Blog

Maximilian Kenfenheuer

Manager · Microsoft 365 & AI Transformation @ BearingPoint

Featured

#Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #Copilot #AITransformation #FutureOfWork

Measuring Completed Work: Baselines, Assisted Hours and Business Outcomes

Thursday, September 10, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

A team can generate thousands of prompts without improving a single core process. Another uses AI rarely but saves hours in contract review. Microsoft increasingly measures Copilot value by completed work and assisted hours instead of activity. Its internal guidance recommends baselines for painful processes before the rollout. In this article, I describe a three-layer measurement model of adoption signals, time and effort indicators and business outcomes, and explain why role-based deployment makes value measurable.

Power BI Grounding: Copilot Reasons Over Semantic Models

Wednesday, September 9, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

Since the August 2026 update, Microsoft 365 Copilot reasons over Power BI reports and semantic models in Chat and Cowork. Copilot thus works with governed business definitions: how revenue is defined, how margin is calculated, which KPIs leadership uses and who may see which numbers. At the same time, a poorly defined KPI now spreads faster. In this article, I explain why semantic models become the foundation for trustworthy AI answers and how organizations can prepare their analytics layer.

From Draft to Deliverable: Agentic Copilot in the Core Apps

Saturday, September 5, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

On April 22, Microsoft made agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint generally available and brought business apps into Copilot via agents. AI moves to where proposals are written, financial models built and board decks assembled. At the same time, human judgment gains weight: a polished deck is not automatically a sound strategy, and a well-structured spreadsheet is not automatically a correct model. In this article, I explain what changes when AI participates in the work and which five readiness questions organizations should answer.

Posts tagged #AI

Agentic Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint: Action Under User Control

Sunday, August 16, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft365 #Copilot #MicrosoftAI #AI #EnterpriseAI

Agentic capabilities in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are now generally available. Copilot takes action inside the document, the spreadsheet or the deck while the user stays in control. Proposals, forecasts, business cases and board presentations originate in these three applications. When AI works directly in these artifacts, the gap between advice and finished work shrinks. In this article, I explain where in-app AI action creates value, where human review remains mandatory and how organizations should measure the benefit.

Microsoft Scout and Governed Autonomy for Always-On Agents

Saturday, August 15, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #Copilot #AI #EnterpriseAI

Microsoft Scout is Microsoft's first Autopilot agent. It stays active in the background across Microsoft 365, coordinates meeting times, prepares materials, blocks focus time and flags stalled decisions. Scout acts with its own Entra identity, within enterprise permissions and Purview protections, and asks for human approval before sensitive actions. In this article, I explain why governed autonomy matters more than autonomy itself and how organizations can start with bounded use cases.

Copilot Cowork Is Generally Available: Preparing for an Execution Layer

Thursday, August 13, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#MicrosoftAI #Microsoft365Copilot #Copilot #AI #EnterpriseAI

Copilot Cowork is now generally available. It supports long-running work with model choice, plugins, skills, file inputs, browser use and scheduled or event-driven tasks. For enterprises, the unit of AI value shifts from a single prompt to a workflow: a sales follow-up, an internal approval or a customer escalation across several systems. In this article, I explain what this execution layer requires from integration, governance and human accountability, and how organizations should prepare.

Capability Expansion with Copilot: Judgment Gains Value

Wednesday, August 12, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft #Microsoft365Copilot #AI #GenerativeAI #EnterpriseAI #DigitalTransformation

According to Microsoft's Work Trend Index, 66 % of AI users spend more time on high-value work, and 58 % produce work they could not have produced a year ago. For organizations, the question therefore shifts from task acceleration to capability expansion. AI takes over more execution. People set the intent, judge quality and decide what happens next. In this article, I explain why this model needs different metrics, workflows and management, and why judgment gains value as execution gets easier.

Model Choice in Copilot Cowork: From AI Access to a Model Portfolio

Saturday, August 8, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #AI #CopilotStudio #EnterpriseAI

Copilot Cowork now offers several models, depending on what the organization allows: Auto, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Opus 4.8, GPT 5.5 (Frontier) and a paired Sonnet + Opus Advisor mode. A quick meeting summary needs different capabilities than a high-stakes research synthesis. Microsoft makes this choice available inside enterprise controls, with visible retention notices and admin settings per model family. In this article, I explain why enterprises move from AI access to managing a model portfolio and what IT leaders should watch.