Today, Microsoft has unveiled its newest AI developments across its array of enterprise-level applications, such as the Power Platform and Dynamics 365. The Power Platform is a collection of “low-code” development tools that facilitate the creation of apps and functionalities, while Dynamics 365 is a suite of ERP and CRM solutions.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Charles Lamanna – CVP of business apps and platform at Microsoft – stated that the updates they were working on were the natural progression in Microsoft’s automation journey. Further elaborating, Lamanna noted that the new additions were powered by AI startup OpenAI and developed through Azure OpenAI Service – a Microsoft product which offers access to OpenAI’s Application Program Interface to enterprises. Lamanna also highlighted the already rolled out OpenAI features as part of the update. Microsoft first added AI models that produce output four years ago to the Power Platform and most recently deploying generative AI abilities to the Viva Sales program, which is for the customer experience.
Lamanna stated in an email that Microsoft has been working intensively for the past four years to incorporate Artificial Intelligence and basic architectures into businesses. He noted the longstanding relationship with OpenAI, which allows the company to embody the technology of OpenAI into Microsoft’s items and the Azure OpenAI Service. He went on to explain that the technology and products have now reached the point where they can bring important alterations for customers.
Microsoft has recently come out with Dynamics 365 Copilot, which is based on GitHub’s Copilot service. This technology is designed to automate commonly used sales and customer service tasks so they can be done more quickly.
For instance, Copilot can assist in crafting responses to clients in both Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales, as well as compile a meeting summary of a Teams gathering in Outlook. Lamanna adds that the gathering synopsis incorporates points of interest from the seller’s CRM, such as product and cost details, and combines them with interpretations from the documented Teams call.
Lamanna emphasized that we access customer data from their CRM, ERP and other business sources without compromising security measures. Additionally, we employ powerful language models to combine this data with the accompanying knowledge necessary to give each customer a tailored outcome. It is noteworthy that we do not employ customers’ data for training the models.
In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Copilot can create tailored responses to customer inquiries via chat or email plus provide a reactive chat experience for customer service personnel based on data from references and past case accounts. Additionally, the new “conversation boosters” in Power Virtual Agents – Microsoft’s chatbot constructor – enables firms to link a bot to a website or database and utilize the material to react to inquiries the bot is not trained for.
In other words, Microsoft’s AI Builder tool incorporates a “GPT” model which can be utilized by organizations through Power Automate and Power Apps to generate sentences written with specified keywords or topics. As an illustration, a researcher can have weekly reports automatically summarized to their email while a marketing specialist may create and use personalized content ideas.
With Microsoft entering into the area of machine-generated text with its Bing Chat product, it might be concerning to create an application utilizing its technology in case of unexpected outcomes. However, Lamanna claims that Copilot, in conjunction with conversation boosters and the GPT algorithm, are kept in check and kept aligned with the CRM, enterprise resource management and other data sources of every client.
Lamanna noted that AI-generated content is clearly labeled and users can double-check its accuracy before using it. In addition, citing the sources from which the response was received allows for easier verification of its correctness. To prevent any issues, monitoring and safeguards are put in place to allow for rapid manual intervention.
It is possible for those who use the content to not double-check for accuracy, but only time will tell whether that ends up being a problem. Experiments on how much faith people put in AI has hinted that this could end up being an issue.
It is a blessing that the other functions of Copilot are not as potentially disconcerting.
By using Copilot options in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing, retailers can be presented with customer sections that may have not previously been noticed. Additionally, advertisers can create target teams by explaining the segment with their personal language. In addition, they can discover ideas for email campaigns by asking Copilot with inquiries, which generates them by procuring from an organization’s already existing marketing emails and numerous web sources according to Lamanna.
Microsoft is trying to get up to speed with some of the newer technologies. An important presence on the scene when it comes to CRM, Salesforce, has been attempting to bring AI into their products for a long time. Additionally, organizations such as Glint have chosen to use AI to help automate customer service processes. Although many people in the marketing world are saying they plan to use AI in their content strategies, the key factor is not necessarily who uses it first, but who is able to implement it on a large scale.
Lamanna pointed out how CRM and ERP are essential sources of customer and business data but performing associated tasks such as inputting information, creating content and writing down notes can be laborious. Dynamics 365 Copilot automates these time-consuming activities, thus enabling workers to access their full potential.
In Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central business management system, Copilot aims to make creating online shopping product postings much easier. Lamanna explains how Copilot can arrange product details like color, material and size with concise descriptions that can be tailored to change the feel, structure and extent of content.
Lamanna made mention of the new Shopify product description tool that works with artificial intelligence, and emphasized that customers of Business Central can easily and quickly publish their products with the AI-crafted descriptions to Shopify, once they have checked them over carefully.
At the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, Copilot can discern potential complications that could disrupt the supply chain like weather, finance, and geography. The platform then permits supply chain planners to set up an automated email notification that is triggered to alert any partners that may be affected.
Lamanna suggests that even basic applications of Artificial Intelligence, like automating emails, can have a positive impact on productivity.
Lamanna reported that the most recent survey about trade tendencies unveiled that almost all workers wish to use artificial intelligence (AI) in order to decrease the amount of redundant tasks that they do in their occupations. The presence of AI fueled aids has become a primary feature of business technology. They think Dynamics 365 Copilot will assist personnel to carry out their work more quickly so that businesses have more time to invest in other innovative and creative aspects of their jobs such as developing successful extended customer associations.
As usual, some rhetoric is trying to disguise the truth. However, it’s evident that Microsoft has not been pulling back their contributions to AI and automation. They recently pumped a lot of money into OpenAI in January, and now they are expecting a payoff.
Copilot will be included for free with Dynamics 365 licenses such as Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise. It will be available for testing from March 6, with full availability coming after that.
