{"id":1090692,"date":"2025-12-12T01:22:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T00:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/?p=1090692"},"modified":"2026-01-28T10:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:43:05","slug":"fa1-celebrating-the-microsoft-agent-a-thon-a-global-movement-to-build-ai-agents-and-empower-innovators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/work-productivity-en\/na\/fa1-celebrating-the-microsoft-agent-a-thon-a-global-movement-to-build-ai-agents-and-empower-innovators\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\udf89 Celebrating The Microsoft Agent-a-thon: A Global Movement to Build AI Agents and Empower Innovators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On 27 November 2025, thousands of learners from around the world came together for\u00a0<strong>the Microsoft\u00a0Virtual Agent-a-thon<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 a high-energy, hands-on virtual event designed to help anyone build their\u00a0first\u00a0AI Agent using Microsoft tools. Whether you were a business user exploring Copilot Chat, a team leader extending workflows with Copilot Studio, or a developer prototyping in Azure AI Foundry,\u00a0the\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0offered something for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>And the results? Nothing short of inspiring.<\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0early access\u00a0learning to live build challenges,\u00a0the\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0proved that AI innovation is not reserved for the few \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0accessible to all. Participants across three skill \u00a0levels built\u00a0agents that automate tasks, solve business problems, and\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0the power of AI in action. The energy was electric, the creativity was boundless, and the impact was real.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udee0\ufe0f<\/strong><strong>\u00a0What Made\u00a0the\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0Special?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0just another virtual event. It was a\u00a0<strong>learning journey<\/strong>, a\u00a0<strong>build challenge<\/strong>, and a\u00a0<strong>celebration of innovation<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 all rolled into one.<\/p>\n<p>Participants received:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Early access\u00a0to a learning platform<\/strong>\u00a0curated by Microsoft experts<\/li>\n<li>A\u00a0<strong>live 90 minute build challenge<\/strong>\u00a0tailored to their skill level<\/li>\n<li>A chance to\u00a0<strong>submit\u00a0their agent prototypes<\/strong> for judging<\/li>\n<li><strong>Certificates and badges<\/strong>\u00a0to recognise their achievement<\/li>\n<li>And of course\u2026\u00a0<strong>prizes!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udfc6<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Meet the Grand Prize Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re\u00a0thrilled to announce the five winners of the\u00a0<strong>Surface Laptop Pro<\/strong>, awarded to the creators of the most innovative, impactful, and usable AI Agents. These agents were evaluated by a panel of Microsoft Solution Architects, and each submission included a short video demo and written description.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the winners of\u00a0the 2025 Microsoft\u00a0Agent-a-thon:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd47<\/strong><strong>\u00a0 Mathieu Langlais<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his Agent:\u00a0\u201cDarty Store Automation Agent\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Agent verifies the existence of a store in an Excel file, enables guided creation of a new store when missing, and triggers automated supplier notifications via Power Automate. The agent reduces manual effort, improves data quality, supports analytics, and scales store management across desktop and mobile environments.<\/p>\n<p>In Mathieu\u2019s own words:<em>&#8220;<\/em><em>Agent\u2011a\u2011thon was a powerful way to deepen our expertise with Microsoft agents, fueled by the high\u2011quality content from Founderz. It led us to build an intelligent agent that now supports my day\u2011to\u2011day work, handling repetitive tasks and freeing time for impact. Agents put routine on autopilot so we can focus on high\u2011value work and deliver real impact.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd47<\/strong><strong> Ridwanur Khan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his Agents : \u201cSecurity Intelligence Agent\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Agent built on Copilot Studio Lite to deliver real-time, vendor-validated insight into network security posture. Leveraging public sources and security advisories, it aggregates CVEs, firmware and OS updates, and end-of-life notices. Through natural-language queries, it provides concise, evidence-based, vendor-specific intelligence, enhancing patch prioritization, compliance reporting, and overall resilience of enterprise firewall operations.<\/p>\n<p>In Ridwanur\u2019s own words:<em>&#8220;<\/em><i>The Agent-a-thon hosted by Microsoft and Founderz offered an incredible hands-on learning experience that demystified AI agent development through practical, guided sessions with Microsoft experts. I was inspired to create a solution that could streamline everyday business workflows and empower teams to work more efficiently with intelligent automation.<br \/>\n<\/i><i>The Founderz learning structure helped me to progress at my own pace while building something tangible in just a few hours. <\/i><i>I hope my Security Intelligence Agent will demonstrate how accessible AI technology has become and inspire others in my organization to embrace these tools for meaningful productivity gains.<\/i><em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd47<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Teresa Boncompte Vilar\u00f3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For her Agent:\u00a0\u201cBacklog Intelligence &amp; Early Warning Assistant\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Agent automates daily monitoring of a SaaS Enforcement Evaluation backlog. It calculates end-of-day backlog from multiple data sources, compares it with previous days, detects anomalies, identifies customer and analyst drivers, assigns risk statuses, and posts alerts to Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n<p>In Teresa\u2019s own words:<em>\u201cThe Copilot &amp; AI Agents sessions have been really inspiring and instrumental in building an agent based on one of our team\u2019s daily tasks. I\u2019m excited about the potential it can have if we even add more capabilities and create additional agents in the future, increasing the impact and driving more innovation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd47<\/strong><strong> Saber Borgi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his Agent :\u201cEMEA POLICY NAVIGATOR\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>EMEA Policy Navigator, a multi-agent Copilot solution auto-routes HR policy questions, dispatches to country specialists (DE, UK, NL, ES, FR) while ensuring compliance. The Agents show fast, accurate routing and source citation, reducing HR workload.<\/p>\n<p>In Saber\u2019s own words:<em>&#8220;Taking part in the Agent-a-thon was an awesome chance to put Copilot Studio to work on real regulatory challenges. I built the EMEA Policy Navigator to turn dense, complex regulations into something clear, practical, and actually useful. My goal is for it to help organizations stay ahead in a constantly changing compliance landscape faster, and with a lot more confidence.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83e\udd47<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Antal L\u00e1z\u00e1r<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his Agent:\u00a0\u201cIntelligent Technical Documentation Manager\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Intelligent Technical Documentation Manager, a multi-agent automation system that keeps JIRA-based development work consistently documented in Confluence. It autonomously updates technical design pages, creates structured audit logs, and answers coverage questions. The agent also outlines deployment steps, testing flows, key implementation challenges, and future enhancements such as deeper JIRA integration and quality gatekeeping.<\/p>\n<p>In Antal\u2019s own words:<em>&#8220;The Agent-a-thon was a powerful reminder of how quickly agentic AI is moving from experimentation to real business impact, and it truly motivated me to go even deeper in this direction. My goal was to show how autonomous agents can take over repetitive documentation work and give engineers more time for creative problem-solving. I hope this solution encourages others to explore how AI can meaningfully transform everyday workflows.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Each of these winners will receive a\u00a0<strong>Surface Laptop Pro.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf81<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Lucky Draw Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0also featured\u00a0<strong>three exciting lucky draw categories<\/strong>, with prizes designed to support continued learning and agent refinement:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Agent Build Coaching<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>21 winners<\/strong>\u00a0received a\u00a0<strong>1:1 Agent Coaching Session<\/strong>\u00a0with a Microsoft Valuable Professional (MVP) to finesse their agent before final submission.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Strengths Coaching<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>7 winners<\/strong>\u00a0received a\u00a0<strong>Strengths Assessment &amp; Coaching Session<\/strong>\u00a0with a\u00a0CliftonStrengths\u00a0Certified Coach to help them align their agent-building journey with their personal strengths.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Microsoft AI Tour <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>30 winners<\/strong>\u00a0received\u00a0<strong>guaranteed entry to the Microsoft AI Tour<\/strong>, a 1-day immersive event in a city of their choice.<\/p>\n<p>All lucky draw winners were announced during the\u00a0<strong>Agent-a-thon\u00a0closing session<\/strong>\u00a0on 27 November.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udf31<\/strong><strong>\u00a0What\u2019s Next?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0may be over, but your AI journey is just beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you built your first agent or refined a production-ready prototype, the next step is to\u00a0<strong>keep learning, keep building, and keep innovating<\/strong>. Microsoft offers a wealth of resources to help you grow your skills, connect with experts, and explore new possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/aka.ms\/AILM\">Empower Tomorrow\u2019s Innovators<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0continue your learning journey.\u00a0You\u2019ll\u00a0find curated content, learning paths, and opportunities to deepen your understanding of AI, Copilot, and Microsoft technologies.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/aka.ms\/AISN\">AI Skills Navigator<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0build your own tailored skills plan<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 We invite you to\u00a0participate\u00a0in our\u00a0next\u00a0EMEA Virtual Agent-a-Thon on February 19, where you can further enhance your agent-building skills. Register here <a href=\"https:\/\/info.microsoft.com\/EM-CAW-CNTNTO-FY26-12Dec-05-Microsoft-AI-Power-Days-SREVM81995_Catalog-Display-Page.html\">Microsoft AI Power Days<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udcac<\/strong><strong>\u00a0Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Microsoft\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0was more than an event \u2014 it was an opportunity\u00a0to democratise AI, to empower every individual to create, and to show that innovation lives in all of us.<\/p>\n<p>To everyone who registered,\u00a0participated, built,\u00a0submitted, coached, judged, or cheered \u2014 thank you. You made\u00a0the\u00a0Agent-a-thon\u00a0a success, and\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0helping shape the future of AI.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s\u00a0keep building.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0keep learning.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0keep empowering tomorrow\u2019s innovators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 27 November 2025, thousands of learners from around the world came together for\u00a0the Microsoft\u00a0Virtual Agent-a-thon\u00a0\u2014 a high-energy, hands-on virtual event designed to help anyone build their\u00a0first\u00a0AI Agent using Microsoft tools. Whether you were a business user exploring Copilot Chat, a team leader extending workflows with Copilot Studio, or a developer prototyping in Azure AI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":1090731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-1090692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","specials-work-productivity-en","stories-digital-culture-en","stories-how-can-i-support-my-employees","businessPriorities-data-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090692"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094202,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090692\/revisions\/1094202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1090731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}