The lab · 2026 briefs
The agent layer is moving fast.
Six briefs on the parts of agentic AI that actually ship: what they are, who's shipping them, where they leak, and what they mean inside a Microsoft 365 environment.
8briefs · Engineer's notes · Updated weekly
01 · Agentic AI · 7 min read
Agentic AI: from demo to delegated work
What people actually mean by 'agentic AI' in 2026, why the demo-to-production gap is wider than the keynotes admit, and what the early shipping pattern looks like.
Read brief02 · Work IQ · 8 min read
Work IQ: Microsoft's intelligence layer for delegated work
Work IQ is the part of Microsoft's 2026 Copilot story that's actually new. Here's what it does, why it matters more than the model behind it, and how it changes the M365 architecture conversation.
Read brief03 · Multi-Agent · 7 min read
Multi-agent orchestration: the five patterns that ship
Sequential, concurrent, group-chat, dynamic handoff, magentic. The orchestration patterns that actually appear in production agent systems, when each one fits, and the failure mode each one quietly invites.
Read brief04 · MCP & Tools · 7 min read
MCP and tool use: the protocol the agent era settled on
The Model Context Protocol went from niche Anthropic spec to industry default in eighteen months. Why that happened, what it actually solves, and where the rough edges are in 2026.
Read brief05 · Trust & Governance · 8 min read
Trust, governance, and the unglamorous half of agent work
Identity for non-human actors, decision provenance, bounded autonomy, audit. The work that determines whether an agent leaves the pilot, plus the 2026 frameworks worth borrowing from.
Read brief06 · The Stack · 8 min read
The 2026 stack: providers, models, and choosing what's load-bearing
A working architect's read on the Anthropic / OpenAI / Microsoft landscape in 2026. Where each one is strong, where each one is overhyped, and how to think about the choice when it's actually yours to make.
Read brief07 · Prompting · 12 min read
Prompting in 2026: writing instructions that systems can run
The prompt is no longer something you whisper to a model. It's the load-bearing config of an agent. This is the practical guide: anatomy of a real system prompt, tool descriptions side-by-side, ten best practices in order of impact, and a worked example you can lift.
Read brief08 · Agent Setup · 8 min read
Configuring agents: scope, tools, exit conditions
Most agents that fail in production fail at configuration, not capability. Here's the unglamorous starter pack: what to set, what to default, and what to instrument before you let an agent loose in your tenant.
Read brief