As AI agents become more capable—and more autonomous—one question rises fast: How do we draw agentic borders? For many organizations, this is also a sovereignty question: what stays in-country, who can access it, and how do you enforce policy across systems and regions?

In this episode of The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition, leaders from Microsoft Azure explore the evolving boundaries between agents, humans, systems, and responsibility—and what it takes to keep trust and accountability as AI becomes more agentic.

The conversation covers:

What “agentic borders” mean in enterprise practice

How to approach responsibility and oversight in agent systems

How sovereignty requirements (data residency, jurisdiction, and access) shape agent design and deployment

Why governance matters as agents move into real use

What to consider when setting guardrails for agents

An honest discussion on moving forward responsibly—while still building with speed and ambition.

👉 Read Microsoft Sovereign Cloud in Europe: https://aka.ms/MSFTSovereignCloudWhitepaper

👉 Join the Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Evelyn Ozzie https://www.linkedin.com/in/evelyn-ozzie-18062721/

Meena Gowdar https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjgowdar/

Edouard de Cremiers https://www.linkedin.com/in/edouarddecremiers/

Karim Batthish https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimondo/

The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in February 2026. All information about products and offers is relevant to the time of recording.

#TheShiftPodcast #ResponsibleAI #AgenticAI #DigitalGovernance #MicrosoftAzure #DigitalSovereignty

As AI agents move from experimentation into real-world operations, many IT leaders are asking a new kind of workforce question: Should your IT team hire agents?

In this episode of The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition, members of the Microsoft Azure team explore how agentic AI is beginning to reshape IT operations, cloud management, and the future of technical work. Agents are emerging as powerful collaborators alongside humans in the loop—augmenting teams, automating repetitive tasks, and enabling a more proactive approach to managing complex systems.

This conversation digs into what agent adoption really looks like for IT organizations today, including:

• How agents for IT automation are changing cloud operations.

• Where trust, transparency, and control matter most in agentic systems.

• What skills IT teams need as workflows shift from manual to autonomous.

• How Azure Copilot and intelligent operations are influencing day to day IT work.

You’ll also hear how organizations can thoughtfully introduce agents without creating black boxes—keeping humans in control while scaling operational efficiency.

If you’re an IT leader, practitioner, or decision maker thinking about the future of cloud operations, modernization, or automation, this episode offers a grounded look at how agents fit into real enterprise environments.

👉 Download the whitepaper: Intelligent IT Operations: https://aka.ms/IntelligentITOpsAzure

👉 Join the Tech Community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

#TheShiftPodcast #AgenticAI #ITAutomation #IntelligentOperations #AzureCopilot

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Azure Database team, Eric, Marko, Claire and Abinav explore a question from you, our community:

Is Postgres the wave of the future?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the eBook:

https://aka.ms/AppsAgentsPostgresSQL

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Eric Hudson, Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-hudson-aa0a943/

Marko Hotti, Senior Product Marketing Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marko-hotti-7656574/

Claire Giordano, Principal Group PM Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claireg/

Abinav Rameesh, Principal PM Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abinavrameesh/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in February 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Foundry team, Ronak, Vinod and Linda explore a question from you, our community:

What senses do agents need to act?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the eBook: AI Apps and Agents | Microsoft Azure

https://aka.ms/AIAppsAgents

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Ronak Chokshi, Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronakchokshi/

Vinod Valloppillil, Partner Product Director

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinodvalloppillil/

Linda Li, Product Manager II

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhuoqun-linda-li/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in February 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Foundry team, Allison, Pamela and Matt explore a question from you, our community:

Is context engineering the new RAG?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the eBook: AI Apps and Agents | Microsoft Azure

https://aka.ms/AIAppsAgents

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Allison Sparrow, Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsparrow/

Pamela Fox, Principal Cloud Advocate

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-s-fox/

Matt Gotteiner, Senior Program Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgotteiner/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in February 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Azure Database team, Nikisha, James, Debbi and Jared explore a question from you, our community:

Wait, my agent needs a database?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the eBook:

Building a strategic database ecosystem: From Choice to Orchestration | Microsoft Azure

https://aka.ms/databaseecosystem

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Meet the Team:

Nikisha Reyes-Grange, Senior Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikisha/

James Codella, Principal Product Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescodella/

Jared Meade, Senior Program Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-meade/

Debbi Lyons, Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbilyons/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's own research or positions.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in January 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Foundry team, Takuto, Shawn, Amanda and Victor explore a question from you, our community:

How do agents work together?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the eBook: AI Apps and Agents | Microsoft Azure

https://aka.ms/AIAppsandAgents

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Takuto Higuchi, Product Strategy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/takuto-higuchi-626681135/

Shawn Henry, Principal Group Product Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-patrick-henry/

Amanda Foster, Product Manager, Microsoft Foundry Agent Service

https://www.linkedin.com/in/foster-amanda/

Victor Dibia, Principal RDSE at Microsoft Core AI

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dibiavictor/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in January 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

In this episode of The Shift, members of the Microsoft Fabric team, Ron, Dipti, Cillian and Josh explore a question from you, our community:

Are my agents hunting for data?

The Shift, Agentic Edition connects the people building AI tools with those creating agents, so we can all level up together.

Get the guide: Unify Data l Microsoft Fabric

https://aka.ms/UnifyDataMicrosoftFabric

Join our community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/

Get to know the team:

Ronald Chang, Director Product Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-chang-15812828/

Dipti Borkar, VP & GM Microsoft OneLake & Fabric ISVs

https://www.linkedin.com/in/diptiborkar/

Cillian Mitchell, Sr. Product Marketing Manager

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cillian-mitchell/

Josh Caplan, Partner Director of Product for Microsoft OneLake

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-caplan-data/

The Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in January 2026. All information about products and offers are relevant to the time of recording.

For everyone looking to stay ahead of agentic change, this season of The Shift explores our rapidly evolving world from a full stack perspective, connecting technical professionals to the teams and tools that are here to help.

Each week we create space for top questions from the community, bringing you unscripted conversations about critical cloud, data and AI concepts, so we can all level up together.

AI technologies are some of the most sophisticated and powerful we’ve seen in our lifetimes. With data at the center, this transformative shift brings both the potential to solve complex problems and new challenges around managing sensitive information. Join us for a deep dive into innovative strategies that will reshape how you think about data governance in the age of AI. Stefaan Verhulst, PhD, Co-Founder, Chief Research and Development Officer, and Director of Data Program at GovLab, shares his expertise around the intricacies of data governance and the evolution of data stewardship. Susan and Stefaan discuss the importance of data commons, the concept of social license, examine the opportunities and risks of synthetic data, and explore the fourth wave of open data, where generative AI democratizes access to data.

⁠Watch this episode on YouTube >⁠⁠

Guest: ⁠⁠Stefaan Verhulst, PhD⁠⁠ | Co-Founder, Chief R&D Officer, Director of Data Program - GovLab

Related: ⁠⁠Inquiry as Infrastructure: Defining Good Questions in the Age of Data and AI⁠

Related: ⁠Why Responsible Data Access will determine the Future of AI: The Increased Importance of Data Commons⁠

Get more ⁠⁠innovation insights⁠⁠ from ⁠⁠Microsoft Azure⁠⁠.

Discover and follow other ⁠⁠Microsoft podcasts⁠⁠.

Host: ⁠⁠Susan Etlinger⁠⁠

The Leading the Shift podcast is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's own research or positions.