Small and Medium Business Track for the M365 Community Conference
The Microsoft 365 Community Conference is the ultimate Microsoft 365 community event—and the perfect place to expand your skills and knowledge in Microsoft 365 and AI. You’ll learn directly from over 160 Microsoft product leaders, and gain access to more than 200 sessions, including keynotes, workshops, breakouts, and hands-on demos. This year we’re bringing you all-new content and sessions to help you transform the way you work—and maximize your impact with the tools you use every day. Small and Medium Business Track Ready to transform business growth with insights from AI and industry experts? Learn practical tips for using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot to grow your customer base, build your brand, and scale securely. Access tailored product information and demos for small and medium businesses and learn from other business owners using AI to compete with larger organizations. Speakers Brenna Robinson | General Manager, Microsoft SMB Jacky Magee | Head of Marketing, AI at Work for SMB | Microsoft Alexia Cambon | Senior Director, Research | Microsoft Nick Masci | Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder | Industrialized Construction Group (ICG) Karim R. Lakhani | Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration | Harvard Business School Sessions Accelerating Growth with AI-First Strategies for Small and Medium Businesses with Brenna Robinson The Future of Work: How AI Will Transform Small and Medium Businesses with Alexia Cambon, Jacky Magee, Nick Masci, and Karim R. Lakhani Copilot Adoption and Best Practices for Small and Medium Businesses with Gabe Ho and Greg Otterstrom Expert Tips for a Successful Migration to Microsoft 365 for Small and Medium Businesses with Chris Boyd and Meg Garland Grow Your Small or Medium Business with New Tools from Microsoft Teams with Bindu Pillai and Angela Chin Scale with AI: How Small and Medium Business Can Leverage Copilot Agents to Orchestrate Their Business at Scale with Gabe Ho and Elif Algedik Learn more: Visit our SMB Track page.This National Small Business Week, make sure everyone in your company understands AI
Whether you are running a startup or an already thriving small business, harnessing AI-driven solutions will help you discover new opportunities, streamline operations, and make data-driven decisions with confidence. Understanding and exploring the possibilities of AI is essential for small businesses and key to unlocking growth, driving innovation, and maintaining a competitive edge. The first step is understanding the potential of AI for your business. Microsoft has developed several online resources to help. In recognition of National Small Business Week, we have curated a list of those resources that may be helpful for small business professionals who want to get started with AI. Establish an AI foundation Start your AI journey by visiting the Microsoft WorkLab and examining a rich collection of content that addresses the real-world scenarios of how AI is impacting work today. New articles are regularly added that will help you understand not just AI’s high-level capabilities, but also the nuances of AI and how to directly apply AI to your day-to-day work. Key resources include: Up-to-date market research on all the ways that AI is impacting work, like our latest, the AI Data Drop. This study provides insights into how employees feel about AI and how long it takes most employees to build effective AI habits. Regular podcasts with business leaders, like our recent discussion with Bryan Hancock, McKinsey’s Global Talent Leader, on the different ways that managers can unlock AI’s potential for their teams. In-depth guides that detail how AI can help the different parts of your business, such as How Sellers Can Use AI to Better Engage with Customers and How Marketers Can Use AI to Unlock Breakthrough Creativity. Build your AI skills When you're ready to build a deeper AI skill, you explore the Microsoft AI Learning Hub. You’ll find a variety of tools to help you go from understanding AI to preparing for it. You can learn the mechanics of using the technology and even how to build it into your own apps and services. Start with the learning journey for Business Users, which is foundational for getting an underlying understanding of AI, and then move into a more detailed guidance on how to use and implement its capabilities. If you’re an IT professional, look at the learning journey for IT Professionals, which provides a thorough grounding on the particulars of AI adoption, deployment, and small business concerns, like data classification and regulatory considerations. To define your own path, get skilling recommendations based on your job responsibilities and objectives. No matter where you want to go, you can use the AI learning assessment to define a customized learning journey to get you there. Put AI to work To put your AI skills into practice or if you’re already using Copilot for Microsoft 365, visit the Microsoft Copilot Lab. This site provides easy, visual introductions into what Copilot is and how it helps you do more no matter which Microsoft 365 app you are using. These tools are designed for professionals that need a fast, tactical grounding so they can benefit from AI every day. One example is the prompt writing guide, which explains how to write effective prompts so Copilot can deliver exactly what you need. This toolkit teaches the art and science of prompting. It walks through a series of easy initial prompting exercises like writing an AI-powered email or creating an image, so you’ll understand how to edit a prompt to tailored it to your scenario. Microsoft Learn has a series of freely available, advanced courses to help you gain a deeper understanding of Copilot, how it works with the apps in Microsoft 365 and best practices for everyday use. Get started National Small Business Week may be an annual event, but you can build your AI skills year-round. Join the Microsoft SMB Tech Community to network with other professionals using Copilot. You can come here anytime to ask questions, get help, keep up with the latest AI news specific to small and medium-sized businesses and find out about upcoming online or local events.Loop governance, lifecycle, manageability for IT Admins – Nov 2024
Dive into our latest update on Loop governance, lifecycle, and manageability tailored just IT admins! Discover how Loop's seamless integration with Microsoft 365 can transform your team's productivity with real-time co-authoring, versatile components, and enhanced security features. From Copilot Pages to comprehensive manageability roadmap items, this blog has everything you need to confidently pilot and fully enable Loop in your organization.
Reduce Support Costs with Business Assist Forecast Service Excel Add-in
Business Assist Forecast is a tool that enables quick and confident forecasting of future support volume based on historical data, which can save time compared to manually analyzing past trends and volume levels. We are pleased to announce that the Business Assist Forecast service, now in PREVIEW, is available as an Office Excel Add-in, providing an easy-to-access entry point for users.Improve cost-effectiveness by utilizing forecasting service in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
Hi, Microsoft 365 Insiders! My name is Isha Sahni, and I am a Sr. Product Manager on the Customer Success Engineering team. I am excited to announce that you can now use a forecasting service to predict service volumes and agent demands, helping you to direct your support resources more effectively. The service is also now available on Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
