Journal

Practical, no-hype notes on AI and Microsoft from our delivery work. Subscribe via RSS.

  1. Claude Cowork vs Copilot Cowork plugins: same idea, different packaging Anthropic and Microsoft both call their agentic workspace "Cowork", and both use plugins. Here is what carries over between them and what does not.
  2. Copilot Chat, Cowork, Copilot Studio or Power Automate: which should you use? Microsoft now offers four ways to put AI and automation to work. A simple guide to choosing the right one for each job, and when to combine them.
  3. Rolling out Copilot Cowork safely: a 10-step checklist for IT admins Copilot Cowork is off by default, which gives you time to prepare. A practical checklist covering permissions, pilots, spending limits, Purview and plugins.
  4. CRM and telephony integration: a practical guide (and what we learned building one) Connecting your CRM to your phone system means calls arrive with a name, and conversations end up on the customer record. The patterns, the pitfalls, and how to plan one.
  5. Copilot Cowork plugins and skills, explained (and how to build your own) Plugins connect Copilot Cowork to your business systems, and skills teach it your way of working. How they are packaged, deployed and secured.
  6. Model Context Protocol (MCP), explained for business leaders MCP is the standard that lets AI assistants such as Copilot and Claude safely use your business systems. What it is, why it matters, and what to ask before you connect anything.
  7. Screen pop and call logging in Dynamics 365: your options, and how to build them Open the right customer record the moment the phone rings, and save every call to the timeline. The built-in options, the Channel Integration Framework, and the details that make it work.
  8. What is Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork? A practical guide for business leaders Copilot Cowork turns Copilot from a chat assistant into something that finishes multi-step work. What it is, what it costs, how it is governed, and how to start.
  9. Leaving Project Online: a practical migration checklist What to inventory, what to clean up and what to move first when you take your project portfolio off Project Online and onto Power Platform.
  10. Copilot readiness starts with permissions, not prompts Microsoft 365 Copilot can see whatever each user can see. Fix oversharing before rollout, or Copilot will surface it for you.
  11. Useful AI agents keep a human in the loop A simple four-rung ladder for deciding what an AI agent should be allowed to do on its own, and what it must leave to a person.