Microsoft Ignite 2024 — get the latest news and insights

Microsoft Ignite 2024 kicks off in Chicago and runs Nov. 19-22.  If you can’t make it to Chicago, no worries. First, the physical event is sold out, according to the Ignite event page. Second, it’s a hybrid event, so you can attend Ignite virtually. 

Whether you’re there physically or online, expect to learn more about the latest technologies from Microsoft — everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to cloud computing, security, productivity tools, and more  In the keynote address, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft leaders — including Charlie Bell, executive vice president of Microsoft Security, and Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Microsoft Cloud + AI Group — will share how the company is creating new opportunities across its platforms in this rapidly evolving era of AI.

You can also network with industry experts and Microsoft’s team, IT leaders, and other tech enthusiasts; gain hands-on experience and learn from experts at technical sessions; and learn about new products and services. (Microsoft often announces new products and features at Ignite.)

Here are highlights from the 2024 show, followed by a look back at some of our previous Ignite coverage, as well as recent articles that touch on related topics. Remember to check this page often for more on Ignite 2024.

Microsoft Ignite 2024 news and insights

Microsoft upgrades Copilot Studio agent builder tools

Nov. 20, 2024: Microsoft unveiled new Copilot Studio features aimed at both expanding the functionality of AI agents created with the application and improving the accuracy of outputs. Customers will be able to connect Copilot Studio agents to third-party apps, and tools for building autonomous agents are now available in a public preview.

Microsoft partners with industry leaders to offer vertical SLMs

Nov. 20, 2024: Teaming up with industry partners such as Bayer and Rockwell Automation, Microsoft is adding pre-trained small language models to its Azure AI catalog aimed at highly specialized use cases.

Microsoft brings automated ‘agents’ to M365 Copilot

Nov. 19, 2024: Microsoft has introduced a new tool in Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate repetitive tasks, part of a drive to make the genAI assistant more useful to users. Copilot Actions features a simple trigger-and-action interface that Microsoft hopes will make the workflow automations accessible to a wide range of workers. 

Microsoft extends Entra ID to WSL, WinGet

Nov. 19, 2024: Microsoft has added new security features to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and the Windows Package Manager (WinGet), including integration with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Active Directory) for identity-based access control. The goal is to enable IT admins to more effectively manage the deployment and use of these tools in enterprises.

Microsoft looks to genAI, exposure managment, and new bug bounties to secure enterprise IT

Nov. 19, 2024: Microsoft announced a host of new security measures at its annual Ignite conference, with the goal of strengthening its existing data protection, endpoint security, and extended threat detection and response capabilities. Notable improvements include the introduction of a dedicated exposure management tool, an upgrade to insider risk management (IRM) tailored to GenAI usage, new data loss prevention (DLP) features, and integration of genAI into security operations center (SOC) processes.

Microsoft and Atom Computing claim breakthrough in reliable quantum computing

Nov. 19, 2024: The companies have announced what they claim is a significant step forward in reliable quantum computing, unveiling a commercial quantum machine built with 24 entangled logical qubits. The system, achieved through a combination of Atom Computing’s neutral-atom hardware and Microsoft’s qubit-virtualization technology, aims to address the critical challenge of error detection and correction in quantum computation.

Microsoft adds major upgrades to Power Apps at Ignite

Nov. 19, 2024: The company announced a series of low-code product enhancements, targeted at developers, that ranged from new agent-building capabilities in Power Apps and Power Pages to new AI and governance features in the codeless automation tool Microsoft Power Automate.

Microsoft’s Windows 365 Link is a thin client device for shared workspaces

Nov. 19, 2024: Microsoft will start selling a thin client device that lets workers boot directly to Windows 365 “in seconds,” the company announced on Tuesday.

Microsoft reimagines Fabric with focus on AI

Nov. 19, 2024: The company announced a slate of enhancements to its data analytics platform, including Fabric Databases, which can provision auto-optimizing and auto-scaling AI databases in seconds.

Microsoft rebrands Azure AI Studio to Azure AI Foundry

Nov. 19, 2024: The toolkit for building generative AI applications has been packaged with new updates to form the Azure AI Foundry service.

From MFA mandates to locked-down devices, Microsoft posts a year of SFI milestones at Ignite

Nov. 19, 2024: The company shared a progress report on its Secure Future Initiative (SFI), introduced a year ago, which included significant measures such as enforcing multifactor authentication (MFA) by default for new tenants, isolating close to 100,000 work devices under conditional access policies, and blocking GitHub secrets from exposure.

Previous Microsoft Ignite coverage

Microsoft to launch autonomous AI at Ignite

Oct. 21, 2024: Microsoft will let customers build autonomous AI agents that can be configured to perform complex tasks with little or no input from humans. Microsoft announced that tools to build AI agents in Copilot Studio will be available in a public beta that begins at Ignite on Nov. 19, with pre-built agents rolling out to Dynamics 365 apps in the coming months.

Microsoft Ignite 2023: 11 takeaways for CIOs

Nov. 15, 2023: Microsoft’s 2023 Ignite conference might as well be called AIgnite, with over half of the almost 600 sessions featuring AI in some shape or form. Generative AI (genAI), in particular, is at the heart of many of the product announcements Microsoft is making at the event, including new AI capabilities for wrangling large language models (LLMs) in Azure, new additions to the Copilot range of genAI assistants, new hardware, and a new tool to help developers deploy small language models (SLMs) too.

Microsoft partners with Nvidia, Synopsys for genAI services

Nov. 16, 2023: Microsoft has announced that it is partnering with chipmaker Nvidia and chip-designing software provider Synopsys to provide enterprises with foundry services and a new chip-design assistant. The foundry services from Nvidia will be deployed on Microsoft Azure and will combine three of Nvidia’s elements — its foundation models, its NeMo framework, and Nvidia’s DGX Cloud service.

As Microsoft embraces AI, it says sayonara to the metaverse

Feb. 23, 2023: It wasn’t just Mark Zuckerberg who led the metaverse charge by changing Facebook’s name to Meta. Microsoft hyped it as well, notably when CEO Satya Nadella said, “I can’t overstate how much of a breakthrough this is,” in his keynote speech at Microsoft Ignite in 2021. Now, tech companies are much wiser, they tell us. It’s AI at heart of the coming transformation. The metaverse may be yesterday’s news, but it’s not yet dead.

Microsoft Ignite in the rear-view mirror: What we learned

Oct. 17, 2022: Microsoft treated its big Ignite event as more of a marketing presentation than a full-fledged conference, offering up a variety of announcements that affect Windows users, as well as large enterprises and their networks. (The show was a hybrid affair, with a small in-person option and online access for those unable to travel.)

Related  Microsoft coverage

Microsoft’s AI research VP joins OpenAI amid fight for top AI talent

Oct. 15, 2024: Microsoft’s former vice president of genAI research, Sebastien Bubeck, left the company to join OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Bubeck, a 10-year veteran at Microsoft, played a significant role in driving the company’s genAI strategy with a focus on designing more efficient small language models (SLMs) to rival OpenAI’s GPT systems.

Microsoft brings Copilot AI tools to OneDrive

Oct. 9, 2024: Microsoft’s Copilot is now available in OneDrive, part of a wider revamp of the company’s cloud storage platform.  Copilot can now summarize one or more files in OneDrive without needing to open them first; compare the content of selected files across different formats (including Word, PowerPoint, and PDFs); and respond to questions about the contents of files via the chat interface. 

Microsoft wants Copilot to be your new AI best friend

Oct. 9, 2024: Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot underwent a transformation last week, morphing into a simplified pastel-toned experience that encourages you…to just chat. “Hey Chris, how’s the human world today?” That’s what I heard after I fired up the Copilot app on Windows 11 and clicked the microphone button, complete with a calming wavey background. Yes, this is the type of banter you get with the new Copilot.