Microsoft’s New Transformational AI Build Tools

In March 2023, Microsoft announced Copilot, introducing advanced AI tools to boost user productivity across Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, and Word. Several months later, they expanded Copilot’s capabilities to include Dynamics 365 apps like Sales, Customer Service, and Finance and Operations. The goal was to bring native AI functionality to support users in their specific lines of business.

Today, Copilot is a familiar tool for many organizations worldwide. It delivers tangible ROI, saving users, depending on their role, up to several hours daily by automating tasks like gathering and analyzing information and preparing collateral.

Importantly, Copilot is not a single product—it’s a collection of AI capabilities grouped under the Copilot umbrella. Microsoft has created a base set of AI tools and integration points, leaving it to each product team to implement them within their own products.

Until now, Microsoft's approach has been fairly generic, with Copilot tailored to specific user personas. For example, Copilot for Customer Service is tailored to customer service teams, while Copilot for Sales targets sales teams. Users in one area don’t need capabilities designed for the other.

On the creator side, Copilot’s presence has been limited but is growing. For instance, it’s possible to use natural language prompts to build applications, automations, reports, and other components. However, creating more complex components, such as advanced architecture, remains a challenge—though Microsoft is working on it.

At the 2024 Power Platform Community Conference, Microsoft introduced a new tool: the Power Apps Plan Designer. Demonstrated live by Ryan Cunningham, VP for Power Apps, the tool is designed to help project teams plan solutions collaboratively.

The premise is simple—great solutions don’t usually start with code or UI design. Instead, project teams, made up of various personas like architects, business analysts, and developers, first need to understand the project’s requirements and user personas before building.

With Plan Designer, Copilot facilitates this planning phase by generating descriptions, process diagrams, data models, or even screenshots of legacy applications. Copilot uses this input to draft user roles and requirements for the solution. Team members can then adjust the requirements as needed, and Copilot will propose a relevant data model and other necessary solution components. This process is iterative and collaborative—teams can make changes at any stage, refining the user roles, data models, or overall solution design.

Notably, this added context doesn't disappear once the app is built—the plan evolves alongside the solution, ensuring the rationale behind decisions is not lost. Anyone editing the solution later can see not only the current state but also the thinking that led to it.

From the suggested apps view, makers can jump into app generation, preview the app live for validation, and use canvas or model-driven designers to further customize it.

This new approach to planning and building systems is transformative. While partners may have concerns about being replaced, this isn’t the case. Just as tools change over time, delivery teams will adapt. These new capabilities enhance their work by enabling teams to deliver more value in the same amount of time, not by eliminating their role.