As AI agents move from experimentation into real-world operations, many IT leaders are asking a new kind of workforce question: Should your IT team hire agents?

In this episode of The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition, members of the Microsoft Azure team explore how agentic AI is beginning to reshape IT operations, cloud management, and the future of technical work. Agents are emerging as powerful collaborators alongside humans in the loop—augmenting teams, automating repetitive tasks, and enabling a more proactive approach to managing complex systems.

This conversation digs into what agent adoption really looks like for IT organizations today, including:

• How agents for IT automation are changing cloud operations.

• Where trust, transparency, and control matter most in agentic systems.

• What skills IT t ...