Microsoft is revolutionizing development with low-code technology and integrating next-generation AI through its Power Platform. This approach not only empowers developers to solve business challenges more effectively but also enables end users to incorporate AI seamlessly into their workflows for increased productivity. By leveraging Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft enhances Power Virtual Agents and AI Builder, offering intuitive experiences for citizen developers and accelerated development for professionals, underscoring the transformative potential of AI and low-code integration in organizations.
Next-generation AI features for Power Virtual Agents and AI Builder
Introducing new features:
Conversation Booster in Microsoft Power Virtual Agents: Quickly integrate your bot with company-specific resources such as websites or internal knowledge bases. Instantly start answering queries with minimal setup, straight out-of-the-box. Learn more here.
Text Generation with GPT Model in AI Builder: AI Builder now integrates Azure OpenAI Service into its user-friendly interface. This enables creators to utilize a new low-code generative AI model and templates seamlessly with Microsoft Power Automate and Power Apps. Learn more here.
Our journey with AI Builder began four years ago as the first AI capability in Microsoft Power Platform, followed by the introduction of Power Apps Ideas —our initial foray into commercially available generative AI products. Continuing this momentum, we recently added express design capabilities to Power Apps and description features to Power Automate late last year, with more innovations on the horizon.
Conversation boosters in Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents revolutionizes chatbot creation with its low-code, visual drag-and-drop approach, making bot development accessible even to non-developers, supplemented by optional coding capabilities in preview mode. Traditionally, bot tools required manual setup of conversation topics and dialog flows by makers. However, the introduction of the conversation booster feature marks a significant shift.
This new capability leverages advanced AI to connect bots directly to current and relevant data sources, such as internal and external company websites. By doing so, bots can immediately utilize this data to respond to user queries without the need for manual topic authoring or additional development cycles. This enhancement allows developers to focus on designing intricate conversation flows, leading to higher resolution rates and improved customer outcomes.
The integration of conversation booster enables bots to access a centralized data repository, ensuring consistency across various channels while adhering to Microsoft’s principles of responsible AI. This capability also opens doors to new bot applications previously deemed resource-intensive, as bots can now swiftly search, summarize, and moderate responses with minimal setup, using only a URL. This agility enables the rapid deployment of bots to address repetitive inquiries in customer service, as well as internal functions like HR, IT, and operations.
Here are practical applications demonstrating how organizations can utilize the conversation booster:
A retail company develops a bot to address inquiries about seasonal job postings, leveraging existing content on recruitment procedures and company values.
A technology company swiftly integrates a bot with various product support knowledge bases and FAQs, offering customer support without the need for coding.
A media company creates an employee bot to handle routine HR questions regarding performance reviews, bonuses, and policies, utilizing pre-existing policy documentation. For a visual demonstration, view the videos showcasing these capabilities in action.
Create text with GPT model in AI Builder
AI Builder has democratized access to sophisticated AI models within Power Apps and Power Automate, offering capabilities like category classification, object detection, prediction, and sentiment analysis. Today, Microsoft introduces a new addition to AI Builder: the Azure OpenAI Service model. This enhancement enables organizations to integrate intelligent text generation features seamlessly into their Power Automate and Power Apps solutions with minimal effort. Makers can leverage prebuilt templates to interact with the model and create tailored prompts, significantly reducing development time for both citizen and professional developers alike.
Getting started with the new model in your app or flow is straightforward. Here are examples of how it can be used:
A researcher can automate the summarization of text from weekly reports using Power Automate, delivering insights directly to their email inbox. This accelerates analysis and facilitates the identification of themes and trends.
A marketing manager can generate targeted content ideas by inputting specific keywords or topics and using the generated text for emails or social media posts within their team's app.
A customer service agent can streamline operations by creating a flow in Power Automate to summarize, classify, and route customer queries swiftly, ensuring prompt responses to complaints or feedback.
AI Builder is an essential tool within Microsoft Power Platform, democratizing access to advanced AI capabilities. It empowers users of all backgrounds and levels of AI expertise to seamlessly integrate next-generation AI into the solutions they create, opening up limitless possibilities for innovation and efficiency.
You can find all the information regarding Microsoft’s recent announcements on the AI Hub.
Responsible AI at Microsoft
At Microsoft, our dedication to responsible AI is foundational. We adhere to a set of core principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. Through these principles, we ensure that our AI products are developed and used responsibly. We strive to empower our customers by sharing our insights and fostering trust-based collaborations. For our new services, we provide comprehensive information on their intended applications, capabilities, and constraints. This empowers our customers to make informed decisions when deploying our AI platform services responsibly.
Find out more here.