Microsoft Tech Community

"If you can draw the line from communications to the balance sheet, that is when leaders really start to pay attention."

That is how Dan Mulcahey of Nuveen, a TIAA company thinks about earning a seat at the table, and it anchored his conversation with Sarah Lundy at The Microsoft 365 Community Conference.

His case for modern employee communications is built on results, not theory. By tying comms to the outcomes leaders care about, retention and productivity, and backing it with external benchmarking, Dan took Viva Engage at Nuveen from zero to 2.5 million impressions in under three years, with more than 25,000 reactions along the way.

The bigger shift: email is now fit for purpose only, reserved for the narrow cases where you do not want a conversation. Everything else, from org announcements to town halls, now lives where employees can actually engage.

As the function evolves in the AI age, his takeaway is clear. Communicators who speak the language of business value are the ones who get heard.

🎥 Full interview: https://msft.it/6180vdLoE

AI is reshaping employee communications, but the heart of the work hasn't changed. It's still about people, and it's still about trust.

That was the throughline at the Community News Desk, where Allison Michels sat down with John Cirone and Amy Morris of Microsoft's Global Executive and Employee Communications team, who together help lead comms for more than 200,000 employees.

Some gems from the conversation:

✨Start with the problem, not the tool. Strategy comes from your data and the change you're trying to drive, and only then does the question of channel and voice follow.

✨Keep the human in the loop. AI can analyze, draft, and summarize, but the person shaping the prompts and inputs is what makes the output worth trusting. Never just copy and paste.

✨Let AI do what people couldn't at scale. Listening used to mean counting likes by hand. Now it can be fast, sophisticated, and actually useful.

🎥 Watch the full interview: https://msft.it/6182vdzBE

Allyship isn't the thing that happens on stage. It's what happens in the rooms you're not in.

That was the heart of the Women in Tech & Allies Luncheon at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference. As Dr.. Jaime Teevan put it, the biggest impact people have had on her career came from those advocating for her when she wasn't present. With one crucial corollary: you have to let people know what to advocate for. You can't be sponsored for a future you've never said out loud.

That idea threaded through the whole panel, moderated by Danielle Moon and Heather Cook, with Kate Faaland, Vasu Jakkal, Sumi Singh, Lan Ye, and Karuana Gatimu.

Some of he big takeaways:
💟Ask out loud. Mentorship helps you figure out where you want to go. Sponsorship is someone sitting down and building the plan to get you there. Neither works until you can name the destination.
💟Make room for others. Allyship is seeing people as human beings, dropping rank, and reaching out with a simple "I see you," especially to the only woman in the room.
💟Know your worth. Use the tools in front of you to understand your value, and then normalize the conversation so the next woman can too.

None of the great things happen when we're alone. Community is what gets us to the next room.

🎥 Watch the full panel: https://msft.it/6189vjUJX

"Security needs to be end to end and comprehensive, and in this age of AI that's more critical than ever."

Moments after she walked off the keynote stage at The Microsoft 365 Community Conference, Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, sat down with Jonathan Jones at the Community News Desk for a clear-eyed look at securing the agentic era. 🤖

Her advice for leaders is refreshingly concrete: start with your data foundations. Classify it, label it, set the policies that tell your AI what to access and what not to. Then treat agents the same way you treat humans, with their own identity and controls.

She also reframes a few things worth sitting with:
- Security should be ambient and autonomous, because the AI it protects already is.
- Attackers think in graphs, so defenders need to think in graphs.
- Productivity and security aren't opposites. Done right, security is the best catalyst for productivity.

🎥 Watch the full interview: https://msft.it/6183vbC83

Join Karuana Gatimu and special guest host Kimberly Cottrell as they take you through the latest Microsoft news in AI, Microsoft 365 product updates, and community news & events!

� Episode 76 of "Mondays at Microsoft" goes LIVE on Monday, June 1st at 8:00 AM PT!

Allyship isn't a side topic. The allies who show up, listen, and learn are often the ones who turn a moment into a movement.

That was the throughline of this Community News Desk interview, where Jonathan Jones sat down with Danielle Moon and Sravani Seethi, Co-Founders of Women in Power, fresh off the Women in Tech luncheon stage at The Microsoft 365 Community Conference.

They unpacked why the "girl-boss" era was a lone wolf endeavor that quietly burned women out, and the real difference between a mentor who walks with you day to day and a sponsor who, in Danielle's words, "tells your story in a room that you're not even in."

They also frame AI as the most level ground tech has offered new voices in a long time.

Women in Power just wrapped their first cohort and is opening the next, with a new skills committee track for people ready to teach.

🎥 Full interview: https://msft.it/6185vZMkJ

📺 New customer interview from the Microsoft 365 Community Conference.

Allison Michels sat down with Jeanette Vikbacka-Castaing, Head of Group Internal Communications at Capgemini, for a real-world look at how a 340,000+ person organization is using Viva Engage and Copilot.

A few moments that stood out:

🔹 Leadership visibility is the highest-reach play. Every time a leader posts in the All-Staff community, the numbers tell the story.
🔹 Sports sponsorship campaigns (Ryder Cup, America's Cup, Tour de France, Le Mans) used to be an email. Now they're an end-to-end Viva Engage moment with peer tagging, momentum, and even past winners returning to cheer on the next round.
🔹 Three Copilot communities, three purposes: Copilot Chat (open and huge), licensed users, and certified Copilot champions. The open one doesn't get messy because the purpose is clear.
🔹 Her advice for anyone starting out: "Test, test and learn. Failure is also progress."

A great reminder that the playbook isn't built in a deck. It's built in the doing.

🎥 Watch the full interview: https://msft.it/6186vkWpm

📺 New Community News Desk drop from The Microsoft 365 Community Conference.

Jonathan Jones sat down with Jeff Teper, EVP of Microsoft Apps & Agents, for a candid conversation about where AI, agents, and the maker community go next.

A few moments that stuck:

🔹 "AI isn't coming for your job. It's coming to your job." Jeff's reframe of the fear that's in every boardroom right now.
🔹 The SharePoint Skills announcement is about expanding the maker community, not replacing it. He wants to 10x the builders.
🔹 Top-down OR bottoms-up adoption is the wrong question. The leaders winning with AI are doing both.
🔹 The 2014 moment when MVPs told him the cloud was driving the bus off a cliff, and how it shaped his philosophy on when to listen and when to lead.

Grateful to keep building on what we value most: community, storytelling, and bringing these conversations to all of you.

🎥 Watch the full interview: https://msft.it/6183vkMbJ

New from the Community News Desk 🎥

Karuana Gatimu sat down with Dan Toma to talk strategy and innovation in the age of AI.

Big takeaway: your competitive edge isn’t the tech, it’s how fast you can learn and adapt. We cover continuous strategy, smarter planning, and what most teams get wrong about AI rollout.

Watch now and stay tuned for more from 👇
https://msft.it/6180vVcho