Ignite & Gemini: The Agentic Shift Begins
Microsoft Ignite 2025
This year’s theme is unmistakable: AI agents everywhere.
Microsoft is reshaping Office into what it calls an “Agentic OS” a workflow where apps become secondary and agents become primary.
Key Points
- You won’t “open Excel” anymore.
Copilot agents can autonomously fetch files, read data, and generate full reports or decks end-to-end. - Teams gains an AI meeting facilitator that recaps discussions, on boards latecomers, and tracks decisions.
- Agent 365 lets companies register, permission, and govern agents like employees blocking any unverified agent by default.
- Microsoft frames this as augmentation, not replacement: pushing humans toward strategy, synthesis, and creativity.
Judson Althoff’s Keynote
AI failures tend to look the same:
misaligned priorities, messy data, regulatory drag, and innovation stuck in “pilot mode.”
He argues frontier companies share three traits:
- AI is embedded directly where people work.
- Everyone becomes a “maker.”
- Governance is transparent across agents and workflows.
Takeaway: Technology isn’t the bottleneck anymore. Adoption is.
Google Gemini 3
Google answered with Gemini 3, leaning hard into reasoning benchmarks and academic-grade intelligence.
Performance Highlights
- HLE: 37.5% (vs. GPT-5 at 25%)
- GPQA Diamond: 91.9% (narrowly above GPT-5)
- LM Arena: 1501, topping GPT-5 and Claude in user-rated quality
New Features
- Vibe Coding: Generate 3D simulations, games, or tools from a single instruction.
- Anti-Gravity: Autonomous coding → execution → testing, all handled by the model.
- Dynamic View: Real-time AI-generated UI layouts responding to queries.
- Improved safety, fewer hallucinations, stronger prompt-attack defenses.
DeepMind’s CEO framed it simply: another step toward AGI.
