With AI and low-code development tools, IT teams can tackle the problems they know best on their own, without additional assistance from outsider developers. Putting AI-powered low-code development tools in the hands of pro developers is like handing over the keys to a solution machine. With vast, built-in app-building knowledge and conversational language prompts that guide beginners and turbo-boost pros, AI can speed the time to build solutions for the unique needs of your IT department.

By using AI and low-code development, IT teams can build smart, fast solutions to their own problems—problems exacerbated by growing demands on data. CIOs who can bring AI-powered low-code and no-code solutions to their employees are putting their organizations in prime position to drive innovation.

Use cases for an AI-powered, low-code development platform abound, especially in an organization’s IT department, but we’ll focus on the five things we’d imagine IT teams would want to start doing if they were empowered with those tools today.

1. Offloading boring, repetitive, and mundane tasks to custom AI assistants

Imagine getting your team to use a low-code development platform to build a self-service assistant capable of handling the most common IT support requests in real time.

Instead of writing code, beginner and pro developers on the team can use simple, everyday English to guide the development process, speeding things along. And if your platform can connect with knowledge base systems like Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Copilot Studio do, then they can build a tool that automates the retrieval of documentation, FAQs, and previous support tickets so employees who need help can get accurate support without the need for human intervention.

Even if your organization still relies on legacy IT systems, AI and low-code can build bridges to older tools with UI, API, DPA, and RPA automation capabilities that can help automate tasks like data entry, report generation, and system monitoring that would otherwise dominate time and tie up people.

To find out how Copilot Studio can help your organization’s IT department, try a demo today.

2. Providing a secure, streamlined process for resetting employee passwords

To dig deeper into AI and low-code development to build tools that automate mundane tasks, consider the process for resetting employee passwords—something that comes with considerable security implications.

With AI-powered low-code development tools, an IT team can create a secure, streamlined process for resetting employee passwords that gets employees back online while enhancing overall identity management.

For instance, a system could be built that verifies user identity through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and biometric checks. Once the requester has been reviewed and approved as authorized, reset instructions could be passed along automatically, minimizing downtime for the employee requesting the reset while allowing IT support staff to focus on other tasks.

The system could also analyze user patterns to detect and flag suspicious activity, like too many reset attempts or reset requests originating from an unusual location, adding an extra layer of protection. With low-code platforms, these complex identity verification processes can be implemented quickly and efficiently, reducing the burden on IT staff while maintaining high security standards.

3. Empowering employees to troubleshoot technical issues through self-service

Some technical issues require human intervention, but many don’t. To free your human experts for your organization’s most challenging problems, help them design the self-service solution that could handle the most common requests that dominate their time.

For example, consider a complaint about a slow computer.

A generative AI-enabled self-service tool developed with AI on a low-code platform hears the user’s “slow computer” complaint, and then runs a series of diagnostic tests to determine the issue. Once the issue has been identified, the tool can generate instructions on what to do next.

This allows your IT experts to focus on more complex and critical problems, improving overall productivity and support quality within the organization.

To see how your IT department can use AI-powered low-code development to build a self-service help desk assistant with Copilot Studio, try a demo today

4. Making sure the right human beings get assigned the right tasks

About those complex and critical problems requiring human intervention—AI can actually help with making sure incoming helpdesk requests get to the right human agents.

Take the self-service tool we described above. Through the process of scanning incoming helpdesk requests, it can identify details that could help with prioritization and delegation. Once an issue’s urgency, complexity, and possible impact on the organization has been considered, the tool can direct tasks requiring human assistance to the teams or individuals best suited to help.

That way, team members can focus on what they do best, swiftly resolving critical issues and timely handling of less urgent tasks. This not only optimizes resource allocation, but also enhances overall service quality and response times within the IT department.

5. Logging service tickets and providing automatic status updates

Finally, instead of having to field status questions from waiting users, the IT team can build itself a tool for handling the task automatically.

On low-code platforms like Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio, for example, the process would be easy. Without extensive coding knowledge, an IT team member could build an AI assistant that connects to whatever IT service management (ITSM) platform the company uses, and runs through the steps of creating, assigning, and updating tickets automatically, providing update notifications to employees via email, Teams, or other communication platforms.

If the team integrates its assistant with a network monitoring tool, it could even detect some likely issues before they have a chance to impact users. For example, if a connected monitoring tool detects an issue, the helpdesk assistant can create a ticket in the ITSM system that includes details from the monitoring tool alert, assigns an accurate priority level, and enables swift resolution of the issue.

Integrating AI and low-code can transform your IT strategy

We’ve walked through just a few examples of how IT departments can begin with AI-powered low-code development right away, but many more use cases, workflows, and connections are possible.

Integrating AI and low-code development tools revolutionizes IT departments by streamlining processes, enhancing productivity, and enabling rapid innovation. From automating repetitive tasks to improving ticket resolution times and empowering self-service troubleshooting, AI-powered low-code solutions unlock immense potential for IT teams.

By adopting these tools, organizations can optimize resource allocation, facilitate timely responses, and drive continuous improvement.

Start using AI-powered low-code development today to transform your IT strategy and stay ahead in the digital landscape. To find out how Copilot Studio can help your organization’s IT department, try a demo today.

The post 5 ways IT departments can get started with low-code and AI  appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

For executives, understanding the role of conversational AI within the broader low-code strategy is critical to staying competitive. This technology is not just about keeping pace—it’s about setting the pace and meeting human beings, customers, and employees alike, where they are. And human beings are becoming harder to please. In a recent article, McKinsey & Company observes that two-thirds of millennials expect real-time customer service, and “three-quarters of all customers expect consistent cross-channel service experience.”¹ AI-enabled customer service tools can help deliver those experiences for both customers and employees.  

In this blog post, we’ll walk through how conversational AI can improve both customer and employee experiences. We’ll also examine how Microsoft Copilot Studio enables organizations to build, deploy, and scale custom copilots, which are pivotal for driving efficiencies and tackling unique business challenges, thereby allowing the creation of solutions that are precisely tailored to organizational needs. 

Improving customer satisfaction and engagement 

 According to the 2023 Gartner^® report How Generative AI Can Help Meet Customer Experience Expectations, “Customer retention and growth feature heavily in the plans of executives interested in generative AI. Thirty-eight percent of leaders see improving customer experience and retention as the primary purpose of initiatives to deploy applications trained on large language models, while 26% highlight revenue growth. Only 17% cite cost optimization”.² 

One example of a company using conversational AI and low-code to improve customer experiences is Nsure.com, a medium-sized organization of 900 employees. The company, which matches customers with insurance carriers, has been using Copilot Studio to create copilots—custom AI assistants that can take on mundane and repetitive tasks so employees can concentrate on higher-value responsibilities.  

Copilot Studio provides thousands of pre-built data connectors, which make it easy for organizations like Nsure.com to point their custom copilots to multiple first- and third-party data sources, tailor them for different applications, and extend capabilities from basic knowledge-based responses to complex task automation. 

Nsure.com builds its copilots to support sales activities (including up-selling and cross-selling) and streamline interactions with customers, with a goal of having as much as 90% of incoming customer requests handled automatically. With copilots processing insurance quotes, payments, renewals, and discounts, Nsure.com agents can focus on what they do best: providing high levels of attentive customer service. 

Improving the employee experience 

Copilots automate everyday business processes, which empowers employees to spend more time on complex tasks, strategic initiatives, innovation, and higher-value responsibilities, leading to more satisfying employee experiences and an overall increase in staff productivity. 

One company with an especially ambitious automation goal is Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States. In just four years, the company has used low-code and conversational AI to empower more than 4,300 makers, including advanced digital creators and new citizen developers, to realize more than 315 low-code/no-code solutions that save nearly 527,000 hours (almost $75 million in savings) each year.  

We felt there was a ton of value to be had throughout our organization in terms of streamlining and automating a lot of low-value work and re-dedicating people in the organization to doing high-value work.

Mark Seveska, Executive Sponsor, IT Products and Enterprise Solutions, PG&E

Thanks to a powerful new AI assistant built with Copilot Studio that now meets 25% to 40% of PG&E’s help desk demand, the company has optimized the workloads of its busy agents and provided sizeable labor savings and service-level improvements. In fact, the amount of time saved on just one process—automating end-to-end SAP account unlock requests—adds up to 840 saved hours per year. 

Low-code development can facilitate collaboration and communication among teams by providing real-time access to information, coordinating workflows, and fostering collaboration between different departments or team members, like business users and pro developers. 

According to Gartner Webinar, “By 2026, code written by developers/humans will be reduced by 50% due to generative AI code generation models.” ³

Further underlining the transformative power of AI, research presented in a Gartner webinar on generative AI’s practical applications suggests a significant shift in the development landscape. By 2026, human-written code could be reduced by up to 50% due to the advent of generative AI code generation models, reshaping the future role of developers and accelerating the pace of innovation.³ 

For instance, Africa’s largest bank—Standard Bank of South Africa—has adopted a low-code approach to automate processes, conduct analyses, and develop solutions for various business requirements. They have established a Center of Excellence (CoE) to support more than 1,500 citizen developers who utilize Microsoft Power Platform across the bank’s global network.   

Employees who had never dreamed of being developers were surprised at how easily they could build solutions with Power Platform to solve their business challenges.

Richard Blackwell, Standard Bank Infrastructure Management, Employee Experience, Head – Engineering Team, Standard Bank of South Africa

With strong governance, thanks to its CoE, the bank has been able to grow from productivity solutions for smaller teams to enterprise solutions, like an IT help desk bot built in Copilot Studio that now resolves 99% of all employee queries.

Discover how Microsoft Copilot Studio can help improve customer and employee experiences in your organization.

Get started with Copilot Studio today

As we wrap up our discussion, it’s clear that the transformative power of AI lies in its capacity to elevate both the customer and employee experience. By integrating conversational AI and crafting your own copilots with Copilot Studio, organizations can unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency, gain deeper customer insights, and chart new pathways for growth, truly embodying AI as a strategic asset.  

Whether you’re at the inception of your AI adoption journey or looking to scale existing capabilities, Copilot Studio offers a robust, low-code platform that simplifies the design, enhancement, and management of AI copilots, making it accessible for users of all expertise levels to deploy solutions across various channels swiftly. Begin your transformative journey with Copilot Studio today and extend the capabilities of copilots or create ones uniquely on your own.

Start a free trial of Copilot Studio.

Sources:

¹ The next frontier of customer engagement: AI-enabled customer service, McKinsey & Company, 2023.

2 Gartner, How Generative AI Can Help Meet Customer Experience Expectations, By Gene Alvarez, Uma Challa, Leah Leachman, 3 August 2023.

3 Gartner Webinar, Beyond the Hype: The Practical Applications & Use Cases of Generative AI, 2023.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Improving customer and employee experiences with Microsoft Copilot Studio   appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

Conversational AI refers to a computer’s ability to understand human communication. Conversational AI solutions are based on conversational interactions between human users and AI agents. Custom AI assistants or copilots made possible by conversational AI have become essential for automating routine processes, providing valuable insights, and elevating customer and employee experiences.

And because conversational AI can simplify the development of new, custom AI assistants, choosing the right platform can empower organizations to innovate and quickly transform employee and customer interactions. In this blog, we explore what conversational AI can deliver for modern businesses and address the key factors that chief information officers (CIOs) should consider when incorporating conversational AI solutions into their organizations.

Driving digital transformation

Conversational AI lies at the forefront of digital transformation, and its ability to drive innovation and transform customer interactions makes it not just an asset but a necessity for maintaining competitive advantage. According to research cited from Forrester, 71% of business and technology professionals familiar with conversational AI have indicated their organizations were actively investing in it.¹

AI-enabled assistants are invaluable for automating routine tasks, freeing humans to take on more complex challenges. By integrating these assistants into digital touchpoints, organizations can enhance their digital presence and stay competitive.

At Microsoft, we’ve seen the impact of copilots, which are Microsoft’s AI assistants, on productivity first-hand with our own employees and early customers. In a study of 1,300 Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 users across different functions and industries, we learned that the impact of copilots on productivity can be profound. After just 11 weeks of usage, the average person reports saving 14 minutes per day for a time savings of almost five hours per month, and the most efficient users are saving up to 30 minutes per day—the equivalent of 10 hours per month.²

For organizations that want to build their custom copilots, there’s Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft’s next-generation conversational AI studio. Copilot Studio combines generative AI, large language models, and a rules-based engine to provide end-to-end low-code development and transform the way copilots are designed, enhanced, and managed. Users of all skill levels can easily create automated, connected copilots and publish them to any channel with a few clicks.

As a graphical low-code tool for creating and maintaining copilots, Copilot Studio makes it possible to design individual AI assistants that can serve employees, customers, and partners using an organization’s knowledge, connectors to line-of-business (LOB) applications, and its own custom topics.

Microsoft has been named as a “Leader” in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide General Purpose Conversational AI Software 2023 Vendor Assessment. The report states, “Good Conversational AI solutions can improve productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and provide 24 x 7 support at a fraction of the cost of human agents.” The report went on to say, “Microsoft’s customers praised its overall engineering expertise and its industry and use case expertise in conversational AI, particularly the accuracy of its speech-to-text offerings.”³

Learn more about Copilot Studio.

Centralizing cloud management

Using conversational AI to create low-code AI assistants is just the first step—to ensure operational objectives across departments, it will be critical to maintain vigilant oversight of their performance throughout your organization.

Copilot Studio’s unified cloud control provides IT with centralized management, integrated analytics, and enterprise-grade security. It simplifies the monitoring and analysis of key performance metrics and uses AI-enhanced insights to track topic trends and usage patterns across every platform—from web interfaces to mobile apps—which helps ensure a consistent end-user experience.

Copilot Studio also simplifies the update process with a few simple clicks. No longer bogged down by complex coding, your team can swiftly implement updates, ensuring your conversational AI maintains peak performance.

One early Copilot Studio customer that has seen the benefit of easy updates is PayPal, which credits Copilot Studio for increasing employee loyalty and engagement by helping reduce workloads and costs for its support team.

Copilot Studio enables us to build and make quick updates to an employee-facing copilot that can reason over multiple knowledge sources and provide consistent and relevant answers. ⁴

Ramesh Murugan, Director, Employee Technology & Experiences, PayPal

Ensuring customer satisfaction

With its ability to understand and respond to questions and provide personalized, multi-channel interactions, conversational AI truly shines in enhancing customer experiences. In today’s customer service domain, where swift and efficient resolution of inquiries can significantly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty, reliability is essential.  

According to a recent Forrester report on conversational AI for customer service, “Customers reach out to brands for support when they have a question or a problem that needs to be solved. It is very important to customers in a support interaction that they get what they need quickly and efficiently, particularly with mundane tasks such as checking order status or a company’s hours of operation. A good self-service application makes things easy for the customer, which is what they want.” ⁵

Learn how Copilot Studio can help transform your organization’s customer interactions.

Managing IT governance and risk

One conversational AI challenge that CIOs grapple with is IT governance and risk management. AI assistants can be powerful assistants capable of transforming work processes, but only when users consider them reliable and trustworthy.

According to Gartner^®, “Customers expect effortless access to content, quick resolution of issues, and seamless product experiences. Churn rates can be high if the information provided by the company is inconsistent or even contradictory, resolving problems takes a lot of customer time, or the AI assistant experience is not intuitive or doesn’t meet expectations. Smoother encounters with your organization are the prize to pursue—not just cost cutting. Replacing service people with bots that annoy or frustrate those seeking help will not boost retention.” ⁶

Microsoft takes trust seriously, and we’re proud of our contributions as a leader in AI. Microsoft has been conducting critical research into generative AI (GAI), machine learning (ML), and related areas since 2014, and in 2019 we demonstrated our commitment to responsible AI by creating a dedicated Office of Responsible AI, which developed RAI Standard for translating principles into actionable guidance for our engineering teams. Furthermore, we require our teams to follow the Responsible AI Standard and complete a responsible AI impact assessment as part of our internal compliance review process before shipping any AI product.

Additionally, Copilot Studio’s compliance features ensure responsible AI practices and data security. Microsoft complies with data protection and privacy laws applicable to cloud services around the world. Our compliance with world-class industry standards is verified.

Self-service for employees

Of course, AI assistants can be used in nearly every dimension of a business, not just customer service. Internally, AI assistants offer self-service options for employees. From IT support to HR inquiries, conversational AI can help employees find answers instantly. CIOs should promote self-service adoption to empower employees and optimize resource allocation.

Organizations implementing Copilot Studio have created sophisticated copilots that alleviate the workload of helpdesk agents by automating mundane and repetitive tasks. This innovation has led to shorter wait times and enhanced productivity across the board.

These custom copilots are capable of addressing 25% to 40% of help desk inquiries, providing efficient self-service solutions that either resolve queries directly or navigate employees to specific resources. By automating functions such as system logins and account management, these organizations have realized substantial labor savings, amounting to an annual financial benefit of over $1 million.

To explore the transformative impact of Copilot Studio in streamlining operations and reallocating resources towards higher-value work, consider reading the customer story of Pacific Gas & Electric.

Start using Copilot Studio today

In conclusion, conversational AI is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s a strategic imperative. CIOs who embrace it as part of their technology roadmap will unlock value, enhance customer experiences, and position their organizations for success in the digital age.

Begin your conversational AI journey with a free trial of Copilot Studio today.

Sources:

¹ Design Better Chatbots, Forrester

² AI Data Drop: The 11 by 11 Tipping Point (microsoft.com)

³ IDC MarketScape: Worldwide General Purpose Conversational AI Software 2023 Vendor Assessment (doc #US49988023, November 2023) 

⁴ How early adopters are transforming their organizations with copilots | Microsoft Copilot Studio

⁵ The Conversational AI For Customer Service Landscape, Q4 2023

⁶ Gartner, How Generative AI Can Help Meet Customer Experience Expectations; By Gene Alvarez, Uma Challa, Leah Leachman, 3 August 2023

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Microsoft Copilot Studio and the role of conversational AI in your organization’s IT strategy appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

Make sure you sign up to hear the latest and greatest for Power Virtual Agents and how we are enabling fusion bot building teams to achieve more.

Main sessions: 

Breakout: How to accelerate cloud automation and conversational bot development for developers (Wednesday, May 25th, 12:00 PM – 12:45 PM PDT))

Ask the Experts: Accelerate cloud automation and conversational bot development
On-demand: What’s new for Microsoft’s Conversational AI and Power Virtual Agents

Get involved! 

Customer Roundtable: Managing Conversational Bots in an Enterprise (Tuesday, May 24th, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PDT)
Join the customer roundtable and share your thoughts to help shape Power Virtual Agents roadmap.

One-to-One Consultations on Power Virtual Agents
Sign up to speak with some of our product managers in engineering about your conversational bot projects.

Other Power Platform sessions: 

Keynote: Innovate with collaborative apps and low code (Tuesday, May 24th,  10:50 AM – 11:10 AM PDT)

Into Focus: Low Code solutions using Microsoft Power Platform  (Wednesday, May 25th, 11:15 AM – 12:00 PM PDT)

Breakout: Power up your development efforts with the latest low code innovations (Tuesday, May 24th, 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM PDT)

On demand: Implement Power Platform with Architecture Best Practices and Fusion Development
On demand: Exciting innovations in Power Automate

Learn. Connect. Discover. Let’s innovate without compromise, develop creatively, and find out what more you can do with Power Virtual Agents.

Get started

If you want to learn more about Power Virtual Agents prior to Microsoft Build, be sure to visit aka.ms/LearnPVA.

Don’t forget to use #PowerVirtualAgents to share what excites you about the announcements.

The post Sign up now – Power Virtual Agents at Microsoft Build (May 24-26) appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

The Power Virtual Agents in a Day (PVAIAD) events are free one-day workshops where you will learn how to create, integrate, extend, deploy and monitor conversational bots.

We are excited to invite customers and partners to join the Power Virtual Agents in a Day (PVAIAD) events and get hands-on with the technology!

What is it?

PVAIAD is a beginner-level training designed for everyone to learn how to respond rapidly to customers and employees at scale, using intelligent conversational chatbots!

The content will teach you the fundamentals of building a Power Virtual Agents, where you will be able to easily create your own bots without writing code, take action quickly with seamless integrations, and build smart bots using rich and personalized conversations.

These events will be run by qualified Microsoft partners, who are deeply knowledgeable about Power Virtual Agents and can help your organization get the most value out of your virtual agent ideas.

How can customers sign up?

The list of events and their dates are available at   https://aka.ms/PVAIADevent.

We will continue to add more regions so please check back.

How can partners deliver this training?

If you would like to host such PVAIAD events in the future, please register here, and email xiadevents@microsoft.com with any questions you have.

This program is designed to enable you to build expertise, showcase your Power Virtual Agents solutions to customers and foster the right customer-partner connections.

Where can I find the content?

Instructor:  https://aka.ms/PVAinadayInstructor

Student:  https://aka.ms/PVAinaDayPackage

Updates to PVA in a day (January 2022)

Presenter deck now includes:

• Customer Stories
• Control who in the organization can chat with the bot section
• Update to importing/export bots with Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) section

Two new optional labs & content added:

• Lab 15 – Extend your bot using Bot Framework Composer (Optional)
• Lab 16 – Add a telephone number to your bot using AudioCodes (Optional)

General updates to existing labs including steps and screenshots

To learn more about Power Virtual Agents, check out:

Recent market trends – The future of bot building 

Analyst reports – Microsoft named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for WW General-Purpose Conversational AI Platforms

Economic impact reports – The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents

New product features – What’s new with Power Virtual Agents at Ignite

The post Get started with Power Virtual Agents in a Day appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

What is Power Virtual Agents (PVA)?

• PVA empowers everyone to create intelligent conversational bots – from citizen developers, business users to professional developers alike – to seamlessly build secure and scalable virtual agents.
• Whether it’s a simple FAQ or a complex conversational requirement, accelerate bot building with an intuitive world-class designer to respond to both customer and colleague needs.
• Enable fusion development throughout the organization without compromising quality through a collaborative bot-building approach where subject matter experts and developers can partner.
• Pro developers can easily extend bots using the Bot Framework Composer (included in the PVA subscription) – all in the cloud – meaning there are no concerns about managing the underlying infrastructure.
• Embed Power Automates’ digital process automation into conversations, with hundreds of prebuilt connectors for your line of business applications.
• Native integration with other Microsoft tools including Teams, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and the Power Platform to maintain efficiencies without leaving applications.
• Built on the Microsoft Bot Framework, makers can deploy bots with multi-lingual, multi-modal, and multi-channel experiences.
• Continuously improve bots with out-of-the-box natural language understanding and AI self-learning features and analytics.

Power Virtual Agents STARTING LINKS

• Learn the tool and UI: Get started for free | Guided click through
• Key links: Website | Blog | Documentation | Community | Suggest Ideas | YouTube Playlist | PVA in a day | Self-paced PVA in a day (Download)
• Recent News: Future of bot building | Analyst report | ROI/Business Value Reports | New Features

Join the Cloud Skills Challenge for Power Virtual Agents!

For the month of January, Power Virtual Agents has its very own Cloud Skills Challenge! this includes a tailored set of learning content about Power Virtual Agents with a fun leaderboard to see how you match against other learners.
Sign up here and share with your friends and colleagues.
If you manage to complete all 17 modules, tweet us @MSPowerVirtual with the #PVAchallenge and a screenshot!

I am NEW, help me get started

Beginner Learning Paths:             

• Introduction to Power Virtual Agents
• How to build a basic chatbot
• Enhance Power Virtual Agents bots
• Get started with Power Virtual Agents bots
• Manage topics in Power Virtual Agents
• Create apps, chatbots, flows, and more with Microsoft Dataverse and Teams
• Create a chatbot with Power Virtual Agents and Dataverse for Teams

I have SOME EXPERIENCE

Intermediate:

• Create bots with Power Virtual Agents
• Manage Power Virtual Agents
• Proactive Messaging in Power Automate RPA and Power Virtual Agents processes
• Implementing a Power Virtual Agents Fallback Topic
• Using Global Variables in Power Virtual Agents
• Logging Salesforce Cases Using Power Virtual Agents and Power Automate
• Parsing Dates with Power Virtual Agents and Power Automate
• Connecting Power Virtual Agents to ServiceNow using Power Automate

Advanced:

• Solution Architect series: Power Platform architecture
• Solution Architect: Design Microsoft Power Platform solutions
• Solution architect series: Explore Power Virtual Agents
• Solution Architect series: Testing and go-live
• Solution Architect series: Evaluate Power Platform analytics and AI
• Custom Validation in Power Virtual Agents using Regular Expressions
• Adding Thumbnail Cards to Power Virtual Agents/Bot Composer Framework Chatbots

I am looking for BEST PRACTICES

• Power Virtual Agents quick start guide | Ebook
• Power Virtual Agents whitepaper | Download
• Power Virtual Agents best practices | Download | Blog
• Building responsible bots | Guidance
• Community posts | Murali Kumanduri | Dhina Gajavarathan

I am looking for CERTIFICATIONS, COURSES & BOOKS

Microsoft Official Certifications:

• Power Platform App Maker (PL-100)
• Power Platform Fundamentals (PL-900)
• Power Platform Functional Consultant (PL-200)
• Power Platform Solution Architect (PL-600)

Unofficial resources:

• LinkedIn Learning course: Getting started
• Packt’s Power Virtual Agents Book: Empowering Organizations with Power Virtual Agents

I use the POWER PLATFORM, how can I integrate?

• PVA & Power Automate: Blog | Webinar | Automate actions for a bot
• PVA & PowerApps: Embedding PVA into Power App portals | PVA as an iFrame in Power Apps Canvas
• PVA & PowerBI: Custom Analytics Solution with BI
• PVA & Dataverse: Call dataverse data via Power Automate

I use MICROSOFT TEAMS, how can I integrate?

• Get started for free in Microsoft Teams at https://aka.ms/PVAForTeams
• PVA in Teams: Guidance | Mechanics Show
• PVA in Teams new features: Ignite Show
• PVA in Teams template: Blog | Github

I use AZURE, how can I integrate?

• PVA on Azure:  Homepage
• PVA & Azure Bot Framework Composer (Included in your PVA subscription): Blog | Build a bot series | Tech docs
• PVA & QnA maker: Guidance
• PVA & Azure Services: Calling as bot skills | Calling as Power Automate flow

I use DYNAMICS 365, how can I integrate?

• PVA & Dynamics 365 Customer Service chat bots: Blog | Guidance | Hand off to live agent
• PVA & D365 Customer Service voice bots: Ignite session | Guidance
• PVA & D365 Sales: Encore’s example
• PVA & D365 Finance and operations: Techtalk

I am interested in CENTRE OF EXCELLENCES, ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE

• Power Platform Adoption | Webpage | Workbook| Best Practices | Adoption Maturity Model
• Power Platform Centre of Excellence starter Kit | Guidance | Github
• Power Platform Admin Centre | Login
• Security and Governance | Blog
• Power Platform International Availability | Guidance | PDF download
• Regional settings and data locations | Guidance
• GDPR Compliance | Guidance
• Environment strategy | Blog
• Governance considerations | Guidance

I am a Microsoft PARTNER

• Power Virtual Agents in a day events:  Register here or email xiadevents@microsoft.com.
• Power Platform partner stories | Here

Show me CUSTOMER STORIES

• The Miami Dolphins give fans the information they want when they want it with Power Virtual Agents
• Fusion development teams and Power Virtual Agents enable rapid COVID-19 response at Ottawa Public Health
• HP uses artificial intelligence to transform its customer support experience
• TruGreen’s new take on technology—a catalyst for greener lawns and happier customers
• International energy services & solutions company maximises the returns from citizen development
• Microsoft improves marketing operations efficiency with Microsoft Power Platform
• Virgin Atlantic reaches new heights with innovations powered by the Microsoft Cloud
• Nonprofit digitally transforms to enable remote collaboration and respond to a community in crisis
• Transforming healthcare delivery with virtual consultations on Microsoft Teams and Power Virtual Agents
• ÖBB builds low code chatbot, delivers better customer service to travellers with Power Virtual Agents

All public customer stories available here

Our COMMUNITY

• Tomasz Poszytek – YouTube
• Lisa Crosbie – YouTube
• Renato Romao – YouTube
• Prashant Shukla – YouTube
• Reza Dorrani – YouTube
• Kent Weare – YouTube
• Matt Collins Jones – YouTube
• Dhruvin Shah – YouTube
• Eric Sauve – YouTube

I need some HELP

• Join the Power Virtual Agents Community
• View Documentation
• Bot Sharing Gallery
• Partner Appsource
• View the blog

We hope you find all of these resources useful! if you have any feedback on areas you would like to learn more, let us know by tweeting us @MSPowerVirtual.

The post New Year Resolution – Build powerful conversational bots! appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

The Power Virtual Agents in a Day (PVAIAD) events are free one-day workshops where you will learn how to create, integrate, extend, deploy and monitor conversational bots.

We are excited to invite customers and partners to join the Power Virtual Agents in a Day (PVAIAD) events and get hands-on with the technology!

What is it?

No matter if you are a business expert or IT developer, you will learn to develop intelligent bots in less than a day using Power Virtual Agents!

The content will teach you the fundamentals of building a Power Virtual Agents, where you will be able to easily create your own bots without writing code, take action quickly with seamless integrations, and build smart bots using rich and personalized conversations.

These events will be run by qualified Microsoft partners, who are deeply knowledgeable about Power Virtual Agents and can help your organization get the most value out of your virtual agent ideas.

Updates to PVA in a day (January 2022)

The new year means new updates! We have made a number of changes to the content which you can see below.

New content added to presenter deck:

• Customer Stories
• Control who in the organization can chat with the bot section
• Update to importing/export bots with Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) section

Two new optional labs & content added

• Lab 15 – Extend your bot using Bot Framework Composer (Optional)
• Lab 16 – Add a telephone number to your bot using AudioCodes (Optional)

General updates to existing labs including steps and screenshots

How do I sign up?

The list of events and their dates are available at  https://aka.ms/PVAIADevent.

We will continue to add more regions so please check back.

Calling all partners!

If you would like to host such PVAIAD events in the future, please register here, and email xiadevents@microsoft.com with any questions you have.

This program is designed to enable you to build expertise, showcase your Power Virtual Agents solutions to customers and foster the right customer-partner connections.

You can catch up on the train-the-trainer event to help you learn how to deliver such a workshop. The recording is available here.

Interested in teaching yourself?

Good news! You’re able to download the PVA in a day content from the below direct download links.

• Instructor: https://aka.ms/PVAinadayInstructor
• Student: https://aka.ms/PVAinaDayPackage

To learn more about Power Virtual Agents, check out:

• Recent market trends – The future of bot building 
• Analyst reports – Microsoft named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for WW General-Purpose Conversational AI Platforms
• Economic impact reports – The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents
• New product features – What’s new with Power Virtual Agents at Ignite

Sign up to the Power Virtual Agents in a day events

The post Power Virtual Agents In A Day – Getting started appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

The IDC MarketScape says Microsoft is “a strong vendor if you use a combination of code and low or no-code tools to develop conversational AI scenarios, especially if you are a large enterprise looking for a broad set of cloud-based services for building and deploying conversational AI”. You can download a complimentary excerpt.

Microsoft offers both software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) options for building, training, deploying, and managing conversational AI across a wide range of channels.

• Power Virtual Agents: Microsoft’s SaaS offering, provides a web-based intuitive graphical interface and enables all makers to build conversational AI solutions without having to manage the underlying infrastructure.
• Azure Bot Service: Microsoft’s PaaS offering, allows pro developers to build virtual assistants through both visual and code-based interfaces.

Figure 1: “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide General-Purpose Conversational AI Platforms 2021 Vendor Assessment.”

The IDC MarketScape recognized Microsoft as a leader in general-purpose conversational AI platforms who provides a broad set of SaaS and PaaS services, the ability to give voice-based assistants custom voices and in a variety of languages, as well as overall engineering expertise in conversational AI.

Let’s take a closer look at the capabilities that Power Virtual Agents and Azure Bot Service offer.

Power Virtual Agents

• Build bots faster, easier—make, test, and publish bots with an intuitive low code UI, automated workflows with 450 plus prebuilt data connectors, and rich AI. Deploy to multiple channels and extend with code to accelerate developer velocity.
• Secure and scale with trust—monitor, manage, and improve bots with prebuilt analytics and a unified admin center to maintain enterprise-grade compliance and governance.
• One platform, unlimited innovation—leverage the broader Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Cloud including native integration with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Azure Bot Service

• Accelerate bot building with Azure Bot Service Composer—start from a template and use a visual, open-source authoring canvas. Extend and customize the conversation with code when needed.
• Add natural language, speech, and vision—infuse your bot with the high-quality AI capabilities of Azure Cognitive Services.
• Deploy to popular channels with minimal code changes—build once and deploy your bot to more than 13 channels to reach customers.

As organizations increasingly empower fusion teams of subject matter experts and pro developers to partner together to build and manage bots, Microsoft is working hard to ensure that SMEs using Power Virtual Agents and pro developers using Azure Bot Service Composer can collaboratively build intelligent bots. For example, the integration between Power Virtual Agents and Composer enables SMEs to start building bots with Power Virtual Agents’ graphical interface and deploy them quickly to the channel of their choice. When needed, pro developers can extend those bots with Composer to create custom dialogs that handle interruptions, cancelations, and context switching—all within Power Virtual Agents’ SaaS environment. Furthermore, we have also announced capabilities to allow both Power Virtual Agents and Azure Bot Service to be used as skills bidirectionally. For example, Azure Bot Service bots as a skill can be used with Power Virtual Agents hosted bots, and Power Virtual Agents bots as a skill with Azure Bot Service bots (preview). This allows customers to ensure that they can use the tools that best work for their unique needs.

The post Microsoft named a Leader in IDC MarketScape for WW General-Purpose Conversational AI Platforms appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.

Find out how five companies in industries as diverse as energy infrastructure, media and entertainment, travel and transport, and manufacturing use Power Virtual Agents to empower everyone to create intelligent conversational bots to automate business processes, reduce development costs, and drive further efficiencies with key analytics and insights.

The Study

Read this 2021 commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, to explore the financial gains a composite organization with 10,000 employees can expect over three years, including:

• An overall ROI of 261%.
• Significant reduction in manual ticket support for both internal employees and customers by 66% and 50%, respectively.
• Ability to meet increased demands without increasing employee headcount, saving over $1 Million.
• Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Read the full study with this downloadable copy or watch this webinar.

The post The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents  appeared first on Microsoft Copilot Blog.