Guest Episodes Episodes

In today's data-driven world, becoming an Excel Expert means leveraging Excel and AI as powerful allies in managing information. You can unlock new insights and streamline your decision-making processes with these tools. For instance, nearly 90% of finance teams still rely on Excel for financial modeling, despite the rise of AI tools. This reliance highlights Excel's flexibility and functionality in handling complex data. Moreover, integrating AI into Excel has proven to enhance productivity....

Quick Answer: Responsible AI helps organizations use AI in ways that are safe, accountable, and useful. This episode explores how governance, adoption, and human judgment can turn responsible AI from a policy discussion into practical business value across Microsoft technology initiatives. governance frameworks recommend post-deployment monitoring to catch issues like bias or safety concerns early. Here are some challenges you may face and ways to overcome them: Regulatory Compliance: St...

Quick answer: AI transformation succeeds when organisations change how people work, decide, learn, and govern—not when they simply turn on a Copilot licence. In this conversation, Femke Cornelissen explores how leaders can move beyond isolated pilots and build adoption practices that create sustained business value. In today's fast-paced business landscape, AI transformation isn't just a buzzword; it's a game-changer. Yet, many organizations struggle to implement AI initiatives effectively. You...

Enterprise AI is rapidly evolving from simple chatbots to intelligent agents that can automate business processes, reason over enterprise data, and deliver measurable business value. In this episode of M365.fm, Microsoft MVP Shubhangi Goyal joins Mirko Peters to explore how Microsoft AI Foundry helps organizations build secure, scalable, and trustworthy AI solutions that are ready for real-world production—not just impressive demos. The conversation explains why successful AI projects begin with a strong data foundation. Clean, governed, and well-connected enterprise data is essential for creating reliable AI agents that employees and customers can trust. Shubhangi discusses how Microsoft AI Foundry enables organizations to experiment with models, orchestrate intelligent workflows, integrate enterprise knowledge, and manage the full lifecycle of AI applications while maintaining security and compliance. A major focus is the shift from prompt engineering to building complete AI s…

This episode features Alan Buscaglia [MVP], creator of the Gentleman Programming YouTube channel, discussing why enterprise AI success depends on far more than choosing the latest language model. Together, we explore the shift from AI hype to AI Harness Engineering—a practical approach to building AI systems that are secure, governed, observable, and trustworthy. Alan explains why prompt engineering alone is no longer enough. Organizations need an AI harness that manages context, validates outputs, enforces security, integrates with enterprise data, and provides continuous monitoring. These guardrails transform AI from an experimental chatbot into a dependable business capability that teams can confidently use in production. The conversation also covers the importance of trust in AI adoption. Users must know that AI produces reliable answers, protects sensitive information, follows organizational policies, and remains transparent in its decision-making. Alan shares practical gui…

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how developers build solutions on Microsoft Power Platform. In this episode of M365.FM, Mirko Peters is joined by Reza Niroomand to explore how AI-powered development is transforming the developer experience and why the next generation of Power Platform builders will work very differently from today. The conversation explores how tools such as Microsoft Copilot, AI-assisted coding, intelligent automation, and modern development practices are reducing repetitive work while enabling developers to focus on solving business problems. Reza shares practical insights into how professional developers and citizen developers can collaborate more effectively as AI becomes a core part of the software development lifecycle. You'll learn how the Power Platform ecosystem is evolving beyond traditional low-code development, with stronger integration into professional development workflows, source control, testing, governance, and enterprise arch…

Building a successful Managed Service Provider today requires far more than device management and helpdesk support. Customers expect proactive security, cloud expertise, and modern identity protection from day one. In this episode of the M365 Show, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft Intune MVP Albin Klinaku, founder and CEO of AdVision Swiss AG, to explore how MSPs can build a scalable, Microsoft-first security practice using Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender, and Microsoft Entra ID. Together, they discuss what separates a modern security-focused MSP from a traditional service provider and why identity has become the new security perimeter. You'll learn how Intune simplifies endpoint management, how Microsoft Defender provides advanced threat detection and response, and how Microsoft Entra ID strengthens authentication through Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication, and Zero Trust principles. The conversation also covers cloud-native device management, Windows Autopilo…

Microsoft Entra Permissions Management helps organizations answer one of the biggest security questions in the cloud: Who has access to what, and do they really need it? As businesses adopt Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, permissions quickly become difficult to manage, creating unnecessary risk through excessive or unused access rights. In this episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets, we explain Microsoft Entra Permissions Management in plain English and show how it helps organizations implement the principle of least privilege across multicloud environments. You'll learn what Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) is and why it's becoming an essential part of modern cloud security. We explain how Microsoft Entra Permissions Management continuously discovers identities, analyzes permissions, detects excessive privileges, and identifies permission creep before attackers can exploit it. You'll also discover how the platform provides visibility across Azure, Amazon Web Servic…

Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents have the potential to transform the way organizations work—but only when they move beyond simple chat experiences and become deeply integrated into real business processes. In this episode of the M365 FM Podcast, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft MVP Steve Corey to explore how organizations can build AI agents that deliver measurable business value rather than simply generating impressive demonstrations. Together, they discuss why successful AI adoption depends on solving business problems, not just deploying new technology. You'll learn how Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents extend the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot by automating multi-step workflows, accessing enterprise knowledge, interacting with Microsoft 365 services, and supporting employees across their daily work. The conversation explains how organizations can combine Microsoft 365, Microsoft Graph, SharePoint, Teams, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio to build intelligent agents that understan…

In this episode of the M365.fm Podcast, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft MVPs Dieter Kempeneers and Dominiek Verham for an in-depth discussion about Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Windows 365, and the future of cloud-delivered desktops. While these technologies often appear similar, they solve different business challenges, and choosing the right platform requires understanding architecture, licensing, management, security, and long-term operational goals. Together, they explain the fundamental differences between Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365, when each solution makes sense, and how organizations can avoid common mistakes during planning and deployment. The conversation explores real-world customer scenarios, from small businesses looking for simplicity to large enterprises requiring maximum flexibility, scalability, and cost optimization. The episode also covers Microsoft Intune integration, identity management with Microsoft Entra ID, security best practices, disaste…

Artificial Intelligence is transforming cybersecurity—but it is also creating new attack surfaces. In this episode of the M365 FM Podcast, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft MVP Mourtaza Fazlehoussen to explore how organizations can secure AI-powered environments using Microsoft Copilot, Azure, Microsoft 365, and Zero Trust principles. Rather than treating AI as an isolated technology, the discussion explains why identity, permissions, governance, and continuous verification are now the foundation of enterprise security. The conversation covers how attackers exploit weak identities, excessive permissions, misconfigured cloud services, and unmanaged AI workloads. You'll learn how Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Sentinel, Azure security services, and Microsoft Security Copilot work together to detect threats, automate investigations, and reduce risk across modern Microsoft environments. The episode also explores the importance of least privilege, Conditional Access…

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how organizations design applications with Microsoft Power Platform. In this episode, Tchesco Ayih explores why traditional user interfaces built around forms, menus, and manual workflows are giving way to AI-first experiences where users simply describe what they want to accomplish. Instead of navigating software, people increasingly interact with intelligent agents that understand context, intent, and business processes. The discussion explains how Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, AI Builder, and Microsoft Dataverse are evolving into a unified platform for creating intelligent business applications. AI is no longer just an assistant layered on top of existing software—it becomes an active participant capable of generating interfaces, orchestrating workflows, reasoning over enterprise data, and supporting better decision-making. A major focus is the changing role of UX design. Designers must move beyond creating stati…

In this episode of M365.FM, Mirko Peters talks with Microsoft MVP Sara Lagerquist about how Power Apps is evolving beyond traditional forms and screens into AI-powered, enterprise-ready business experiences. Instead of treating AI as a feature that is simply added to an app, Sara explains how organizations should design applications where AI becomes a natural part of the user experience, helping employees make better decisions, automate repetitive work, and interact with business data more intelligently. The conversation explores Microsoft's latest innovations, including Generative Pages, Copilot capabilities, Dataverse integration, and modern Power Apps architecture. Sara shares practical guidance on balancing low-code productivity with enterprise requirements such as governance, security, scalability, and maintainability. Rather than focusing on building visually impressive demos, she emphasizes creating business applications that deliver measurable value and remain manageable as…

In this episode of M365.fm, Mirko Peters sits down with Microsoft MVP David Benaim to answer one of the biggest productivity questions in modern workplaces: Can Google Sheets really compete with Microsoft Excel? Instead of declaring a single winner, David explains why the answer depends on the task, the team, and the business requirements. The discussion explores where Google Sheets shines, including real-time collaboration, browser-first workflows, and rapid sharing, while also highlighting the areas where Excel continues to dominate. Topics include Power Query, advanced data analysis, automation, large datasets, financial modeling, and enterprise reporting. David also shares lesser-known Google Sheets capabilities that many Excel users overlook, proving that both platforms have evolved far beyond simple spreadsheets. The conversation goes beyond feature comparisons to focus on practical decision-making. Rather than asking which tool is universally better, organizations should …

Azure networking has evolved far beyond simply connecting virtual machines. In this episode, we explore how modern Azure networking enables organizations to build secure, scalable, and fully automated cloud environments using Azure Functions, Azure Virtual Network Manager, and Infrastructure as Code. We begin by discussing how Azure Functions can securely access private resources without exposing services to the public internet. You'll learn how Virtual Network integration, private endpoints, and network isolation help organizations protect sensitive workloads while maintaining the flexibility of serverless computing. These capabilities are becoming essential for building secure cloud-native applications. We also cover the networking options available for Azure Functions across different hosting plans and the architectural decisions behind them. Next, we dive into Azure Virtual Network Manager and how it simplifies enterprise-scale networking. Instead of manually configuring hun…

Artificial Intelligence is evolving far beyond single prompts and chatbots. In this episode of the M365 FM Podcast, Mirko Peters speaks with Microsoft MVP Reshmee Auckloo about how organizations can design enterprise-grade multi-agent AI solutions using Microsoft Copilot, Copilot Studio, SharePoint, Microsoft Graph, and Azure AI Foundry. Rather than focusing on prompt engineering, the conversation explores the architecture required to build AI systems that are scalable, secure, and trustworthy. Reshmee explains why successful AI initiatives begin with well-governed data, structured knowledge, and clear information architecture. SharePoint plays a central role as the enterprise knowledge foundation, while Microsoft Graph provides the contextual intelligence that enables AI agents to understand relationships across people, documents, and business processes. The discussion also covers how multiple AI agents can collaborate to solve complex tasks, when orchestration is preferable to a …

Microsoft Teams is one of the most widely used collaboration platforms, but many of its most valuable capabilities remain overlooked. In this episode, we uncover the features, settings, and best practices that Microsoft rarely highlights—helping IT professionals, admins, and everyday users get more from Teams. The discussion goes beyond chat and meetings, exploring hidden productivity features, collaboration improvements, and administration tips that can significantly enhance the user experience. You'll learn how Teams integrates with Microsoft 365 services, where common configuration mistakes occur, and why understanding governance and permissions is essential for long-term success. The episode also examines the balance between user flexibility and organizational control, covering topics such as notifications, file collaboration, channels, apps, automation, meeting experiences, and security. Rather than focusing only on new features, the conversation emphasizes practical techni…

Traditional cybersecurity often focuses on vulnerability counts, alerts, and compliance dashboards. Attackers don’t. They look for weak identities, excessive permissions, exposed cloud resources, forgotten devices, and misconfigurations they can combine into a successful attack. In this episode, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft Security MVP and MCT Uros Babic to explore cybersecurity from an attacker’s perspective and explain how Microsoft Security Exposure Management helps organizations stay ahead of modern threats. Rather than discussing security in theory, the conversation walks through a realistic attack chain—from reconnaissance and phishing to credential theft, privilege escalation, lateral movement, ransomware, and data exfiltration. Uros demonstrates how Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Sentinel, Security Copilot, Microsoft Entra ID, and Zero Trust principles work together to detect, prevent, and disrupt attacks before they reach critical assets. A major focus is Mic…

Software doesn't become difficult to maintain because developers write bad code—it becomes difficult because it wasn't designed to evolve. In this episode of the M365 FM Podcast, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft MVP and veteran software architect Miguel Castro to explore why extensibility should be at the heart of every modern .NET application. Drawing on decades of experience building enterprise platforms, cloud SDKs, AI-powered transcription systems, and automation solutions, Miguel explains how designing for change helps applications survive new business requirements, emerging technologies, and growing complexity. The discussion covers the principles behind clean architecture, modular design, dependency injection, abstractions, strategy patterns, plugin architectures, and event-driven development, with practical examples from real-world enterprise projects. Miguel also shares where developers should invest time in architecture, how to avoid overengineering, and why extensi…

Microsoft 365 Copilot has generated enormous excitement, but successful adoption requires much more than assigning licenses. In this episode, Microsoft’s Chris Hinch shares practical lessons from real-world Copilot deployments, explaining why organizations that focus on people, processes, and change management consistently achieve better results than those chasing quick wins. Chris explains that effective adoption starts by identifying business challenges rather than asking where AI can be used. Employees need to understand how Copilot fits naturally into their daily workflows, whether that's drafting emails, summarizing meetings, creating presentations, analyzing documents, or accelerating repetitive administrative tasks. Building confidence through small, measurable successes encourages long-term usage and helps users develop better prompting skills over time. The discussion also highlights the importance of executive sponsorship, internal champions, governance, and continuous…

In this episode, Mirko Peters is joined by Microsoft MVP Nilüfer Doğan to explore how Microsoft Copilot Studio is transforming enterprise automation through AI agents, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and low-code development. Rather than building simple chatbots, organizations can now create intelligent agents capable of understanding business context, accessing enterprise knowledge, and automating complex workflows. The conversation explains how Copilot Studio enables businesses to combine Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Dataverse, and external data sources into powerful AI-driven solutions. Nilüfer shares practical insights into designing agents that go beyond answering questions by taking actions, integrating with business systems, and supporting employees in their daily work. A major focus is on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), showing how AI agents can securely retrieve relevant company information instead of relying solely on the underlying language model. The ep…

In this episode of the M365 FM podcast, Sailaja Mantripragada explores how organizations can move beyond simple AI assistants and build enterprise-grade AI agents using Microsoft Copilot Studio and the Power Platform. The conversation focuses on creating intelligent, business-driven agents that deliver measurable value while remaining secure, compliant, and governable. Sailaja shares practical insights from real-world enterprise projects, explaining how organizations can design AI agents that integrate with business processes, automate complex workflows, and leverage organizational knowledge through Microsoft 365, Dataverse, and Power Platform services. The discussion highlights the importance of balancing innovation with governance, ensuring that AI solutions remain aligned with security, compliance, and responsible AI principles. A major theme of the episode is AI governance. Sailaja discusses why governance must be built into AI initiatives from the beginning rather than adde…

In this episode of the M365 Show, Mirko Peters sits down with Sandra Kiel to explore a fascinating question: what can enterprise software learn from video games? Drawing on her unique background in gaming, user experience, and Microsoft technologies, Sandra explains why many business applications struggle with adoption while games keep millions of people engaged for hours. The conversation dives into the psychology behind successful game design and how those same principles can transform workplace software. Sandra discusses concepts such as clear goals, instant feedback, progression systems, and user motivation. Rather than focusing on gamification as points and badges, she emphasizes designing experiences that make users feel confident, capable, and motivated to continue. Mirko and Sandra examine why many enterprise tools overwhelm users with complexity and how game-inspired design patterns can improve onboarding, learning, and long-term adoption. They also discuss the growing …

In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters sits down with Microsoft MVP Jonathan Hope to explore why identity has become the most critical security boundary in modern cloud environments. As organizations move deeper into Microsoft 365, Azure, and cloud-native architectures, traditional network-based security models are no longer enough. Jonathan explains how Microsoft Entra ID acts as the control plane for security and why mismanaged identities, excessive permissions, and poorly maintained Conditional Access policies create significant risk. The conversation dives into the concept of “identity debt” — the gradual accumulation of exceptions, legacy configurations, guest accounts, workload identities, and hybrid synchronization issues that weaken an organization’s security posture over time. The episode covers practical strategies for implementing Zero Trust principles, designing effective Conditional Access policies, enforcing least-privilege access, and protecting privileged accou…