Microsoft strengthens enterprise AI readiness with new observability, governance and agent-management capabilities

Microsoft recently introduced a series of new AI governance capabilities during the recent global technology showcase, Ignite. These are set to enhance how organisations across the globe deploy and manage AI responsibly. The advancements reinforce Microsoft’s commitment to secure, transparent and well-governed AI at a time when adoption is accelerating across the region.

As governments and enterprises in the region scale AI to transform public services, boost productivity and build modern digital economies, the demand for trusted AI systems continues to grow. The latest capabilities respond directly to this need by giving organisations deeper visibility into how AI systems operate, stronger controls to meet compliance and sovereignty requirements, and enhanced tools to identify and mitigate risk.

At the centre of these advancements is the rise of the Frontier Firm, human-led, agent-operated organisations that use AI assistants and AI agents to reimagine how work gets done. Frontier Firms empower every employee with an intelligent assistant, strengthen collaboration through human-agent teamwork, and reinvent business processes using advanced agentic workflows.

To support this shift, Microsoft has introduced new capabilities in Microsoft 365 Copilot to help every organisation move toward the Frontier model. These include:

• Work IQ – the intelligence layer that enables Copilot to understand each user, their role and organisational context.
• Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents in chat, alongside Agent Mode in Office apps, allowing employees to work iteratively with Copilot to produce high-quality documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Agent 365 – the new enterprise control plane providing governance, observability and security for agents, including performance monitoring, auditing and safe integration of Microsoft and third-party agents.

These advancements build on Microsoft’s Responsible AI Standard and longstanding work with regulators and partners across the region to advance secure, sovereign-ready and transparent AI adoption.

To explore the full set of AI, cloud, data and security enhancements introduced, regional organisations can access Microsoft’s Ignite Book of News.