Month That Was (MTW) Unplugged : Mar-Apr 2025

Welcome to the March 2025 edition of "Month That Was" (MTW), where I shared key updates and insights from the ecosystem. This was the 80th session of "Month That Was" (MTW). This newsletter aims to bring together the latest updates, initiatives, and events happening in the Microsoft Practice Space. As always, I appreciate your continued support and participation in these sessions.

The video summary

📽️ I'm excited to share a short 4min+ video covering the highlights from the latest edition of March 2025 "Month That Was" session! This video is your backstage pass to latest updates from the Microsoft Ecosystem, World of AI and Infosys Microsoft Practice. Dive in to hear, see and discover the updates, the latest and greatest happening, events, ecosystem achievements, and future plans that are shaping the enterprise journey and beyond...check out the video & post.

Key Themes and Updates

Confluence, Experience, and Rejuvenation

At the beginning of the year, we discussed the theme of confluence, inspired by the meeting of three rivers at Prayagraj. This theme highlights the convergence of technological, political, regulatory, and trust-related forces influencing our business.

In February, we focused on experience, emphasizing the importance of human interaction in the consumption of technology, especially in the services industry.

For March, the theme is REJUVENATION, symbolized by the arrival of spring and the festival of Holi. This theme represents new beginnings, vibrancy, and the continuous cycle of growth and adaptation in our business

Personal Story: Embracing Change

I recently took a train journey with my family, which reminded me of the importance of embracing change and rejuvenation. The Indian Railways have undergone significant improvements, showcasing the confluence of new technology, service orientation, and efficient processes. This experience parallels our business journey in world of AI, where continuous improvement and adaptation are key to success.

I reflected on a conversation I had with my professior at college and penned it here - From Fear to Fortune: Embracing UDTA (उड़ता) in Business

I also penned a blog on approach to embracing AI which you can read here - AI - It's not just "Artificial Intellience" anymore; It's about being "ALL IN"

Updates from world of AI

Several exciting developments in AI and business applications were discussed:

1. McKinsey Podcast: This podcast explores the adoption challenges and future of AI in the workplace, featuring insights from practitioners and industry leaders. <Link>
2. Everest Group Live Event: This LinkedIn Live event from Everest Group highlighted the resurgence of AI in enterprise applications, emphasizing the importance of interoperability and open frameworks <Link>
3. Service as a Software: The shift from software as a service to service as a software is transforming the way we approach business applications, focusing on value rather than infrastructure. You can check out the post by Saurabh Gupta and Phil Fersht from HFS Research for more details. <Link>
4. Sometimes no answer is better than a wrong one - Good advice for LLMs, according to new Johns Hopkins research and shared by Mustafa Suleyman in his linkedin post. <Link>

Microsoft Updates

1. Microsoft's 50th Anniversary: Celebrate Microsoft's 50th year by exploring their timeline and key milestones. <Link>
2. Partner Ecosystem: Nicole Dezen 's blog discusses the growth and value of Microsoft's partner ecosystem, highlighting the importance of collaboration and innovation <Link>
3. Agentic Organizational Bluprint: Raffaele De Lucia shared a linkedin post with text - " A #Copilot for every employee and an #Agent for every process" Microsoft's bold ambition to spread AI in every corner of the enterprise and consumer world is sustained by a unique and differentiated vision, a unicorn in the market. Check this out along with a simple visual on the post. <Link>
4. Copilot Studio Enhancements: Charles Lamanna shared a post annoumcing new features like deep reasoning and agent flows being added to help build smarter agents and automate task. Charles Lamanna Blog on LinkedIn
5. Researcher and Analyst Copilot: A blog post by Jared Spataro highl;igted the new additions to Microsoft 365 Copilot that can assist in multi-step research and complex data analysis, enhancing productivity and decision-making. Introducing Researcher and Analyst in Microsoft 365 Copilot
6. Adobe and Microsoft Empower Marketers with AI Agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot: This builds on a collaboration between Adobe and Microsoft to bring the power of generative AI into the flow of work—extending now to AI agents. This includes activating the capabilities of Adobe Marketing Agent in applications such as Microsoft Teams, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word through Microsoft 365 Copilot. Adobe has developed an agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist marketers in creating impactful campaigns and enhancing customer experiences. Link to the News Release

Infosys Highlights

1. International Women's Day: Celebrations across various locations emphasized the importance of gender parity and accelerated action. Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025 with “Accelerate Action” - Hosted by Aruna Newton from Infosys, the event features two inspiring women leaders, Stephanie Troester from The Adecco Group and Monika Orlowska from Infosys Consulting. Stephanie and Monika share their unique journeys of growth, resilience, & leadership.Link to Video
2. Pinnacle Awards: Shishank Gupta shared a post as we at Infosys Microsoft Practice received awards for best design and awareness in AI adoption at the recently concluded Infosys Bangalore DC Pinnacle Awards. This award recognized the team's efforts, achievements and doing exceptional work in driving awareness and adoption of AI across the team and projects. Check out Shishank’s Post on LinkedIn
3. AI Business Value Radar 2025: The latest report from Infosys Knowledge Institute shows positive trends in AI adoption and scaling, delivering real business value. The era of enterprise AI experimentation is ending, and the time for scaling AI deployments is here. In our biggest survey of business leaders to date, we have found that about 20% of AI use cases are now delivering on all business objectives, and that just over 30% of use cases are on the cusp of doing so. As costs for AI look to tumble in the wake of DeepSeek and the emergence of other potentially more frugal language models, we will see an acceleration of AI use cases that achieve viability for business, resulting in a mass expansion of AI agents across an average enterprise over 2025. <Link>

Events and Collaborations

1. Retail and CPG Sector Event in Australia: The event Transforming Retail Operations with AI - focused on transforming retail operations with AI and Microsoft technologies, showcasing innovations and encouraging adoption. Together with Microsoft as our key partner and leaders from across the Retail and CPG sectors, we explored how AI-powered ERP systems are revolutionizing the way businesses operate - enhancing efficiency, driving growth, and fostering sustainable innovation. Read Amit Syamal Post on LinkedIn
2. Microsoft AI Tour in Copenhagen: Infosys participated as an exhibitor sponsor, highlighting the potential for AI adoption in the Nordics region. Asseneta Deliiska-Schreiber has shared a post about the event, originally shared by Mona Dash . You can check out the post here.

Before we closed, some weekend reads

1. Forrester views on AI: Shared a blog by Leslie Joseph / Rowan Curran - Interoperability Is Key To Unlocking Agentic AI’s Future covering the Nine Dimensions Of Agentic Interoperability. Another one was a blog by Fred Giron that focussed on answering the question - "Can AI act as a teammate?". You can read the blog here - 1+1+AI=5: How Generative AI Is Empowering Teams
2. Great leadership is built on trust, not fear: The core tenet was that Psychological safety fuels innovation, accountability, and long-term success. Some leaders believe fear drives results. They think pressure, control, and strict oversight create discipline and efficiency. At first, it might seem to work. But over time, fear-based leadership breaks everything that makes an organization thrive. You can read the original post by Jeroen Kraaijenbrink on LinkedIn. <Link>

Closing Thoughts

As we move into the new financial year, let's embrace the theme of rejuvenation and continue to innovate and adapt in our business practices. Your feedback and participation are invaluable, so please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas.

As always, if you like the content, please do help spread the word and subscribe to the newsletter (if you have not already done it). Stay connected and informed. Let's continue to grow and succeed together. Subscribe on LinkedIn - bit.ly/45gOWET

Thank you for reading, and have a great day ahead! - A lot to learn, adapt, accept and change for aligning to market. Hope we all are ready! Best wishes. Until next time! 👍