For startups, the real challenge isn’t building software. It’s turning momentum into a business that can grow – especially as teams stay lean and expectations rise. But AI has changed the calculus. What began as tools that helped developers code is evolving into systems that can carry work across repositories, cloud infrastructure and long‑running processes, all with far less manual coordination.

For founders and technical leaders, this isn’t just a productivity shift. It’s a structural one. Read more about this shift and how to build systems that can scale while staying secure.

You know that stressful moment before meeting with your manager — the one where you’re scrolling through emails, flipping through Teams threads and trying to remember just what on earth you’ve been working on this week?

Now, Microsoft 365 Copilot can handle the scramble for you and get all your updates in order before your next one-on-one with this all-encompassing prompt.

It’s always a good time to tidy up some of your digital clutter and make sure you’re staying on the proverbial ball.

Now you can do this regularly by using AI to compile weekly or monthly reflections that you can schedule to automatically run for you. Learn how in the latest version of The Prompt.

The ever-increasing capabilities of AI have everyone wondering what it means for their career. LinkedIn’s Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman joins the Worklab podcast to explore why curiosity, adaptability and action matter now more than ever. Drawing from his new book, “Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI” — cowritten with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky — Raman makes the case that careers aren’t being automated away. They’re being reshaped for the AI era, by the people willing to move first.

What will humans do in the AI era? In an upcoming book, Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn and executive vice president of Microsoft 365 and Copilot, explores how work is changing, what tools are accelerating that change and how human workers can find their footing in a rapidly changing landscape. Roslansky makes the case that as AI absorbs more of the drudgery of work, people will have the space to do the human work they’ve always been best at but rarely had time for.

Ever been asked to take on “just one more thing” and felt that sinking feeling? This prompt helps you gracefully say no — without burning any bridges.

Every time technology takes a leap forward, workers wonder what they will do next. Steam power, electricity and then computing each reshuffled how people made a living, producing genuine anxiety about what would be left on the other side.

“And each time, the answer turned out to be: more than before, but different than expected,” Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s CMO of AI at Work, writes in a new post. He says the future of the workplace will be defined by humans who can identify “what’s worth doing and how the work should run.”

If you’ve ever stared at your overflowing to-do list and thought, “Surely AI could help with some of this,” you’re right. Now you can use AI as a personalized consultant to help you figure out the best way to go about your workday.

The future of work isn’t just something that happens to us, Jared Spataro, Microsoft CMO of AI at Work, writes in a new blog post. It will be shaped by the choices we make about roles, incentives and standards. Spataro writes that amid all the uncertainty about how the AI era is unfolding, it’s important to maintain perspective. “While AI has extraordinary potential to improve our lives, it raises issues that require deliberate choices — exercising our human agency to shape the future,” he says. Read more about what Spataro believes will be the future of the workforce, and what he says everyone should be cautious about.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball to see what the future holds?  The next best thing is using AI to create a vision and habits that will help you max out your potential in the coming year. After all, big ideas deserve a plan.

For decades, technological progress has been measured by how quickly and easily we can access information. PCs put knowledge on desktops, the internet made it searchable and mobile placed it in every pocket. But that abundance has created a new burden: consumers and businesses are left to sift through overwhelming choices with little clarity. Now, in a sweeping vision of the near future, Microsoft’s CMO of AI at Work, Jared Spataro, argues that artificial intelligence is poised to transform commerce not by giving people more information but by providing something far more valuable: expertise and the ability to narrow down our choices before humans make the final call.

If  last week felt like a blur and this one’s already off the rails, AI can help you make a plan that actually works. Think of it as your personal strategist  that will help you sift through what actually needs to get done and what’s just noise.

Sometimes, we all need a little reminder of how awesome we are. Luckily, AI is here to help. You can use Microsoft 365 Copilot to find the praise hiding in your inbox or Teams chats. So go ahead and hype yourself up!

Success in the era of AI is all about how quickly humans can embrace change, economist Tyler Cowen says. In a new podcast, Cowen outlines how discomfort over technological disruption can actually signal real progress toward the full potential of AI. Read on for what Cowen believes people who want to thrive in the AI era will have to do and learn to stay ahead of the curve.

It’s safe to say 2025 was the year AI stopped feeling experimental and became part of everyday work. Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s CMO of AI at Work, says the real differentiation for companies in this era of AI isn’t speed; it’s learning. Companies on the cutting edge are adapting quickly to reshape workflows and embrace the idea that when you invest in a technology this foundational, productivity almost always dips before it rises. As AI rewrites how organizations operate, Spataro says leaders should ask themselves these four questions as they head into 2026.

As we reach the end of the year, it’s a great time to reflect on all our wins in 2025. In the past, we would have had to just rely on our own imperfect memory of the last 12 months but now, there’s an easy way to use AI to help us remember. Here’s a prompt you can put into Microsoft 365 Copilot to recap your 2025 successes and make a solid plan for 2026.

Modernizing legacy IT environments and moving securely to the cloud are top priorities for customers today — and customers want speed, security and real business impact. Updating legacy systems reduces risk and unlocks innovation such as AI and automation. Check out a list of best practices for a secure, successful migration for Microsoft partners.

The CEO of Singtel Singapore embraced Microsoft 365 Copilot after his initial skepticism. Ng Tian Chong says he evolved from basic searches to strategic planning. Now, he calls it a “force multiplier” and credits Copilot with sharpening leadership, accelerating decisions and fueling Singtel’s AI-first vision. Plus, it helped him reel in a 40-pound catch during a South China Sea fishing trip.

Retailers face shrinking margins, labor shortages and rising customer expectations. While AI isn’t a cure-all, agentic AI can drive agility, personalization and innovation in the retail space — but only as part of a broader strategy.

AI is reshaping jobs faster than past tech revolutions, Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer of AI at Work, says in a new post. Productivity is rising where humans and AI team up, but the future hinges on choices we make now. The question isn’t what AI will do to jobs  — it’s what we will do to shape the outcome.

Microsoft Education’s latest updates include AI-powered lesson planning in Copilot, expanded multilingual support in Immersive Reader, and new features in Reading Coach for personalized practice and progress tracking. The goal: help educators streamline prep and support diverse learners with tools that adapt to individual needs.

Minecraft Education and Code.org’s Hour of AI turns coding into an epic quest. In “The First Night,” students use MakeCode and Python programming to teach a blocky Agent to recognize patterns, classify resources and coordinate mini-agent helpers – all while battling zombies. It’s coding meets adventure, with AI as your ultimate sidekick.

Reading Coach now gives real-time feedback as students read aloud — tracking pronunciation, syllables and progress. Educators can assign tailored practice, set time goals and monitor growth, making it easier to support every learner’s reading journey with AI that listens, adapts and guides. 

Fun fact: “Turn into a pumpkin” isn’t just bedtime-story lingo. In the tech biz, it’s shorthand for sudden drop-offs — whether it’s a mystery spike in traffic vanishing overnight or the year-end slowdown when teams thin out and builds stall. It can also be the cue to wrap things up before everyone disappears into holiday mode. Just a fun fact, in case you want to sound “in the know” in tech circles. Or at holiday parties.

Work is changing fast, and education needs to catch up. While some people might see that as a crisis, Jared Spataro, the Microsoft CMO of AI at Work, writes in a new blog that it should be considered an opportunity. “When the ground shifts beneath us, we can stand still and react or step forward and shape what comes next,” he says. Read more about the future of AI in education.

Curious about generative AI in Java? This beginner-friendly video series takes you from first steps to advanced AI techniques. Watch the episodes in order for a smooth start or skip ahead to more advanced topics including deploying to Azure and building agents. It’s a practical way to learn and apply AI concepts in Java development.

Datacenters are where infrastructure magic happens — massive, high-tech spaces packed with servers, networking gear and storage systems. Whether you’re binging your favorite show or firing off emails in Outlook, it’s all running through these behind-the-scenes hubs. 

Curious what it actually looks like inside one of these digital powerhouses? Take the tour and see where the internet gets its muscle. 

Vodafone didn’t build the infrastructure, they built the impact. By going all in on generative AI and rolling out Copilot companywide, CTO Scott Petty says they saw returns in just six months  —  and the secret was partnering with hyperscalers like Microsoft instead of DIY-ing their AI tools. Read Petty’s 10-point plan for AI adoption from Signal magazine.  

Foundation models are powerful for developers focused on AI, but they’re generalists by design. When precision matters, especially in domain-specific applications, fine-tuning is the key. Azure AI Foundry helps teams fine-tune pre-trained models with their own data — making it easier to build agents, tools and workflows that fit real business needs. Check out “The Developer’s Guide to Smarter Fine-tuning” here. 

AI is reshaping the workplace, and we’re all just trying to keep up. The latest buzzwords are always changing. Take training and inference — the two steps needed to create and use an AI system. Training is like school for AI: it’s fed a data set and learns to perform tasks or make predictions based on that data. Inference is when it uses what it learned during training to make predictions.

Here’s a helpful guide to AI terms everyone should know.