Episode 165: The AI-ready digital workplace – a Microsoft MVP’s playbook for success

About this episode

The episode discusses designing and running an AI-ready digital workplace with insights from Microsoft MVP Suzy Dean.

In this episode of Digital Workplace Impact, host Nancy Goebel is joined by Suzy Dean, Microsoft MVP, and CEO and Co-Founder of Addin365, for a practical and insight-rich conversation on what it truly means to design and run an AI-ready digital workplace.    Drawing on extensive real-world experience across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Suzy reflects on how the accelerating pace of technological and organizational change is placing new demands on digital workplace teams. Together, Nancy and Suzy unpack why many digital workplaces struggle with adoption, pointing to familiar challenges such as technology-led rollouts, fragmented governance, outdated content and experiences that fail to support the tasks employees are actually trying to complete.    A central theme of the discussion is alignment – between business strategy, employee needs and technology capability. Suzy shares a playbook for success that starts with engaging senior leaders around business outcomes rather than tools, ensuring shared ownership of content and governance, and designing navigation and experiences around work tasks rather than org charts. The conversation reinforces why governance can…

People in this episode

Host: Nancy Goebel

Guest: Suzy Dean

Topics covered

• AI-ready digital workplace
• Microsoft 365
• digital workplace adoption
• governance
• employee needs

Keywords

• technology-led rollouts
• fragmented governance
• business outcomes
• navigation design
• AI as a force multiplier

Mentioned in this episode

Products: 365, Copilot, Knowledge Agents, Researcher, Microsoft 365

More episodes of Digital Workplace Impact

• Episode 166: Change agility at the speed of disruption · April 15, 2026 · 53 min
• Episode 164: Raising your organization’s digital IQ: The path to an AI ready workforce · March 18, 2026 · 33 min
• Episode 163: How Vodafone is going beyond the WOW factor with AI at scale · March 4, 2026 · 38 min
• Episode 162 – The coherent capability arc: DWG’s 2026 research focus revealed · February 18, 2026 · 22 min
• Episode 161: From soup to strategy: Campbell's recipe for a winning digital workplace · February 11, 2026 · 38 min
• Episode 160: DWG's 2026 predictions count down to the launch of the sentient workplace · January 7, 2026 · 34 min