Agents in Action: Building the Future of AI at NSBE 2026
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What if AI didn't just answer your questions, but actually did the work for you? That was the question at the center of the AI Agents workshop at the NSBE 2026 Annual Conference in Baltimore, where World Wide Technology and Microsoft invited more than 200 attendees to stop using AI and start building with it.
In 75 minutes, Shanice Brown and Ashley Schrage took the room from foundational concepts to a fully functioning, live-built AI agent, created inside Microsoft Copilot Studio, powered by real data, and capable of answering career questions on demand. No coding background required. No prior Copilot experience needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to imagine a smarter way to work.
From AI User to AI Architect
The session opened with a reframe that set the tone for everything that followed. Last year, sessions like this one were about helping the NSBE community understand what AI is. This year, the question changed: how do you make AI work for you?
The answer is agents. And for an audience that had grown comfortable with tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, the distinction landed immediately. A chatbot answers. An agent acts. The difference isn't subtle, it's the difference between a reference book and a team member.
The session introduced a three-level framework that gave every attendee, regardless of technical background, a clear picture of where they were and where they could go:
- Level 1 — Retrieves & Answers: The agent draws from its knowledge sources and responds to questions with tailored, intelligent answers. This is where the room started—and where every builder should start.
- Level 2 — Creates & Drafts: The agent collects user inputs and produces finished deliverables—cover letters, resume rewrites, interview prep, LinkedIn outreach messages—ready to use, personalized to you.
- Level 3 — Acts & Automates: The agent connects to external platforms, makes decisions, and takes action autonomously. Think: scan job boards daily, tailor your resume per role, and submit applications—while you sleep.
The framework didn't just organize the session. It gave the audience a roadmap they could carry into every meeting, every project, every career conversation from that day forward.
Building Live: The Career Prep Agent
The heart of the session was the live build. Using Microsoft Copilot Studio, the presenters walked the room through every step of creating a Career Prep Agent, a custom AI designed to help engineers navigate resumes, interviews, salary negotiation, and job searching.
Attendees watched, and many followed along, as the agent came to life in real time:
- Instructions written in plain English telling the agent who it is, how to respond, and what to stay focused on.
- A rich knowledge base uploaded including a custom-built PDF covering the STAR method, resume frameworks, salary research, networking scripts, and career development strategies.
- Nine reputable knowledge sources connected, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Levels.fyi to the NSBE Career Center and Harvard Business Review.
- Live testing on stage, with audience members asking real questions—and the agent answering them with specificity and confidence.
By the end of the session, the agent wasn't a demo. It was a working tool, ready to be published, shared, and used.
A Session Guide Built to Last
What made this workshop different wasn't just what happened in the room. It was what participants left with. Every attendee had access to a fully designed interactive session guide—a digital platform built to extend the learning beyond the conference floor.
The guide included step-by-step build instructions with live links, the complete agent instructions ready to copy and paste, all nine knowledge source URLs, a downloadable career prep knowledge PDF, and a curated set of starter prompts to help attendees get the most out of their agent from day one.
And because the session was designed to grow with the learner, the guide also laid out exactly what it takes to upgrade to Level 2 and Level 3—turning the workshop into a launchpad, not a one-time event.
The Demand Was Immediate
The response from the room said everything. Interest was exceptionally strong—and specific. A significant number of attendees didn't just want to know what Level 2 looks like. They wanted to build it. Requests came in before the session had even ended for a follow-up workshop focused on Topics, Variables, and Power Automate: the three components that transform a question-answering agent into a document-generating, email-drafting, career-accelerating powerhouse.
Perhaps no message captured that energy better than the one that arrived from Tyler Webb, a systems engineer at Abbott, the evening after the session:
— Tyler Webb, Systems Engineer, Abbott · NSBE 2026 Attendee
Read that again. Tyler didn't come to the NSBE conference to learn about AI agents. She came to gather material for a company-wide presentation. But 75 minutes in a session changed how she thought about the problem entirely, and before she had even left Baltimore, she was already planning to use a Level 2 agent to build the deliverable her director was expecting.
That is the definition of impact. Not a participant who left inspired. A participant who left with a plan.
Tyler also reached out to request a follow-up session on Level 2 agents, making her one of many attendees who demonstrated that this community isn't just ready for what's next. They're already moving toward it.
Each attendee also earned a verified Credly credential for completing the session, a digital badge recognizing their participation that can be shared on LinkedIn and added to their professional profile.
Why It Matters
The NSBE community is made up of the engineers, innovators, and leaders who will define what technology looks like in the next decade. Giving that community early, hands-on access to agentic AI—the kind of AI that doesn't just assist but acts—isn't just good programming. It's essential.
WWT and Microsoft showed up to Baltimore not with a lecture, but with a live demonstration of what's possible when the right tools meet the right talent. In 75 minutes, more than 100 engineers crossed the line from AI users to AI builders. And the ones who showed up already know something the rest of the world is still figuring out: the professionals who will lead the AI era won't be the ones who wait to be handed the tools. They'll be the ones who built them first.This was one afternoon. The ripple effects will be measured in certifications earned, careers advanced, and leaders developed.
A special thank you to John Evans, VP, Sales—GES Web Sales Management. His vision for community-driven innovation and his continued championing of these opportunities is what allows WWT to show up for NSBE year after year—with something worth showing up for.