Newcastle D365PPUG - November 2026

18:15pm- Welcome, networking, and introductions

18:30pm-From Chatbots to Agents: The Modern Copilot Studio
Speaker: Dylan Hayes
Copilot Studio has changed significantly over the last few years. What started as a way to build conversational bots has evolved into a broader platform for creating agents that can use enterprise knowledge, structured data, tools, workflows, reusable skills, MCP servers and even computer use.
In this session, we’ll look at what modern Copilot Studio can do, where it fits into the wider Microsoft AI ecosystem, and how to decide which capabilities make sense for a given problem.
We'll have fun practical demonstrations of using knowledge and structured data through different integration points including tools, skills, MCP and computer use.
We'll look at the cost implications of Copilot Studio, and consider how it compares to other AI tools and deterministic methods in terms of cost, capabilities and governance.

19:15pm- Break, food and networking

19:30pm- Beyond Code Generation: Building Systems That Can Evolve
Speaker: Dan Byrne
AI can accelerate writing software, but how do we keep the resulting systems understandable, interoperable and safe to change?
I’ll explore the architectural foundations that support AI-assisted development and operation, covering three broad themes:
Metadata as a shared understanding of the system: how explicit models of data, actions and interfaces help both developers and AI discover capabilities, understand behaviour and make changes.
Connecting AI to existing software and human workflows: integrating with established systems and enabling people and agents to work through shared capabilities, business rules and permissions.
Keeping change understandable and controlled: the role of authorisation, human oversight, observability and traceability in understanding what happened, who initiated it and why.
The emphasis will be on practical architectural ideas and lessons from building NXTStack, with examples relevant to business applications and the D365/Power Platform community.

20:00+ : Close and Drinks Social