (7 of 16)
• AI-050 Prompt Engineering: Part 2 Provide context to improve result accuracy (8 of 16)
• AI-050 Prompt Engineering: Knowledge Check (9 of 16)
• AI-050 Generate code with the Azure OpenAI Service (10 of 16)
• AI-050 Knowledge Check (11 of 16)
• AI-050 Generate images with Azure OpenAI Service (12 of 16)
• AI-050 Knowledge Check (13 of 16)
• AI-050 Use your own data with the Azure OpenAI Service (14 of 16)
• AI-050 Knowledge Check (15 of 16)
• AI-050 Course Summary (16 of 16)

A written, non-video recorded version of this course, AI-050 Develop Generative AI Solutions with Azure OpenAI Service, is available in a scaled down format, on-demand at:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/develop-ai-solutions-azure-openai

For individuals with Azure Commercial cloud instances:
If you are interested in using Azure OpenAI Service, the Azure subscription administrator will need to request approval to access Azure OpenAI Service by completing the following request form:

• Request Access to Azure OpenAI Service
  https://aka.ms/AOAIcommaccess
• Subscribe to the Azure AI Newsletter for updates on AI for Commercial users
  https://aka.ms/AINewsletter

Approval can take 2 days or more. Couple notes:

1. You will need to know the “Azure Subscription ID” of the Azure subscription to be enabled for Azure OpenAI to complete the form.  Instructions on how to obtain this if you don’t have it readily available are available in the form.
2. Request access to “GPT-3.5, GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, and/or Embeddings Models”.  There are other AI models available such as GPT-4 Turbo Vision, Whisper, etc. however unless explicitly required, most people only need “GPT-3.5, GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, and/or Embeddings Models”. Requesting additional models may delay your approval.

For individuals with Azure Government cloud instances:

• Request access to Azure OpenAI Service in Azure Government
  https://aka.ms/AOAIgovaccess
• Subscribe for the latest news and announcements on AI for government:
  https://aka.ms/AIforGovUpdates

Approval can take more than 4 days for Azure Government requests. Again, the notes above about requiring an Azure Government Subscription ID apply.

Microsoft has many AI Assistants that leverage available OpenAI Large Language Models such as GPT4Turbo, the world’s leading AI model.  The brand “Copilot” is often used to describe these implementations.

Specifically, Copilots are simply “AI Assistants” specifically for information workers, developers, architects & IT professionals that augment existing tools to increase productivity & reduce repetition.  They are available for a broad set of Microsoft products & services – here’s a short list that you may be interested in:

• Microsoft Copilot (with Commercial Data Protection)
• Copilot for Windows (Overview)
• Copilot for Edge
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 (Overview, Productivity Demo)
  • Microsoft 365 Chat (Manage your inbox, Identity common themes, Update your team faster, Grow your knowledge)
  • Copilot for Word (Overview, Request tailored edits, Transform a document, Locate key information, Gain focus time, Get a headstart)
  • Copilot for Excel (Overview, Be more analytical, Quick conditional formatting, Identify key insights, Make engaging charts)
  • Copilot for PowerPoint (Overview, Quickly generate ideas, Create consistency, Tell impactful stories)
  • Copilot for Teams (Meeting Recap, Live Meetings, Ask better questions, Discern opinions quickly)
  • Copilot for OneNote (Optimize meeting follow up, Create adhoc meeting templates)
  • Copilot for Outlook (Translate an email, Draft effective emails, Manage your inbox, Keep up with Meetings)
  • Copilot in Forms (Create engaging forms)
  • Copilot in Whiteboard (Brainstorming)
  • Copilot in Loop (Bring people together in real time)
  • Copilot in Stream (Video AI in Action)
  • Copilot in OneDrive (Build a knowledge library)
  • Copilot for Planner (Streamline your work)
  • Copilot in SharePoint (Sharepoint in the AI era, Generate sites through chat, Create sites based on documents)
  • Copilot Studio (Build your own custom business Copilot)
• Copilot for Viva
  • Copilot for Viva Goals
  • Copilot for Viva Engage
  • Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights
• Copilot for Security
• Copilot for Azure
  • Copilot for Azure in CosmosDB (Overview docs, Enable natural language NoSQL queries)
• Copilot for Dynamics 365
  • Copilot in Field Service
  • Copilot in Finance (Drive performance & reduce repetition)
  • Microsoft Sales Copilot (Transform sales effectiveness, Improve sales productivity)
  • Copilot for Project Operations
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 F&O Help & Guidance
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 Commerce (Product Enrichment with Copilot)
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service & Copilot for Service
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
  • Copilot in Dynamics 365 Guides
• GitHub
  • GitHub Copilot
  • GitHub Copilot Enterprise
  • GitHub Copilot extension for Azure Data Studio
• Copilot for Power Platform
  • Copilot for Power Apps
  • Copilot for Power Automate
  • Copilot for Power Pages (Overview docs, Accelerate web site building)
• Copilot for Fabric
  • Copilot for Power BI
• Nuance DAX Copilot for Healthcare (Demo)

There are numerous OTHER Artificial Intelligence technologies that are not characterized as “Copilots”.

• Azure AI Platform
  • Azure OpenAI Service
  • Azure AI Studio
  • Azure Machine Learning
  • Azure AI Search
  • Azure AI Content Safety
  • Azure Cognitive Services
  • Azure AI Translator
  • Azure AI Speech
  • Azure AI Vision
  • Azure AI Language
  • Azure AI Document Intelligence

We recently published a FREE special 31-module on-demand video training course, “AZ-104 Azure Administrator”, where instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

This course teaches IT Professionals how to manage their Azure subscriptions, secure identities, administer the infrastructure, configure virtual networking, connect Azure and on-premises sites, manage network traffic, implement storage solutions, create and scale virtual machines, implement web apps and containers, back up and share data, and monitor your solution.

AUDIENCE PROFILE:
This course is for Azure Administrators. The Azure Administrator implements, manages, and monitors identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment. The Azure Administrator will provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources as appropriate. Successful Azure Administrators start this role with experience in virtualization, networking, identity, and storage.

• Understanding of on-premises virtualization technologies, including: VMs, virtual networking, and virtual hard disks.
• Understanding of network configurations, including TCP/IP, Domain Name System (DNS), virtual private networks (VPNs), firewalls, and encryption technologies.
• Understanding of Active Directory concepts, including users, groups, and role-based access control.
• Understanding of resilience and disaster recovery, including backup and restore operations.

All video recorded modules for “AZ-104 Azure Administrator” is available below:

• AZ-104 Course Introduction (1 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) (2 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Users and Group Accounts (3 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Subscriptions (4 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Policy (5 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Role Based Access Control (6 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Reources with Tools (7 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Resources with ARM Templates (8 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Virtual Networks (9 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Network Groups (10 of 31)
• AZ-104 Azure DNS (11 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure VNET peering (12 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Network Routing and Endpoints (13 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Load Balancer (14 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Application Gateway (15 of 31)
• AZ-104 Network Watcher (16 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Storage Accounts (17 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Blob Storage (18 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Storage Security (19 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Files and File Sync (20 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Virtual Machines (21 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure VM Availability (22 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure App Service Plans (23 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure App Service (24 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Container Instances (25 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure File and Folder Backup (26 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Virtual Machine Backups (27 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Monitor (28 of 31)
• AZ-104 Configure Azure Alerts (29 of 31)
• AZ-104 Course Summary (31 of 31)

A written, non-video recorded version of this course, AZ-104 Azure Administrator, is available on-demand at:

• Course AZ-104T00-A: Microsoft Azure Administrator – Training

We recently published a FREE special 12-module on-demand video training course, “MS-4006 Copilot for Microsoft 365 Administrators”, where instructors were video recorded for all modules.

This course begins by examining the Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 design. Its main focus, however, is on the security and compliance features that administrators must configure in their Microsoft 365 tenant to protect their company’s organizational data before they implement Copilot for Microsoft 365.

This course is designed for administrators, Microsoft 365 administrators, or persons aspiring to the Microsoft 365 Administrator role who have completed at least one of the Microsoft 365 role-based administrator certification paths.

All video recorded modules for “MS-4006 Copilot for Microsoft 365 Administrators” are available below:

• MS-4006 Monitoring for Compliance (1 of 12)
  So this module is going to get into the monitoring of your regulatory compliance that you’ve now done for, in this case, specifically Copilot for Microsoft 365.
• MS-4006 Copilot (2 of 12)
  This video focuses on Copilot for Microsoft 365 Data Governance.
• MS-4006 Data Connectors (3 of 12)
  So this module is going to get into the monitoring of your regulatory compliance that you’ve now done for, in this case, specifically Copilot for Microsoft 365.
• MS-4006 Data Governance Controls (4 of 12)
  Defining grounding and to set the stage for everything else that’s going to be covered today. Grounding is a generative AI term that means to give the system access to verifiable sources of information.
• MS-4006 Data Lifecycle Mgmt (5 of 12)
  We’re going to take a look at data governance and specifically what is data governance in relationship to the overall zero trust model.
• MS-4006 Generative AI across Microsoft 365 App Experiences (6 of 12)
  Over the next few minutes, I’ll unpack how you can securely take advantage of generative AI across Microsoft 365 app experiences. I’ll also go through the steps and resources to deploy it at scale if you’re new to Copilot for Microsoft 365.
• MS-4006 Info Types (7 of 12)
  So looking at sensitive information types, we want to be able to then identify the type of objects. These objects might be files in file folders, they could be the folders themselves, they could be databases, and there’s all these different storage locations. That information may exist, It may be existent in transit, it may be existent at rest and so we’ve got all these different states and we want to be able to identify the information in those different states or locations that you’re dealing with.
• MS-4006 Information Barriers (8 of 12)
  We want to take a look at a concept called an information barrier that you can set up between the groups in your organization that might inadvertently share information that they shouldn’t have access to. We’re going to take a look at information barriers across Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint, not just from a collaboration of the tools.
• MS-4006 Intro Info Protection (9 of 12)
  What is information protection and some of the components that make up data classifications. We’ll show you some of the cards that are available for data classifications as well. We’ll show you the Content Explorer and the Activity Explorer as tools to start that data governance journey.
• MS-4006 Principles Zero Trust (10 of 12)
  Zero Trust, it is a concept that has been well defined over many years at Microsoft and while it’s used generally, we’re going to take a look at some of its concepts in relationship to Copilot for Microsoft 365. So we’re going to talk about what it is. We’re going to take a look at how do you deploy Zero Trust model and we’ll do some demonstrations generally.
• MS-4006 User Admin Access (11 of 12)
  We’re going to take a look at the implementation around a governance control that you want to have around identities.
• MS-4006 Zero Trust Gov (12 of 12)
  In this lesson, we’re going to take a look at the pillars of what Zero Trust are and how you can implement them in regards to Copilot for Microsoft 365.

A modified written version of this training (without the video recordings) is available here:

• Course MS-4006-A: Copilot for Microsoft 365 for Administrators
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/courses/ms-4006

If you’ve switched to the New Outlook & want to switch back to Classic Outlook but you discover that the toggle is missing in the Outlook UI, read the following instructions & apply the referenced Registry Key:

• Toggling out of the new Outlook for Windows preview
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/toggling-out-of-the-new-outlook-for-windows-preview-ec102b39-5727-418e-ae1f-a1805434640c

Many feared that artificial intelligence would kill jobs. But hospitals, insurance companies and others are creating roles to navigate and harness the disruptive technology.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/29/technology/us-jobs-ai-chatgpt-tech.html
(Archive: https://archive.ph/FCHZ2)

Why? Because artificial intelligence has been a breakthrough catalyst for never-before advancements.  Here’s some of the many that Microsoft has been involved with in just the last year:

• Cancer Detection: Paige & Microsoft Build World’s Largest AI Model to Detect Cancer
• Ocean Cleanup: AI & Machine Learning actively in use for Project Ocean Cleanup
• Battery Life: New battery with 50% greater charge discovered with AI
• Vaccine Development: ‘Remarkable’ AI tool designs mRNA vaccines that are more potent and stable
• Climate Change: UN tracks progress against Climate Change with Microsoft AI for Earth
• Environmental Protection: AI may hold a key to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest
• Election Tampering Detection: Technology industry to combat deceptive use of AI in 2024 elections
• Educational Equity: Educators & students now have a secure AI ‘scaffolding’ to support classrooms
• Accelerating Research: AI ‘for all’: How access to new models is advancing academic research, from astronomy to education

As a part of our journey to reduce our ransomware risk internally here at Microsoft, we’ve identified five principles that we believe every enterprise should follow to make themselves more secure from these attacks. We call these our Foundational Five of Ransomware.

While we use Microsoft products to secure our systems, infrastructure, data, and identities, the Foundational Five are product agnostic and can be scaled to meet the needs and requirements of organizations of any size. This is especially important for smaller organizations, with 70 percent of encounters with human-operated ransomware happening in organizations with fewer than 500 employees, according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023.

Read the full report here:

• Lessons learned at Microsoft: Five steps you can take to reduce your ransomware risk
  https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/lessons-learned-at-microsoft-five-steps-you-can-take-to-reduce-your-ransomware-risk/

A hybrid supercomputer that combines both classical and quantum capabilities has the potential to solve classically intractable problems and help address the most pressing global issues. These hybrid supercomputers will run computations on highly reliable logical qubits. Scientifically valuable problems will start to be solved with around 100 reliable logical qubits while commercial-scale solutions will require upwards of 1000 reliable logical qubits. To make this potential a reality, scientific and engineering breakthroughs are required.

Recently, Microsoft and Quantinuum announced a key breakthrough that launches the field into reliable quantum computing by creating the most reliable logical qubits on record, with logical error rate 800 times better than the error rate of the physical qubits. This marks a crucial milestone on the path to a hybrid classical-quantum supercomputer capable of transforming research and innovation across many industries.

Join us to learn more about the results of this collaboration and how the collective advancement of quantum hardware, error diagnostics and correction, and reliable quantum computing will accelerate science through hybrid applications.

• WEBINAR: “Entering the era of reliable quantum computing“
  April 30, 2024 9:00 AM (America/Los_Angeles)
  (Duration: 30 minutes)
  https://msazurequantum.eventbuilder.com/event/81611