S2E1 | Are my agents hunting for data? — The Shift Podcast by Microsoft Azure

As AI agents take on more responsibility, one foundational question keeps surfacing: Are my agents hunting for data?

In this episode of The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition, members of the Microsoft Fabric team explore how data access, organization, and governance directly affect how agents function in real-world systems. Rather than focusing on algorithms alone, the discussion centers on the data layer—and why fragmented, hard‑to‑find data can limit what agents are able to do.

The conversation covers:

· Why agents depend on unified, governed enterprise data.

· How concepts like data lakes, data warehousing, and data meshes show up in agentic systems.

· The importance of treating data as context, not just storage.

· How Microsoft Fabric and OneLake aim to simplify access across analytics and AI workloads

Throughout the episode, the team reflects on what makes data usable for agents today, without assuming that every organization starts from a clean slate.

This is an honest, unscripted discussion focused on how data realities shape agent behavior—and what teams can realistically do to improve outcomes.

👉 Explore unifying data with Microsoft Fabric: https://aka.ms/UnifyDataMicrosoftFabric

👉 Join our community: https://msft.it/6059QiQoJ

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: 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 January 2026. All information about products and offers is relevant to the time of recording.

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