How Copilot in Power Platform is Empowering AI-Powered Low-Code Development

AI is all over the place, and now it’s in the Power Platform too! With Copilot in Power Platform, Microsoft is bringing generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) into Power Automate, Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents to get your digital transformation journey off the ground.

What’s in it for you?

You will now have a wingman to unlock your productivity by automating routine tasks with the Power Platform apps you perform daily. Whether you want to build an app, a bot, or a workflow, simply describe it, and Copilot will get it done for you in a moment.

If you are too curious to explore Microsoft Power Platform Copilot, how it works, how you can use it, and how it will safeguard your sensitive business data, then explore this blog post to get answers to your questions with key considerations to help you get started.

Table of Contents              

• What is Copilot in Power Platform and How Does It Work?
• How Do You Use Copilot in Power Platform?
• The Combined Capabilities of Copilot and AI in Power Platform
• Use Cases for Copilot in Power Platform Across Industries
• Benefits of Using Copilot for Power Platform
• How We Can Help You Leverage Copilot in Power Platform

Microsoft Copilot in Power Platform is an AI-enabled assistant that combines the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) with the business data residing in Microsoft business apps to transform your natural language prompts into a powerful productivity tool. Copilot uses Azure OpenAI Service to understand natural language and generate code or actions based on your intent.

For example, if you create an app to track expenses, Copilot will ask you what expenses you want to track and suggest possible data sources or app templates. You can then choose one of the suggestions or modify your prompt to be more specific. It also helps you edit your app or flow based on your prompts which can include requests for updating or replacing actions or answering queries about your app or product features. It frees up your time to be more productive and enables you to work faster and smarter.

A GitHub survey of more than 2000 developers^[1] confirms that Copilot provides a productivity boost for users. These numbers clearly suggest that Copilot positively impacts developer efficiency.

Here’s How Copilot in Power Platform

Copilot is a virtual AI assistant that combines the potential of LLMs with Microsoft Graph Data to deliver enterprise-ready solutions. It lets you create chatbots, automate repetitive tasks, and transform ideas into working apps in minutes.

Anchored in Business Data

Copilot employs data mining and machine-learning algorithms to analyze your business data to meet all existing security and compliance requirements. It has real-time access to your content and context in the Microsoft Graph, enabling it to generate responses anchored in your business content and combine them with your working context to deliver accurate, relevant, contextual answers.

For example, you can use the business chat to share a status update with your team based on the decisions made in the daily scheduled meeting. Copilot extracts all the relevant information from conversations, email exchanges, and transcripts to create an accurate status update so everyone stays on the same page. This ensures that team members who did not attend the meeting now have all the data they need to move ahead.

Built on a Holistic Approach to Compliance and Data Security

Copilot automatically extracts your company’s compliance, security, and privacy policies. With two-factor authentication and strict adherence to privacy policies, Copilot is a reliable AI solution that you can count on.

Architected to Safeguard Individual, Group, and Tenant Data

Copilot leverages a time-tested permissions model within your tenant to ensure your customer data does not leak across user groups. At the individual level, the delivered data is only accessible via the same technology Microsoft has used for decades to secure data.

Designed to Unlock Productivity

Copilot can create, collate, analyze, and automate tasks using your specific business content and context. It is designed to learn new skills, command apps, and work across apps to perform even more complex tasks and sophisticated queries. For instance, you can connect Copilot with your CRM system so the data flows freely across the board, and you can instantly extract specific information like customer data and order history even from a massive volume of data.

When it comes to enabling Power Platform capabilities, Microsoft Copilot goes above and beyond! Here are some ways to leverage this powerful tool to finish tasks quickly and efficiently.

Build Responsive Websites with Power Pages

You can quickly build professional websites by integrating Copilot with Power Pages to assist in generating CSS, HTML, contextual images, and content for different pages.

Humanize Chat Experiences with Power Virtual Agents

Power Virtual Agents are incredible, but with the addition of Copilot’s AI capabilities, they become super interactive! Simply sit back and watch how your bots engage with customers’ prompts with professional and helpful conversations.

Generate Accurate Insights with Power BI

Copilot in Power BI combines your business data with advanced generative AI to help you instantly extract and share insights. Simply ask for the necessary information, and Copilot will pull all the relevant data to generate an accurate report with actionable insights.

Analyze Documents with AI Builder

AI builder is a powerful tool with form-processing capabilities. It allows you to extract data from different document types. You can pull out approval justifications and auto-generate emails by integrating Copilot with AI Builder. The extracted details can be added to the email for swift and seamless approval within Outlook. The automated flow can also add the invoice data into Excel to further streamline the approval process.        

Accelerate App Development with Power Apps

Integrating Copilot with Power Apps accelerates app development processes. All you need to do is upload Excel files on Power Apps Studio. Copilot then processes the data and transfers it to Dataverse. So, you will get a fully functional, feature-rich app with centralized and scalable data management.

Supercharge Invoice Processing with AI-powered Automation

Are you tired of manually entering data and juggling between endless spreadsheets for invoice processing? Copilot has your back! Set up workflows in Power Automate using natural language prompts and automate all your approvals, attachments, and updates for swift and smooth invoice processing. To put your workflows on autopilot, leverage our Microsoft Power Automate consulting services now.

You can accomplish much more without extensive coding with AI-powered workflow generation, app development, bot integration, and webpage creation.

Copilot’s AI capability is a part of the Microsoft Power Platform. It is embedded in Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, Power Automate, and Power Pages as a control that generates customized experiences and provides recommendations for enhancing workflows, apps, websites, and bots.

Copilot in Power Apps

With just a few prompts in natural language, Power Apps Copilot can develop an app with a user interface, data tables, and backend logic. All you need to do is describe in natural language, “Build an app to onboard new employees and share an induction invitation email with clear instructions.” You can also develop an app for online loan requests and approval processing. Copilot lets you build multi-screen apps, update user interfaces, add buttons, and customize colors.

If you’re interested in building industry-specific business apps quickly, our Power Apps consulting services can help you unlock the full value of digitalization.

Copilot in Power Automate

Power Automate AI copilot boosts productivity by automating tedious and time-consuming processes. It allows you to accelerate business processes using prompts in natural language to generate Power Automate flows. Copilot can also improvise and update the processes inside the flow studio.

Copilot in Power BI

The inclusion of Copilot in Power BI has infused the power of LLM – large language models to uncover and unleash the power of AI to get more done and create more value from the data. Power BI Copilot uses Artificial Intelligence to help you make well-informed decisions. From automated report generation to conversational language interface and real-time data analysis, the enterprise ready-AI is all set to revolutionize Power BI data modeling. So, give Copilot a whirl and take your data analysis to the next level.

If you want to explore how Power BI helps transform raw data into smart visuals, connect with us today to leverage our Microsoft Power BI consulting services to make data-driven decisions confidently.

Copilot in Power Virtual Agents

With Copilot in Power Virtual Agent, bot makers can develop conversational agents quickly. It also enables topic creation and provides suggestions on queries, trigger phrases, messages, entities, variables, and relevant logic models. Generative AI conversation boosters in PVAs allow virtual bots to chat over your internal SharePoint sites, intranet sites, or external sites using just a URL.

Copilot in Power Pages

The Next-generation AI enhancements in Copilot are helping businesses build and launch secure, scalable, and customizable websites quickly. Copilot in Microsoft Power Pages can generate text, create forms and build intelligent bots with natural language input. All you need to do is specify the type of form, and Copilot will auto-generate tables in Microsoft Dataverse. You can also adjust or fine-tune fields to create corresponding forms.

As more and more businesses continue to leverage the low-code development capabilities of Power Platform, Copilot is opening up new avenues for rapid innovation. So, drop your apprehensions and seize this opportunity to propel your business into a future of agile and accelerated progress with the Copilot Power Platform.

AI is no longer just a sci-fi fantasy; it’s here and transforming businesses! If you want to harness its potential by integrating it into your existing Power Platform solutions, we can help you figure out how to make AI work for your business. Let’s explore the exciting possibilities across industries:

Retail Brands

• With Power Apps, store managers can effortlessly stay on top of stock levels, receiving timely alerts when supplies run low and ensuring that shelves are always well-stocked.
• Power BI offers valuable insights into sales trends and product performance metrics. Using this data, retail companies can create an edge over their competition.

Healthcare Sector

• With patient management systems built using Power Platform tools, medical professionals can easily access and update patient information while ensuring the highest levels of security.
• Power Virtual Agents step in as virtual assistants, helping patients schedule appointments and receive timely health information.

Manufacturing Industry

• Manufacturers can leverage Power Apps to develop quality control apps to report and track defects in real time, notify relevant personnel of any hiccups, and enable quick resolutions to keep the production line humming smoothly.
• Power BI’s intuitive dashboards offer valuable insights into production performance, unlocking opportunities for improvement.

Educational Institutions

• Educational institutions can harness the potential of Microsoft Power Platform Copilot to create personalized learning management systems (LMS) that foster seamless communication between teachers, students, and parents,
• Power Automate can handle mundane administrative tasks like grading and attendance tracking, giving educators more time to focus on what truly matters – their students’ growth.
• Power BI dashboards offering insights into student performance and learning trends can guide educators to tailor their teaching methods for better outcomes.

So, whether it’s revolutionizing retail, enhancing healthcare, optimizing manufacturing, or elevating education, Microsoft Power Platform fueled by the AI capabilities of Copilot is the catalyst for positive change.

Copilot is an intelligent office assistant that adapts to your personal preferences and behavioral patterns to provide personalized recommendations. It uses deep learning to learn from every interaction to enhance user experience and productivity. The following are the key advantages of using Copilot:

Agility

With a user-friendly interface and an extensive library of built-in components, the Microsoft Power Platform Copilot facilitates rapid app development to create prototypes and deploy apps with faster time-to-market.

Seamless Integrations

You can integrate Copilot with Dynamics 365, Office 365, Azure, and other Microsoft products to create end-to-end solutions to drive business value.

Enhanced Productivity

Quickly builds applications and intelligent bots to automate workflows via conversation while eliminating the need for traditional coding.

Security

Built on Azure, Copilot has enterprise-grade scalability and strictly adheres to Microsoft’s security standards to safeguard confidential business data.

Speed

Beyond plugins, you build conversational apps and infuse intelligent chatbots with minimal effort.

Automation

Copilot streamlines workflows, provides real-time suggestions to enhance efficiency, and automates repetitive tasks, enabling you to focus on high-value processes.

Data-driven Insights

Copilot’s data analysis and visualization capabilities allow you to generate actionable insights for informed decision-making.

Being the Microsoft Gold Partner, we bring a nearly two-decade-long strategic partnership with Microsoft. It has honed our industry, technology, and advisory experience, ensuring we deliver integrated solutions leveraging the full spectrum of Microsoft’s technology and application stack. As Copilot revolutionizes how developers work within the Power Platform ecosystem, we take it a notch up with extensive customization and extensibility options, allowing you to tailor it to your specific workflows.

As a Power Platform consulting company, we aim to assist you from strategy to implementation. Whether you partner with us to build complex business apps and automate workflows or integrate AI capabilities and extend functionalities, we meet you where you are and accelerate your success.

Footnote:

1. https://github.blog/2022-09-07-research-quantifying-github-copilots-impact-on-developer-productivity-and-happiness/