Microsoft Mechanics Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Find and fix app issues - Azure Copilot Observability Agent Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

Cut through alert noise and move from detection to root cause using the Azure Copilot Observability Agent. It autonomously investigates incidents, correlates signals across logs, metrics, alerts, application health, and ML anomalies, then surfaces root cause with charts and recommended next steps.

Extend coverage to your AI agents in Microsoft Foundry, track Gen AI errors and token consumption with trace-level detail, and write plain-language instructions to tune autonomous behavior to match your team's workflow.

Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Azure expert, shares how to take full control of incident response at scale.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Azure Copilot Observability Agent

00:43 - How to use it as you work

01:33 - Unified Full-Stack Telemetry

02:39 - Root Cause Investigation

04:12 - Investigate further

04:55 - Re-run the investigation

05:36 - Autonomous Alert Correlation & Triage

07:13 - Natural Language Agent Customization

07:34 - Wrap up

► Link References

Get started at https://aka.ms/ObservabilityAgent

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Build Agent Architecture using AI Landing Zones Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

Build enterprise-ready AI agents that scale without sacrificing security or control using Microsoft Azure. Establish a shared Governance Hub to centralize model access, MCP catalogs, and policy enforcement, then give every agent a traceable identity, runtime protection, and data governance through Agent 365. Layer in Microsoft Fabric's Ontologies so your agents reason over real business context, not just raw data. Choose your runtime — no-code, hosted container, or custom — and deploy a production-grade environment in minutes using the AI Landing Zone accelerator.

Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Azure Expert, joins Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, to share how to architect, govern, and scale a full agent mesh across the Microsoft stack.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Build secure AI agents

01:07 - Accelerate development, reduce risks

02:51 - Model Gateway + MCP Gateway

03:24 - Agent 365 Unified Control Plane

03:56 - Azure Policy + Azure Monitor

04:27 - Intelligent data platform

05:37 - OneLake in Microsoft Fabric

06:39 - Microsoft Purview data governance

07:13 - Fabric IQ with Ontologies

07:51 - Landing Zones

09:23 - Three Hosting Runtimes

11:06 - AI Landing Zone Accelerator

13:16 - Scalability

14:16 - Wrap up

► Link References

Check out https://aka.ms/AIArchitecture

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

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New Security Controls in Edge for Business Jun 25, 2026

Show notes

Enforce your existing Microsoft security policies directly in the browser, where your users actually work, using Microsoft Edge for Business. Extend Conditional Access, Purview DLP, and Defender controls into every session, across managed and unmanaged devices.

Block sensitive data from reaching unsanctioned AI services, lock contractors into your data boundary on devices you don't manage, and control clipboard and screenshot actions by location. Manage extensions by permission type from the Microsoft 365 admin center and shut down scareware before users respond.

Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shares how to deploy these controls using the security stack you already have.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Security built into the browser

01:30 - Shadow AI Data Blocking

03:03 - Contractor Work Profiles

04:22 - Configuration

05:16 - Advanced DLP & Clipboard Controls

06:29 - How to set it up

07:07 - Extension Management

09:20 - Protect from threats

10:13 - Wrap up

► Link References

To get started, check out https://aka.ms/EdgeforBusiness

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Rayfin | Go from prompt to production backend Jun 18, 2026

Show notes

Build production-ready enterprise apps in hours, not months. Describe the app you want using Rayfin's open-source SDK with GitHub Copilot, and generate your full backend in code — schemas, relationships, and access policies included. Deploy to Microsoft Fabric with a single CLI command and immediately inherit enterprise data security, identity controls, and audit compliance already in place across your data estate.

Connect your app's live operational data to years of historical records in Fabric from the moment you deploy, no pipelines, no data movement. Query across both datasets using a Fabric data agent you spin up directly on your app's data.

Will Thompson, Microsoft Fabric Principal Product Manager, shares how to take an app from idea to governed production deployment in a single session.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Simplify backend complexity 01:20 - Home delivery service app 01:48 - Data analysis app 02:26 - See the build experience 03:08 - Copilot Generates Full Backend 03:47 - Authorization defined alongside schema 05:06 - One CLI Command Deploys to Fabric 05:21 - Create analytics app & add pages 06:31 - App Data Connects to Fabric Data Estate 06:55 - Conversational Data Agent on App Data 08:13 - Wrap up

► Link References

Get started at https://aka.ms/rayfin

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Agent 365 | Identity & Access Controls in Entra Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

Take control of every AI agent, managed or not, running in your environment using Agent 365 and Microsoft Entra. Surface agents across AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Databricks, and Salesforce in one registry, assign Entra Agent IDs via CLI or SDK, and enforce least-privilege access through Conditional Access policies and Agent Blueprints, all without rebuilding your existing identity infrastructure.

Lock down agent activity with sign-in logs that capture every authentication attempt, policy hit, and failure. Govern agents as first-class identities alongside your users, apps, and devices, and draw a hard line between managed and unmanaged AI in your organization.

Vince Smith, Microsoft Entra Principal Product Manager, shares how to establish full visibility, access control, and lifecycle governance for AI agents using Microsoft Entra and Agent 365.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Visibility and control with Agent 365 01:39 - Multi-platform registry sync 02:29 - Assign Agent ID 04:14 - Agent Blueprints 05:24 - Conditional Access for agents 06:24 - Sign-in logs audit trail 07:03 - Unblock the agent 07:54 - Wrap up

► Link References

Check out https://aka.ms/EntraforAgents

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Introducing Azure HorizonDB - PostgreSQL Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

Run enterprise Postgres workloads on Azure HorizonDB with around 3x the throughput of self-managed deployments — zone-resilient by default, no architectural trade-offs. Call AI models directly from SQL, build durable vector pipelines inside the database, and deliver high-accuracy similarity search at massive scale with DiskANN and AI re-ranking, all without leaving PostgreSQL.

Debug and optimize queries faster with the Azure HorizonDB VS Code extension. Visualize execution plans, let Copilot generate fixes, and clone production data to test environments in seconds.

Charles Feddersen, PostgreSQL Partner Director PM, shares how to put all of it to work on Azure.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Azure HorizonDB features

00:57 - Open-source PostgreSQL

02:24 - How it works

03:37 - Performance

04:51 - Enterprise-ready security

05:34 - Memory & storage work together

06:29 - AI Model Management + AI Functions

08:24 - AI Pipelines

09:50 - DiskANN + AI Re-ranking

10:50 - VS Code Extension + Data Cloning

12:31 - Wrap up

► Link References

Check out our blog at https://aka.ms/azurepostgresblog

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Agent 365 | Security Operations in Defender May 29, 2026

Show notes

Surface every AI agent in your tenant and expose the ones throwing security signals — across both the IT and SOC view. Triage high-severity alerts as IT in the Microsoft 365 admin center, then pivot into the full incident graph as a SOC analyst in Microsoft Defender. Block malicious tool invocations the instant they fire and catch jailbreak attempts on Copilot Studio agents before they take hold.

Trace a compromised user back to suspicious agent activity, then trigger Microsoft Entra conditional access to revoke the session and force a password reset straight from the incident. Hunt overpermissioned agents with pre-built advanced hunting templates — including one that exposes every agent running MCP tools on the maker's standing credentials — and pull risky builds from the Agent Store using the Agent Registry.

Spencer Berg, AI & Security Product Manager, shares how to turn agent risk signals into coordinated remediation across Defender, Entra, and the Microsoft 365 admin center.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Stay in control with Agent 365

00:40 - Gain visibility with unified control plane

01:48 - Unified IT & SOC agent view

02:54 - Real-time blocking and jailbreak detection

04:08 - Auto-revoke via Entra conditional access

04:32 - Prevent future incidents

05:28 - Advanced hunting for AI agents

06:43 - Block risky agents

07:15 - Wrap up

► Link References

Check out https://aka.ms/Agent365SecOps

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

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Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance | Find Configuration Drift May 27, 2026

Show notes

Ensure your tenant configuration doesn't drift from defined security and compliance requirements with Microsoft Entra Tenant Governance. Capture configuration as code across 200+ resource types in Entra, Intune, Exchange, Teams, Defender, and Purview. Turn that snapshot into a Monitor. It scans for drift every six hours and flags every policy change.

Extend control to the tenants you don't fully see today. Entra Tenant Governance surfaces them automatically through B2B, multi-tenant app, and billing signals. Request governance with role-based templates. Complete the secure approval handshake in the Entra admin center, then administer the governed tenant from a single browser using the roles forged in that handshake. Jeff Staiman, Microsoft Entra Principal Product Manager, shares how to bring every tenant under one governance model.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Prevent tenant configuration drift

00:57 - Create a configuration baseline

02:23 - Detect configuration drifts

03:08 - Identify related tenants to govern

04:05 - Governed tenants

05:01 - Incoming request

06:17 - Set up monitoring

07:40 - Wrap up

► Link References

Get started at https://aka.ms/EntraTenantGovernance

Restrict tenant's connections at https://aka.ms/TenantQuarantine

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Automate evaluations | Microsoft Foundry May 21, 2026

Show notes

Build AI agents that meet your standards for quality, safety, and performance using Microsoft Foundry. Trace every run end-to-end, generate synthetic datasets to stress-test on demand, fire automated Red Team attacks at your own agents, and pin down why evaluations fail — all from the Microsoft Foundry control plane. Lock in guardrails that inspect every tool call at runtime, define the risks once, and enforce them across every agent run.

Mohammad Abuomar, Responsible AI Principal Architect, shares how to turn a coding agent into production-ready software inside Foundry.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Microsoft Foundry control plane

00:33 - See a finished agent

02:30 - See where the agent started

03:19 - Traces

04:04 - Built-in monitoring

04:34 - Evaluation types

05:51 - Red team evaluations

07:08 - Evaluation results

08:14 - Built-in Guardrails

08:14 - Wrap up

► Link References

Get everything you need in Microsoft Foundry at https://ai.azure.com

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

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Microsoft Excel Beginners Tutorial (2026) May 18, 2026

Show notes

This is the Microsoft Excel guide and tutorial for beginners. If you're new to and getting started with Excel or coming from another app, in this video we teach the basics of Excel, the user interface, core concepts, and how to work with basic data.

We'll show you how to build a full Excel workbook from scratch using natural language prompts with Copilot. Format cells, write formulas, and analyze a year of data. Generate sample data, calculate totals, apply conditional formatting, and pin down outliers across columns and rows, all from your browser at excel.new. Share the workbook by name, group, or email and co-author with teammates across web, desktop, and phone. Every edit syncs to OneDrive in real time.

Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shares how to go from blank workbook to analyzed, shared spreadsheet in one sitting.

If you have a work or school accounts, Copilot Chat is available at no additional cost if you have Microsoft 365 A1/A3/A5, Business Basic/Standard/Premium, E3/E5, F1/F3, G3/G5, and Office 365 A1/A1 Plus/A3/A5, E1/E1 Plus/E3/E5, F3, G1/G3/G5.

If you have a personal Microsoft account, Copilot is available with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Premium in Microsoft 365. For Family and multi-user accounts, only the subscription owner can use Copilot in the desktop apps.

► QUICK LINKS:

00:00 - Excel Essentials

00:57 - Start from a blank workbook

02:11 - Core terms and concepts

04:25 - Generate Sample Data with Copilot

06:16 - How to work with the numbers

09:35 - Copilot Writes Your SUM Formulas

09:57 - Conditional Formatting from a Prompt

10:40 - Outlier Analysis with Reasoning

11:36 - Real-Time Co-Authoring in OneDrive

12:22 - Wrap up

► Link References

Check it out at https://microsoft.com/excel

► Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics?

As Microsoft's official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft.

• Subscribe to our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftMechanicsSeries

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