Category: Microsoft

Exam AB-210: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate

Indeed the 3rd exam related post in just over a week – it’s a busy (new) certification release season at the moment!

This time it’s the new AB-210 exam, focusing on Dynamics 365 Sales and AI (of course!). It’s nice to see that there’s a dedicated Dynamics 365 Sales exam back now – most of us will remember the MB-210 exam that was around for a number of years, but which was retired at the end of November 2024. What happened was that a new exam at the time (the MB-280) was released, which rolled together Dynamics 365 Sales with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights.

I never fully officially understood the reason for this, given that the roles in reality are quite different, and did comment at the time (MB-280: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst) that I wondered how well it would stand the progress of time.

AI and sales capabilities seem generally to go well together – Microsoft has publicly demoed at large conferences the Sales Agent multiple times, showing how it can help qualify leads, and handle engagments with customers. To be honest I quite like this in general, though for implementation I do keep my (slightly skeptical) eye on it, to ensure it’s working in the right way.

The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you design and configure AI-enhanced sales solutions by using Dynamics 365 Sales, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales, and agent capabilities to help sellers work more efficiently throughout the lead-to-cash process. You translate business requirements into practical seller workflows enhanced with conversational intelligence, predictive insights, guided automation, and secure data access.

In this role, you work closely with sales, operations, and IT stakeholders to help ensure that solutions align with revenue goals and process optimization.

You perform the following design and implementation tasks:

  • Configure Dynamics 365 Sales core features.
  • Deploy, manage, and monitor agents in Sales.
  • Implement collaboration features.
  • Tailor AI-powered intelligence features.

It is highly recommended that candidates complete training in intermediate-level Microsoft Power Platform configuration before taking this certification exam. Additionally, you must have functional knowledge of:

  • Building Power Automate cloud flows.
  • Interpreting an organization’s sales processes and seller experience.
  • Building and extending model-driven apps.

The overall information for the exam can be found at Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

I do like that the exam content overview calls out that Power Platform knowledge & configuration is highly recommended. Obviously Dynamics 365 is built on top of Power Platform, and having this knowledge (ie the ability to customise & extend with Power Platform capabilities) is key to well thought through implementations.

As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

  • Setup & Data
    • Environment creation & provisioning
    • Document management options & requirements
    • Enabling AI capabilities (Copilot, Sales Agent etc)
    • Configuring & customising forms
    • Configuring & customising views
  • Outbound calling
    • Configuration
    • Security requirements
  • AI Capabilities
    • Getting access to AI capabilities for users (deployment, security etc)
    • What the different AI agents & modes are, when to use them, and the behaviour of each
    • What blueprints are, how to use them, how to modify them
    • How AI agents handle communication re-tries
    • Creating custom agents
    • Analysing AI agent behaviour (runs, outcomes, metrics etc), monitoring information
    • Using AI to summarise records & ask for information
    • Ways to handle AI usage billing (what options are available, where to do this, how to do this)
  • Leads & Opportunities
    • Setting up & configuring predictive lead scoring models, requirements for implementing this
    • Understanding lead to opportunity conversion process, and continuing through to a final sale
    • Understanding sales goals, configuring sales goal/metrics/KPI’s, configuring rollup queries for aggregation
    • Assignment behaviour for leads to users, how this works, configuration for this
  • Products
    • The different ways to handle products (eg units, bundles, price lists, product families)
    • When each one should be used, and requirements for them
    • How to use the different components to configure specific scenarios
    • Relating products together
  • Pricing
    • Different ways to approach pricing products (eg singly, as a bundle, etc)
    • Handling multiple territories
    • Handling multiple currencies
    • Configuring price lists
    • Handling expired price lists & system behaviour
    • Handling discounting
  • Mobile app
    • Setup & configuration
    • Data synchronisation
    • Security setup & requirements
    • Push notifications
  • Power Automate
    • Understanding when to use different trigger types (automated/manual/schedule)
    • Usage for scenarios requiring approvals
  • Business process flows
    • What they are, and what they should be used for
    • How to configure, moving between stages, understanding how they work

I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

Exam AB-620: Design and build integrated AI agent solutions in Copilot Studio

We seem to be on a roll here over the last month or so with new exams being released (& its not over yet!). With all of the emphasis on AI & agents, I decided to go take the new Copilot Studio exam to see what it would be like.

Given that I have a decently passing familiarity with Copilot Studio (as I use it for projects, and actually do get hands on with it quite a bit of the time), I felt that I’d be in a good place to handle it without any revision. Obviously this could have been a bold move, and it’s up to everyone to make their own decisions about how much to revise (or not revise)!.

Copilot Studio has moved on from when it first came onto the scene (and for those who remember, it used to be called Power Virtual Agent, or PVA). Nowadays it supports coding within it, but it also can serve as the front end for other Microsoft AI capabilities, such as Microsoft Foundry models.

This is also the first time that it’s been featured for its own exam – previously it got rolled into other exams (such as the PL-100, PL-200, etc), where it was just one of the components being covered (and covered in a lightweight manner, at that). With the focus from Microsoft now heavily on it though, it’s now taken a step forward into the spotlight by itself.

The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you’re a professional developer or advanced builder who builds, extends, and integrates custom agents for enterprise-grade solutions. You typically work as an IT application developer, consultant, or independent software vendor (ISV) partner focused on creating scalable AI solutions for organizations or customers.

For this exam, you should be familiar with Power Fx, Microsoft Dataverse, Microsoft Power Platform environments and components, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Foundry, and adaptive cards.

You need intermediate knowledge of generative AI concepts, including models, orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol, and more. You should also have experience with prompt engineering and with REST APIs and integration patterns. Additionally, you need experience configuring agents with basic knowledge sources, instructions, tools, and topics in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

As a developer who works in Copilot Studio, you:

  • Integrate agents with Microsoft Foundry.
  • Integrate agents with Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
  • Integrate agents with custom connectors.
  • Integrate agents with APIs.
  • Integrate agents with Microsoft Fabric.
  • Automate tasks with computer use.
  • Integrate agents with connectors.

You create:

  • Multi-agent solutions.
  • Agents with enterprise knowledge sources (such as ServiceNow, SAP, and others).
  • Advanced agent topics and tools.
  • Computer-using agents.
  • Agents that perform advanced actions via APIs.

You collaborate with Microsoft 365 administrators, Microsoft Power Platform administrators, Microsoft Copilot administrators, Copilot Studio agent builders, Copilot Studio administrators, Foundry administrators, agentic AI business solutions architects, and Copilot Studio architects.

The overall information for the exam can be found at Microsoft Certified: AI Agent Builder Associate, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

I’ll freely admit that there was a LOT more focus on MCP capabilities than I had expected there to be, but I guess that again this is natural, given how Microsoft is moving at the moment.

I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

  • Copilot Studio
    • Component/node types. What they are, how/when to use them
    • Using topic variables
    • Timeouts
    • Concurrency
    • Sensitive data & Using type ‘secret’ – what this does and why to use
    • Generative answers – how they work, limitations, what to know, how to configure & ground them
    • Computer Use
    • Connecting with Microsoft Graph
    • Connecting to other agents – how to do this, how to configure, what to use
  • Connector types
    • Standard connectors (ie connectors provided by Copilot Studio). When to use them, limitations
    • Custom connectors – what these are, why you’d use them
  • Security
    • Authentication types (API, OAuth 2)
    • Query delegation
    • DLP policies
  • MCP servers
    • What they are
    • Connecting to them
    • Security with MCP servers
    • Authentication types
    • Usage of AI with MCP servers
  • Azure AI Search
    • Connecting to knowledge index
    • Configurations
    • Security
  • Solution Types
    • Default vs Unmanaged vs Managed
    • Environment variables
    • Creating solution
  • Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
    • What this is, and why it’s needed
    • What approaches can be used, why to use them
    • What’s needed to set up ALM
  • Monitoring & Troubleshooting
    • Reporting on deployed agents
    • Evaluating usage of deployed agents
    • Identifying issues & errors
    • Stopping runs

I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

Exam AI-901: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals

With a massive amount of focus on AI across the Microsoft platform, I decided to sit the new AI-901 exam, which is the new Azure fundamentals exam. I’m far from being an Azure architect, but will freely admit a decent amount of familiarity with a lot of Azure components, especially the AI stuff. Having previously passed the AI-900 a while back, I was expecting the exam to be up to date with technical developments, but wasn’t FULLY prepared for what it was actually like…

Now obviously all Microsoft AI capabilities, regardless of where they’re surfaced through, actually sit (somewhere) within Azure. After all, Azure is the Microsoft cloud platform itself (well, until someone decides to rename it, of course).

My expectations for going into the exam (with admittedly very minimal preparation for it) was to cover the basics for AI within Azure, similar to the way that the AI-900 exam was. Whilst this was somewhat the case, it didn’t necessarily stay within the bounds of my expectations.

The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

This certification is intended for individuals who want to start working with AI solutions built on Azure. It is suitable for learners from technical backgrounds, including aspiring junior developers who are starting to incorporate AI capabilities into applications. As a candidate for this certification, you should have familiarity with the self-paced or instructor-led learning material.

This certification assesses your ability to show the conceptual knowledge and practical understanding needed to work with AI solutions on Azure, including:

  • Understanding core cloud concepts, such as services and resource deployments
  • Using Microsoft Foundry to deploy models and implement single-agent solutions
  • Recognizing how client applications are put together and how AI models and services are consumed within those solutions
  • Understanding Python code examples that call AI models and services

This certification is intended to validate skills commonly used when performing tasks such as:

  • Adding AI workloads, including language, vision, and generative AI, to software or IT solutions
  • Exploring and using AI features in applications as a junior or entry level developer

The overall information for the exam can be found at Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

My main shock was the number of questions on Python code, including needing to select the right code syntax to use. Whilst I do understand that Microsoft is aiming to make Fundamental level exams/certifications more ‘technical’, I do feel that this is much more technical than the audience should be experiencing. I’ve also fed this back as feedback into Microsoft.

I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

  • Analysis
    • Analyser types (audio, document, image, video). What each type is, how to configure them, and when to use them
    • Defining schemas for data extraction
    • How to extract content for analysis
  • Python
    • Using the Python SDK
    • Python code syntax and commands
  • Microsoft Foundry/Foundry Models
    • How AI models actually work when using/interfacing with them. Behaviour, access to content, prediction etc
    • LLM evaluations – comparing costs and capabilities
    • Creating, configuring, deploying, updating
    • Model temperature, inference
    • Minimising model bias, ensuring fairness
    • Connecting to a deployed model
    • Message structures for Foundry projects
    • Agent Evaluators – what they are, how to use them
    • Using Azure Content Understanding
  • Usage for models
    • Using Azure functions
    • Encoding images – data types
    • Voice Live (audio to text)
    • Azure speech SDK, and classes to use
  • Prompts:
    • Agent prompts. What are they, how are they used, why you should use them
    • System prompts. What are they, how are they used, why you should use them
  • Microsoft Responsible AI Principles – what they are, what are example of them
  • Why humans are still important to be involved in processes

I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

FTRSA ’26/27 – Information to know

If you don’t know what FTRSA stands for – don’t worry! It’s a Microsoft acronym for ‘Fast Track Recognised Solution Architect’. This is an award that Microsoft bestows on people working for Microsoft Partners who have demonstrated clear technical expertise & understanding of the Microsoft Business Applications Platform at (enterprise) scale. There are currently around 175 FTRSA’s globally (across Dynamics 365 & Power Platform capabilities) from a little under 100 partner organisations!

To quote from the Microsoft documentation for the program:

The FTRSA program honors solution architects who consistently deliver high-impact solutions using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, recognizing technical excellence, customer success, and architectural leadership across Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.

As a Microsoft Partner, having an FTRSA working for you can (at times) give you the edge, given their exposure to Microsoft Engineering & Leadership, and the ability to ask questions directly into Microsoft about things. It’s also something you’re able to promote to clients

The application process starts by going to the FTRSA homepage (yes, the program now has its own URL!), and then following the instructions. I STRONGLY SUGGEST reading through the FAQ’s on the site in detail before starting your submission. Alternatively, have them open in another tab whilst you’re working through the application (as they’re not linked on the application pages). This will ensure you understand the KEY information as to how to fufill the requirements.

Broadly speaking, there are several stages to an application:

  1. The team carry out an initial review of the information provided, ensuring that it meets the program requirements. Applicants who have not provided the information to meet the program requirements/criteria, or who do not pass the initial review threshold as evaluated by the team (this is why applicants are recommended to ensure that they’re focusing on quality of information being submitted), are not progressed and are notified.
  1. Applicants who pass the first stage are then invited to an interview. This is carried out with one of the wider team members, based on region & availability. The interview usually lasts around one hour, and is an evaluation of the technical skills & expertise of the applicant. During this interview, candidates are required to present on a project that they have implemented, and to demonstrate their in-depth knowledge & role that they played on the project. Materials for the interview need to be submitted in advance by the person applying.
  1. Finally, the team reviews the interviews, and decides as to which applicants have successfully shown their skills & expertise. Applications who have not met the level required are notified, along with feedback and areas that they could look to work on for a future nomination.
  1. Successful applicants are notified as well directly, though the news is not publicised until May or so, when the public announcement takes place with the relevant FTRSA websites being updated with their information.

Note: Existing FTRSA’s will go through the same general process, though if they currently hold the category that they are applying for, they will not have to interview for the application. However if they are applying for a different category that they are not currently awarded in, they will have to interview for it. For example, a Power Platform FTRSA applying for a Dynamics 365 FTRSA recognition WILL need to go through the interview stage.

Note: Being an existing FTRSA is no guarantee for being able to renew successfully. Renewals are reviewed in the same general way (except for the interview stage, as mentioned above), to ensure that they’re at the same high quality level as new applications.

For the upcoming year, there have been some IMPORTANT changes in the program, which are very important to take note of:

  • Previously there are been separate categories under Power Platform (eg Power Apps, Power Automate, etc). For the upcoming 26/27 award year, there is just a SINGLE Power Platform award category. Dynamics 365 will remain as two award categories (Customer Engagement/Finance & Operations)
  • All product feedback (whether to product engineering, advisory boards, focus groups etc) have been removed from the submission consideration, and are no longer valid

Now there are a lot of questions that people may ask when considering to apply for it (or even for renewing their existing FTRSA status).

Over the last 2 months, I’ve had numerous calls with organisations & individuals to try to help them understand the program and the application process. Below I’ve included a list of commonly asked questions that have come up- though it’s important to note that the FAQ’s on the site are actually REALLY good, and answer most of the obvious ones already (thank you to the team for doing this!):

+ Do I need to be working at a Microsoft Partner, or can I be employed by the end user organisation?

You need to be employed by a Microsoft Partner. The application process will require you to sign in with your business domain email address, along with the Partner ID for your organisation.

+ Can I use my own personal email address? I already have access to the Microsoft tenant with it

No, you need to use your corporate email address, regardless of whether your personal email address has existing access to the Microsoft tenant. Personal email addresses are blocked from being able to be used in the application/renewals process.

+ Does the Microsoft Partner that I work for need to have the Business Applications solution designation, or be of a certain size?

No, there are no requirements for specific solution designations and/or specific size. As long as you’re employed by a Microsoft Partner (which to be clear, could be your own organisation, and have a total of 1 employee – yourself!), then that’s absolutely fine. During the application process, you will be required to provide the Microsoft Partner Number (MPN) ID.

+ How many people will receive the award for the upcoming year?

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are around 160 current FTRSA’s. Whilst I’m obviously not privy to the number of applicants, or the (ultimate) decision by Microsoft as to what the number for the upcoming award year will be, I’d venture to suggest that the number isn’t going to increase significantly. Microsoft (& the people owning the program within Microsoft) really want this to see seen as the ‘Best of the Best’, so having many more people is unlikely to achieve that.

+ Does the award belong to me, or my company?

The award belongs to you – it’s awarded in an individual capacity. What this means is that if you’re changing employment, it will go with you.

+ Do I need to be working in a Delivery capacity? I only do Pre-Sales?

Yes, you need to be actually working on/delivering the project. FTRSA is about people who are absolutely hands-on with the technologies, and implementing them. Pre-Sales is an important function (and to be clear here, pre-sales is part of my role), but if you’re not doing an implementation function, you can’t get FTRSA.

+ The project/s I’ve worked on are confidential, and I can’t share details of them (eg architecture etc)

This is something I’ve heard a few times. Firstly, I’d remind you that Microsoft owns the platform, and is aware of them. Secondly, the information that you need to share can be obfuscated (eg referring to the customer sector or vertical, rather than the customer itself), and doesn’t need to go into absolute detail for every single column & data point. I know of existing FTRSA’s who work on HIGHLY confidential/government projects, that have no issue with submitting enough information about the project to be able to get awarded FTRSA.

Alternatively, if this really WILL be an issue, then you can create & submit a Technical Sample instead (more information under Section 10 of the FAQ’s).

+ I don’t know what to include in my reference architecture – HELP!

DON’T PANIC! (yes, I do love this Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy reference). Under Section 9 of the FAQ’s you’ll find links as to how to submit, but ALSO templates that the team has VERY helpfully & nicely created for you!

You don’t have to stick to the provided format, of course, but I’d suggest to strongly take the suggested sections/items within them as recommendations for what you’ll need to include. Think of it this way (in my opinion) – it’s not just about the actual architecture, but also about things like integrations, security/authentication, application lifecycle management, disaster recovery, data loads, reporting, scalability, usability, and the list goes on…and yes, AI is likely to be included too on that…

Note: Whilst I wouldn’t specifically expect licensing to be included, I tend to find that FTRSA’s are highly likely to understand & drive licensing considerations & conversations. It would do you well to include these as well if you’re handling this side too

+ Do the reference architecture & customer story need to be for the same project?

They are able to be for the same project, but you’re able to submit the information across different projects. For example, you may still be in the middle of delivering a project that you’re doing the reference architecture for, or the project has just finished, and therefore a partner/customer story wouldn’t yet be able to be done.

+ Can I wait until the last moment of the application window to submit?

Well you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it – plus the team aren’t likely to love getting an avalanche of last minute submissions. Given that there’s just under 2 months to go until the application window closes, I’d say to get everything ready & submit ASAP – this is especially relevant for the reference architecture it can take 6-8 weeks to go through the review process!

+ I’m too snowed under with work – can I get an extension to the timeframe?

No, unfortunately not. If you’re too busy with work (& that your employer doesn’t seem to understand the kudos of the award, and help remove some of the work), then wait & apply for next year. Don’t bother the team to ask them for an extension – they’re really busy enough as it is!

Hopefully this will be helpful to you – if you or others in your organisation are considering applying for this, and you have questions that aren’t answered above, I’d be more than happy for you to post them here, or feel free to contact me on LinkedIn directly if you’d prefer.

And finally, if you do decide to go for it – GOOD LUCK!!!

Exam AB-731: AI Transformation Leader

What better way to start 2026 then to talk about a Microsoft certification, especially one for a totally NEW type of user!

Following on the steps of the other AB exams I’ve been writing about my experience with (see Exam AB-730: AI Business Professional, Exam AB-100: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect and Exam AB-900: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals ), this article will cover the AB-731 exam.

This exam is focusing on the Microsoft AI capabilities from a Business Leader perspective, and to the best of my knowledge is the first time that Microsoft has ever created an exam from a ‘Business Leader’ perspective. Taking this exam was a complete mindset shift to me, especially when seeing the questions – it’s not about understanding the in depth technical capabilities, but more around the breadth of technology options (spanning Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio & other tools), and what they bring/enable from a BUSINESS perspective.

The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you should understand how to recognize opportunities for AI transformation, identify the right AI tools and resources, plan for AI adoption, optimize business processes, and drive innovation by using Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI services.

This Certification is designed for business decision-makers at all levels who are responsible for guiding transformation and innovation within their teams or organizations. In this role, you’re expected to demonstrate AI fluency, strategic vision, and the ability to lead AI adoption across teams and functions but are not expected to write any code.

As a candidate for this Certification, you should be able to evaluate AI opportunities, champion responsible AI practices, and align AI investments with business goals. You need experience leading adoption or change management in a business context. You must also be familiar with Microsoft 365 services, Azure AI services, and general AI capabilities.

The overall information for the exam can be found at Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

Overall, the exam approach was quite different to me – though I do talk with organisations frequently around general AI matters, I’ve never taken an example written in this way beforehand. However, I do feel that it’s very helpful to have this in place, to ensure that business leaders can demonstrate that they actually do know what they’re talking about 😉

I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

  • Azure Components & Capabilities
    • AI Vision – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
    • AI Language – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
    • AI Document Intelligence – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
    • Machine Learning – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
    • AI Foundry – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
    • AI Search – what it can be used for, benefits of using it, capabilities that it has
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
    • What license is needed
    • What data does it have access to
    • What security controls are in place
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot
    • What is it, what can it be used for
    • What can it do
    • How does it connect to data
    • What are the connectors for it (standard & custom)
    • Benefits of using it (vs 3rd party AI tooling)
    • Different agents (eg Analyst & Researcher) within it – what they do, how to access and use them
  • Microsoft Copilot Studio
    • What is it, what can be used for
    • What can it do
    • What license is needed
    • What data can it access
  • Microsoft Security Copilot
    • What is it, what can be used for
    • What can it do
    • Benefits that it provides
  • Security & Governance
    • Content filtering controls within Copilot
    • Policies
    • Handling requirements to prevent inappropriate language & responses
    • Responsible AI principles
    • Governance ownership, responsibility & requirements
  • Generative AI
    • AI model hallucinations
    • Grounding in data
    • Improving response quality
    • Prompt engineering
    • Pre trained models vs fine tuned models
    • Reasoning models vs non-reasoning models
    • Understanding usage costs (including different pricing models)
    • What is RAG, and how can it be used for business scenarios
    • Adoption throughout organisations – personas to involve in adoption team

    I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

    Exam AB-900: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals

    Following on the steps of the other AB exams I’ve been writing about my experience with (see Exam AB-730: AI Business Professional & Exam AB-100: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect), this article will cover the AB-900 exam.

    This exam is focusing on the Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities from a user & administration perspective, and doesn’t cover/include anything from Copilot Studio.

    Now, though it’s a Fundamentals exam, to be honest it’s the HARDEST fundamentals exam that I’ve ever taken!

    The approach is around being able to demonstrate understanding of how to use the Microsoft 365 Copilot, as well as a lot of focus on how to control & administer it.

    The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

    As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you should be familiar with Microsoft 365, including core services, security, identity and access, data protection, and governance, along with Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents.

    Additionally, you should be familiar with the admin centers used to access Microsoft 365 workloads, such as Exchange Online, SharePoint in Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Entra, and Microsoft Purview. You need to have experience with AI-driven productivity tools and modern IT management practices.

    You must be able to identify the roles of the core features and objects available in Microsoft 365, such as users, groups, teams, sites, and libraries. Plus, you should understand the core security features of Microsoft 365, such as authentication methods, conditional access policies, and single sign-on (SSO).

    The overall information for the exam can be found at Microsoft 365 Certified: Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

    As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

    One thing to keep in mind about this exam – though I do mention Microsoft Purview in the list of items below, I haven’t gone into it extensively. However, there were a LOT of questions that touched on Purview (& other governance stuff as well) – you REALLY need to be knowing & understanding these capabilities to be able to take & pass the exam. Just guessing the answers is not going to help at all!

    Overall, the exam seemed to me to be pretty decent, though with indeed a heavy focus on security & governance (as I’ve mentioned above). I don’t see this as a bad thing though, as it can help to show that administrators really do know what they’re talking about.

    I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

    • Agent types
      • Native Microsoft 365 Copilot agent
      • Native Microsoft 365 Copilot advanced agents (eg Researcher & Analyst). What they are, how to access, what to use them for
      • Custom Microsoft 365 Copilot agent
      • SharePoint agent
    • Creating/using Agents
      • Using natural language to create agents
      • How to handle/perform multi-step reasoning
      • Use of notebooks
      • Custom instructions
      • Scheduling prompts
      • Querying data types
        • Structured
        • Unstructured
    • Governance & security
      • Blocking access to different types of searches & collateral
      • Blocking access to specific agents
      • Tools to use for blocking
      • How to share agents with other users
      • Assigning licenses to users
      • Data retention policies
      • Data labelling policies
      • Use of Microsoft Purview, covering capabilities, tools, auditing, how to use, etc
      • Use of DLP
      • Data source permissions
      • Conditional access policies
      • Microsoft Defender – what it is, capabilities it has, how to use it, etc.
      • Types of authentication
    • Reporting
      • Licensing & usage
      • Adoption & interactions
    • Payment options & capabilities
      • Credit usage – internal vs external users
      • Pay As You Go Billing, and scenarios you can use it for

    I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

    Exam AB-730: AI Business Professional

    Following on from the recent launch of the new Exam AB-100: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect exam, Microsoft has now developed & released other exams in the AB series – this post is on the AB-730 exam.

    The approach continues to be around how to use AI within technology for business purposes, rather than needing to be able to create AI or code. This exam focused on the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience, how to use it within various Microsoft Office applications, etc.

    The official description of the proposed exam candidate is:

    As a candidate for this Microsoft Certification, you should have experience using generative AI–powered productivity tools, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Researcher, and Analyst. You take advantage of AI to improve daily work, drive business outcomes, and make informed decisions in business contexts—without building AI apps or writing code.

    You should have a basic understanding of Microsoft 365 and should be comfortable navigating core apps, such as Outlook, Word, Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint, and Excel. You should also be familiar with common business processes, including drafting emails, creating presentations, generating images, and managing documents.

    The overall information for the exam can be found at at Microsoft Certified: AI Business Professional (beta) – Certifications | Microsoft Learn, and there is an official Learning Path available for it.

    As I’ve posted before around my exam experiences, it’s not permitted to share any of the exam questions. This is in the rules/acceptance for taking the exam. I’ve therefore put an overview of the sorts of questions that came up during my exam. (Note: exams are composed from question banks, so there could be many things that weren’t included in my exam, but could be included for someone else!). It’s also in beta at the moment, which means that things can obviously change for when it comes out of beta.

    One thing that I found I didn’t like about the exam is the new question type of ‘Best Answer’. This question type gives various options, whilst telling you that more than one answer choice may achieve the goal, but asking you to select the BEST answer. I believe that questions like this are subjective, and the answers will vary based on each person’s knowledge, understanding & experience, so I’m not quite sure why Microsoft have decided that this would be good to use. It will be interesting to see what happens when the exam comes out of Beta, and if these questions are still around or not then.

    Overall, the exam seemed to me to be pretty decent – I initially thought it would be quite generic, but you really do need to know how all the Copilot offerings work including Copilot Chat and Copilot in the Office applications.

    If you’re new to Copilot, and/or not really sure as to how it actually works & the capabilities, I’d suggest not to take the exam yet. Instead, go and take a look at the learning paths, and look to find out how it actually works & operates.

    I’ve tried to group things as best together as I feel (in my recollection), to make it easier to revise.

    • Microsoft 365 Copilot vs Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat
      • What each one does/doesn’t do
      • When to use each one
    • What to include when prompting Copilot
    • Copilot security framework
      • How data is used
      • The different data controls that are in place
      • How data protection works, different data protection capabilities & using them
      • Removing data & prompts from Copilot,
    • Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Word
    • Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Excel
    • Copilot capabilities in Microsoft Outlook
    • Copilot capabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint
    • Copilot capabilities for Teams
      • Using Copilot within Teams for queries
      • Using Copilot within Teams for meetings (preparing for them, during the meeting, after the meeting)
    • Collaboration with Copilot report outputs
    • Copilot Researcher agent – getting access, capabilities & use cases, inputs & outputs
    • Copilot Analyst agent – getting access, capabilities & use cases, inputs & outputs
    • Using custom instructions within Copilot – how to do this, how it is used/applied, etc
    • Using documents with Copilot for answers & generating material. Updating new versions of documents, and how Copilot will behave
    • Microsoft 365 agents – creating, configuring, sharing, security etc
    • Creating, sharing & scheduling prompts, including limitationsent

    I hope that this is helpful for anyone who’s thinking of taking it – good luck, and please do drop a comment below to let me know how you found it! I’d also be interested in your thoughts/opinions around the direction that Microsoft has taken for this!

    AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Copyright

    Firstly, a Happy New Year to everyone – I’m sure that you have amazing plans for 2024, and wish you the best of luck with them!

    Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping a close eye on Copilot (since it was announced as being in GA), and various happenings around the wider AI scene. It seems almost impossible to find someone who is NOT aware of the OpenAI happenings towards the end of 2023, and so many more conversations now include mention of ChatGPT, Azure OpenAI, etc.

    But there’s one item I’d like to pick up on & discuss, which given the news events of last week, is extremely pertinent. This is the topic of copyright, which is a very important topic to understand. However in order to understand it properly, we need to understand how AI offerings are generated in the first instance.

    All of the various AI offerings rely on LLM’s. This stands for ‘Large Language Model’, and these are deep learning models that are pre-trained on vast amounts of data, and by vast, the number of data points are truly staggering:

    Incidentally, users should consider the use case that they’re using AI for, and look to use the best optimum model for it. As an example – if wanting to find out the best routine for making a cup of coffee, it is unlikely that a GPT-4 model would be needed – a suitable model could be one with less parameters in it. This is in part due to the amount of resources needing to be used to run queries on more advanced data models.

    When using an AI offering, these datasets are used to present answers back to the users. Some AI models are not limited to just their LLM datasets, and are able to actively trawl & access websites as well for more up to date information.

    But there are two inherent problems with the way that this can work:

    Data

    When users interact with chatbots or other AI capabilities, they’re inputting data into them. This data could be used by the AI capability to further train models forward, ingesting the data provided to them. Given that data could be sensitive or proprietary, this can be problematic. Not all AI organisations use data just for processing, as has been discovered by various users.

    Copyright

    Given that responses back to users (whether in text format, image format, or other formats) are based on the datasets from the underlying LLM’s, users could potentially be provided with information that is actually copyright, and which they’re not able to use. This is very problematic, as it can result in users passing off material as their own, whilst it actually belongs to someone else.

    Microsoft’s approach

    Microsoft’s approach to AI capabilities has been made extremely clear. You may be familiar with seeing slides similar to the following slide:

    What this means is the following:

    • Microsoft will not use any customer data to train AI models & capabilities for any standard AI offering
    • Any custom Copilots created by Microsoft customers will remain their own – Microsoft will not use data or capabilities from customer created collateral within the Microsoft AI offerings. This means that a bespoke Copilot will only offer its functionality to the customer that created it – other organisations, even within the same sector & creating Copilots themselves, will not benefit from this

    Microsoft has also confirmed publicly that any information generated through the usage of Copilot or Azure OpenAI can be used without concern about copyright claims (Microsoft announces new Copilot Copyright Commitment for customers – Microsoft On the Issues). In fact, Microsoft has even gone so far as to say that Microsoft will assume responsibility for any potential legal risks involved.

    If a third party sues a commercial customer for copyright infringement for using Microsoft’s Copilots or the output they generate, we will defend the customer and pay the amount of any adverse judgments or settlements that result from the lawsuit, as long as the customer used the guardrails and content filters,

    Brad Smith, Microsoft Chief Legal Officer

    This is quite important – customers are able to use Copilot & Azure OpenAI capabilities, and be assured that they will not have to be concerned about copyright issues or challenges. There are of course some conditions around this, in the way that prompts & interactions need to be handled (see Customer Copyright Commitment Required Mitigations | Microsoft Learn for further information on this).

    Microsoft has this called out specifically within their Universal License Terms, available to view in full at Microsoft Product Terms.

    Recent news events

    With the announcement last week that the New York Times has filed suit against the OpenAI Corporation & Microsoft, this is very timely to look at (New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over Use of Copyrighted Work – The New York Times (nytimes.com)).

    The implications of such a lawsuit will affect how AI capabilities will be able to be created & used on an on-going basis. Copyright is of course very important to respect, and it will be quite interesting to see how this plays out. Having taken a look at some of the material included in the lawsuit, there are most definitely similarities between the New York Times information, and the AI generated output.

    So, in my opinion, this is going to be a very interesting space moving forward, and I look forward to seeing how it goes, and any effects that it has on the usage of AI within organisations.

    Reflections on MVP Summit

    A few weeks back, I was fortunate enough to travel to Redmond, Seattle (in the USA), to partake in-person in the Microsoft MVP Summit. To say that this was an experience like no other is likely to be an understatement.

    Some people may be unfamiliar with what MVP Summit is. As a Microsoft ‘Most Valuable Professional’, we can engage with Microsoft in various different ways. These include discussions with Microsoft Engineering (aka ‘Product Group’ or ‘PG’), trying out features before they get generally released, etc. There are various methods by which these interactions occur, though in general (especially given how MVP’s are based around the globe), these are via email, virtual calls, etc.

    However, Microsoft has for many years hosted an MVP Summit at its headquarters in Redmond. This is an in-person event over multiple days, where any MVP can attend & take part. It includes up to date information on capabilities, discussions how Microsoft foresees its roadmap, etc. As an MVP, we are under NDA to Microsoft, and MVP Summit is entirely under NDA as well (well, in terms of the content discussed – selfies, however, are widely shared around social media!).

    Having been awarded during the initial pandemic lockdown in October 2020, I had never had the chance to attend an MVP Summit in person before. In 2020, Microsoft switched the format to being virtual, and this was the case for 2021 & 2022. I attended both of these virtually, but didn’t find them the most amazing experience – everyone had been telling me that it was about the in-person networking, connections & more, and although I hadn’t been to one before, I could sense that this was true. Also, given that sessions were held in PST, timezones were difficult (in 2022, I actually ‘based’ myself in PST, albeit it with being physically present in London – it was definitely quite strange!).

    With the 2023 MVP Summit on the horizon, MVP’s all around the world were hoping that the event would be in person, and indeed it was (though it was held slightly later in the year).

    I’m grateful to Kainos, the Microsoft Partner that I work at, who sponsored my ability to go to Redmond. Without this, it would have been extremely difficult for me to be able to attend.

    There were LOTS of selfies happening, with community & Microsoft people. My small ‘claim to fame’ is that I got the FIRST selfie with Scott Guthrie following the keynote!

    Overall, there were several main things that I took away from attending MVP Summit:

    • Meeting community members from across the globe. Though MVP Summit was announced at somewhat short notice, MVP’s from many different areas (including APAC) managed to make it in. Meeting them in person was just amazing – including Dian Taylor for the first time – we’ve been chatting for ages, and she was the original person to nominate me for the MVP award!Everyone was just so calm & chilled, and happy to chat about anything. It really drove home what a family the community is, and how it enables so many people
    • Meeting Microsoft people in person. I’ve been interacting with various members of different Microsoft PG’s over the last number of years (Power Platform SLT, governance, adoption, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, etc). Being able to meet them in person really deepened existing relationships, as well as being able to be introduced to people who I hadn’t met before. Something that also really hit home was being able see how our feedback actually impacts & affects the Microsoft people involved. Being able to ‘rockstar’ them, and have them see our enthusiasm in person was something that I wasn’t expecting at all, and it was truly wonderful that it happens.

    Now although the event this year was in-person, Microsoft trialled a new format for it – hyrbid. This enabled MVP’s who were not able to attend in person to join the sessions (though unfortunately not the networking between sessions). This, combined with also having sign-language capabilities for some of the sessions, really did go a long way to making the event as inclusive as possible.

    I was quite well prepared for the week, bringing gifts from the UK (aka PROPER chocolate), and some LEGO to do a giveaway competition (congratulations to Olena G & Azure M on winning!):

    Coming back from it, it has taken a little bit of time to recover (not sure if it’s been jetlag specifically, more general exhaustion, and adaption back to ‘regular’ family life’. Reflecting back, this was an experience like no other – it only developed & got more amazing throughout the entire week that I was there for. Being able to meet others, network, strengthen existing relationships…the opportunity to do this was just SO valuable.

    Now, I’m really hoping that I get the opportunity to go to MVP Summit next year!