Revolutionizing low-code development with AI copilot

Over the last few years, it has been necessary to increase the drive for the adoption of low-code platforms due to an increased demand for business productivity solutions. In the last couple of years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have appeared on the scene, especially through companies such as OpenAI and within products such as ChatGPT. LLMs are a subset of AI that perform natural language processing. Essentially, they harness natural language to perform tasks.

Microsoft announced a partnership with OpenAI and has been embedding the LLM functionality into various products, such as Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and, importantly for this area of focus, Power Platform products. These are called copilots. Specific products from Microsoft will have this embedded copilot functionality to enable the creation and extension of solutions using natural language.

This is significant for Power Platform for several reasons; the main one is that it lowers the barrier of entry to creating even lower solutions. People who can simply write in their natural language can now ask the copilot to create an app, automation, or bot in seconds.

A live example

Let’s look at an organization that needs to create a basic vehicle inspection application that is responsive and allows users to undertake swift vehicle inspections that will be used in a report at a later point. To get started, simply ask the Power Apps copilot in natural language to create the app for you.

Figure 1.8: Power Apps copilot user interface

The Power Apps copilot interprets the natural language to generate a data table in Dataverse.

Figure 1.9: Power Apps copilot user interface with data

The data is then reviewed, and a responsive Canvas App can be created directly from this data.

Figure 1.10: Power Apps Canvas App maker experience with copilot

This simple three-step process would normally have taken a maker of mid-level experience around half a day.

What does this mean for Power Platform as a whole?

There are multiple benefits of using the embedded copilot functionality within the Power Platform tools. The level of productivity this drives when creating certain sizes of solutions is amazing. The ability to build and extend solutions using natural language can and will drive a monumental shift in how makers create and manage the things that they make.

As people use the immersive natural language experience in copilot, and as feedback is shared with Microsoft, these tools will only get better and faster. We have seen this pattern already with the current product stack within Power Platform. The products have grown significantly in the last few years, and now that they are supercharged with AI, there is an expectancy that their technical foundations and functionality will skyrocket.

We can also expect rebrands of tools to map to the copilot functionality the same way we see that Power Virtual Agents has been rebranded to Copilot Studio, and the functionality within Copilot Studio has been so heavily infused with deeply embedded AI that it has taken on a life of its own. Copilot Studio is the go-to product for creating low-code custom copilots from scratch, as well as for extending Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Figure 1.11: Copilot Studio user interface

There is a high expectancy that generative AI will be further integrated into Microsoft products and into the Power Platform in varying forms. We can expect our maker’s experience to become more reliant on prompting the AI engine and configuring it in natural language rather than writing hundreds of lines of Power Fx and plugin code.

These are extremely exciting times.

We have taken a look at the recent partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI to embed LLM functionality into various Microsoft products, including Power Platform. This allows users to create solutions using natural language and lowers the barrier of entry for creating apps, automations, and bots. A live example has been provided of how Copilot can be used to create a basic vehicle inspection application in just three steps. The benefits of using Copilot and how it can drive productivity and revolutionize the way makers create and manage solutions have been discussed. We can expect further integration of generative AI into Microsoft products and Power Platform, making it more reliant on natural language input. We understand that the future is now, so in the next section, we will delve into how organizations can harness Power Platform to create strategic growth.