Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft announced Copilot Studio in November 2023, a conversational AI platform for users to create bots (copilots) using natural language or a graphical interface. It’s built on Power Virtual Agents, and to that end, the Power Virtual Agents brand is retired in favour of Copilot Studio. It’s licensed with a tenant capacity licence costing $200 per month allowing 25,000 messages and, as with Power Virtual Agents, a zero-cost Per User licence is required for every user who will create copilots.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3SCDiQd, and Microsoft’s Copilot Studio licensing page here: https://bit.ly/3SAEjbi.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (January 2023) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide. There are a couple of minor clarifications (see the Change Log on page 62), and the addition of Managed Environments throughout. Managed Environments were generally available in October 2022 (http://bit.ly/3WwzXRr) and enable IT administrators greater visibility and more control of apps and flows in an environment. Of licensing-worthy note is that when Managed Environments is activated in a specific environment, all Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages usage in that environment requires standalone licenses.

You can find out more about Managed Environments here: http://bit.ly/3iQ9QqA and grab the updated Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/3WQvMRn.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (April 2022) Power Platform Licensing Guide. The main addition is a new table on page 24 showing how AI Builder credits are consumed by the different capabilities. There’s also confirmation added on page 20 that although Power Virtual Agents chat sessions are unlimited per tenant per month, a limit of 10 sessions per user per 24 hours across all bots in a tenant is enforced.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3LFWzda.

Dynamics 365 Voice Channel

Microsoft announce the availability of Dynamics 365 Voice Channel, an additional app for the Customer Service module, helping organisations to offer a continuous, personalised customer experience across all communication channels.

AI plays a big part with AI-based routing of calls to the best skilled agent, automatic transcription and translation of calls for agents, as well as live customer sentiment analysis.

Power Virtual Agent also has a role as a chatbot, or as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system allowing customers to select menu choices through the telephone keyboard or their voice response.

From a licensing perspective, it’s licensed via a User SL for users already licensed with a Customer Service Enterprise licence. Alternatively, customers also needing the Digital Messaging app can now buy a combined Digital Messaging and Voice Channel User SL. Voice Channel relies on Intelligent Voicebot Minutes and Call Intelligence Minutes and initial capacity is included in the Voice Channel licences, as well as being available as additional capacity.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3HGbGlN.

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (April 2021) Power Platform Licensing Guide. There’s extra clarification added throughout around API management including confirmation on page 23 that the number of daily API requests in a Power Virtual Agents capacity add-on is limited to 15,000 per tenant.

Find this updated Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/2Q2dSNO.

New Power Platform partner website

Microsoft launch a new site to help partners find resources around the Power Platform products.

There are pages for each of the products – Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents – with a comprehensive set of resources for each, as well as information on programs such as Catalyst and FastTrack which help customers realise value from Microsoft solutions.

There’s also help on building a Power Platform practice and links to training resources and other useful sites such as the Business Applications Microsoft Partner Community and the Power Platform blog.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/39UfX4O, and the site itself here: http://bit.ly/3ocNRqD.

Power Apps Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (May 2020) Power Apps Licensing Guide. The main change is some additional wording added to the Power Virtual Agents section clarifying terms such as a “billed session” and a “turn” on page 15. As usual, the full changes are detailed in the Change Log on page 24.

Find this updated Licensing Guide here: https://bit.ly/PowAppsLGMay2020

Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service

Microsoft announce Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service. This offering combines Power Virtual Agents and Dynamics 365 Customer Service Insights enabling organisations to create no-code chatbots having identified the most common support issues facing their customers. The announcement is here: http://bit.ly/2FFBDTp, and pricing at $1,100 per tenant per month is confirmed on the product page here: http://bit.ly/2RdCArs.

General Availability of Microsoft Power Virtual Agents

Microsoft announce the General Availability of Microsoft Power Virtual Agents. This offering allows the creation of chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface, which can be further enhanced by building custom workflows with Power Automate, or by using the Microsoft Bot Framework for more complex scenarios.

From a licensing perspective, it’s licensed per tenant at a cost of $1,000 for 2,000 chatbot sessions a month, with an add-on available for a further 1,000 sessions at $450 per month. In addition, there’s a 60-day trial available. Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2qLkMe6.