What came through clearly in that conversation is that most organizations aren’t struggling to adopt agents because the technology is unsafe. They’re struggling because their governance models were built for a world that no longer exists. 

While traditional security models still depend on a clear distinction between “inside” and “outside,” and that boundary absolutely still matters. What’s changed is the pace. Agents now move fluidly across apps, data sources, and workflows often spanning environments that were designed with autonomous or semi-autonomous systems in mind.

When building an agent or app can take minutes, imposing governance models built around week-long and manual review processes quickly break down. The challenge isn’t whether to govern—it’s how. Governance has to account for blurred boundaries and apply the right oversight so teams can move fast, without losing control. 

When governance strategies boil down to “lock everything down” or “we’ll figure it out later,” the outcome is predictable: either uncontrolled adoption or shadow IT with no visibility. Neither is a win. 

The governance questions every AI agent should answer

The most effective organizations aren’t trying to stop agents. They’re figuring out how to classify risk clearly and apply the right controls at the right time. 

If governance is just a list of things people can’t do, that’s not governance—it’s a backlog of workarounds waiting to happen. Disruptors and innovators always find a way – whether it’s inside the system or outside your line of sight. When there’s no supported path to do the right thing, shadow IT isn’t a failure of discipline, it’s the natural result. Constraints without alternatives don’t stop innovation, they just push it underground, encouraging shadow IT. 

Real governance sets boundaries that let teams move fast and stay safe: 

• What data sources an agent can access 

• How broadly can it be deployed or shared 

• What actions is it allowed to take 

• What identity does it run under 

• What level of oversight applies as risk increases 

A low-risk personal productivity agent is not the same as an agent connected to a core business system. Treating them as if they are leads to predictable points of failure. You either over restrict everything and stall innovation, or you under-protect what actually matters, leaving critical systems exposed. Governance only works when it reflects the real differences in risk. 

Risk isn’t binary—and AI governance needs a risk-based model

A practical way to make this operational is a simple risk-based model. Not theoretical. Operational. 

Think in terms of graduated risk zones: 

• Low risk: constrained, self-serve scenarios where people can build and use agents with tight guardrails—limited data access, limited sharing.  In this scenario, makers don’t need to open a ticket for every idea, and IT doesn’t have to micromanage. Teams can move quickly, building with confidence, without friction, and IT can stay out of the critical path,  

• Medium risk: broader sharing, more sensitive data, more meaningful actions. These scenarios trigger review and oversight—but without resetting momentum or forcing heavyweight governance on every idea. 

• High risk: business critical workflows tied to core systems. These need deliberate control from day one. Not “nobody can build,” but “the right people build inside the right boundaries, with the right oversight.” 

The point isn’t the labels. The point is clarity. Risk is contextual. Governance should be too. 

Where governance actually gets enforced: the platform

Governance only works when it’s enforced inherently by the platform, not layered on through policy decks, emails, or spreadsheets. 

That’s why a concept of managed platform matters: Make security, governance and operations part of the platform experience—inventory, usage insight, controlled sharing, connector governance, and lifecycle management—rather than an external process held together by best intentions. 

Managed environments—our practical adoption of the managed platform concept—are a Power Platform capability, not something limited to a single product or workload. Managed environments enable teams to manage apps, automations, pages, and even agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio 

One of the cleanest controls is also one of the simplest: sharing limits paired with a clear on‑ramp. 

If someone builds something for themselves or for their immediate teammates, that’s one risk profile. If they want to share their solution more broadly, that’s a different one. The platform needs to distinguish between those cases. When it does, you can let people experiment freely—and require deliberate promotion, review, and accountability when something is ready to scale. 

Agents don’t create permission problems—they expose them 

This bears repeating, because it matters: agents generally operate as the calling user. They don’t magically gain new permissions. Which means agents don’t create access problems; they expose the ones you already have, faster. 

If users have overly broad permissions today, agents will too. That’s not an agent problem—it’s an identity and access discipline problem. Effective agent governance only works when it’s built on solid foundations. 

Trust by design, with verification built-in 

Strong proactive controls matter, but they’re not enough on their own. You still need reactive controls: monitoring, diagnostics, and audit trails, especially when agents take actions with compliance implications. 

Trust but verify still applies. Looking at the familiar expense-approval analogy: humans unintentionally approve things incorrectly all the time. We manage that risk with audits, compensating controls, and limits on blast radius. Agent risk should be treated the same way: know what happened, understand why it happened, and contain the impact when it doesn’t go as planned. 

The takeaway 

The future isn’t “agents everywhere with no control,” and it’s not “no agents because risk.” Both fail. 

The practical path is adaptive governance: classify risk clearly, enforce it through the platform, and create promotion paths so good ideas can scale without turning into tomorrow’s incident response. 

That’s how organizations stop playing defense. If you want to learn how you can start saying “yes” safely, please watch the full interview with Fernando. 

The post ​Building trustworthy AI: A practical framework for adaptive governance appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

For the first time, SQLCon joined the event, bringing the Microsoft Fabric and SQL communities together in Atlanta for an unforgettable week of learning, growing, and connecting.

More than 8,000 attendees gathered across nearly 300 sessions to explore the latest in Fabric and SQL. Some of the most valuable moments did not happen on stage. They happened through conversations and shared experiences across the community.

That is what makes FabCon special. It is not just what you learn. It is who you learn it with.

From packed sessions to impromptu discussions in the hallways, FabCon and SQLCon 2026 reflected the growing energy and momentum behind the Fabric and SQL ecosystems.

Here are some of the highlights from this year’s event.

If you haven’t already, check out Arun Ulag’s hero blog “FabCon and SQLCon 2026: Unifying databases and Fabric on a single, complete platform” for a complete look at all of our FabCon and SQLCon announcements across both Fabric and our database offerings.

A week of learning and collaboration

The week began with pre-conference workshops that allowed attendees to dive deeper into Microsoft Fabric and SQL through hands-on learning.

These sessions covered topics ranging from data engineering and real-time analytics to governance, AI, and advanced SQL scenarios. Participants worked directly with product teams and community experts to explore best practices and build new skills that they could bring back to their organizations.

For many attendees, the workshops set the tone for the entire conference. They offered not only technical depth, but also early opportunities to meet peers, exchange ideas, and start conversations that continued throughout the week.

As the main conference kicked off, keynotes and breakout sessions explored how databases, analytics, real-time data, semantic intelligence, BI, and AI are coming together on Microsoft Fabric, and how organizations are using the platform to turn insights into action faster.

The Expo Hall experience

At the center of the Expo Hall, the Microsoft booth became a natural gathering point throughout the week.

It was a place to connect, explore, and take a break between sessions. Attendees grabbed coffee served by a robot, sampled custom Fabric and SQL-themed Coca-Cola flavors dispensed from Freestyle machines, and spent time with engineers and product teams while picking up a bit of conference swag.

The mix of hands-on experiences and casual conversations made it one of the most active and engaging spaces at the event.

Nearby, the Ask the Experts area gave attendees the chance to connect directly with Microsoft engineers, product managers, and community leaders. These one-on-one discussions helped participants get guidance on everything from Fabric workloads and SQL optimization to governance, security, and AI strategy. Not to mention the wealth of partners also represented in the Expo Hall allowing attendees to engage with the expertise gathered across the ecosystem.

These moments of direct engagement often turned into some of the most valuable conversations of the week.

Competition, creativity, and hands-on challenges

FabCon wouldn’t be complete without a little friendly competition.

Throughout the week, attendees tested their skills in Fast at Fabric, a timed analytics challenge where participants worked through real-world scenarios using Microsoft Fabric. Competitors analyzed data, validated assumptions, and generated insights while climbing a live leaderboard. The experience blended learning with competition in an engaging format.

The Trivia Challenge in the Microsoft booth also kept the energy high. Attendees tested their knowledge of Fabric and SQL in a fast-paced game that mixed learning with plenty of laughs. Interactive dashboards showcased Fabric capabilities while participants competed for prizes and bragging rights.

These experiences turned technical learning into something interactive and memorable while encouraging attendees to dive deeper into the platform.

Celebrating creativity and storytelling with data

The DataViz World Championships delivered one of the most anticipated and electric moments of the week.

As the live finale of an international Power BI competition, the event brought four finalists to the stage to build visualizations in real time using a brand-new dataset. In front of a live audience, they combined creativity, technical skill, and storytelling to turn raw data into compelling insights.

By the end of the session, one finalist earned the title of 2026 Power BI DataViz World Champion, closing out the competition with one of the most memorable moments of the conference.

Community at the center of the experience

At the heart of FabCon was the Community Lounge, a welcoming space dedicated to connection and community-led experiences.

Throughout the week, the lounge hosted meetups, community theater sessions, certification guidance, and informal gatherings where attendees could exchange ideas and build relationships. It became a natural meeting point where conversations continued long after sessions ended.

The event also featured a Women in Data luncheon and a DEI luncheon, which created space for discussions around leadership, resilience, and inclusive growth within the technology community. These sessions encouraged thoughtful dialogue and helped strengthen connections among attendees from diverse backgrounds.

Together, these experiences reinforced what makes the Fabric community unique: a culture of openness, collaboration, and shared learning.

Unforgettable moments from the week

FabCon is known for creating memorable experiences, and this year delivered plenty of them. Power Hour, a fan-favorite event, brought together Microsoft product teams and community leaders for an energetic session filled with creative demos, storytelling, and unexpected surprises.

Meanwhile, FabCon TV broadcast live episodes from the Expo Hall throughout the event. Interviews with speakers, community members, and product experts captured the excitement of the conference and will continue to reach audiences through recordings shared after the event. Be sure to catch these episodes as they’re released on the Fabric YouTube channel!

To celebrate the week, attendees gathered at the world-famous Georgia Aquarium to take in the unique surroundings and connect. Conversations flowed easily between admiring the unique marine ecosystem and the next Fabric and SQL project, offering a memorable backdrop for new ideas and relationships to take shape.

Building on the energy of FabCon and SQLCon

FabCon and SQLCon 2026 highlighted the incredible momentum behind the global data community.

Over the course of the week, thousands of attendees learned new skills, built connections, and explored how Fabric and SQL technologies are shaping the future of data and AI.

Most importantly, the event celebrated the people who make this ecosystem so vibrant. The ideas, insights, and collaborations that began in Atlanta will continue long after the conference ends.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this year. We look forward to seeing what the Fabric and SQL communities build next and we’re already excited to see everyone at the next FabCon SQLCon in Spring 2027.

Explore additional Fabric resources:

• Visit the Fabric website
• Join the Fabric community
• Stay tuned in to the official Fabric YouTube channel
• Read the latest updates on the Microsoft Fabric blog

The post Highlights from FabCon and SQLCon 2026: Where databases and Fabric come together appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

At the same time, this innovation is happening against a sea change in AI-powered attacks where agents can become “double agents.” And chief information officers (CIOs), chief information security officers (CISOs), and security decision makers are grappling with the resulting security implications: How do they observe, govern, and secure agents? How do they secure their foundations in this new era? How can they use agentic AI to protect their organization and detect and respond to traditional and emerging threats?

The answer starts with trust, and security has always been the root of trust. In this agentic era, security must be woven into, and around, every layer of the AI estate. It must be ambient and autonomous, just like the AI it protects. This is our vision for security as the core primitive of the AI stack.

At RSAC 2026, we are delivering on that vision with new purpose-built capabilities designed to help organizations secure agents, secure their foundations, and defend using agents and experts. Fueled by more than 100 trillion daily signals, Microsoft Security helps protect 1.6 million customers, one billion identities, and 24 billion Copilot interactions.² Read on to learn how we can help you secure agentic AI.

Secure agents

Earlier this month, we announced that Agent 365 will be generally available on May 1. Agent 365—the control plane for agents—gives IT, security, and business teams the visibility and tools they need to observe, secure, and govern agents at scale using the infrastructure you already have and trust. It includes new Microsoft Defender, Entra, and Purview capabilities to help you secure agent access, prevent data oversharing, and defend against emerging threats.

Agent 365 is included in Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite along with Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Entra Suite, and Microsoft 365 E5, which includes many of the advanced Microsoft Security capabilities below to deliver comprehensive protection for your organization.

Secure your foundations

Along with securing agents, we also need to think of securing AI comprehensively. To truly secure agentic AI, we must secure foundations—the systems that agentic AI is built and runs on and the people who are developing and using AI. At RSAC 2026, we are introducing new capabilities to help you gain visibility into risks across your enterprise, secure identities with continuous adaptive access, safeguard sensitive data across AI workflows, and defend against threats at the speed and scale of AI.

Gain visibility into risks across your enterprise

As AI adoption accelerates, so does the need for comprehensive and continuous visibility into AI risks across your environment—from agents to AI apps and services. We are addressing this challenge with new capabilities that give you insight into risks across your enterprise so you know where AI is showing up, how it is being used, and where your exposure to risk may be growing. New capabilities include:

• Security Dashboard for AI provides CISOs and security teams with unified visibility into AI-related risk across the organization. Now generally available.
• Entra Internet Access Shadow AI Detection uses the network layer to identify previously unknown AI applications and surface unmanaged AI usage that might otherwise go undetected. Generally available March 31.
• Enhanced Intune app inventory provides rich visibility into your app estate installed on devices, including AI-enabled apps, to support targeted remediation of high-risk software. Generally available in May.

Secure identities with continuous, adaptive access

Identity is the foundation of modern security, the most targeted layer in any environment, and the first line of defense. With Microsoft Entra, you can secure access and deliver comprehensive identity security using new capabilities that help you harden your identity infrastructure, improve tenant governance, modernize authentication, and make intelligent access decisions.

• Entra Backup and Recovery strengthens resilience with an automated backup of Entra directory objects to enable rapid recovery in case of accidental data deletion or unauthorized changes. Now available in preview.
• Entra Tenant Governance helps organizations discover unmanaged (shadow) Entra tenants and establish consistent tenant policies and governance in multi-tenant environments. Now available in preview.
• Entra passkey capabilities now include synced passkeys and passkey profiles to enable maximum flexibility for end-users, making it easy to move between devices, while organizations looking for maximum control still have the option of device-bound passkeys. Plus, Entra passkeys are now natively integrated into the Windows Hello experience, making phishing-resistant passkey authentication more seamless on Windows devices. Synced passkeys and passkey profiles are generally available, passkey integration into Windows Hello is in preview. 
• Entra external Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) allows organizations to connect external MFA providers directly with Microsoft Entra so they can leverage pre-existing MFA investments or use highly specialized MFA methods. Now generally available.
• Entra adaptive risk remediation helps users securely regain access without help-desk friction through automatic self-remediation across authentication methods, adapting to where they are in their modern authentication journey. Generally available in April.
• Unified identity security provides end-to-end coverage across identity infrastructure, the identity control plane, and identity threat detection and response (ITDR)—built for rapid response and real-time decisions. The new identity security dashboard in Microsoft Defender highlights the most impactful insights across human and non-human identities to help accelerate response, and the new identity risk score unifies account-level risk signals to deliver a comprehensive view of user risk to inform real-time access decisions and SecOps investigations. Now available in preview.

Safeguard sensitive data across AI workflows

With AI embedded in everyday work, sensitive data increasingly moves through prompts, responses, and grounding flows—often faster than policies can keep up. Security teams need visibility into how AI interacts with data as well as the ability to stop data oversharing and data leakage. Microsoft brings data security directly into the AI control plane, giving organizations clear insight into risk, real-time enforcement at the point of use, and the confidence to enable AI responsibly across the enterprise. New Microsoft Purview capabilities include:

• Expanded Purview data loss prevention for Microsoft 365 Copilot helps block sensitive information such as PII, credit card numbers, and custom data types in prompts from being processed or used for web grounding. Generally available March 31.
• Purview embedded in Copilot Control System provides a unified view of AI‑related data risk directly in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. Generally available in April.
• Purview customizable data security reports enable tailored reporting and drilldowns to prioritized data security risks. Available in preview March 31.

Defend against threats across endpoints, cloud, and AI services

Security teams need proactive 24/7 threat protection that disrupts threats early and contains them automatically. Microsoft is extending predictive shielding to proactively limit impact and reduce exposure, expanding our container security capabilities, and introducing network-layer protection against malicious AI prompts.

• Entra Internet Access prompt injection protection helps block malicious AI prompts across apps and agents by enforcing universal network-level policies. Generally available March 31.
• Enhanced Defender for Cloud container security includes binary drift and antimalware prevention to close gaps attackers exploit in containerized environments. Now available in preview.
• Defender for Cloud posture management adds broader coverage and supports Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, delivering security recommendations and compliance insights for newly discovered resources. Available in preview in April.
• Defender predictive shielding dynamically adjusts identity and access policies during active attacks, reducing exposure and limiting impact. Now available in preview.

Defend with agents and experts

To defend in the agentic age, we need agentic defense. This means having an agentic defense platform and security agents embedded directly into the flow of work, augmented by deep human expertise and comprehensive security services when you need them.

Agents built into the flow of security work

Security teams move fastest with targeted help where and when work is happening. As alerts surface and investigations unfold across identities, data, endpoints, and cloud workloads, AI-powered assistance needs to operate alongside defenders. With Security Copilot now included in Microsoft 365 E5 and E7, we are empowering defenders with agents embedded directly into daily security and IT operations that help accelerate response and reduce manual effort so they can focus on what matters most.

New agents available now include:

• Security Analyst Agent in Microsoft Defender helps accelerate threat investigations by providing contextual analysis and guided workflows. Available in preview March 26.
• Security Alert Triage Agent in Microsoft Defender has the capabilities of the phishing triage agent and then extends to cloud and identity to autonomously analyze, classify, prioritize, and resolve repetitive low-value alerts at scale. Available in preview in April.
• Conditional Access Optimization Agent in Microsoft Entra enhancements add context-aware recommendations, deeper analysis, and phased rollout to strengthen identity security. Agent generally available, enhancements now available in preview.
• Data Security Posture Agent in Microsoft Purview enhancements include a credential scanning capability that can be used to proactively detect credential exposure in your data. Now available in preview.
• Data Security Triage Agent in Microsoft Purview enhancements include an advanced AI reasoning layer and improved interpretation of custom Sensitive Information Types (SITs), to improve agent outputs during alert triage. Agent generally available, enhancements available in preview March 31.
• Over 15 new partner-built agents extend Security Copilot with additional capabilities, all available in the Security Store.

Scale with an agentic defense platform

To help defenders and agents work together in a more coordinated, intelligence-driven way, Microsoft is expanding Sentinel, the agentic defense platform, to unify context, automate end-to-end workflows, and standardize access, governance, and deployment across security solutions.

• Sentinel data federation powered by Microsoft Fabric investigates external security data in place in Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, and Azure Data Lake Storage while preserving governance. Now available in preview.
• Sentinel playbook generator with natural language orchestration helps accelerate investigations and automate complex workflows. Now available in preview.
• Sentinel granular delegated administrator privileges and unified role-based access control enable secure and scaling management for partners and enterprise customers with cross-tenant collaboration. Now available in preview.
• Security Store embedded in Purview and Entra makes it easier to discover and deploy agents directly within existing security experiences. Generally available March 31.
• Sentinel custom graphs powered by Microsoft Fabric enable views unique to your organization of relationships across your environment. Now available in preview.
• Sentinel model context protocol (MCP) entity analyzer helps automate faster with natural language and harnesses the flexibility of code to accelerate responses. Generally available in April.

Strengthen with experts

Even the most mature security organizations face moments that call for deeper partnership—a sophisticated attack, a complex investigation, a situation where seasoned expertise alongside your team makes all the difference. The Microsoft Defender Experts Suite brings together expert-led services—technical advisory, managed extended detection and response (MXDR), and end-to-end proactive and reactive incident response—to help you defend against advanced cyber threats, build long-term resilience, and modernize security operations with confidence.

Apply Zero Trust for AI

Zero Trust has always been built on three principles: verify explicitly, use least privilege, and assume breach. As AI becomes embedded across your entire environment—from the models you build on, to the data they consume, to the agents that act on your behalf—applying those principles has never been more critical. At RSAC 2026, we’re extending our Zero Trust architecture, the full AI lifecycle—from data ingestion and model training to deployment agent behavior. And we’re making it actionable with an updated Zero Trust for AI reference architecture, workshop, assessment tool, and new patterns and practices articles to help you improve your security posture.

See you at RSAC

If you’re joining the global security community in San Francisco for RSAC 2026 Conference, we invite you to connect with us. Join us at our Microsoft Pre-Day event and stop by our booth at the RSAC Conference North Expo (N-5744) to explore our latest innovations across Microsoft Agent 365, Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Sentinel, and Microsoft Security Copilot and see firsthand how we can help your organization secure agents, secure your foundation, and help you defend with agents and experts. The future of security is ambient, autonomous, and built for the era of AI. Let’s build it together.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹Based on Microsoft first-party telemetry measuring agents built with Microsoft Copilot Studio or Microsoft Agent Builder that were in use during the last 28 days of November 2025.

²Microsoft Fiscal Year 2026 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call and Microsoft Fiscal Year 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call

The post Secure agentic AI end-to-end appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

Welcome to the third annual FabCon and our first ever SQLCon here in Atlanta, Georgia. With nearly 300 workshops and sessions, this joint event will highlight how they are bringing the power of Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Fabric together to create a single, unified platform. But FabCon 2026 and SQLCon 2026 are about more than product innovation. It’s about providing space for our 8,000 attendees to come together and share real experiences, learn from each other, and solve challenges side-by-side. Only together can we move beyond the hype and into meaningful results.

The excitement surrounding this event reflects the same momentum we’re seeing across our data portfolio. Just two and a half years after Microsoft Fabric reached general availability, it’s already serving more than 31,000 customers and remains the fastest-growing data platform in Microsoft’s history. Fortune 500 companies like The Coca-Cola Company are already using Fabric at scale across their organizations.

Microsoft Fabric is helping us evolve our data foundation into a more unified, AI-ready platform. Combined with Power BI and capabilities like Fabric IQ, it enables the enterprise to turn data into intelligence and act on it faster.

Shekhar Gowda, Vice President of Global Marketing Technologies at The Coca-Cola Company

Our databases are accelerating just as quickly, with SQL Server 2025 growing more than twice as fast as the previous version.

Today, we’re thrilled to share how we are bringing the power of databases and Fabric together to form a truly converged data platform—one that unifies transactional, operational, and analytical data under a single, consistent architecture. I’ll also highlight how we’ve enhanced Fabric to help you transform data into the semantic knowledge AI needs to understand your business, powered by Fabric IQ and Power BI’s industry-leading semantic model technology.

Introducing the Database Hub in Microsoft Fabric

Databases sit at the heart of the enterprise data estate—a system of record powering applications, transactions, and mission‑critical insights. Yet as organizations scale across cloud, on‑premises, and edge environments, database estates have become increasingly fragmented and isolated. As AI places even greater demands on data estates, unifying databases under a single access point and control plane has become essential.

To address this challenge, Fabric is expanding its role as the central access point for enterprise data with the Database Hub in Fabric, now available in early access. Database Hub in Fabric provides a unified database management experience that brings together databases across edge, cloud, and Fabric into a single, coherent view. Teams now have one place to explore, observe, govern, and optimize their entire database estate—including Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, SQL Server (enabled by Azure Arc), Azure Database for MySQL, and Fabric Databases—without changing how each service is deployed.

Built for scale, the Database Hub in Fabric introduces an agent‑assisted, human-in-the loop approach to database management. With built-in observability, delegated governance, and Microsoft Copilot-powered insights, teams can deploy intelligent agents to continuously reason over estate‑wide signals and surface what changed, explain why it matters, and guide teams toward what to do next. The result is a simpler, more confident way to manage databases at scale. Over time, this model enables database estates to become more proactive, resilient, and intelligent, laying the foundation for greater autonomy, while keeping humans firmly in control of goals, boundaries, and trust.

Beyond unified database management, we’re also introducing savings plan for databases, a new way to save by up to 35% compared to pay-as-you go pricing on select services.*

Bringing databases together under a single management layer is a critical step as you prepare your estates for AI at scale. But it’s not the end of the journey. The challenge shifts from where data lives to how data is understood, connected, and activated across the enterprise.

Getting your data estate ready for AI with Fabric

As organizations move from traditional applications to AI‑powered, multi‑agent systems, the advantage is shifting away from the specific model you deploy. It now lies in the intelligence and context that allow agents to understand how your business is run, the state of your business, and your institutional knowledge to help take meaningful action.

This is the challenge Microsoft IQ is designed to address. Unlike point solutions on the market today, Microsoft IQ provides an intelligence layer that delivers shared, enterprise-grade business context to every agent. That context is built from three complementary sources: productivity signals from Work IQ, institutional knowledge from Foundry IQ, and live business data from Fabric IQ.

However, like the database layer, while the IQ context layer is a critical part of a successful, and healthy AI foundation, it is not the full story. Building a complete AI-ready data foundation requires investing in four core steps:

1. Unifying your data estate to eliminate silos and reduce architectural complexity.
2. Processing and harmonizing data so it becomes AI-ready, clean, connected, and structured for both operational and analytical use.
3. Curating semantic meaning to give agents contextual understanding, enabling them to interpret data the way your teams already do. This is where Microsoft IQ comes into play.
4. Empowering AI agents to act, applying that context to automate workflows, accelerate decisions, and transform operations end‑to‑end.

Unifying your data estate with Microsoft OneLake

Every AI initiative starts with the same fundamental challenge: understanding where your data lives and how to bring it together. Microsoft OneLake was built to solve that problem by unifying data across clouds, on-premises environments, and third-party platforms into a single logical data lake without unnecessary extracting, transforming, and loading (ETL), fragmentation, or duplicated copies.

Connecting to more sources than ever before

Today, we’re expanding Mirroring in Fabric to support even more systems our customers rely on. Mirroring for SharePoint lists and Dremio are now in preview with Azure Monitor coming soon, while mirroring for Oracle and SAP Datasphere are generally available—all of which are available as part of the core mirroring capabilities. We are also introducing extended capabilities in mirroring designed to help you operationalize mirrored sources at scale, including Change Data Feed (CDF) and the ability to create views on top of mirrored data, starting with Snowflake. Extended capabilities for mirroring will be offered as a paid option.

Shortcut transformations are also now generally available, allowing data to be shaped automatically as it connects to or moves within OneLake. You can convert formats such as Excel to Delta tables, now in preview, and apply AI-powered transformations.

Additionally, we are continuing to invest in open interoperability, ensuring OneLake works seamlessly with the platforms organizations already use. We are excited to announce the ability to natively read from OneLake through Azure Databricks Unity Catalog is now in public preview. We also recently announced the general availability of our interoperability with Snowflake.

I’m also excited to share that Auger, a rapidly growing supply chain platform designed to bring intelligence and automation to global operations, has built its platform on Fabric, with all data stored natively in OneLake. This architecture enables Auger customers to seamlessly access their operations data through OneLake shortcuts within their own Fabric environments and use the full power of the platform including Power BI, Fabric data agents, and more. Learn more in my blog, co-authored with Auger Chief Executive Officer Dave Clark.

Protect your data with OneLake security, now generally available

Security and governance remain foundational to OneLake. I’m thrilled to announce OneLake security will be generally available in the coming weeks, enabling data owners to define roles, enforce row- and column-level controls, and manage permissions through a single unified model that follows the data.

To learn more about these announcements, read the OneLake blog and the Fabric Data Factory blog.

Processing and harmonizing data with Fabric analytics

AI agents are only as reliable as the data you feed them. Before data can train or ground an agent, it must be integrated, cleaned, and structured, so the agent operates from consistent, trusted information. With industry-leading engines in Fabric like Spark, T-SQL, KQL, and Analysis Services, we can equip data teams to do exactly that.

Now, we are expanding these capabilities with the introduction of Runtime 2.0 in preview, purpose-built for large-scale data computation. It incorporates Apache Spark 4.x, Delta Lake 4.x, Scala 2.13, and Azure Linux Mariner 3.0 to power advanced enterprise workloads. Materialized lake views are also now generally available, simplifying medallion architecture implementation in Spark SQL and PySpark and enabling always up-to-date pipelines with no manual orchestration. In addition, a new agentic Copilot experience in notebooks delivers deeper context awareness, reasoning over your workspace, and generating code with greater speed and precision.

For real-time scenarios, we’re launching Maps in Fabric into general availability. Maps add geospatial context to your agents and operations by turning large volumes of location-based data into interactive, real-time visual insights.

For a comprehensive overview of these announcements and much more, read the Fabric Analytics blog and the Fabric Real-Time Intelligence blog.

Creating semantic meaning with Fabric IQ

Preparing raw data for AI is essential. The next step is transforming that data into meaningful, unified business context. That is where Fabric IQ comes in.

Fabric IQ unifies analytical data and operational data, including telemetry, time series, graph, and geospatial data, within a shared semantic framework of business entities, relationships, properties, rules, and actions. Instead of thinking in terms of tables and schemas, your teams and agents can operate on this framework, or ontology, aligned to how the business actually runs.

Fabric IQ ontologies will soon become accessible through an MCP server in preview, enabling agents to discover, understand, and act on this semantic layer. Ontologies can also serve as context sources for maps and soon in operations agents in Fabric, extending shared business context directly into operational decision-making and execution.

We are also excited to announce planning in Fabric IQ, a new enterprise planning capability that enables organizations to create plans, budgets, forecasts, and scenario models directly on top of Fabric’s semantic models. By complementing Fabric IQ’s ontologies with integrated planning, you get a complete, contextual view of your historical, real-time, and forward planning data. This allows users and agents to quickly answer what has happened, what is happening, and what should happen all from a single source. See this in action:

Finally, we recently announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to power the next generation of Physical AI by integrating Real-Time Intelligence and Fabric IQ with NVIDIA Omniverse libraries. The combined platform unifies real‑time operational data, business semantics, and physical simulation to enable organizations to optimize their physical operations in scenarios like intelligent digital twins, predictive maintenance, autonomous logistics, and energy optimization.

To learn more about all of our partner announcements, read the Fabric ISV blog and the planning in Fabric IQ blog.

Enhancing the underlying Fabric IQ technology

Powering much of Fabric IQ’s rich experience is a combination of Power BI’s industry-leading, rich semantic model technology and graph in Fabric, our highly scalable graph database. Already delivering insights to more than 35 million active users, semantic models provide the ideal foundation for training agents through Fabric IQ. Now, with the general availability of Direct Lake on OneLake, your tables can be read directly from OneLake with native security enforcement, richer cross-item modeling, and import-class performance without data movement or refresh.

I’m also excited to share that graph in Fabric will be generally available in the coming weeks, enabling teams to visualize and query complex relationships across customers, partners, and supply chains.

To learn more, check out the Fabric IQ blog and the Power BI blog.

Empowering agents to act with Fabric data and operations agents

Frontier organizations are moving beyond general-purpose assistants and instead, adopting multi-agent systems composed of specialized agents. These agents are each grounded on specific data and reusable across different systems, allowing you to deliver more accurate, accelerated, and scalable outcomes.

To support your multi-agent systems, Fabric comes with built-in agent creation capabilities with Fabric data agents and operations agents. I’m excited to share that Fabric data agents are now generally available. Fabric data agents can be thought of as virtual analysts, aligned to specific domain data to support deeper analysis and deliver insights. Operations agents complement them by monitoring real-time data, detecting patterns, and taking proactive action.

Check out a quick demo of operations agents in Fabric:

These agents can be used across Fabric or as foundational knowledge sources in leading AI tools like Microsoft Foundry, Copilot Studio or even Microsoft 365 Copilot. To learn more about our AI announcements, check out the Fabric analytics blog covering data agents and the Fabric IQ blog covering operations agents.

Building mission-critical applications with developer experiences in Fabric

Developers building the next generation of AI applications need a comprehensive, cost-effective data platform that’s already integrated with your existing tools and workflows. Today, we are expanding Fabric’s developer tooling to meet that demand.

First, Fabric Model Context Protocol (MCP) is advancing with two major milestones. Fabric local MCP is now generally available, providing an open-source local server that connects AI coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot directly to Fabric. Alongside this, we’re introducing the public preview of Fabric remote MCP, a secure, cloud‑hosted execution engine that enables AI agents and automation tools to perform authenticated actions in Fabric.

We’re also enhancing our Git integration with selective branching, allowing developers to branch out for a specific feature and pull only the items they need. You also get improved change comparisons to more easily review recent updates, and new folder relationships which show how feature workspaces connect to source workspaces.

We’re also launching two open-source projects to help teams move faster with Fabric: Agent Skills for Fabric and Fabric Jumpstart. Agent Skills for Fabric is an open-source set of purpose-built plugins that let you use natural language in the GitHub Copilot terminal to harness the full power of Microsoft Fabric. Additionally, Fabric Jumpstart is designed to help you get off the ground with detailed guidance, reference architectures, and single‑click deployments for sample datasets, notebooks, pipelines, and reports.

Finally, we are announcing that the Fabric Extensibility Toolkit (FET), an evolution of the Workload Development Kit (WDK), is now generally available. Along with this release, we are enabling support for full CI/CD, variable library, and a new management experience in the Admin portal.

Migrating your existing Azure service to Fabric

As Fabric continues to grow in functionality, we are also simplifying the migration from other Azure services. In addition to our existing Synapse tooling, we are bringing new migration assistants for Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure SQL in public preview.

The new Fabric migration assistant for Azure Data Factory and Synapse Analytics helps move your existing pipelines and artifacts like Spark pools and notebooks into Fabric with minimal disruption. It’s designed to support incremental modernization, allowing teams to evaluate, convert, and optimize pipelines as they transition to Fabric. The migration assistant for SQL databases helps move SQL Server into Fabric by importing schemas through DACPACs, identifying and resolving compatibility issues with AI assistance, and guiding teams through assessment and data copy workflows for a smoother cutover.

See more Fabric innovation

In addition to the announcements above, we are also rolling out a broad set of Fabric innovations across the platform. For a deeper look at the updates and what’s new this month, visit the Fabric March 2026 Feature summary blog, the Power BI March 2026 feature summary blog, and the latest posts on the Fabric Updates channel.

Explore additional resources for Microsoft Fabric

Read additional blogs by industry-leading partners

*Customers may see savings estimated to be between 0% and 35%. The 35% savings estimate is based on one Azure SQL Database serverless running for 12 months at a pay-as-you-go rate vs. a reduced rate for a 1-year savings plan. Based on Azure pricing as of March 2026. Prices are subject to change. Actual savings may vary based on location, database service, and/or usage. 

The post FabCon and SQLCon 2026: Unifying databases and Fabric on a single data platform appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

In a recent conversation I had with Dion Hinchcliffe at Futurum, we spent time unpacking a shift I’m seeing consistently across enterprises experimenting with AI. It’s not just about copilots or chat interfaces. It’s about something deeper: a change in how work is designed, governed, and operated when systems can reason and act with intent.

For decades, applications have been the primary interface between people and systems. Work meant navigating menus, filling out forms, and clicking through screens carefully designed to constrain what users could do. Productivity improvements came incrementally—better layouts, faster load times, and more automation behind the scenes—but the underlying engagement model stayed the same. People adapted to software.

That model no longer holds.

As organizations race to adopt AI, a new challenge is becoming clear: translating human intent into systems that can act autonomously—without sacrificing control, security, or trust. Intent-first development addresses that gap by reshaping how agentic applications are designed, governed, and delivered at scale.

Agents as the new interaction layer

Instead of teaching people how to use systems, we can let people express intent—and allow systems to determine how that intent is carried out. This is not about replacing all apps overnight. It’s about changing their role. Apps no longer need to expose every possible action through UI. Instead, they:

• Provide trusted capabilities the agent can invoke
• Enforce business rules and permissions
• Act as systems of record, not systems of navigation

As AI systems become capable of reasoning, acting, and adapting, organizations are beginning to rethink the relationship between humans and software. In an agentic model, the agent becomes the primary interaction surface. A user may no longer need to know which system to open or which workflow to follow. They can simply state what they want to achieve: open a purchase order (PO), resolve this case, prepare a customer briefing.

Behind the scenes, agents orchestrate the necessary steps across systems, policies, and data sources. Procurement rules are applied. Approvals are routed. Records are updated. The user expresses intent once; the system coordinates the work.

Agentic solutions aren’t eliminating applications, but they are changing how people engage with them. Apps are the trusted capabilities agents rely on—serving as systems of record, sources of authority, and enforcement points for business rules and permissions. Applications shift from user destinations to services agents invoke. Agents work because structure already exists.

Rethinking enterprise complexity: Orchestration over navigation

This shift becomes clearer when you look at everyday enterprise processes.

Take something as common as opening a purchase order. Today, that often means navigating multiple tools, involving several teams, and manually coordinating approvals. The complexity isn’t the work itself—it’s knowing how to move through the systems.

With an agent‑first approach, that complexity is inverted. A user can simply say they need to open a PO for a project. The agent determines which background agents are required—vendor management, policy validation, approvals—and orchestrates the process across systems without forcing the user to navigate them.

We see the same pattern emerging in CRM. Rather than sales teams manually updating records, agents can monitor emails, calls, calendars, and systems in the background—keeping data current and surfacing relevant context proactively. The agent becomes the interface to customer intelligence, while the CRM remains the authoritative store behind it.

The value here isn’t conversational UI for its own sake. It’s reducing cognitive load while preserving control.

Agents as the business logic and decision layer 

This shift also changes where business logic lives.

Traditional enterprise systems embed logic deep inside individual applications—rules, workflows, and decision trees hardcoded into each tool. That makes change expensive and reuse difficult. When requirements evolve, logic must be rewritten repeatedly across systems.

Agentic systems invert that model. Logic moves into a shared reasoning layer that sits above systems of record. Agents evaluate intent, context, and constraints, then determine which actions are required right now. Policies, best practices, and exceptions can be defined once and applied consistently across processes instead of being repeatedly embedded in individual applications.

This is where the economics of software start to change. Improvements to reasoning or decision quality can compound across organizational functions—HR, finance, operations, and customer engagement—without rebuilding each system individually. Business value shifts from static workflows to shared enterprise intelligence.

Headless agents as a new layer of digital labor 

Not all agents interact directly with people.

Many of the most impactful agents operate quietly in the background—monitoring systems, reacting to triggers, coordinating tasks autonomously. These “headless” agents update records, flag issues, generate reports, and escalate decisions only when human judgment is required.

Together, conversational and headless agents form a new layer of digital labor. Routine work is handled automatically. Humans stay focused on oversight, judgment, and exceptions. The agent doesn’t replace enterprise logic—it coordinates it.

Operating agentic systems at scale requires a control plane

One point Dion and I kept coming back to is this: the real challenge with agentic systems isn’t building the first one. It’s operating hundreds—or thousands—of them responsibly.

As agents scale across teams and geographies, the questions shift quickly. How do you maintain visibility into what agents are doing and why? How do you enforce security, policy, and compliance consistently as agents act across systems? How do you measure impact, cost, and effectiveness as usage grows?

Without a managed platform, intent first development becomes ungovernable at scale. Logic fragments. Visibility breaks down. Early experimentation turns into operational risk. Governance must mature alongside autonomy.

This is where enterprise readiness becomes decisive.

Governance, lifecycle management, observability, and control aren’t optional add‑ons. They’re the foundation that allows agents to operate safely and reliably. Successful enterprise adoptions hide complexity behind an interface that works the way people already think.  Agents don’t eliminate the need for structure—they depend on stronger, more explicit structure than traditional automation ever required.

From pilots to an enterprise operating model

Most organizations begin with pilots—and that’s the right place to start. But pilots stall when governance, ownership, and measurement are treated as afterthoughts.

The pilots that scale share common patterns: centralized policy management, clear accountability between IT and business teams, built-in monitoring, and an explicit path from experimentation to production. Governance isn’t what slows progress; it’s what gives leaders confidence to move faster.

Over time, this becomes more than a collection of use cases. It becomes an operating model. Work shifts from task execution to outcome driven orchestration. Processes move from periodic redesign to continuous optimization. Systems adapt as business intent evolves.

Building adaptive enterprise systems for an agent-first world

This shift isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about building systems that can adapt as it arrives.

Agentic transformation isn’t just a technical change. It’s an operational one—reshaping how work is designed, governed, and continuously improved across the enterprise. Organizations that invest early in the right foundations—clear intent, strong constraints, and disciplined scale—will be positioned to turn intelligent applications into a durable advantage, not a fleeting experiment.

The most successful organizations won’t ask how to bolt agents onto existing apps. They’ll ask how to redesign systems so agents can sit confidently at the front door—turning intent into action with trust, speed, and scale.

In an agent first world, applications remain systems of authority and agents simply coordinate how and when those capabilities are invoked. Apps evolve:

• From destinations → to services
• From user driven workflows → to agent orchestrated actions
• From “where work happens” → to “how work is made possible”

If you want to hear this thinking unpacked in more detail, I explore these ideas directly with Dion Hinchcliffe at Futurum—from agents as the new interaction layer, to why governance becomes more critical, not less, as autonomy increases. Our conversation gets into real enterprise examples, the challenges of moving beyond pilots, and what it actually takes to operate agentic systems at scale.

I encourage you to watch the full interview to hear how these concepts show up in practice and to learn how intent first development is shaping the future of enterprise AI.

The post From apps to agents: Rearchitecting enterprise work around intent appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

New capabilities include the ability to surface relevant work-related information alongside patient data for customers using Microsoft 365 Copilot; partner-built AI apps and agents available through Microsoft Marketplace that extend intelligence across revenue cycle, clinical insights, and decision support; and expanded role-based experiences for physicians, nurses, and radiologists designed to scale securely across settings and geographies.

Today, more than 100,000 clinicians rely on Dragon Copilot as part of their daily practice—supporting care for millions of patients every month. That kind of adoption doesn’t happen by accident; it happens when technology earns trust, fits naturally into clinical workflows, and proves its value day after day. As healthcare continues to accelerate, the question facing organizations is no longer if AI will be part of care delivery, but how quickly they can equip their teams with tools that scale safely, work across roles, and keep clinicians focused on patients. The new Dragon Copilot capabilities we’re introducing at HIMSS 2026 build on this proven foundation—extending trusted clinical support beyond documentation to meet the growing demands of modern care.

Clinicians need more than access to data—they need an AI assistant that works alongside them, understands context, and supports action across systems and settings. Built on Microsoft Azure, Dragon Copilot delivers this capability with enterprise‑grade security, responsible AI, and cloud scale—giving organizations the confidence to deploy broadly and grow with care teams wherever they work.

“We ultimately went with Microsoft because of the security, the compliance, the scalability, and the fact that they’ve delivered reliable solutions for years.”

—Snehal Gandhi, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer, Cooper University Health Care

See what Dragon Copilot has to offer:

Unifying the disparate—so care teams can move faster, with confidence

By unifying information from across systems and sources, Dragon Copilot reduces fragmentation and unnecessary searching—bringing patient data, trusted clinical content, and partner powered AI insights into a single, contextual experience within the clinical workflow.

What makes this approach different is not just access to information, but how intelligence is delivered and applied. Clinicians can naturally query, summarize, create, and act using voice or text—without toggling between tools. Insights are surfaced instantly in one place, enabling care teams to move fluidly from understanding to action while spending less time navigating systems and more time with patients.

That intelligence is grounded in a broad set of trusted sources, including:

• Prebuilt trusted clinical content with citations
• Patient data like diagnoses, labs, medications, and allergies
• Organizational content such as policies, procedures, schedules, and communications

When needed, reliable web information can also be accessed through a safety‑first pathway—ensuring responses remain appropriate for clinical use.

Care delivery depends on more than clinical facts—it also depends on fast access to the work context around care. With Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by Work IQ and accessible inside Dragon Copilot, clinicians can pull in relevant work-related information from connected apps and enterprise data, right where they’re already working. Work IQ is the intelligence layer that helps Copilot understand how people collaborate across emails, files, meetings, and chats—so responses are grounded in the right context. The result is a more unified experience that reduces time spent searching across tools and keeps momentum inside the clinical workflow.

Dragon Copilot extends clinical intelligence beyond any single system or screen. Instead of being locked into one interface, clinicians can invoke powerful AI capabilities wherever they’re already working—across applications, EHRs, and web pages. By simply clicking or highlighting text, Dragon Copilot can read, understand, and apply its intelligence directly in context, without forcing clinicians to switch tools or reenter information.

For example, a clinician reviewing a note can place their cursor over a sentence and say, “Add more detail about what the patient shared regarding their cardiac history.” Dragon Copilot immediately expands the documentation using the surrounding clinical context—no copying, no pasting, and no workflow disruption—helping clinicians move faster while keeping their focus on the patient, not the screen.

Building on this foundation, Dragon Copilot further unifies innovation through AI apps and agents available in Microsoft Marketplace. Developed by partners such as Canary Speech, Humata Health, Optum, and Regard, these solutions deliver capabilities across clinical insights, revenue cycle management, prior authorization, and clinical decision support. Organizations can easily purchase, deploy, and scale partner innovation—while clinicians experience those insights directly within their existing workflows.

“Sentara Health is integrating Regard’s diagnosis and documentation technology within Dragon Copilot to save time, improve revenue integrity, and most importantly improve care.

By combining Dragon’s ambient conversation capture with Regard’s ability to surface key insights from data, we expect to help our clinicians identify comorbidities and relevant diagnoses in real time without adding steps to their workflow. Our goal is straightforward: strengthen the clinical picture, reduce documentation burden, and support more informed decision-making at the point of care.”

—Dr. Joseph Evans, Vice President, Chief Health Information Officer at Sentara Health

Simplifying the complex—so care teams can be present with patients

Dragon Copilot streamlines clinical documentation and routine tasks, so clinicians spend less time navigating systems and more time focused on patient care. By simplifying physician and nursing charting, notes, flowsheets, and radiology reporting, it reduces rework and cognitive burden—helping care teams work more efficiently and confidently across the day.

This simplification is powered by healthcare-grade AI models built for clinical accuracy, with clinical note quality evaluated using the Provider Document Summarization Quality Instrument (PDSQI9)—an industry standard developed with leading academic and healthcare institutions to ensure clear, consistent, and clinically appropriate outputs.

Beyond documentation, Dragon Copilot automates high friction tasks across the workflow. Persona specific note types, automated referral letters and after‑visit summaries, summaries of prior radiology reports, and proactive coding guidance reduce manual effort and unnecessary toggling—allowing care teams to focus on decisions, not data entry.

New and expanded capabilities include:

• Proactive ICD‑10 specificity suggestions, delivered during note review to support timely, accurate reimbursement.
• Reusable custom clinical documents, created from prompts or examples and managed as templates, allowing clinicians to get additional unique content created automatically, such as custom letters.
• Pull-forward workflow support to jump-start new documentation from prior notes.
• Multilingual conversation capture, connecting with patients in their language. Captures the conversation in 58 languages and automatically converts the encounter into a note written in the primary language used in each country.
• Seamless migration from Dragon Medical One, preserving existing commands, vocabularies, profiles, templates, and AutoTexts.

Scaling across roles, geographies, and devices

Dragon Copilot is designed with role-based experiences that deliver the right capabilities to each clinician, when and where they’re needed. Physicians, nurses, radiologists, and other care team members benefit from workflows tailored to their unique responsibilities—from documentation and care coordination to image interpretation—while organizations maintain consistency, security, and compliance at scale. With a single solution spanning multiple roles, including the only experience built for radiologists and demonstrated outcomes for nurses, healthcare organizations can simplify their technology footprint and drive greater return on investment.

Physicians

Dragon Copilot supports physicians across care settings through EHR‑integrated workflows and a dedicated app available on mobile (iOS and Android), web, and desktop. Physicians can document more efficiently, access timely clinical information, and reduce cognitive load—whether at the point of care or on the go.

Together with partners, Dragon Copilot continues to scale globally and is now available in U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Nurses

Dragon Copilot enhances nursing workflows by ambiently capturing documentation at the point of care and transforming conversations into structured flowsheet entries. With expanded support for all med-surg flowsheet templates and lines, drains, and airways (LDAWs) additions and removals—nurses can document more completely without disrupting care.

Through a dedicated app available on mobile (such as iOS and Android), web, and desktop, nurses can also access information from trusted medical sources, query transcripts to surface key patient details, and create concise summaries—without leaving their workflow—reducing clicks, and keeping focus on patient care.

“Dragon Copilot gives power back to nurses to spend time at the bedside with face-to-face interactions.”

—Stephanie Whitaker, MSN, Registered Nurse, Chief Nursing Officer, Mercy

Nurses using Dragon Copilot have reported reduced cognitive load, faster documentation, and improved patient experience, reinforcing the value of role‑specific AI designed for frontline care. The Dragon Copilot nursing experience is available in the United States.

“I can say that without a doubt, using Dragon Copilot has significantly reduced the time that I’m focused and worrying about sitting down and getting my charting done behind the computer.”

—Christine Dupire, Registered Nurse, Mercy

Radiologists

Paired with PowerScribe One, Dragon Copilot helps minimize repetitive tasks such as reviewing prior reports and automates routine steps in report creation. It surfaces relevant clinical context, integrates customizable AI experiences, and provides intelligent access to credible information—helping radiologists stay focused and deliver high‑quality reports with confidence. The Dragon Copilot radiology experience is currently in preview in the United States.

“As we embrace the next frontier of AI, we know that having cloud-based solutions that work seamlessly with our existing products and systems is paramount. Having Dragon Copilot as a companion for PowerScribe One gives me confidence that I can test and benefit from the latest AI advancements with minimal disruptions and distractions.”

—Sean Cleary, MD, Vice Chair of Informatics for Imaging Sciences University of Rochester Medical Center

Restoring humanity to healthcare through AI

AI will only transform healthcare if it truly serves the people delivering care. Dragon Copilot is built for that purpose—bringing role‑based experiences, hands‑free workflows, and proactive clinical intelligence together in a way that fits naturally into how clinicians work. By unifying information, reducing friction, and extending trusted intelligence across the workflow, Dragon Copilot helps clinicians spend less time managing tasks and more time connecting with patients—restoring focus, confidence, and humanity to the practice of medicine.

Join the more than 100,000 clinicians already using Dragon Copilot

• Visit us at the HIMSS 2026 Booth #2812.
• Get the playbook to learn how clinicians utilize AI to work smarter.
• Download the white paper to explore AI use cases transforming healthcare.

The post Unify. Simplify. Scale: Microsoft Dragon Copilot meets the moment at HIMSS 2026 appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

This year, Microsoft had a clear focus at DTECH 2026: help utilities move from pilots to production by unifying IT and OT data, applying AI where it measurably improves reliability, affordability, and productivity and do so with the security and governance necessary for critical infrastructure.

Microsoft-led sessions explored moving beyond experimentation to focus on how utilities are turning unified data and AI into repeatable, operational outcomes. The takeaways from DTECH this year point to the next chapter of grid modernization—one defined by execution at scale, not pilots. 

What utility leaders reinforced: Keeping pace with change

Utility leaders consistently pointed to the increasing speed of change across the grid. Planning and operations are being pushed to respond faster as load growth becomes larger, more concentrated, and more volatile. Electrification is reshaping peak demand profiles, while capital programs are under pressure to deliver measurable value earlier—even as timelines continue to compress. 

At the distribution level, operational complexity is increasing. Distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, flexible demand, and new market programs are turning distribution systems into highly dynamic environments that demand better visibility, orchestration, and cybersecurity. Utilities are managing bidirectional power flows, evolving protection schemes, and the reality that smaller, distributed assets can have outsized system-level impacts—raising the bar for visibility, orchestration, and cybersecurity.

As a result, resilience is no longer episodic; it is a daily operating requirement. Fragmented data and manual coordination continue to limit situational awareness and slow response during major events.

Industry leaders were realistic about these constraints. Equipment lead times, workforce availability, and regulatory requirements mean that near-term reliability gains often come from improving how existing assets and systems are planned and operated. As a result, progress is increasingly measured by how effectively insights are translated into operational decisions, supported by secure and scalable platforms.

Trusted data as the foundation for AI in operations

Utilities generate vast amounts of data across assets, outages, telemetry, imagery, work management systems, and customer platforms. In many organizations, this data remains distributed across systems with inconsistent definitions, varying latency, and uneven governance.

These conditions slow analysis, create conflicting views of performance, and limit the ability to move from insight to action. Without a consistent and trusted data foundation, AI initiatives struggle to scale beyond isolated use cases. 

Microsoft is focused on helping utilities establish governed data foundations that support analytics and AI across planning, operations, field work, and customer engagement. By enabling scale across use cases—rather than building one‑off pipelines—utilities can align around shared definitions, apply consistent security controls, and collaborate without duplicative effort. 

This matters because the highest value use cases are inherently cross domain. Outage performance, capacity planning, and major event readiness all depend on data that spans systems and organizations. A unified data foundation allows AI to support these decisions with clarity, traceability, and operational relevance. 

From siloed AI solutions to agentic operations

Another notable theme at DTECH 2026 was the growing interest in agent-enabled workflows. Utilities are looking beyond standalone AI tools toward systems that can support multi-step workflows across planning, operations, and field execution, while maintaining appropriate oversight by subject matter experts across the workforce.

The focus is squarely on practical outcomes. Earlier risk identification, clearer paths from signal to action, and stronger coordination across teams are driving interest in these approaches, as utilities seek to move faster.

Human oversight remains foundational. Operators and engineers expect AI systems that surface options, explain their rationale, and reference trusted data—while operating within clearly defined governance boundaries. In regulated, safety‑critical environments, this human‑in‑the‑loop model must align with role‑based access, operational constraints, and established safeguards.

Partner innovation making modernization deployable

Grid modernization depends on strong ecosystem collaboration. No single entity can deliver it alone. What matters is interoperability—how solutions work together across planning, operations, outage restoration, field productivity, and major event response.

That focus was clear in the announcements from Microsoft and our partners at DTECH 2026:

• Dragos—Microsoft and Dragos announced an expanded partnership focused on helping organizations modernize and secure their cyber-physical operations. By combining Dragos’ OT threat intelligence and detection capabilities with Microsoft’s cloud, AI, and security platforms, utilities can strengthen the safety, reliability, and resilience of the critical systems that power businesses and communities. 
• GE Vernova on Azure—GridOS Data Fabric and DDLR are now on Microsoft Azure, combining GE Vernova’s operational expertise with Microsoft’s cloud, AI, and analytics.
• Hitachi—Hitachi Energy’s Ellipse EAM is being combined with Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Fabric, Copilot, and Microsoft Foundry to create a unified solution that manages data, analytics, and business operations, supports asset operations, and provides visibility of equipment across entire networks for more reliable services, safer operations, and fewer emergency repairs.  
• Itron—The new Itron Intelligent Edge Operating System (IEOS) Connector for Microsoft 365 Copilot uses trusted grid-edge data to redefine grid edge intelligence by applying AI at scale to optimize operations, enhance predictive insights, and enrich customer experiences.
• Schneider Electric—Microsoft’s AI, cloud, and data capabilities are integrated in the One Digital Grid Platform, enabling operations to move from prediction to execution in minutes.

These developments reflect continued progress toward reference architectures and reusable patterns that reduce bespoke integration and support broader adoption across utility environments.

Security and resilience built into modernization

Security remains a core consideration as IT and OT environments converge and connectivity at the edge increases. Utility leaders emphasized the importance of approaches that function across hybrid architectures and reflect operational realities.

Identity, access management, monitoring, and governance must be consistently applied across cloud, edge, and on‑premises systems. Resilience improves when operators have timely visibility, clear decision paths, and automation that supports established operating practices.

What comes next

DTECH 2026 highlighted a clear direction for grid modernization; utilities are prioritizing:

• Trusted data foundations spanning IT and OT.
• AI and agent-enabled capabilities embedded in operational workflows.
• Secure architectures designed to support reliability, governance, and resilience.

Microsoft will continue to work alongside utilities and industry partners to advance these priorities and support grid operations that can adapt to increasing complexity while delivering reliable outcomes for customers and communities. 

Turn insight into action

• Explore the possibilities of AI transformation with Microsoft
• Read the latest International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook
• Learn how to achieve more in the energy and resources industry with trusted data and AI solutions from Microsoft
• Explore the Reinventing the Utility Playbook: AI Agents for Grid Growth, Storm Response, and the Workforce 2.0 DTECH 2026 session
• Learn more about the AI-Powered Utilities: The Next Wave of Innovation DTECH 2026 session

The post DTECH 2026: How Microsoft and our partners are accelerating AI innovation for utilities appeared first on Microsoft AI Blogs.

At Microsoft, we see this moment giving rise to what we call the Frontier Firm: organizations that are human-led and agent-operated. With more than 80% of leaders already using agents or planning to within the year, we’re entering a world where every person may soon have an entire agentic team at their side¹. By 2028, IDC projects 1.3 billion agents in use—a scale that changes everything about how we work and how we secure².

In the agentic era, security must be ambient and autonomous, just like the AI it protects. This is our vision for security as the core primitive, woven into and around everything we build and throughout everything we do. At RSAC™ 2026 Conference, we’ll share how we are delivering on that vision through our AI-first, end-to-end, security platform that helps you protect every layer of the AI stack and secure with agentic AI.

Join us at RSAC Conference 2026—March 22–26 in San Francisco

RSAC 2026 will give you a front‑row seat to how AI is transforming the global threat landscape, and how defenders can stay ahead with:

• A deeper understanding of how AI is reshaping the global threat landscape
• Insight into how Microsoft can help you protect every layer of the AI stack and secure with agentic AI
• Product demos, curated sessions, executive conversations, and live meetings with our experts in the booth

This is your moment to see what’s next and what’s possible as we enter the era of agentic security.

Microsoft at RSAC™ 2026

From Microsoft Pre‑Day to innovation sessions, networking opportunities, and 1:1 meetings, explore experiences designed to help you navigate the age of AI with clarity and impact.

Explore conference events

Microsoft Pre-Day: Your first look at what’s next in security

Kick off RSAC 2026 on Sunday, March 22 at the Palace Hotel for Microsoft Pre‑Day, an exclusive experience designed to set the tone for the week ahead.

Hear keynote insights from Vasu Jakkal, CVP of Microsoft Security Business and other Microsoft security leaders as they explore how AI and agents are reshaping the security landscape.

You’ll discover how Microsoft is advancing agentic defense, informed by more than 100 trillion security signals each day. You’ll learn how solutions like Agent 365 deliver observability at every layer, and how Microsoft’s purpose‑built security capabilities help you secure every layer of the AI stack. You’ll also explore how our expert-led services can help you defend against cyberthreats, build cyber resilience, and transform your security operations.

The experience concludes with opportunities to connect, including a networking reception and an invite-only dinner for CISOs and security executives.

Microsoft Pre‑Day is your chance to hear what is coming next and prepare for the week ahead. Secure your spot today.

Executive events: Exclusive access to insights, strategy, and connections

For CISOs and senior security decision makers, RSAC 2026 offers curated experiences designed to deliver maximum value:

• CISO Dinner (Sunday, March 22): Join Microsoft Security executives and fellow CISOs for an intimate dinner following Microsoft Pre-Day. Share insights, compare strategies, and build connections that matter.
• The CISO and CIO Mandate for Securing and Governing AI (Monday, March 23): A session outlining why organizations need integrated AI security and governance to manage new risks and accelerate responsible innovation.
• Executive Lunch & Learn: AI Agents are here! Are you Ready? (Tuesday, March 24): A panel exploring how observability, governance, and security are essential to safely scaling AI agents and unlocking human potential.
• The AI Risk Equation: Visibility, Control, and Threat Acceleration (Wednesday, March 25): A deeply interactive discussion on how CISOs address AI proliferation, visibility challenges, and expanding attack surfaces while guiding enterprise risk strategy.
• Post-Day Forum (Thursday, March 26): Wrap up RSAC with an immersive, half‑day program at the Microsoft Experience Center in Silicon Valley—designed for deeper conversations, direct access to Microsoft’s security and AI experts, and collaborative sessions that go beyond the main‑stage content. Explore securing and managing AI agents, protecting multicloud environments, and deploying agentic AI through interactive discussions. Transportation from the city center will be provided. Space is limited, so register early.

These experiences are designed to help CISOs move beyond theory and into actionable strategies for securing their organizations in an AI-first world.

Keynote and sessions: Insights you can act on

On Monday, March 23, don’t miss the RSAC 2026 keynote featuring Vasu Jakkal, CVP of Microsoft Security. In Ambient and Autonomous Security: Building Trust in the Agentic AI Era (3:55 PM-4:15 PM PDT), learn how ambient, autonomous platforms with deep observability are evolving to address AI-powered threats and build a trusted digital foundation.

Here are two sessions you don’t want to miss:

1. Security, Governance, and Control for Agentic AI 

• Monday, March 23 | 2:20–3:10 PM. Learn the core principles that keep autonomous agents secure and governed so organizations can innovate with AI without sprawl, misuse, or unintended actions.
  • Speakers: Neta Haiby, Partner, Product Manager and Tina Ying, Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft 

2. Advancing Cyber Defense in the Era of AI Driven Threats 

• Tuesday, March 24 | 9:40–10:30 AM. Explore how AI elevates threat sophistication and what resilient, intelligence-driven defenses look like in this new era.
  • Speaker: Brad Sarsfield, Senior Director, Microsoft Security, NEXT.ai

Plus, don’t miss our sessions throughout the week: 

• Monday, March 23 
  • Cyber Coaches: Lessons from Securing US Water Infrastructure
• Tuesday, March 24 
  • How to Red Team a Frontier AI Model
  • Turning Mandates Into Momentum: Policy Tools for PQC Adoption 
  • AI, Identity, and Ethical Governance: Building Trust in High Stakes Systems
• Wednesday, March 25 
  • VC Investments—2026 and Beyond
  • The Fundamentals Forum: Let’s Get Back to Basics
• Thursday, March 26 
  • Beyond Red Teaming: Why AI Security Needs a Bigger Playbook
  • Architecting Systems for Human–AI Collaboration in Cyber Defense
  • Disrupting Cybercrime Networks, Successfully, Continuously, and at Scale
  • Automated Cyber Defense: Lessons from DARPA’s AI Cyber Challenge
  • AI on Trial: How CISOs Navigate Hype, Risk, and Accountability 

Microsoft Booth #5744: Theater sessions and interactive experiences

Visit the Microsoft booth at Moscone Center for an immersive look at how modern security teams protect AI‑powered environments. Connect with Microsoft experts, explore security and governance capabilities built for agentic AI, and see how solutions work together across identity, data, cloud, and security operations.

Test your skills and compete in security games

At the center of the booth is an interactive single‑player experience that puts you in a high‑stakes security scenario, working with adaptive agents to triage incidents, optimize conditional access, surface threat intelligence, and keep endpoints secure and compliant, then guiding you to demo stations for deeper exploration.

Quick sessions, big takeaways, plus a custom pet sticker

You can also stop by the booth theater for short, expert‑led sessions highlighting real‑world use cases and practical guidance, giving you a clear view of how to strengthen your security approach across the AI landscape—and while you’re there, don’t miss the Security Companion Sticker activation, where you can upload a photo of your pet and receive a curated AI-generated sticker.

Microsoft Security Hub: Your space to connect

Throughout the week, the iconic Palace Hotel will serve as Microsoft’s central gathering place—a welcoming hub where you can step away from the bustle of the conference. It’s a space to recharge and connect with Microsoft security experts and executives, participate in focused thought leadership sessions and roundtable discussions, and take part in networking experiences designed to spark meaningful conversations. Full details on sessions and activities are available on the Microsoft Security Experiences at RSAC™ 2026 page.

Customers can also take advantage of scheduled one-on-one meetings with Microsoft security experts during the week. These meetings offer an opportunity to dig deeper into today’s threat landscape, discuss specific product questions, and explore strategies tailored to your organization. To schedule a one-on-one meeting with Microsoft executives and subject matter experts, speak with your account representative or submit a meeting request form.

Partners: Building security together

Microsoft’s presence at RSAC 2026 isn’t just about our technology. It’s about the ecosystem. Visit the booth and the Security Hub to meet members of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) and explore how our partners extend and enhance Microsoft Security solutions. From integrated threat intelligence to compliance automation, these collaborations help you build a stronger, more resilient security posture.

Special thanks to Ascent Solutions, Avertium, BlueVoyant, CyberProof, Darktrace, and Huntress for sponsoring the Microsoft Security Hub and karaoke party.

Why join us at RSAC?

Attending RSAC™ 2026? By engaging with Microsoft Security, you’ll gain clear perspective on how AI agents are reshaping risk and response, practical guidance to help you focus on what matters most, and meaningful connections with peers and experts facing the same challenges.

Together, we can make the world safer for all. Join us in San Francisco and be part of the conversation defining the next era of cybersecurity.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

¹According to data from the 2025 Work Trend Index, 82% of leaders say this is a pivotal year to rethink key aspects of strategy and operations, and 81% say they expect agents to be moderately or extensively integrated into their company’s AI strategy in the next 12–18 months. At the same time, adoption on the ground is spreading but uneven: 24% of leaders say their companies have already deployed AI organization-wide, while just 12% remain in pilot mode.

²IDC Info Snapshot, sponsored by Microsoft, 1.3 Billion AI Agents by 2028, May 2025 #US53361825

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1. One pass, two conferences—double the value
   Register once, benefit twice. With SQLCon and FabCon under the same roof, you can mix a deep SQL session in the morning with a Fabric or AI talk in the afternoon, then drop into the shared expo and community lounge. It’s a seamless, high‑impact week that lets specialists go deep while cross‑functional teams build a common language across data, analytics, and AI.
2. Dive Deep with Interactive Sessions and Hands-On Workshops
   There are 50 SQL sessions at SQLCon. Fifty! The program is designed for momentum. Across the week, you’ll find practical content on SQL Server, Azure SQL, SQL database in Fabric, performance tuning, security and governance, migration and modernization, and building AI‑powered experiences with SQL. Monday and Tuesday are hands‑on workshop days—bring your laptop and leave with repeatable scripts, patterns, and demos you can apply immediately. Wednesday through Friday, you’ll stack conference sessions to round out your plan for the year.
3. Experience Atlanta: The Perfect Setting for SQLCon
   SQLCon + FabCon take place at the Georgia World Congress Center, in the heart of a walkable downtown that’s tailor‑made for a great conference week. You’ll be just a short walk from Centennial Olympic Park, near State Farm Arena—home to major keynote events—and amid lively dining and music options. The attendee party is at the Georgia Aquarium, an unforgettable after‑hours experience with spectacular exhibits and a perfect setting for relaxed conversations with peers and product teams. Want a quick vibe check on the city and the conference energy? Watch the short video of Guy in a Cube and me:
4. Announcements on roadmap, engineering insights, and live updates
   If you want to understand where SQL Server, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric are heading, this is the place. Expect direct updates from engineering (we’re sending over 30 members from the SQL product team); first‑look announcements; and live demos of upcoming capabilities across SQL tooling and drivers, SSMS/VS Code extensions, Copilot integrations, and Fabric SQL experiences. You’ll leave with clarity on what’s coming, how it impacts your environment, and where to invest next.
5. The SQL Community: Revitalized and Engaged
   SQLCon goes beyond a conference—it’s a gathering where the lounge hosts meetups and active conversations. Ask‑the‑Experts sessions connect you with engineers, MVPs, and product teams. Shared keynotes bring everyone together, and the city makes it easy to extend conversations into the evening. Bring your toughest questions, real-world challenges, and bold goals—you’ll leave with practical solutions, valuable connections, and new inspiration.

Bonus: make the budget work
Depending on timing, look for early‑bird pricing, team discounts, or buy‑one‑get‑one offers on the registration page. These deals move fast, so check what’s live when you register. You can always use SQLCMTY200 for $200 off!

Wrap‑up: build the next chapter of your data strategy at SQLCon
SQLCon + FabCon is the highest‑leverage week of the year to sharpen your technical skills, understand SQL’s next chapter, accelerate modernization and performance, and build meaningful connections across the global community. If SQL plays any role in your data estate, this is the one event you shouldn’t miss.

See you in Atlanta!

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This is why I’m thrilled to invite you back to the Microsoft 365 Community Conference, happening April 21–23, 2026, in Orlando, Florida, at the Loews Sapphire Falls and Loews Royal Pacific Resorts. 

This event is your front-row seat to everything new and next across Microsoft 365—with hundreds of opportunities to learn directly from product makers, engage with experts, and connect with the best community in tech.

Empowering builders, innovators, and leaders shaping the future of intelligent work

#M365Con26 is built around one simple idea: bringing our global community together to learn, grow, innovate, and get hands-on with the technologies shaping the next era of work. 

This year’s conference delivers our most expansive program yet, including: 

• 200+ sessions, workshops, and AMAs, covering Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Copilot Studio, and more.  

• 100+ Microsoft-led sessions, giving you unprecedented access to the people building the apps and AI capabilities you use every day. 

• A keynote lineup featuring Microsoft leaders, including Charles Lamanna, Vasu Jakkal, Rohan Kumar, Jaime Teevan, and many more.  

• Deep-dive workshops to elevate your skills with real-world scenarios and hands-on learning.  

• Exclusive attendee parties and networking events where you can connect with peers and icons.

You’ll also get the chance to meet hundreds of Microsoft executives, engineers, and product leaders—ask questions, share feedback, and help shape the roadmap of the technologies you rely on.  

AI at the center of modern collaboration

At last year’s event, I shared how AI has become a true partner in the workplace—helping people work smarter, collaborate more intuitively, and unlock creativity in ways we’ve never seen before.  

This year, we’re taking that vision even further. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot and our suite of intelligent collaboration tools continue to evolve rapidly, empowering teams to work more efficiently across digital, hybrid, and global environments. Whether you’re modernizing business processes, strengthening organizational knowledge, or enhancing employee experiences, AI will be a central theme throughout this year’s sessions and keynotes. 

A celebration of community 

One of the things I’ve always valued most about the Microsoft ecosystem is our community. Our customers, partners, MVPs, creators, builders, and advocates play a vital role in shaping the products you use every day. Your insights power our innovation, and events like this allow us to learn from you in real time. 

Whether you’re an IT pro optimizing collaboration at scale, a developer building the next great app, or a business leader driving AI transformation—this conference is built for you. 

It’s also just a lot of fun. From peer meetups to hands-on labs to the legendary attendee celebration at Universal Orlando—it’s a week you won’t want to miss.  

Let’s build the future of work—together 

The momentum behind Microsoft 365 has never been stronger, and our commitment to empowering every person and organization to achieve more has never been clearer. 

I’m excited to welcome you to Orlando this April as we come together once again to: 

• Spark new ideas 

• Build new connections 

• Deepen your skills 

• Explore the future of work—powered by AI and built with community 

Register for the Microsoft 365 Community Conference 

If you’re ready to take your career and your business to the next level, now’s the time to register. Save $150 with our exclusive customer code SAVE150.

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