Microsoft has recently announced the launch of their latest software tool, Dynamics 365 Copilot, a new AI-powered tool is designed to streamline workflow processes for businesses and improve overall efficiency.
Leveraging the power of Azure AI and built on the Microsoft Power Platform, Dynamics 365 Copilot comes packed with a range of intelligent features and capabilities. This development also includes the integration of GPT large language model (LLM) technology created by OpenAI, which is bundled into Microsoft’s Power Platform developer tool and Dynamics 365.
The updated Power Virtual Agent, which is part of the Power Platform, allows businesses to point an AI bot at a company website or knowledge base and then ask it questions, which it calls Conversation Booster.
With the conversation booster feature, you can use the data source that holds your single source of truth across many channels through the chat experience, and the bot responses are filtered and moderated to adhere to Microsoft’s responsible AI principles.
AI Builder now includes generative AI capabilities similar to the ChatGPT API (called Azure OpenAI Service), which allows developers to generate text using GPT models, including potentially summarizing reports, generating content ideas, and routing customer emails to the proper department.
Dynamics 365 Copilot automates certain ‘tedious tasks,’ such as manual data entry, content generation, and note-taking.
The new version of Dynamics 365 business management platform also includes AI integration, allowing the Copilot to draft contextual answers to queries in chat and email, create an email summary of a Teams meeting in Outlook (while pulling in details from the seller’s system), and provide an interactive chat experience over knowledge bases and case history.
In addition, Copilot integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to help businesses streamline their sales and customer support processes.
However, large language models have a big problem with hallucination, or a tendency to make things up. Given the recent Bing Chat debacle, business owners might be reticent to hand over important business tasks to potentially unreliable AI systems.
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, is expected to host an event on March 16 to discuss ‘reinventing productivity with AI.’ While Microsoft recently announced AI updates for its Windows operating system, it has yet to do so for its Office productivity suite, which includes Word and Excel. With the inclusion of OpenAI technology, it is likely that Microsoft will continue to invest in generative AI assistants to improve overall efficiency for businesses.