LinkedIn

Let's go, M's!

This is super useful! With new Formula Completions in Excel, just type "=" and Copilot proactively suggests a formula, based on the context of your sheet. Here's a great example:

We've been hard at work advancing M365 Copilot, and so have our many partners who are building agents that integrate with Copilot and Teams to transform how work gets done. Check out a few great examples:

Life felt very different in October 2005."
""
""
"It was a few months after my intensive mental health care."
""
"I moved back in with Mum and shared a room with my poor teenage sister."
""
"I did appointments, some peer group work, and got visits from a support nurse."
""
"Eventually I got the first of many temporary jobs."
""
"This went on for 18 months with roles in call centres, an insurance broker, the tennis, the State Library, and a university."
""
"Some roles ran their course, others I got fired from, and each time I learned a bit more about recovering with complex mental health with the lessons usually different flavours of bitter."
""
"I couldn’t function well until I moved to a newer medication and that’s when I got my first permanent job in media in Sydney."
""
"My career skyrocketed and here I am today."
""
"And it’s a big day."
""
"This morning, I’ll be representing SANE as a peer ambassador and board member sharing a tiny piece of my lived experience story at Parliament House."
""
"We’re celebrating 10 years of digital innovation in mental health."
""
"SANE has been working tirelessly for over 40 years helping people like me."
""
"The most exciting part about this is the increased access of their online guided services program."
""
"Anyone with complex mental health can access where they are."
""
"They don’t need a referral and they can get support from a counsellor or peer support worker to help them navigate life for when they’re not touching the medical system."
""
"This is REALLY important:"
""
"The medical system kept me alive."
""
"But it’s learning how to navigate life stuff that enabled me to recover and THRIVE."
""
"SANE’s program is shifting the needle for people in recovery by offering psychosocial support that is CHANGING the lives of hundreds of people."
""
"That’s not a vague result."
""
"That’s empirically validated data independently assessed by a university."
""
"With demonstrable change shown on clinical indicators like the K10."
""
"This is mind-blowing."
""
"But it’s one of Australia’s best kept secrets."
""
"So excuse us while we try and take this information to our nation’s decision makers and share this fact bomb on World Mental Health Day."
""
"It’s been 20 years since some of the worst moments in my life and I would have LOVED an online support team to get life back on track."
""
"My hope is that far more people going through similar don’t have to get back on track without additional help."
""
"We see you, and we’re fighting for you ❤️"
""
"📸 from that era, I did have hair once upon a time and one of the unfortunate side effects of my meds was extreme hunger and weight gain

Another first for our AI fleet ... a supercomputing cluster of NVIDIA GB300s with 4600+ GPUs and featuring next gen InfiniBand.

First of many as we scale to hundreds of thousands of GB300s across our DCs, and rethink every layer of the stack across silicon, systems, and software to support next gen AI workloads.

Some background & discussion on the Paraphrase Project, just published in Science. Behind-the-scenes on the project, including a podcast episode I was invited to host, featuring reflections from several members of the team—Bruce Wittmann, Tessa Alexanian & James Diggans. And I’ve shared my thoughts on the disclosure dilemma in a blog post linked here.

Full paper available here: https://aka.ms/AAy5e9c

Big news from DevDay: the latest OpenAI models are now live in Azure AI Foundry. GPT-5-Pro raises the bar on reasoning and safety, GPT-Image-1-mini brings fast and efficient image generation, and the new GPT-real time-mini and GPT-audio-mini unlock real-time voice and audio experiences at scale.

Together with the Microsoft Agent Framework and new Responsible AI features announced last week, Foundry now puts the full spectrum of AI from text, vision, and audio into the hands of every developer.

The toolbox just got multimodal, and I can't wait to see what you build!

I smashed it this week and have lots to be grateful for."
" "
" "
"✅ 2 new clients"
"📏 Updated business metrics and where to focus"
"📹 Upping the video reps and punching out Instas and YouTubes"
"📧 Relaunched newsletter with Early Growth School and it feels fuggin good"
"🏡 Family is settled into our new space and sleeping well again"
" "
"I had a great chat with my coach this week too - "you're right where you need to be Lukey Dukes"."
" "
"I use that nickname ironically ONCE and its stuck 🥊"
" "
"But more importantly I feel like I am too."
" "
"Have a great weekend 👋"
" "
"--"
" "
"I'm Marshy and coach early tech founders through growth with proven playbooks, hand-holding, and unlimited support.

Supercharged past few weeks as we push the bounds of model-forward innovation across Microsoft 365. A few highlights.

Super to see re Agent Mode: “It really does do something new: it makes Excel feel less like a tool you command and more like a partner you work with.”

https://lnkd.in/guStvdkv

"This guy's LinkedIn profile is optimised to the hilt - here comes the instant pitch...""
""
" "
"This is what I thought when I accepted Prosper Taruvinga's connection request back in May."
" "
"So it's a bit of a jump to see him F2F and presenting about LinkedIn at the BNI Business Elite in Epping this morning."
" "
"But how did we get here?"
" "
"I've been working on letting go assumptions that are judgments in disguise."
" "
"Doing this means I've learned more about:"
""
"- A young marketing professional who slays on TikTok (thanks The Startup Network)"
""
"- Accelerated go-to-market strategy from a turbo marketing ideas machine who speaks like a dude (thanks Cody Schneider)"
""
"- How to think about LinkedIn from a far more deliberate perspective (thanks to Prosper - see below)"
" "
"So here's the knowledge he dropped about LinkedIn profiles this morning:"
""
"1. You've got a career/business headline - create easy ways for people seeing you to ask more."
""
"2. Make the most of the real estate - your banner is above the fold and you can optimise it towards what you can do for the person viewing."
""
"3. Add your website or better yet, link to a call-to-action (CTA)"
""
"4. Use language that helps people self-select in or out with prompts and questions - are you....?, frustrated by..., X who desire Y etc."
""
"5. Give people an excuse to scroll down below the fold (past your banner, headshot, and links)."
""
"6. This also makes you referrable - not everyone who views your page is your customer, but everyone who views your page should get what you do in a heartbeat (who may refer too)."
""
"7. Use the about section to share an outline of the steps and what you can do for them - like a movie trailer (get to da chopper!! 😎)"
""
"8. Your featured section can be updated regularly, with rotating offers/posts."
""
"9. When you engage with "influencers" this will lead people to your page as well - which makes all of the above work harder."
""
"10. So does including client results/social proof such as recommendations."
""
"11. So ask your clients to recommend you on the platform - simples."
" "
"I think my Link game is strong and I learned tonnes this morning."
" "
"I'm glad I got out of bed early and made the drive over - but won't make it a regular thing as I love the morning routine with my boys."
" "
"📸 obligatory snap with Prosper as I think it's just weird writing this without the selfie and didn't want to take a snap during the BNI meeting as I'm sure that's against cult policy"
" "
"--"
" "
"I'm Marshy and coach early-stage founders on growth by coaching them through step-by-step playbooks on how to find their next large customers.

Friday evening reflection: Adjusting my cloud infra priors for the AI era… a colleague just shared the progress we are making with our AI WAN. In one project, we expanded our North American optical fiber footprint by 40% and added network capacity equal to one-fifth of our entire global network - a network that took 15 years to build now takes months!

Copilot+ PCs are ushering in a new era of intelligent computing, powered by NPU’s that run at 40+ TOPS. This makes possible advanced A.I. features and smarter search, all running locally on your device.

https://lnkd.in/gMmA9Bra

Published today in Science Magazine: a landmark study led by Microsoft scientists with partners, showing how AI-powered protein design could be misused—and presenting first-of-its-kind red teaming & mitigations to strengthen biosecurity in the age of AI.

Super critical research for AI safety and security. https://lnkd.in/gc9tD2vX

Our approach to AI infra is simple: build the most fungible and flexible fleet to meet the real world's needs across inference and training as Scott Guthrie shared with Alex Kantrowitz.

And we are already doing it at scale today, as we power the biggest AI workloads like Copilot and ChatGPT, APIs that power 3P products & enterprise workloads and high scale training.

Learning just leveled up: from now through October 31st, eligible college + university students can claim extra access to Copilot Podcasts, Deep Research, and Vision through a Microsoft 365 Personal subscription, free for 12 months.

Whether you’re confused by calc or researching the Renaissance, Copilot is here to coach, help, and explain. Just a question away.

One year, one free subscription, countless lightbulb moments 💡

Redeem (and read all the legal stuff) here: https://lnkd.in/e2e9eN67

AI Economics depends on efficient token factories and highly performant agent frameworks that deliver enterprise outcomes!  
 
That is why we are excited about Microsoft Agent Framework. You can now build, orchestrate, and scale multi-agent systems in Azure AI Foundry using this framework.  
 
It brings together our best-in-class runtime from AutoGen with the enterprise foundations of Semantic Kernel, with compliance, observability, and deep integration out of the box. 

Can’t wait to see what you build! https://lnkd.in/g34DPfb3

Today marks a new chapter for defenders everywhere. With the evolution of Microsoft Sentinel into a unified, AI-ready security platform and the launch of a no-code agent builder in Security Copilot, Microsoft is empowering organizations to secure and govern their AI platforms, apps, and agents—at scale and with confidence. 
 
In this new era of “Frontier Firms,” AI is not just a tool; it is an active partner in our work. At the same time, security remains the foundation on which all innovation must be built. With these new capabilities, organizations are empowered to embrace agentic AI securely, proactively, and efficiently. 
 
I’m excited to see the impact this will have across organizations and teams. 💜

Learn more about today’s announcements here: https://lnkd.in/gUGywBqu

I finished Matt Lerner's Growth Levers over the weekend 📖"
" "
"It was a short, punchy and rewarding read."
" "
"I enjoyed the clarifying frames:"
""
"- What's your north star metric?"
"- What are the key drivers?"
"- What can you do as a minimum viable test to push towards these?"
" "
"Forcing yourself to hypothesise with a number was also killer - "I expect X to happen when when we do Y because Z""
" "
"Then do the test, see what happens, and LEARN it."
" "
"Because in the early days - the reality is you're not going to be doing anything well so you may as well learn so you can do it better."
" "
"Highly recommend it for founders and teams."
" "
"I even graphed up my own growth model to stick with over the next few months."
""
"--"
""
"I'm Marshy - I coach early founders and business owners on growth."
""
"This also means I need to keep growing and learning too 😉"
""
"#startup #growth

Happy 40th, Excel! =REPT("🎉",40)

From unlocking population-scale number-sense to now ushering in a new era of analysis-sense with AI, it’s impossible to imagine my work—or the world—without it.

Check out our new 5 Day AI challenge. Great opportunity to learn by doing!

Vibe work is here with Agent Mode in M365 Copilot. Copilot now orchestrates multi-step tasks to help you deliver high-quality docs, spreadsheets, or PPTs. 
 
Here's a great example of Agent Mode in Excel in action. Tell it what you're trying to achieve, and Copilot generates outputs, checks results, fixes issues, iterates, and verifies all of it.

Four decades in, some things never change …  
Then and now.

Our new Office Agent turns just a few words into a PowerPoint or Word doc, with deep research and reasoning. Here’s an example:

This is a big step in making it easier for customers to discover and deploy apps and agents across the Microsoft Cloud.

Nicholas Carlton and team have nailed how to build a social media app."
""
"Rule #1 - Understand and serve your community better than anyone else."
""
"And then launch."
""
"Well deserved success for Spoony - a community platform for neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disable people."
""
"💙🥄

We’re partnering with SAP and OpenAI to bring the latest AI innovation to Germany’s public sector, powered by Microsoft Azure.

Together, we’ll help millions of German public sector employees use AI safely and responsibly, while meeting the strictest data sovereignty, security, and legal standards. https://lnkd.in/g9xFHnis

Today we’re expanding Microsoft 365 Copilot with the addition of Anthropic’s Claude models. Customers can now use both OpenAI and Claude — starting in Researcher and Copilot Studio, and coming to more experiences soon.

Our multi-model approach goes beyond choice. It's all about bringing the best AI from across the industry to Copilot, tuned for work and tailored to every business. https://lnkd.in/g94DAGES

An important breakthrough from our teams: a new approach to liquid cooling that uses microfluidics, opening the door to more efficient, sustainable, and power-dense datacenters than conventional methods. https://lnkd.in/dFEq33GQ

For me, our Analyst agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot is like having a skilled data analyst on hand — all the time.

It generates insights and helps you visualize complex data. Here's a quick demo on how it can make sense of marketing campaign data and help you get more done at work.

Great example of how AI is being used to augment expert knowledge: helping to remove abandoned nets in our oceans.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gqsSZ5QH

Here’s how shovelling horse manure is like B2B sales…"
""
""
"It requires persistence."
"You need a thorough process."
"The effort is only on the nose if you let it get to you."
""
"Okay… I can’t keep typing with straight fingers 😂"
""
"I’m not even sorry."
""
"It’s not."
""
"But it was a fun morning and I listened to a podcast and got dome exercise 🐎💩

If intelligence is the log of compute… it starts with a lot of compute! And that’s why we’re scaling our GPU fleet faster than anyone else.

Just last year, we added over 2 gigawatts of new capacity – roughly the output of 2 nuclear power plants.

And today we’re going further, announcing the world's most powerful AI datacenter, located in southeastern Wisconsin.

Fairwater is a seamless cluster of hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GB200s, connected by enough fiber to circle the Earth 4.5 times.

It will deliver 10x the performance of the world’s fastest supercomputer today, enabling AI training and inference workloads at a level never before seen.

For AI training workloads, you need compute at exponential scale. That’s why we designed the datacenter, GPU fleet, and network together as one integrated system. This ensures a single job can run from day 1 at exponential scale across thousands of GPUs. 

Fairwater uses a liquid-cooled closed-loop system for cooling GPUs that requires zero water for operations after construction.

And we’re matching all of the energy that is consumed with renewable sources.

And of course, it is just one of several similar sites we’re lighting up across our 70+ regions. We have multiple identical Fairwater datacenters under construction in other locations across the US, in addition to our AI infrastructure already deployed in over 100 datacenters around the world, powering model training, test-time compute, RL tuning, and real-time inference at global scale.

Too often during times like this, people go with the current and only later wonder, how did we get here? 

With Fairwater, we're charting a new path: doing the hard engineering work, bringing compute, network, and storage into one highly scaled cluster, and designing closed-loop energy systems to meet real-world computing needs.

And partnering with local communities to ensure it's thoughtfully done in a way that is sustainable, creates new jobs, and expands opportunity. 

We are thrilled to see this take hold in Wisconsin, and we are just getting started.

Learn more about Fairwater here: https://lnkd.in/gpdni9gt

Cracking edition of Demand Curve from Neal O'Grady 🍉 today."
""
""
"Appeal to selfish interest, not reason."
""
"There are a lot of examples in the newsletter:"
""
"- high quality skin-care ingredients ~vs~ looking like a celebrity"
""
"- helping a child's learning + development ~vs~ giving a parent some free time"
""
"- driving an electric vehicle is good for the planet ~vs~ having the latest prestige vehicle"
""
"--"
""
"Another one I've coaching non-profits and social enterprises on is partnership and funding pitches."
""
"Sure..."
""
"What you’re doing is delivering all of the impact in the world to a very important cause."
""
"BUT..."
""
"Is that going to open the purse strings more than helping the government minister appear in front page news advocating for the cause?"
""
"I know we like to think we live in a world that responds to reason - but the reality is we're irrational creatures."
""
"Instead of fighting with that reality - work with it to achieve the things you're trying to do."
""
"Also:"
"Great to see an Old Charlies Almanac reference - it's one of a handful of actual physical books I own 🤣

We’re committed to creating new opportunity for people and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and ensuring America remains a trusted and reliable tech partner for the United Kingdom.

That’s why today we announced a $30 billion investment in the UK over four years, including building the country's largest supercomputer with over 23,000 of the world’s most advanced GPUs, to expand the digital infrastructure that will bring our two nations even closer together.

Read more about the investment we're making in the UK: https://lnkd.in/gkTRH_M9

When data syncs with context, velocity becomes your advantage.

Today at #FabConEurope we’re announcing new Microsoft Fabric capabilities that turn a “unify once, activate everywhere” data strategy into measurable impact—across every team, every decision.

Just a few of the new capabilities we’re announcing:

🔗 Relationship intelligence: with Graph in Fabric, see how customers, partners, and supply chains connect so you spot risk and opportunities sooner.

📍Geospatial insight: Your operations live in the physical world; Maps in Fabric add location to the picture so you can make location-aware decisions in real time.

⚡Mirroring for Oracle and Google Big Query so you can bring all your data together – no matter where it lives.

Get the details: https://lnkd.in/gM3a9uk2

#MicrosoftFabric #AzureAIFoundry

I've been having some fun with Copilot Audio Expressions, which is built on our new MAI-Voice-1 model. Clearly, I have PSL and fall on my mind ....

Hey workers - how good is 2 nights of uninterrupted sleep in a row?"
""
"Asking for my new neighbour here 🦘"
""
"We're back baby 🔥

So cool to see food influencer Keith Lee using Copilot to help small businesses. Watch him (and our tech!) make a real difference for Chicago restaurateurs like Chef Harper.

It was an absolutely shocking week."
""
""
"Yet started off so well…"
""
"Family off to sleep school ✅"
"Logging some decent runs 🏃‍♂️"
"Uninterrupted sleep 🙏"
""
""
"I’d also hit a really nice cadence of introducing myself to early tech #startups, finding out more about them, helping them if ot was easy to, and sharing more about growth coaching and what I do."
""
"Then on Wednesday:"
""
"“Honey, we’re coming home early, one of them has caught Hand Foot & Mouth”"
""
"Cancel rest of meetings for the day, get home, and start helping."
""
"“Honey, I don’t feel so good, I’m just going to lie down”"
""
"Unfortunately G kept getting worse. An ambulance was called and my poor love had caught pneumonia and stayed in hospital overnight."
""
"It was proper battle stations then."
""
"Because in amongst these health calamities we’ve been moving house."
""
"We’re moving up the road to the in-laws for more space, no rent, and preparing to buy."
""
"I managed to move nearly everything I could over 2 days with a trailer, and the boys and G arenon the mend."
""
"If you’re a business owner, how do you manage your sick days?"
""
"Currently I just cancel what I can and take the hit on billings or business development."
""
"I’d love to so more productised or leveraged work but at the same time I find client work the most energising."
""
"I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to this it’s just my world right now."
""
"📸 from last week where I didn’t know what day it was but was revelling in my Bulldogs pyjama jumper when they were still competing in the Finals 😭

Great case study from the Licode team."
""
"Cheyanne wanted something created fast to service her clients better."
""
"She was able to produce something that added value in days 🔥"
""
"(Not months)."
""
"Might be interesting for you Diana Silva 🙃

Thrilled to announce the launch of Ask Ralph, an AI-powered conversational shopping experience developed in partnership with Ralph Lauren. Powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Ask Ralph puts Ralph Lauren's unique and iconic take on style directly in consumers' hands, offering personalized styling inspiration and recommendations.

This innovative tool is transforming the retail industry, enabling Ralph Lauren to create engaging, immersive experiences. And as we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with AI, Ask Ralph is paving the way for the future of conversational commerce ❤️

https://lnkd.in/gXGyjE7H

Our Researcher agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot never ceases to amaze me.

It can reason over all your work data, like chats, meetings, files and emails, plus web data, to generate a comprehensive research report that helps you prep for a meeting, analyze trends, or build a strategy. I use it all the time.

Here’s an example:

Last week I shared some prompts to show the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot and GPT-5, when it's grounded on your work data, and asked for your own.
 
Loved the responses from customers and colleagues, and wanted to share some of my favorites: 
 
• "I need to respond to this email. Please read it, summarize the key points, and then ask me one question at a time to help craft a reply that matches my tone and intent" (H/T Ryan Roslansky - I've been using this one all the time with Copilot Chat in Outlook)
 
• "Generate a 20-question quiz to help digest information from [meeting name]" 
 
• "Highlight emerging opportunities for impact, both within my organization and through cross-team or cross-discipline collaboration that would further advance our company’s mission and purpose"
 
• "Review potential risk in my project, [project name]" 
 
• "Help me write about the impact I delivered from [date] until [date]. This should showcase: my key individual accomplishments that contribute to team, business, or customer results; my contributions to the success of others; my results that build on the work, ideas or effort of others"

Let's talk about whale hunting 🐳"
" "
" "
"I hate the term."
""
"But game-changing, large, or monster clients also sound kind of naff - so grab your harpoon and let's go sailing."
" "
"In MadMen - we're led to believe that a big deal hinges on a carefully crafted pitch, and an elegant turn of phrase at precise timing is what lands the account."
" "
"This couldn't be further from the truth."
" "
"I've won and lost major pitches for massive global clients."
" "
"Even in those high-stakes situations, success comes from interrogating the brief, conducting research, asking questions, preparing thoroughly, uncovering hidden information, persistent follow-up, handling objections, understanding why objections arise and preparing for them—and anticipating objections that are yet to be voiced."
" "
"Think about landing these accounts as a series of small incremental yeses over time instead of one big dramatic "no"."
" "
"I love coaching around growth in this space."
" "
"This isn't building a continual and reliable pipeline - that's super important but comes afterwards."
" "
"Where I like to play is with the entry points - finding ways to connect, identifying common ground, and capturing a beachhead."
" "
"These plays get startups the early wins and logos that builds the case for ongoing resource allocation and pipeline development."
" "
"There's always a way in - and if not there will be one that's ready."
" "
"If you want to noodle on this I've got you."
" "
"And if you have a better term than whale hunting I am ears!"
" "
"#startups"
" "
"📸 from my run this morning. The family is at sleep school and I'm making the most of being able to run on a looser schedule in the morning

AI is the defining technology of our time, and how we empower people to use it will shape our nation's future.

Thank you to President Trump and the First Lady for making this a national priority.

At Microsoft, we're committed to doing our part, with new initiatives to empower teachers and students with the latest AI tools, build AI skills, and create economic opportunity.

What do recovery in mental health and peak performance have in common?"
""
""
"Watch Ganesha Param's podcast Peak Performance Hacks - to find out!"
""
"Gan asked some great questions and I went into detail about:"
""
"- what high performance used to mean for me before becoming unwell"
"- unhealthy coping behaviours while working hard and playing hard"
"- what I noticed stopping alcohol and creating the space to do the work"
"- tilting - and how it differs to "work-life balance""
"- my basketball comeback after 20+ years away!"
""
"I also enjoyed going into detail about what routines work for me (and highly recommend not introducing them all for yourself)."
""
"It was fun seeing this again, and the rapid intro quotes at the start were epic 👏"
""
"Thanks for having me 🙏"
""
"https://lnkd.in/gxNNYj32"
""
"#startups

Our breakthrough work on an analog optical computer points to new ways to solve complex real-world problems with much greater efficiency.

Super to see this published today in Nature Magazine.

Read more: https://lnkd.in/gq6nfGEz

For more than four decades, Microsoft has partnered with the U.S. Government to serve the American people. From modernizing IT infrastructure to advancing cybersecurity, our partnership has always been rooted in trust, innovation, and shared purpose.

Today, we are building on that legacy with a new agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration — including a no-cost Microsoft 365 Copilot offer — to accelerate the adoption of AI and digital technologies across federal agencies and deliver more than $3 billion in total savings to taxpayers in the first year alone.

This collaboration is about empowering public servants with the tools they need to deliver on their missions more effectively and securely. By bringing the latest advances in cloud and AI — including Azure, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Dynamics 365, and our security platforms — backed by industry-leading security and compliance certifications, we aim to help agencies modernize systems, improve citizen services, and advance their technology transformation goals.

You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/gSqqpK3q

I love the no-code space."
" "
"I've been nerding out on it since Ben Tossell started Makerpad."
" "
"There's so many tools, connectors, and creative ways people can piece together novel solutions to problems without knowing how to code."
" "
"AI has accelerated that capability."
" "
"These kinds of tools enable entrepreneurs, tinkerers, and teams piece together technical solutions at a fraction of the cost and time that it takes to develop coded solutions."
" "
"These tools don't replace code - they push the speed to market."
" "
"Meaning faster feedback, faster adapting, and inreased readiness when and if a more robust solution is required."
" "
"So when ⚡️ Kelvin Htat asked me to be an advisor on Licode it was a no-brainer."
" "
"An AI-app builder that lets you build things with no-code, and connect into LLMs like OpenAI."
" "
"It's early days - but the smiles from Kelvin and Raph (co-founder) are just after sharing a big customer win."
" "
"LFG 🔥