The number of people using Power Platform–48 million–is astounding. Yet despite these Microsoft estimates, the low code platform is poised to grow even more rapidly as Microsoft pushes its AI-based Copilot into nearly every Power Platform tool in new and innovative ways.
That message was the main theme at Microsoft’s Power Platform Community Conference, an annual event where Microsoft showcases new innovations in its low code/no code toolset. During the event, Copilot’s potential for businesses, small and large, underpinned nearly every discussion and presentation.
JourneyTeam experts were in force at the event, taking in the new direction, meeting with Microsoft’s Power Platform team, sharing insights, and getting a first-hand look at the new functionalities that will drive business, especially for the small and medium business segment.
Let’s look at a couple of product takeaways from the conference:
Extending Line-of-business Applications
Increasingly, Power Platform is being seen as an indispensable tool for extending core business systems with apps, workflows, and automations that augment existing ERP systems like Dynamics 365, and CRM solutions like Dynamics 365 CRM and Salesforce– all without requiring full-scale app replacement or complex development.
For small and medium businesses (SMBs), that makes it a cost-effective solution. The majority of SMBs lack the budget to invest in expensive custom software or hire large development teams. Power Platform’s low-code/no-code environment is a great answer, because it allows non-technical employees to create applications, workflows, and reports and ultimately bring down total cost of ownership. You can start with smaller-scale projects and expand as needed, only paying for what you use, making it more affordable and scalable.
In fact, a 2024 Forrester Consulting Total Economic ImpactTM study commissioned by Microsoft, found that customers saw a considerable three-year return on investment of 248% and a payback period of less than six months.
Copilot Agents and Autonomous Workflows
Copilot is an AI assistant that runs alongside you as you work in Microsoft applications, but now, Copilot can be autonomous or run in the background as an asynchronous workflow. These autonomous agents are having a major influence on Microsoft’s direction for Power Platform and were a big feature of the conference.
Let’s think about how this would work:
Autonomous Copilot agents can record desktop flows, or procedures. For example, if you want to draft an email responding to specific subject matter, you could ask the Copilot agent to:
- Consult existing emails, chats, files, and other internal and public information related to the subject matter.
- Perform qualitative or quantitative analysis on the collected information and draw conclusions that are relevant to the email.
- Draft the complete email based on the conclusions and incorporate supporting evidence.
- Attach relevant files to the email.
- Review the email to ensure that all the incorporated information is factually accurate and that the assertions are valid.
- Select the appropriate recipients for To, Cc, and Bcc, and look up their email addresses.
- Schedule an appropriate time to send the email.
- Perform follow-ups if responses are expected but not received.
Wow. Consider the potential of a copilot that can react when an email arrives, look up the sender’s details, see their previous communications, and use generative AI to trigger the appropriate chain of actions in their response. The functionality is set to roll out through October 2024.
The basic premise of autonomous copilots is: If you can provide the grounding data, Copilot will self-assemble an entire workflow to complete a task based on the guidance you provided.
Power Apps Planning
Great solutions don’t (usually) start in code, or by immediately designing a UI. The best solutions start with an understanding of the problem, the users involved, and their requirements, before anyone writes a line of code or drafts any UI.
That’s what Microsoft’s new Power Apps Plan Designer is designed to do. You bring a business problem to Plan Designer. You describe it in natural language and add context, like screenshots of legacy apps, spreadsheets, photos of white boards, process diagrams– and Plan Designer will ‘think’ through the problem, and create a tailormade, robust power app. It’s all extremely exciting stuff.
Getting Started with JourneyTeam
Microsoft Power Platform is so popular because it allows business users with little to no development experience to create solutions that solve business process problems quickly and easily. The new AI and Copilot driven functionalities are making the platform usable for an increasing number of non-technical users.
As a global finalist for Microsoft’s Partner of the Year award for low code development, JourneyTeam is uniquely invested in Microsoft’s plans for Power Platform, specifically how its features can quickly and easily expand business processes in your existing applications for immediate value at a low-cost entry point.
We can come alongside and teach you how to do more. Reach out to us!
