Power Platform | UPD: Copilot Governance

As the imminent Release Wave 1, 2024 approaches rollout to customer regions in the EU, it’s time to provide an update on Power Platform Copilot Governance options. I have previously discussed conducting a risk assessment without the prolonged commitment of a long-term project, and beginning to utilize the latest generative AI capabilities to allow employees to reap the benefits.

Microsoft equips Power Platform admin teams with two key areas within the Power Platform Admin Center to monitor and control the usage and behavior of Copilot in Power Platform. These two areas are the tenant settings and the individual environment feature settings.

Tenant settings

Let´s start on the tenant side first and take a look at this updated visual on options for controlling the behavior of Copilot.

Visual outlining tenant level Copilot governance options

There are three significant updates at the tenant level. The first is the announcement MC724165 on March 5th, 2024, where Microsoft declared that setting #1 mentioned in the above visual is no longer applicable to Copilot in Power Apps broadly. Instead, this setting will now only pertain to preview features. Consequently, the control level for generally available Copilot features in Power Apps has shifted to the environment level.

Secondly, there is a new tenant-wide opt-in switch that allows users to provide feedback on their product experience, specifically related to Copilot. Additionally, you will find a general product feedback switch at the tenant level. Thirdly, a new Copilot data collection switch has been introduced, which governs the permission for users to share their prompts, questions, and requests with Microsoft. When we talk about these sharing experiences keep in mind that data could leave the EU data boundary.

Environment level

Next, let’s examine the environmental level to see which control capabilities have recently emerged.

Visual outlining environmental level Copilot governance options

You may notice new settings in your environment for controlling the Copilot experience within the editor, as well as for data analysis using a chat interface in canvas and model-driven applications. Additionally, a new feature setting should appear to control the recently announced AI form fill assistance.

Wrap up

The recently introduced controls should make an administrator’s life easier by allowing them to grant just-enough-access to Copilot experiences within the Power Platform. User-driven innovation can now be enhanced with generative AI features within the Power Platform, and there’s more on the horizon. For those still skeptical about the overall use of Copilot, I strongly advise reading my suggested approach for conducting a risk assessment and documenting current capabilities to obtain approval from the entities that should be part of a comprehensive company AI companion strategy. I´ve recently talked about this during the Power Platform 24 hours community event. Please find the deck here. Until then,…

Power Platform | #CommunityRocks

This week, I engaged in community activities, such as attending Microsoft’s AI Tour in Berlin and conducting a Power Hour at Power Platform 24, where I discussed the risk assessment of Copilots. During my interaction with the developer community in Berlin, one question was particularly prominent: Which tool should be used for developing applications powered by generative AI in this era of AI? I had already offered some insights on this topic in my previous post.

Community Hub at Microsoft AI Tour – Berlin

Undoubtedly, it is crucial to share more information about the Microsoft Technology stack available and how developers can tailor it to meet their unique requirements. Equally important is ensuring that everyone is informed about the Responsible AI principles Microsoft implements in their Copilot experiences. Take for example the Copilot experiences that can be found in Power Platform:

Simplified overview of the Copilot architecture found in Power Platform

I’ve been utilizing the above visual as an example during my risk assessment presentation at Power Platform 24, emphasizing that exploring and assessing current and future capabilities is crucial for fostering a robust, secure, and adaptable ecosystem when employing a Copilot as a companion. Developers should be empowered to use the tool to create next-generation, AI-enhanced use cases to ensure their company’s success with AI tools. What are the opportunities?

The four buckets of AI transformation opportunities

Opportunities can be categorized into four groups: employee-centric, customer-focused, next-generation business processes, and innovation acceleration. A use case that might come up for you can be in one or multiple of these categories. The importance is to innovate confidently with a responsible AI platform. That means:

• Safeguard your organization, employees, and data with a cloud that runs on trust.
• Build on security and privacy-compliant infrastructure that is purpose-built for AI at scale.
• Grow with a commitment of putting responsible AI into action with principles, practices, and tools.

With that in mind, I am quite confident that through keynotes, such as those by Seth Juarez, we will broaden our understanding of responsible AI principles and collaboratively create innovations that offer more than just short-term business value.

If you´re interested in extending your knowledge, check out my slides I shared during my Power 24 session. I am looking forward to meet with yours in one of the next community events. It´s only a couple of weeks left, until Color Cloud Hamburg is going to kick off.

Advertisement of Color Cloud Hamburg session

Check out the program, get your tickets and don´t miss the chance to become part of the AI hackathon. A little bird shared with me there´re still some tickets available for the workshops. Consider joining my good friend Chris Huntingford and me for a unique lightning talk on Copilot for Power Platform. If you’re familiar with the „Will it Blend?“ series on YouTube, you might have an inkling of what to expect.

Until then,…

Power Platform | Copilot Studio, Azure AI Studio or both?

In today’s episode, I want to address a recurring myth: the division of developers into ‚low-code‘ and ‚pro-code‘ categories. When will we stop pigeonholing people based on assumptions? Didn’t study computer science? That doesn’t mean you can’t be a developer. Never used Visual Studio Code or other coding IDEs? That doesn’t preclude you from being a professional developer.

Visual of a slider between Low-code vs. Pro-code

The sight of visuals categorizing products can be frustrating, as they often make assumptions about the tools a developer from each category would or should choose. However, isn’t the beauty of today’s vast selection of tools that each developer has the freedom to make their own choice?

Envision this scenario: It’s morning in the office, and you’ve just entered the catering area. Following your daily ritual, you pick up a large mug and request your technical barista to prepare an ideal coffee variant to kickstart your day. Meanwhile, a colleague approaches and begins to share details about a use case idea that has been in discussion for some time. Wouldn’t it be great to have a solution for this that enhances productivity for all employees?

Visual outlining a generative AI (answers) use case with a large language model involved

The essence of the dialogue between a business technologist and an IT professional lies in ideation and a focus on innovation. This involves beginning with a sketch of potential architecture derived from the user story and brainstorming to identify the most suitable technology stack for the use case. Ideally, this would also account for variations of the use case in the future.

Visual of your copilot technology stack

Fortunately, you attended a recent Microsoft event where you photographed a presentation slide detailing key components of an AI safety and security framework. Considering building upon this, you noted that the event was divided into two discussion tracks: one focused on low-code solutions, the other on pro-code approaches.

Lucky you, a colleague of yours attended the same event, allowing you to divide and gather information from both discussion tracks. Here’s what was shared from the pro-code perspective:

Overview visual of Azure AI Studio and its main benefits and capabilities

During a networking break, you gathered to discuss the results of both tracks. Your colleague presented the visual above as a result. You begin browsing through your photo library on your phone and select one from your visit to the low-code perspective:

Overview visual of Microsoft Copilot Studio and its main benefits and capabilities

Indeed, it appears quite similar. What are the benefits for us developers, our company, and our business technologists as we create the next era of collaboration using tools that enhance our productivity and enable us to swiftly meet our customers‘ needs?

Back in the office, you and your colleague are assigned to summarize the event, the impressions, and the key takeaways, as well as its potential impact on the future of technology. Rather than making assumptions, you opt for a cohesive and engaging perspective that empowers every developer, whether in IT or business, to form their own conclusions.

Generating a summary slide of best of what has been presented

A fruitful discussion starts based on all the valuable content your colleague and yours have been collecting over the course of the event. Both of you extended your „no-brainer“ by adding further information on what would be beneficial when combining the technology stacks and it looked like this:

Optimal worlds to establish for present, forthcoming, and future challenges.

Returning to the earlier coffee break discussion with your business associate, you are now armed with a technology stack that seems apt for addressing the current and upcoming challenges of the described use case. Feeling empowered, you decide to divide the work on this project to create a rapid MVP that can be showcased to executive sponsors, aiding in the deployment of this solution in production. It’s gratifying to know that you’ve gathered an abundance of information from the Microsoft event you attended with your colleague, enhancing your developer toolchain with more robust tools.

Does the above short story seem familiar? You may have already assumed that I attended such an event, which allowed me to network and share knowledge within a larger developer community on topics like the one mentioned. Decide now—stop making assumptions. Delve into the rapidly evolving world of software development tools. Low-code has revolutionized the tool landscape and is here to stay. The same is becoming true for new generative AI tools. Embrace change and make a difference. Until then,…

Power Platform | Boost developer productivity

Low-code platforms like Power Platform are a revolutionary approach to software development that reduce the need for extensive coding knowledge and enable users to build applications using drag-and-drop components and data model-driven logic. These platforms offer several advantages for developers and businesses, such as

• faster development speed,
• simpler creation process,
• and wider accessibility.

However, low-code platforms also face some challenges or reservation in the developer community, such as limited customization, scalability issues, and vendor lock-in.

What AI does for Power Platform

In this episode, we will discover how Power Platform can solve these problems using AI technologies, and why CIOs should encourage their developers to adopt Power Platform low-code tools in their development process.

Why CIOs should motivate developers to use Power Platform

Low-code platforms like Power Platform can boost developer productivity and innovation by offering the following benefits:

• Speed and Simplicity: Power Platform enable developers to create applications faster and easier than traditional coding methods, reducing the time-to-market and the backlog of IT departments. Developers can focus on the core functionality and value proposition of their applications, rather than spending time on tedious and repetitive coding tasks.
• Flexibility and Customization: Power Platform is enhanced with AI technologies that offer intelligent code generation, code assistance, and integration capabilities. These AI tools can help developers to customize their applications to meet specific business or user needs, and to optimize their performance and scalability. Developers can also access and manipulate the underlying code when needed, giving them more Control and flexibility over their applications.
• Collaboration and Democratization: Power Platform enable non-technical users, or „citizen developers,“ to participate in ALM development process, fostering cross-functional collaboration and innovation within organizations. Developers can work with business analysts, domain experts, and end-users to gather feedback, iterate on ideas, and refine their solutions. Power Platform also democratize development, allowing more people to create and use applications without depending on IT departments. See the raise of Business Technologists, I was talking about previously.
• Quality and Maintainability: Power Platform can reduce the risk of technical debt, which can slow down innovation and hinder long-term success. By using visual development tools, automated testing, and built-in best practices, Power Platform can help developers to deliver high-quality software solutions with fewer defects and lower maintenance costs. Power Platform can also leverage AI to detect and correct errors, suggest improvements, and learn from developers‘ coding styles.
• Competitiveness and Future-Proofing: Power Platform can help developers and businesses to stay ahead of the competition and adapt to changing market conditions. By using Power Platform, developers can deliver sophisticated, scalable, and highly customized solutions more efficiently than ever before, creating a competitive edge and driving growth. Power Platform can also help developers and businesses to future-proof their solutions, by enabling them to integrate with new external systems, scale dynamically, and leverage the latest AI technologies.

How developers would benefit from democratized experience

By using the best of two tools, developers can leverage their experience, capabilities, and speed to create a conversational user experience with their data. Microsoft provides an implementation guide with best practices that can be downloaded and followed by each development team.

Couldn´t it be done with a single tool instead?

Azure OpenAI On Your Data is a powerful capability that transforms the way you connect, interact, and ground your data. When combined with Microsoft Copilot Studio, it offers several benefits:

1. Enhanced User Comprehension: By leveraging Azure OpenAI On Your Data, you can create personalized copilots that provide a user-friendly conversational experience. These copilots help users better understand information and context.
2. Faster Task Completion: The integration of Azure OpenAI On Your Data with Copilot Studio expedites task completion. Users can quickly obtain relevant insights, answers, and recommendations from their own enterprise data.
3. Operational Efficiency: Copilot Studio, powered by Azure OpenAI Service, streamlines workflows. It automates tasks that require natural language understanding or code generation, saving time and reducing costs.
4. Improved Decision-Making: With access to advanced AI models such as GPT-35-Turbo and GPT-4, you can make informed decisions based on accurate analyses of your data. Azure OpenAI On Your Data enables you to chat on top of and analyze your data with precision.
5. Customization: Fine-tune AI models using your own data and hyperparameters. This customization ensures that the copilots align with your specific needs and domain expertise.
6. Security and Privacy: Copilot Studio inherits your organization’s security, compliance, and privacy policies for Microsoft 365.

To get started, connect your data source using Azure OpenAI Studio and begin asking questions and chatting on your data. Now it´s your turn to explore these capabilities and decide on making a significant difference on reducing the time-to-market. Still need more information than just this?

Take a look at this nice prep´d and orchestrated video by Lisa Crosbie and another one by Scott Durow who narrows down on Dynamic Chaining and Plugin actions. Happy watching. Until then,…