The 2nd annual AI Agent & Copilot Summit, hosted by Dynamic Communities, was held in beautiful San Diego in mid-March and it did not disappoint. I was pleased to be part of the Programming Committee again this time around and attended for the first time. There were numerous sessions on AI, of course, and plenty of other fun things on the agenda as well. Attendance was approximately 800 attendees, a nice increase from the inaugural 2025 show.
Besides the educational highlights which I’ll mention later, the event was held at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel, which has the famous Torrey Pines Golf Course directly behind it. Even if you’re not a golfer, you can’t help but admire the beauty of the course when you’re outside on the hotel property. The course looks better in person than on TV, I assure you! If you didn’t play golf, the Pickleball tournament was also available on the first day. Two excellent networking opportunities to kick things off in a sunny part of the world, setting the pace for a very fun conference! BDO sponsored the golf tournament and TMC sponsored the Pickleball tournament.
Things kicked off via my friend John Siefert, Dynamic Communities’ CEO, the following morning. Attendees were given a thorough agenda of keynotes, single-speaker sessions, panel discussions, and even deep dive Masterclasses. I appreciated the emphasis that several speakers put on AI governance requirements, as well as the opportunities AI will provide humans (as opposed to the continuous ‘AI is taking away everyone’s job’ narrative). I heard my first discussion of self-enhancing agents, too. Things are moving quickly with this technology, did you hear?!
One end user presented a session discussing a Copilot agent they’d written to help onboard new employees, which was fascinating. Nicknamed ‘ECHO’ (Employee Companion for Help & Onboarding), this custom agent is introduced on a new employee’s first day and makes AI adoption part of new employment immediately. ECHO is consistent for all newbies and is always available to help those who leverage it. Onboarding is now rolled out consistently for all.
Another speaker discussed AI for executives, providing oversight on goals and related progress. Everyone has goals at the office, so this topic could apply to anyone that seeks compliance & surveillance for their annual work goals, be they revenue-related or some other metric. To me, this seemed like a good use case, not to mention something I should have thought of on my own!
The 3rd annual event will return to San Diego in late March 2027, but will move to the practically brand-new Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista, just south of San Diego. More end users from other ecosystems that are leveraging or planning to utilize Microsoft Copilot are expected to grow this event quickly, so the larger hotel space will manage the anticipated growth quite well. It’s a beautiful property! I have it on good authority that while the venue is indeed changing next year, golfing at the one-of-a-kind Torrey Pines will still be on the agenda. Demand for this unique networking opportunity this year was high, had a lengthy waiting list, and was the talk of the show well after it ended. It’s not going anywhere, but you should be going to Southern California in late March when this event rolls around again.
Cheers, Bob