As Microsoft’s annual event ends for another year, we take a look at the more significant product announcements.
What is Microsoft Ignite?
Ignite is Microsoft’s regular gathering of technology leaders and practitioners and is for anyone interested in the latest developments in Microsoft’s business applications. In-person and virtual sessions enable people in all roles, from developers and IT implementers to those who make purchasing decisions for enterprise tech and security solutions, to get updated on the latest developments in Microsoft technologies.
What areas did this this year’s event cover?
This year’s event focused on these key areas:
- Azure
- Developer
- Edge
- Microsoft 365
- Microsoft Copilot
- Power Platform
- Security
- Windows
This blog post looks at announcements focused on Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
1 – Copilot enhancements for Dynamics 365 Sales
Two new features have been announced:
- The ability for sellers to use natural language with Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales to receive contextual insights and recommendations for leads and opportunities, in addition to using pre-built prompts. This feature is currently in preview.
- A full-screen view for Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales where sellers can use natural language or pre-built prompts to gain a quick understanding of customers, deals, meetings, forecasts and more. This experience will roll out starting in November in Asia and Europe and then in other markets at later dates.
2 – Microsoft Copilot for Service
Microsoft Copilot for Service is a new business copilot that extends existing customer service functions with the power of generative AI to boost agent productivity. This will include Copilot for Microsoft 365 and will integrate with third-party CRM and contact centre solutions. Businesses will be able to simply point to their data, such as trusted websites, knowledgebase articles, files and, more importantly, data sources from their existing customer service function, and in a few minutes, unlock generative AI-powered conversations across all their data.
Copilot for Service will include out-of-the-box integrations with Salesforce, ServiceNow and Zendesk, and will be extended to other systems, with over 1,000 pre-built and custom connectors.
Agents will be able to ask Copilot questions using natural language and receive relevant insights pulled from customer and product data sourced from knowledge repositories. This will improve the speed at which agents can resolve their cases, providing better experiences for both agents and customers.
3 – New Copilot experiences for Power Automate
These new experiences, currently in preview, will enable users to discover and create UI and API automation faster, while streamlining productivity. This includes:
- Using Copilot to assist with desktop flows: Copilot will be integrated into the Console and the Designer of Power Automate for desktop. Copilot will assist with desktop flows (RPA) by typing questions and getting relevant information and step-by-step instructions from documentation.
- Using Copilot to analyse automation activity: Users with access to flow run histories will be able to query past runs using natural language across their environment.
4 – Copilot enhancements for Power Apps
Two new AI-driven features assist App makers have been announced:
- Copilot for app users as sidecar for use in the Power App web player will automatically work with the data in the app and provide users with insights and answers, without needing set-up from app makers. This feature is coming to limited preview in mid-December and preview end of the first quarter of 2024.
- Makers can now also extend and customise Copilot for app users embedded in apps through Copilot control. Copilot Studio interoperability enables extensive customisation that brings the capabilities of Copilot Studio into every Copilot-embedded app. This feature will be in preview in the first half of 2024.
5 – Power Apps performance and styling improvements
Mobile Power Apps will have a native user experience, with smoother animations, faster performance and modern mobile interaction functionality. This improved performance and modern experience will bring efficiency gains to everyone running apps on mobile devices. This update is currently in preview
Also, with modern controls generally available and theming in canvas apps, makers will be able to easily create elegant, accessible, fast and reliable apps. This update is also currently in preview.
6 – Microsoft Copilot Studio
Built on the foundations of Power Virtual Agents and the broader Microsoft conversational AI ecosystem. Copilot Studio provides new ways to build copilots and extend Microsoft Copilot with the latest generative AI capabilities. With Power Virtual Agents capabilities joining Copilot Studio, the Power Virtual Agents name will no longer be used.
Existing customers will access the same capabilities, all within Microsoft Copilot Studio.
Summary
As with previous events, AI has had a strong influence on Microsoft’s announcements at Ignite and it’s clear that Copilot is going to be integrated into more and more facets of the Microsoft ecosystem. Although some of these new features are in preview at the moment and consideration should be taken before applying them in a live environment, it’s exciting to see the range of new improvements that are continually being made to Dynamics 365, the Power Platform and the Microsoft ecosphere as a whole.
If you are an existing Strategy 365 client and wish to discuss any of these new developments with one of our experts, feel free to get in touch.
