Microsoft Ignite 2023 | All the details and news

Autumn for Microsoft is synonymous with launching new tools, services, and products presented in a new edition of Microsoft Ignite.

This year promises to be much bigger than previous years and is packed with surprises.

*We will update this publication with the new products launched daily.

What is Microsoft Ignite?

Microsoft Ignite is the technology giant’s largest annual event for technology professionals and developers worldwide. Each year, it brings together an average of 350,000 digital attendees and 4,000 in-person. It is the moment when new tools, initiatives, and services are announced to continue advancing in the digital transformation we are immersed in.

Microsoft Ignite is a meeting for professionals who want to face and prepare for current and future challenges, anticipate their customers’ needs, and improve their lives through technology.

When and where is Microsoft Ignite 2023?

Microsoft Ignite 2023 will take place from 14-17 November in a hybrid format, once again offering the possibility to attend from anywhere in the world or from the Seattle Convention Center:

• Online: 15-16 November
• Onsite in Seattle: 14-17 November

This year’s most important theme will be artificial intelligence, with Copilot, the future of security, and OpenAI as the main protagonists. The keynote will be given by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and big names such as Charlie Bell, Rajesh Jha, Scott Guthrie, Vasu Jakkal, Jessica Hawk…

Similar in format to previous years, it will be divided into several parts:

• Learn from Microsoft and its partners: discover the latest innovations in AI, participate in working groups and discussions with experts, or experience live demos.
• Empower your skills: hone your skills, join interactive labs, or learn in sessions to develop your capabilities in security, Microsoft 365, and infrastructure.
• Collaborate and connect: delve into the topic that interests you most with a one-on-one consultation, meet with experts to advance your projects, or join an expert roundtable discussion.

Microsoft Ignite 2023 Agenda

The online event will be organized as follows:

Wednesday 15th

• 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM: Keynote with Satya Nadella and Rajesh Jha
• 8:45 PM – 3:00 AM: Breakout sessions, expert discussions and networking opportunities

Thursday 16th

• 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Keynote with Scott Guthrie, Charlie Bell and  Vasu Jakkal
• 8:45 PM – 3:00 AM: Breakout sessions, expert discussions and networking opportunities

Microsoft Ignite 2023 Recap

*Remember that as the sessions occur, we will update this post with all the information presented.

After seeing the first day of Ignite 2023, Satya Nadella has made one thing clear, and that is that AI is here to stay and that its future looks very optimistic. This is the summary of his Keynote:

The Copilot era

Copilot is presented as an opportunity to reinvent the way we work, as it turns natural language into a powerful productivity tool.

Since its launch earlier this year, more than 130,000 organizations have benefited from its capabilities. Now, they are announcing new ones that unlock value from many systems: enhancements to Dynamics 365, Copilot for Service, and Sales.

Microsoft Copilot Studio

One of the big launches of the event, this is a low-code tool for customizing Copilot for Microsoft 365 and creating standalone copilots.

It brings together a set of powerful conversational capabilities, from custom GPTs to generative AI add-ons and manual themes, allowing you to customize Copilot to each business scenario easily; quickly create, test, and publish standalone copilots; manage and secure customizations with the right access, data, user controls, and analytics; and create, test and publish standalone copilots; and manage and protect customizations with the right access, data, user controls, and analytics.

Azure AI Studio

It is a next-generation platform designed to simplify the development of generative AI applications, leveraging OpenAI models such as GPT4, along with a wide range of other next-generation models and services.

It ushers in a new era of AI development, enabling developers to explore, create, and deploy their AI innovations at scale.

Microsoft Fabric is now available

It was unveiled at this year’s Microsoft Build and is now widely used. This platform reshapes the way teams work with data by bringing everyone together on a single AI-powered platform.

It combines the best of Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory into a single, unified SaaS platform with seven core workloads, each designed specifically for specific people and tasks.

NVIDIA AI Foundry Service on Azure

The two companies have joined forces to revolutionize generative AI applications. The new joint service is designed to drive the development of custom applications for businesses worldwide and promises to reshape industries through the power of generative AI.

It integrates three main elements: core AI models, the NVIDIA NeMo framework and tools, and NVIDIA DGX cloud AI supercomputing services.

IA + Mixed Reality for the Frontline

They have introduced Copilot into Dynamic 365 Guides, which is a real-world transformation thanks to the entry of generative AI, assisting frontline workers in industrial environments.

Workers can now interact with Copilot using natural language and gestures to receive the information they need in real-time with voice and holograms.

MR and AI present a human-centric interface that promises to accelerate real-world processes.

New Microsoft Teams

Teams immersive spaces will be generally available in January 2024. They will bring the power of Mesh to every worker’s everyday workplace, where key capabilities will be:

• Avatars: will be easy to customize and will be able to reflect a person’s actual appearance.
• 3D environments: a choice of pre-defined environments for a large team, a social gathering, or a round table.
• Seating: to generate connections with other people.
• Spatial audio: multiple simultaneous conversations will be possible.
• Interactive activities: interactive games will be integrated within the immersive spaces.
• Live reactions.

Foundation Models and Tooling

Azure Machine Learning continues to improve user experiences with new enhancements, such as the general availability of prompt Flow and the model catalog, as well as the preview of integration with OneLake in Microsoft Fabric.

This will enable developers to optimize the development of AI-powered applications and deploy responsive AI solutions at all stages of the development lifecycle.

AI infrastructure upgrades

Azure infrastructure is adding new performance options, from the data center to the servers, including:

• Custom Silicon for AI and enterprise workloads in the cloud.
• Microsoft Azure Maia: an AI accelerator chip designed to run training and inference for AI workloads such as OpenAI, Bing, GitHub Copilot, and ChatGPT models.
• Microsoft Azure Cobalt: Native AI-based chip optimized for performance, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness for general-purpose workloads.
• Azure Boost: Now generally available, it enables higher network and storage performance at scale, improves security, and reduces service impact by moving virtualization processes.