Generative AI in Microsoft Dynamics 365

With all that’s been happening around AI in Microsoft, everyone wants to know how technology is transforming. In this article, we bring to you a quick overview of updates to watch out for with special emphasis on AI in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

A recent Microsoft survey found that 9 out of 10 workers hope to reduce their workload by getting AI to do repetitive tasks at work. In today’s world that’s digitally transforming at a rate like never before, businesses are looking to bring higher levels of efficiency at scale into daily operations.

Over the years Microsoft has proactively leveraged AI in Azure Cloud, in Dynamics 365 business applications across CRM & ERP, and on the Low-code Power Platform. This includes key automation and insights along the lines of conversational intelligence, lead scoring, predictive analysis, forecasts, the AI Builder – the list just goes on.

However, the groundbreaking headline in recent times has been the buzz around OpenAI’s generative AI – The ChatGPT. In a record advent-to-implementation plan, Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to bring GPT capabilities natively into the Microsoft Ecosystem. If you’re a Microsoft user, it certainly is exciting news! And if you’re not, it’s time to explore what this is really about.

Building on the GPT capabilities, Microsoft recently announced the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot. With this update, the conversation on AI is no longer “How can I use ChatGPT?“.

It’s now a much broader question: “What all can AI do for me?”

The AI Timeline for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

2023 has already been ground-breaking and we are only 3 months in. With all that’s been going around, one thing is clear – the future of technology is here. While the likes of Google and Salesforce have come up with their AI technology releases, the extent of Microsoft’s AI adoption is what makes it stand out.

Not just on the cloud, the AI capabilities extend across business applications, Office 365, and the Power Platform. Here’s a quick look at the AI timeline across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot is the world’s first AI Copilot that is natively built into CRM and ERP. Here’s a quick overview of how CoPilot works for CRM:

• Sales: Use Copilot to make Dynamics 365 for Sales faster and smarter. Automate emails, appointment booking, and meeting summaries on Teams and Outlook with generative AI capabilities.
• Marketing: Use Copilot in Dynamics 365 for Marketing to personalize communications and segment the target audience using the query assist feature. Prepare new email campaigns on a mere request to the powerful AI.
• Service: Use Copilot in Dynamics 365 for Service and get AI to draft contextual service chats, messages, and emails. With access to the knowledge base, CoPilot can also prompt the appropriate solutions to service queries.

It brings the next generation of AI capabilities and natural language processing to every line of business – ranging from sales and marketing to service and supply chain.

Genie in a Bottle

Business professionals can now generate ideas and content with the help of AI in Dynamics 365. They can easily transfer mundane and time-consuming tasks and let AI do the work. The tool can also obtain deep insights in addition to suggestions on the next best actions. In short, a user can describe his needs, and the AI gets it done. A little bit like a genie in a bottle, your wish is the AI’s command.

Here, we leave you with a powerful example of generative AI already incorporated in Dynamics 365 Copilot. This will give you a preview of work in the future, created by Microsoft.

Viva Sales, one of Microsoft’s earlier AI functionality, can now generate content suggestions based on customer emails. Importantly, it can populate it with data that is directly relevant to the recipient of the email. This can include pricing, promotions, or upcoming deadlines.

The Viva Sales – A Seller Experience with AI

A seller experience platform by Microsoft, that’s what Viva Sales is. An AI-powered tool to automate a lot of the recursive and mundane tasks performed by the front-end team. Viva Sales plugs in as an app to Outlook and Teams, while leveraging CRM data to suggest intelligent next steps and actions. Viva Sales can also summarize meetings, transcript calls, highlight key points of discussion, and much more.

Now, how this tool works is, first and foremost, the seller gets to choose from a set of AI-suggested reply options to communicate with a prospective buyer. Next, he/she can make minor edits to the generated content to add any level of hyper-personalization. And that’s it, the user can quickly copy out the content to email and send them out.

Today, the same task is being done manually by a seller. At first, the user sifts through tons of data to find relevant details. Then comes the manual crafting of emails one by one, incorporating personalization. And finally, the user has to double-check the information going through the CRM record.

According to Microsoft Research, everyday sellers spent 66 percent of their time at work managing emails.

The impact of AI on just one task at work is disruptive. Then what would the whole future of work created by Microsoft look like? 

CoPilot in Power Platform

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced the AI Builder on the Power Platform. It is a capability that allows users to build AI Models to design and optimize business processes. Leveraging Power BI and Power Automate, the AI functionality enables organizations to gain critical business insights and automate workflows with custom or pre-built models.

Mid-March 2023, Microsoft announced the AI Copilot in Power Apps – an absolute game-changer. This update aims to take the already existing low-code/no-code approach to the next level. Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and human capabilities will now work hand-in-hand toward leveraging natural language for app development.

What does this mean?

For example, as a user, you can simply type in a prompt like “Build a flow to automatically save attachments from an email into SharePoint”. Now, the Co-Pilot takes over and gives the user a Power Automate workflow to make the necessary adjustments that your app needs. All through a natural language prompt. Literally, no codes – How amazing is that!

It doesn’t stop there. You can now also leverage CoPilot in Power Virtual Agents to build ChatBots using prompts in natural language and have conversational dialogues ready in no time.

CoPilot in Microsoft 365

Simply put, this is all of your day-to-day applications, supercharged. Be it creating a PowerPoint presentation in minutes using mere prompts or getting suggestions and critical insights automatically from Excel – CoPilot will accelerate your work with a few clicks. Don’t believe us? Check it out for yourself below:

While this is just the beginning, the focus now would be on making these functions work as responsibly as possible. The idea is to empower users with smarter automation on mundane tasks with AI.

To learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and how it can be deployed for your organization, please feel free to reach out to us.

As a Gold Microsoft Partner, Metadata Technologies is a 100% CRM-focused company with 20 years of experience providing Customer Relationship Management solutions for business enterprises across the globe. Metadata has been the recipient of the Best Industry Partner Award in 2014 by Microsoft and is committed to delivering quality solutions to ensure peak customer satisfaction.