Microsoft Ignite showcases AI in production with 100+ organizations demonstrating real-world deployments
At Microsoft Ignite this week, more than 100 organizations will demonstrate how they've moved artificial intelligence from pilots into production environments, offering peers a chance to learn deployment strategies and compare approaches.
Organizations weighing which AI initiatives to scale from experimental phases into live operations will find guidance in the opening keynote delivered by Satya Nadella and Judson Althoff at Microsoft Ignite. The presentation begins at 10 a.m. Pacific on Tuesday, November 17.
Beyond the keynote, attendees can observe how organizations have deployed AI at scale, explore the platforms those companies rely on, and exchange experiences with peers already running AI systems in production. Breakout sessions and informal networking provide opportunities to examine specific results from actual implementations.
As AI capabilities evolve rapidly, learning from strategies colleagues have already validated in practice often proves more valuable than theoretical approaches. Microsoft Ignite creates a venue where leaders can evaluate different deployment strategies and discuss lessons learned directly with organizations at various stages—from those just beginning to those already capturing value 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.
The participating organizations represent diverse sectors and company sizes: AI startups including Replit and Harvey, financial services firms such as Morgan Stanley and BNY, and industrial companies like Toyota and Siemens. For teams selecting an initial project or allocating resources to a pilot, this variety should illustrate how organizations with different objectives approach comparable decisions.
How Microsoft AI solutions work together
Microsoft describes its strategy as Frontier Transformation, which begins with defining organizational goals, identifying the information AI agents require to support those goals, and establishing governance mechanisms for AI systems in operation.
Within the Microsoft 365 suite, Copilot integrates AI capabilities into applications employees already use daily, including Teams and Word. Microsoft Fabric consolidates business data and analytics capabilities, while Microsoft IQ furnishes Copilot and agents with context drawn from organizational data, workplace activity, documents, and external sources. For development teams, GitHub and GitHub Copilot support code creation and review, with Microsoft Foundry providing infrastructure for building, testing, and deploying agents on Azure. IT organizations gain visibility and control through Agent 365, which displays running agents, tracks their behavior, and enables policy configuration.
Customer stories will also be a big part of each of the four innovation sessions
Mark Russinovich and Pavan Davuluri will moderate "AI Infrastructure From Cloud to Edge," examining where AI workloads should execute. Microsoft will demonstrate its own use of these technologies as what it terms "Customer Zero"—its internal version of testing. PricewaterhouseCoopers will participate in person, while OpenAI, Adobe, and Replit will contribute recorded presentations. Teams deciding between Azure deployment and edge computing closer to end users will gain relevant perspectives from this session.
Adoption at organizational scale represents another critical challenge. Jacob Andreou will join Bryce Williams from Lilly for "Expanding What's Possible: How AI Is Redesigning Work." According to Microsoft, Lilly has deployed Copilot to more than 40,000 employees and operates over 150 agents supporting research, clinical trials, and operational functions. Teams rolling out Copilot will learn which practices enabled Lilly to achieve broad adoption.
Microsoft reports that more than 40,000 people at Lilly use Copilot
Ensuring agents operate with accurate information requires careful data governance. Arun Ulag and Jay Parikh will lead "Harnessing Your IQ With a Continuously Improving Agent Platform," discussing how agents access and use organizational data and knowledge. AEMO and NTT Data will be featured. Participants will understand how organizations determine what information agents should access and validate whether agents draw from appropriate sources.
Monitoring agent performance after deployment demands appropriate observability. Charles Lamanna and Hayete Gallot will direct "Observability at Every Layer for Every Role," featuring recorded presentations from Royal Philips and KPMG, plus a live discussion with the Bank of England. The Bank reports that nearly all staff members use Microsoft 365 Copilot weekly, with certain agents that began as experiments now operating broadly—including one addressing employee questions about leave policies and compensation. This session will illustrate how organizations recognize when agentic systems have earned trust and readiness for widespread use.
Moscone South will host demonstrations where attendees can see customer installations from Alaska Airlines, Unilever, and additional organizations, with technical staff available for questions. Theater sessions and rapid-fire talks will provide additional time for discussion.
Outdoor installations on Howard Street between Third and Fourth streets will feature NFL and Premier League displays, along with a Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One vehicle.
Registration for Microsoft Ignite remains open for those traveling to San Francisco, with a session catalog available for browsing. Remote participants can obtain a complimentary digital pass through the same registration portal.
How to watch Microsoft Ignite 2026
The opening keynote from Nadella and Althoff will stream live at 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern) on Tuesday, November 17, under the banner "Live at Microsoft Ignite." Programming continues throughout the following three days with demonstrations, customer presentations, and interviews with executives. Jennifer Riggins from The New Stack will provide commentary from the anchor desk, analyzing what announcements signify for teams developing and operating AI systems in production.
Alysa Taylor, Microsoft's Commercial Chief Marketing Officer, encourages attendees 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.
Alysa Taylor, Microsoft's Commercial Chief Marketing Officer
Allocate time for conversations with peers following sessions. When someone describes an agent implementation that resonates with your organization's needs, inquire about scaling costs, which performance indicators matter most, and what strategies drove colleague adoption.