Developer · Chief AI Officer · Microsoft MVP

From the boardroom
to the build.

I’m Matt Beard. I write code, lead technology strategy and help organisations identify, design and implement practical AI use cases that maximise their investment.

About me →GitHub ↗

Matt Beard

Developer · Technology leader · Community organiser

6× Microsoft MVP
Business Applications & Microsoft 365

Data & integrationAI & agentsPlugins & extensibilityPower PlatformTechnology leadership
01 · About

Still writing code.

I’ve spent my career building software and leading the people who build it. I’ve been at Data8 for 15 years and I’m currently its Chief AI Officer, but I still spend a good part of my week writing code. My work covers data, AI and business applications, and more and more of it now involves AI agents: what they can be trusted to do, which tools and plugins they need, and how they connect to the systems a business already runs on. I’m a six-time Microsoft MVP, currently awarded in both Business Applications and Microsoft 365. I can talk through architecture with a development team in the morning and investment and risk with a board in the afternoon, and I enjoy both.

Outside work I’m a Pokémon fan, and a lot of my spare time goes into running community events.

github.com/mattybeard ↗
02 · What I work on

Data, AI and the systems around them.

01 / DATA

Data & integration

Clean, validated, well-connected data. Most AI and automation projects succeed or fail on this long before anyone chooses a model.

02 / AI

AI & agents

I design and implement agents to reduce manual work, from data entry and complex configurations to repetitive tasks.

03 / EXTENSIBILITY

Plugins & integration

Extending business processes across whatever stack is already in place. That includes over a decade of Power Platform and Dynamics 365, alongside Azure, .NET, Microsoft 365 and third-party APIs.

Standards that travel.

I also build custom developer skills that guide developers and enforce coding standards as they work. They encode practices refined through decades of software work, helping teams keep a consistent style across projects and repositories as tools and frameworks change.

03 · How I work

Talking to every level of a business.

01

With leadership

I’ve worked at C-suite level for years. I explain technical options in business terms, set out the trade-offs honestly, and help agree a direction.

02

With delivery teams

I still write code, review architecture and get involved when a problem is hard. Teams get a leader who understands the work they’re doing.

03

With the people using it

I spend time with the people who will use what we build, ask questions and listen. If it doesn’t make sense to them, it isn’t finished.

Community events.

I’ve been organising Microsoft community events for years. They’re where I learn the most, and where plenty of people give their first talk.