See what AI looks like in production at Microsoft Ignite

If you’re deciding which AI pilots to move into production, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Judson Althoff’s opening keynote at Microsoft Ignite will show you where the company is taking the tools you’ll use to build and run those agents. They take the stage at 10 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, November 17. 

After the opening keynote, you can experience how customers put AI into production at scale, see where Microsoft is taking the tools those customers use, and compare notes with industry colleagues already doing the work. The breakout sessions (and hallway networking) offer the opportunity to double-click into results after an actual deployment. 

With the rapid advancement of AI tools and resources, the best playbook is often the one your peers have already tested. Microsoft Ignite gives leaders a place to compare deployment strategies and lessons learned face to face, with organizations just getting started and others already getting results from AI in production. 

Microsoft tells The New Stack that over four days, more than 100 organizations will take the stage across keynotes, breakout sessions and theater stages.

Microsoft tells The New Stack that over four days, more than 100 organizations will take the stage across keynotes, breakout sessions and theater stages. The organizations span AI startups such as Replit and Harvey, financial firms including Morgan Stanley and BNY, and companies such as Toyota and Siemens. If you’re choosing a first project (or deciding which pilot deserves more budget), the range at Ignite should give you a chance to gauge how teams with different goals are making those same decisions you’re facing. 

How Microsoft AI solutions work together 

Microsoft calls its approach Frontier Transformation. It starts with what people want to accomplish, the information AI agents need to help them, and finally, the controls an organization needs once AI is in use.  

For employees, Microsoft 365 Copilot puts AI into tools they already use, including Teams and Word. Microsoft Fabric brings business data and analytics together, and Microsoft IQ gives Copilot and agents context, pulling from in-house data, workplace activity, documents, and the web. Developers can use GitHub and GitHub Copilot to write and review code, then use Microsoft Foundry to build, test, and deploy agents on Azure infrastructure. Finally, Agent 365 gives IT teams a place to see which agents are running, monitor their activity, and set policies. 

Customer stories will also be a big part of each of the four innovation sessions. 

Where should your AI actually run? Mark Russinovich and Pavan Davuluri will lead “AI Infrastructure From Cloud to Edge,” with examples of Microsoft using its own tech as “Customer Zero” (what Microsoft calls its high-stakes version of dogfooding). PricewaterhouseCoopers will appear in person, and OpenAI, Adobe, and Replit will share featured videos in this session. If you’re deciding what to run in Azure vs. closer to users, this session will offer the insight you need. 

Microsoft reports that more than 40,000 people at Lilly use Copilot

How do you get people using agents in their everyday work? Lilly’s Bryce Williams is scheduled to join Microsoft’s Jacob Andreou in person for “Expanding What’s Possible: How AI Is Redesigning Work.” Microsoft reports that more than 40,000 people at Lilly use Copilot, and that more than 150 agents support work across research, clinical trials, and operations. If your team is rolling out Copilot, Lilly will showcase what helped its teams adopt it at scale.  

How do you ensure your agents are working from the right information? In “Harnessing Your IQ With a Continuously Improving Agent Platform,” Arun Ulag and Jay Parikh will look at how agents use company data and knowledge, with planned spotlights on AEMO and NTT Data. You’ll hear how teams decide what an agent should be able to see and how they test whether it’s drawing on the right information. 

How will you know your agents are working once they’re rolled out? Charles Lamanna and Hayete Gallot will lead “Observability at Every Layer for Every Role,” with planned videos from Royal Philips and KPMG, plus an onstage interview with the Bank of England. The Bank says nearly all of its employees use Microsoft 365 Copilot each week. Some agents that started as experiments are now in wider use, including one that answers staff questions about leave and pay. If you’re curious how to tell when an agentic system is trusted and ready for prime time, you’ll find out here. 

If you’re curious how to tell when an agentic system is trusted and ready for prime time, you’ll find out here. 

Between sessions, you can explore demonstrations in Moscone South, where planned customer installations include Alaska Airlines, Unilever, and more, with technical experts on hand. Theater sessions and lightning talks will also offer more time for questions. 

There’s also a reason to step outside onto Howard Street between Third and Fourth streets, where plans include NFL and Premier League installations and a Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One car display.  

If you’re heading to San Francisco, there’s still time to register for Microsoft Ignite and browse the session catalog. If you’re following from home, you can use the same registration page to get a free digital pass. 

How to watch Microsoft Ignite 2026

Tune in to Live at Microsoft Ignite at 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, November 17, to watch the opening keynote from Nadella and Althoff in full. The broadcast continues over the next three days with demos, customer stories, and executive interviews. The New Stack‘s own Jennifer Riggins will join the anchor desk throughout the show to talk through what the announcements mean for teams building and running AI in production. 

Alysa Taylor, Microsoft’s Commercial Chief Marketing Officer, says to “Come with a challenge you’re excited to solve, whether that’s bringing ambition into the flow of work, connecting intelligence across your organization with the right data and context, or scaling AI innovation to drive meaningful business impact.

“Take in what you see on stage, then go deeper with the builders, customers, and leaders who are working through these same opportunities. The real value is connecting inspiration to action, and leaving with ideas you can put to work.” 

Leave some time for networking after your sessions, too. If someone just described an agent you could imagine running in your organization, ask what it costs to scale, which metrics they are watching, or how they got their colleagues to adopt it. 

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