Adam Fudeh, Storata Founder (back row, 9th from left), with James Saunders and Manny Metaxotos, alongside Microsoft CTO Dean Corcoran (front, 3rd from left) and fellow participants at the Microsoft Agent Hackathon, Sydney HQ, 2026.

Photo credit: Storata

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When Microsoft's judges announced the winner of the inaugural Agent Hackathon at their Sydney headquarters, they did not just read out a name. They called Storata ‘the stand-out winners’.

These words mattered. It was unprompted, unscripted, and came from Microsoft's own technical and commercial leadership. And it was a direct consequence of something Storata has always believed: that understanding a problem deeply is more valuable than solving it quickly.

What Storata Built in One Day

The challenge: design, build, and present a deployable AI agent in a single day. Storata chose a problem every organisation recognises — shared mailbox overload.

The team built an intelligent email triage agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio that performed four functions automatically:

•    Routing — classifying every inbound email and directing it to the right team based on content.

•    Priority scoring — assigning urgency based on sender identity, sentiment, and keywords — with rules to prevent false positives.

•    Draft responses — generating review-ready replies a human could approve and send instantly.

•    Audit log — recording every decision the agent made so operators could review, learn, and improve over time.

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Using Microsoft Copilot Studio, the Storata team of only three engineers on the day was able to build the email triage agent on first-party Microsoft components for governance and auditability. Copilot Studio is synonymous with Storata client delivery value.

Photo credit: Microsoft

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“By using first-party Microsoft connectors exclusively, every component could be tied back and monitored through a single pane of glass when governance was needed.”

James Saunders, Lead Engineer, Storata

The Difference Was Preparation

By 10am — before presentations began — James Saunders had a clear sense of how the day would end. Not because of the technology. Because of the process.

Storata applied the same methodology to the hackathon that it applies to every client engagement: understand the problem before writing a single line of code. The team arrived with a defined scenario, a clear solution approach, and answers already prepared for the questions judges would ask.

In a world where technology changes daily, our process is the constant. We had a documented plan we could test, validate, and implement — whatever the tech stack.

The result was a solution the judges described as the most production-ready, most business-grounded, and most clearly articulated of the day.

What Happened After the Win

Winning was the headline. What followed was the signal.

Microsoft Solution Architects approached Storata after the event — not to congratulate them, but to discuss productising the solution and bringing it to market. That conversation was initiated by Microsoft. It was grounded in solution quality, not in a partner program or a prior commercial relationship.

When Microsoft's own people approach you to ask how they can help bring your solution to market — that is not a partner benefit. That is a market signal.

“Most questions after the presentation were about how the agent could be expanded. We could answer in depth because we had already planned for that.”

James Saunders, Storata

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Microsoft Australian Headquarters hosted some of the industry's best talent, among them the Storata team presenting their email triage agent to Microsoft judges at the Agent Build-A-Thon, Microsoft Sydney HQ, and taking out the APAC award, March 2026.

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What It Means for Australian Businesses

The email triage agent is not a demonstration. It is a production-ready solution for any knowledge-intensive organisation managing high-volume shared mailboxes — financial services firms, legal practices, healthcare organisations, commercial property managers.

Built entirely on Microsoft's platform. Governed by design. Audit-ready from day one. That is not incidental — it is the point. The governance layer is what makes the solution deployable in a regulated environment rather than just impressive in a presentation.

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Storata was named the stand-out winner. Not by Storata. By Microsoft.

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