Every Microsoft partner is under pressure to prove it is AI-first and to adopt agentic workflows. That conversation is usually about speed: what agents can now do and what competitors have already shipped.

The structural question gets missed. What happens to a partner's judgment, institutional knowledge, and ability to oversee what it has built when roles are automated faster than the organisation replaces what those roles produced?

This panel takes on those questions: how to adopt AI and agents with intention, how to empower people rather than replace them, and how to create new entry points for juniors whose roles have been automated away.

Panellists are practitioners from the Microsoft partner ecosystem, drawing on organisational design, agentic AI engineering, and people leadership:

• Elena Baeva, IAMCP International President | CEO at 365 Talent Portal, UK
• Susan Sanders, AI Advisor and Strategist, US
• Klaus Fander, CEO at acadon AG, Germany
• Marc Stühler, Head of sales and Partnerships, Leaders of AI, Germany

Takeaways:

• A working distinction between automation that elevates people into higher-value work and automation that erodes capability the organisation will need later
• A clear view of where governance for agentic systems differs from governance for AI tools
• Practical steps for architecting a workforce that integrates the best of both