Weekly Update 19 January 2026 – Copilot Memories, VS Code Studio Extension, Open to Work book

This week:

Copilot Memories

Copilot Studio Extension for Visual Studio Code Is Now Generally Available

Announcing Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI

Microsoft AI Power Days

You can also listen to the audio-only version: Thoughtstuff Podcast – Tom Morgan on Teams Dev: Weekly Update 19 January 2026.

Find all my videos at thoughtstuff.co.uk/videos. You can also subscribe to the audio-only version of these videos, either via iTunes, Spotify or your own podcasting tool.

Transcript (AI-Generated)

Hello and welcome to another weekly update. Oh, there we go. That’s what I meant to do. I hope you’re well.

It’s been a couple of weeks. We did one last week, but there wasn’t much to talk about. This week, there’s more to cover—though not loads. It’s kind of surprising and not what I expected, but that’s okay. We’ll get through it. There are some interesting developments happening.

Copilot Memory in Visual Studio

The first thing I want to talk about is Copilot Memory, now coming to Visual Studio. This is documented on the Visual Studio blog by Jessie Houghton. It addresses a familiar pain point—constantly re-entering system prompts like coding standards or commit message formats. What you really want is Copilot to remember some of that context.

For example, when we commit to Git, if it’s tied to a specific bug or task, we start with a code. That helps track changes later—but it’s easy to forget. Copilot now has a memory feature where instructions can be stored in a file called copilot-instructions.mmd. This file can exist at the user profile or the repo level, and Copilot merges it in to remember preferences.

While it’s not exactly an AI memory in the fullest sense, it’s a powerful extension of prompt augmentation. From enforcing consistent commit messages to defining code generation behaviors and explaining business logic—this feature can be incredibly helpful when used smartly.

Copilot Studio in Visual Studio Code

Another exciting update is a Visual Studio Code extension for working with Copilot Studio. If you’re a pro-level developer who prefers code to UI, this is for you. It brings a full code-first development experience to Copilot Studio projects, letting you work on topics, workflows, triggers, and agent information—all from within VS Code.

This integration is fantastic because it allows for full Git and GitHub workflow compatibility, including source control, versioning, and builds. Whether you’re productionizing a prototype or extending functionality, it’s now easier to Govern, secure, and audit your AI agents in enterprise settings with Copilot Studio.

Book Alert – Open to Work

LinkedIn has a new book coming out titled Open to Work, co-authored by CEO Ryan Roslansky and Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman. It’s about adapting how we work in the age of AI. While it may not deliver groundbreaking new insights, it’s still worthwhile; especially coming from two of LinkedIn’s top executives. It’s available for pre-order now, with a release date of March 31st.

Microsoft AI Power Days

Microsoft is also running a series of AI Power Days: three-day online events aimed at enabling business leaders to build frontier firms for the agentic AI era. It’s likely to feature a lot of Ignite-level content and resources from Azure, Microsoft 365, Foundry, Windows 365 and more.

You don’t have to commit to the full three days; sessions are modular and must be registered for individually. This makes you think more intentionally about what you want to attend. Most times seem friendly for UK and Europe-based folks, but you can likely watch recordings after the fact. Day three appears more hands-on, and there’s even a data center tour to look forward to.

All right, that’s all from me. Have a great week, whatever you’re working on. I’ll speak to you again next week.