Microsoft Ignite 2024: Here's a look back at last year's edition & everything else to know

Microsoft Ignite 2024 event is just around the corner. The annual conference for developers and IT enthusiasts is back between November 18 and 22, 2024, in Chicago, with options to attend online only until the 21st.

So, what can we expect this time around?

The Redmond-based tech giant promises that the event brings “the power of the Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft Copilot, and AI,” so it’s safe to expect a lot of new announcements in these areas.

Microsoft’s leaders like Satya Nadella (CEO), Scott Guthrie (cloud & AI), and Rajesh Ja from Windows & Surface are also expected to deliver keynote speeches. You can now register for the online event for free, as the in-person dates for Chicago have already been sold out.

Last year, we’ve seen a lot of new AI smarts and advancements here and there. Bing Chat was renamed “Copilot” and added across more Microsoft apps, while the new Maia 100 and Cobalt 100 in-house AI chips were introduced to power AI without relying on external GPUs.

Rolling out this year, the Maia 100 is meant for training AI models, while the Cobalt 100 is an Arm-based CPU for general cloud tasks. They’re meant to reduce Microsoft’s reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs, which have been in high demand and are often expensive.

The event also revealed Copilot tools for cloud services, customer support, and project management, plus Windows AI Studio, which lets you create AI that runs directly on Windows devices. New Teams features will even clean up messy backgrounds and reduce noise in video calls, and there was also a new app called the Windows app on PCs.