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Last year, Big Data London’s GenAI theatres were packed. Fast forward 12 months, and AI is everywhere. So, this AI lark is easy now… right?  

Lifting the lid on the AI bubble, reality is starting to bite. AI initiatives are stalling, models are drifting, and demonstrating tangible business value is really hard. Why? Because we’ve all sprinted into the AI future without first packing the essentials: high-quality, trusted data; a shared language for decision-making; solid governance; and the skilled people to make it all work.  

In 2025, the organisations that will see the best returns from their AI programs are those that have gone back to the future by pressing rewind to get their data foundations right before scaling the shiny stuff.  

Join Andy Crossley, CTO at Oakland, alongside Alex Pearce, Chief Microsoft Strategist at Softcat, for a no-holds-barred conversation about the realities of AI in practice.  

Lifting the lid on:  

Why so many AI projects fail to deliver real value  

The critical data foundations every business needs to succeed  

Real-world lessons from organisations discovering that AI is far more complex than the hype suggests  

The good news? You’ll leave with practical, actionable steps to start unlocking value from your AI investments.  

We can’t promise all the answers, but this session will reassure you that you are not alone. We aim to inspire new thinking and provide the guidance you need to navigate the most common pitfalls on the path to making AI work for you. 

Microsoft Reactor London Meetups are a community of like-minded engineers, developers, professionals and students, allowing you to connect with people, skills, and technology to enhance your career or personal learning. Our regular meetups are an opportunity to hear from leaders in the industry about challenges, tooling and best practices. If you are interested in speaking or want to suggest a talk you’ve heard before, please do let us know (no vendor / recruitment / sales pitches please).

Håkan Silfvernagel | Most Valuable Professionals How to enhance your own AI services using Semantic Kernel Did you know that you can combine various AI services such as Open AI, Azure Open AI and Hugging Face in your own custom application? In this session you will learn how you can build your own Copilot experience using the Semantic Kernel which is released as an open source project. I will demonstrate how you can use skills, memories, connectors and plugins in order to enhance the experience for your users. This session is a developer focused session meaning that you do not need to have any AI knowledge in order to benefit from the examples demonstrated in the session.

Alex Pearce | Most Valuable Professionals and Lewis Baybutt | Most Valuable Professionals The evolution of AI Agents and the Microsoft AI Architecture Join MVPs Alex Pearce and Lewis Baybutt for an insightful session on the transformative world of AI agents within Microsoft 365. This event will delve into the advancements in agentic AI, showcasing the diverse capabilities of Microsoft 365 agents for both low-code creators and professional developers. Attendees will also gain insights into the extensive Microsoft AI Architecture, with a focus on Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Power Platform, Copilot Studio, and elements of Azure AI Foundry. This session promises to equip participants with the knowledge to effectively navigate and leverage the full spectrum of AI tools in their AI journey.