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Maximilian Kenfenheuer

Manager · Microsoft 365 & AI Transformation @ BearingPoint

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#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 #Copilot

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.

The Legal Agent in Word: Citations, Tracked Changes and Playbooks

Friday, August 14, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #LegalTech #AITransformation #Copilot #EnterpriseAI

In most business processes, a rough first draft is acceptable. In legal work it is not: every clause, citation and redline carries risk. Microsoft's Legal Agent in Word summarizes, reviews and redlines legal documents. It cites passages with numbered references, proposes edits as tracked changes and turns internal playbooks into reusable review skills. In this article, I explain why legal work is a demanding test case for enterprise AI and which lessons transfer to finance, compliance or procurement.

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.

Domain Exclusion: Defining Which Web Sources Copilot Must Not Use

Friday, August 7, 2026 · Maximilian Kenfenheuer

#Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #AIGovernance #EnterpriseAI #Copilot #ResponsibleAI

Admins can now exclude up to 1,000 domains from web grounding in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat. Configuration runs via a PowerShell script, optionally including subpages. The feature looks like a configuration detail. It shows, however, where enterprise AI is heading: organizations want to define which sources Copilot must not use, not only extend what it can see. In this article, I explain the feature, its current limits and why administrative precision should weigh more in platform decisions.