“Having experienced Build 2018, I had high expectations, and this year’s conference was very similar – but also quite different.

Held in the Seattle Conference Centre’s new “Summit” building, the conference was the usual mix of keynotes, presentations, labs – and snacks!

As a group, we also chose to attend one of the additional pre-day labs ahead of the conference proper to learn about “Containers in Cloud – Azure Container Apps and Azure Kubernetes Service”, which was a gentle introduction to containers generally and Microsoft’s Azure offerings.

Once Build began with Satya’s keynote, it was evident that Microsoft’s future is very much going to be influenced by AI, with OpenAI and ChatGPT being utilised in most (if not every) Microsoft product.

Excitingly – from a developer’s perspective – the rollout of GitHub Copilot and Copilot X, and the possibilities it brings to tools such as VS Code, Visual Studio, and Azure, was interesting to see. This culminated in a live coding demo at the closing keynote where Mark Russinovich and Scott Hanselman, created from scratch, a video game showing the potential of Copilot (and its limitations!).

Finally, Microsoft was keen to pitch this as a much more sustainable event – offering digital attendance alongside in-person. That saw a noticeably reduced amount of swag, and instead, they encouraged much more vendor engagement to qualify for a haul – still plenty of stickers though! ?”

During the event, Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, gave a keynote presentation where he introduced an array of AI capabilities integrated across Microsoft’s stack. As I listened to his speech, it was obvious that this will be a tremendous opportunity to offer more advanced AI-driven solutions in cloud services and business intelligence. It’s exciting to think about the possibilities that lie ahead.

One of the exciting announcements was the inclusion of Windows Copilot in Windows 11. This feature will provide centralised AI assistance to users, allowing them to experience improved efficiency and productivity. There is a possible future where we don’t open apps to perform tasks but just ask the AI in windows to perform the task.

Another significant revelation was the introduction of Microsoft Fabric, a revolutionary product that brings together various data analytics tools. This presents a significant opportunity for us to enhance our data analytics solutions using AI. Microsoft Fabric will provide access to areas of data that have previously been trapped in specific applications and services.

Microsoft also revealed plans for the “Copilot stack” and partnership with OpenAI, expanding the AI plugins ecosystem. This enables broad software and service interaction, unlocking new possibilities on how we can bring much more targeted skills to AI.

Microsoft Entra looks very promising, bringing Microsoft’s Enterprise level authentication power into the individual authentication arena.

The event also delved into the customisation of GPT models using Azure OpenAI service, which particularly caught my attention. The ability to tailor language models to our specific needs is incredibly powerful. It’s a game-changer that will allow us to provide effective customer-specific solutions.

Lastly, the event showcased Co-Pilot X, an AI-powered coding assistant. The demonstration of AI pair programming was impressive, highlighting the potential for a seamless collaboration between humans and AI. It was inspiring to see how this technology could be our coding companion, supporting us in real-time.