​This year (October 2023), Copilot in Power Apps became generally available for app makers. In this blog, I’m going to walk you through how to create a Canvas Power Apps and Dataverse table in 10 minutes, with Copilot.

Earlier this month, thousands of low-code developers and Microsoft Power Platform enthusiasts traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada for MPPC 2023.  There, they were introduced to the latest and greatest features for Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages.

To no one’s surprise, the major focus throughout the conference was how Power Platform Users will now be able to make better use of Microsoft Copilot and other AI-powered features.  
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In this blog post, we will share learnings and experiences from the three members of RedCloud’s Business Solutions & Intelligence team (Benny Swedberg, Yusuf Shariff, & Matt Little) who were stationed at a booth in the Conference’s Exhibition Hall. 

As of August 1st, 2023, Microsoft's Power Automate’s Process Mining has been released as generally availability! Process intelligence is revolutionizing how businesses optimize their processes, save costs, and uncover opportunities to run more efficient operations. With Microsoft's Power Automate Process Mining, infused with next-generation AI (Copilot), organizations can easily gain a deep understanding of their business activities. By maximizing process insights and utilizing out-of-box recommendations, complexity is reduced, operations are transformed, and continuous improvement is achieved through automation and low-code apps.

There are often ad hoc needs that go beyond what is possible with a human clicking on their computer, or should be possible for productivity’s sake. For example, a need we ran into was capturing a datetime in a SharePoint list for when an item was approved. Done manually, this meant looking through the history version. That would be fine if it were for a few items. ​

It's incredible how quickly time flies - we're already more than halfway through the year! While it may signal the end of summer, there's still so much to look forward to, especially with the exciting new releases from Microsoft Power Apps. Let's dive into the highlights of the upcoming features in the 2023 release Wave 2, which will be rolling out between October 2023 and March 2024.

Today in our ongoing Learning Series from RedCloud's Business Intelligence & Service (BS&I) team, Senior Associate Matt Little dives into the technology and strategy behind the use of chatbots driven by artificial intelligence. Matt is a member of our skilled BS&I team, who has previously shared his thoughts on RedCloud and the industry in our 10 Minutes With profiles. 

AI Chatbots have quickly become an integral part of our digital lives, and more and more businesses are adopting them as an enhancement to their user’s experience every day.  We already see Chatbots serving many purposes. They can be a virtual assistant/co-pilot, sales/lead generator, customer support agent, self-service portal for IT troubleshooting or HR questions, and much more. However, not all Chatbots are created equal.  As a new adopter of Chatbots, you may be asking yourself “How do I ensure that my Chatbot is becoming more efficient and effective over time?”. ​

The final breakout session of the weekend for us was on Office Scripts in Excel. This is a relatively new feature that helps automate tasks, both inside Excel, but also outside of the context of an Excel file. In our opinion, these Scripts are an underutilized capability.  ​

Day 2 at the Microsoft 365 Conference focused on two main themes: Copilot and Viva announcements. Below is a recap of some of our top announcements and notes. 

This week is the annual Microsoft 365 Conference in Las Vegas, which is one of the largest, in-person gathering of Microsoft engineers and community in the world. Benny and Yusuf from the BS&I team are at the conference representing the RedCloud team and sharing highlights and announcements with you all. Below is the recap from Day 1 of the conference.