Chris Smellie

Biography

Chris Smellie is the Director of Product Marketing for Copilot Frontier at Microsoft, where he leads go-to-market strategy for the company’s latest AI innovations. Across two stints, Chris has spent more than a decade at Microsoft building and launching products at the intersection of technology, work, and culture. Previously, Chris worked at Meta, where he helped launch Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses, bringing one of the first mainstream AI wearables to market. Outside of his day job, Chris writes Corporate Sidehustler, a newsletter exploring career, technology, and building a life beyond the corporate title.

Sessions

1. Beyond Prompting: Putting AI Agents to Work Presented by Microsoft

   Wed, Nov 4, 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM CT

   Track Future of Work

   AI is moving beyond answering questions. Autonomous agents can carry work forward toward a goal, with people setting the direction and deciding when to step in. Knowing how to prompt is only the starting point. The next advantage is knowing what to delegate, how to define "done," and where your judgment matters most. This Learning Lab looks at how autonomous AI agents are changing the way work gets done. We'll walk through a real workflow in Copilot Autopilot to show what was delegated, where human judgment stayed essential, and what changed as a result. We'll also explore why framing the right problem and evaluating the result are becoming core career skills. You'll leave with three things you can use Monday: one recurring task to delegate, a clear definition of success, and a checkpoint that keeps you in control.