Copilot in Dynamics 365: What It Is, How It Works, and Use Cases

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting artificial intelligence tools in the field of business productivity. Initially introduced by Microsoft in March 2023, this unique version of the AI assistant Copilot is specifically designed to meet the needs of customer-facing teams.

Copilot for Microsoft Dynamics is a truly transformative tool that, leveraging Large Language Model technology, brings the latest generative AI capabilities into Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the integration between Copilot and Dynamics 365 to explore how it can benefit business operations.

Copilot in Dynamics 365: an introduction

Regardless of the skills required for a position, many jobs involve tedious and repetitive tasks. Systems that keep all teams in sync require constant data collection, which means someone (or everyone) is responsible for data entry.

Salespeople are not hired for their ability to type quickly on a keyboard; they are hired to engage with as many potential customers as possible. Copilot and Dynamics 365 enable them to do exactly that.

Dynamics 365 Copilot provides AI-powered assistance to enhance productivity and efficiency across sales, support, supply chain management, finance, marketing, and other business operations teams.

It offers a chat-based interface for quick summaries of sales opportunities and leads, updates, meeting preparation, account-related news, and more. Users can seamlessly integrate Copilot with Outlook and Teams for improved data management and leverage its generative AI capabilities for record summarization and content generation for emails.

As of November 2023, Microsoft revealed that over 130,000 organizations were already using Copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. Additionally, according to Microsoft research, 70% of Copilot users reported being more productive, 73% completed tasks faster, and 68% felt that Copilot improved the quality of their work.

But how exactly does it work, and how can it benefit your operations? Let's explore these aspects in the following sections.

What are Microsoft Copilot and Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered chat service that integrates with many Microsoft applications and services to enhance user efficiency and productivity.

Microsoft Copilot leverages OpenAI's ChatGPT-4o and DALL-E 3, along with Microsoft's proprietary Prometheus model. The details of Prometheus are considered confidential by Microsoft, making it difficult to compare its architecture with other tools. According to the company, the model does not generate content autonomously but focuses on improving efficiency and ensuring that searches and queries comply with privacy guidelines while providing the most relevant information.

Copilot generates content, offers suggestions, and automates tasks to support users of various Microsoft technologies, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, and GitHub. Microsoft continues to develop new features and integrations for Copilot.

From the perspective of end users interacting with Windows and Microsoft productivity applications, there are three versions of Copilot:

• Microsoft Copilot: A lightweight and free edition available to users of Windows, Microsoft Edge, or the Bing website. It is suitable for general users and small businesses looking for AI-assisted support without deep workflow integration.
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• Copilot Pro: Designed for advanced users, it provides priority access to the latest AI models during peak usage times, ensuring faster response times compared to the free version. It also includes Image Creator from Designer, formerly known as Bing Image Creator.
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• Microsoft 365 Copilot: Available as an add-on for Microsoft Office applications through Business Standard, Business Premium, or Enterprise plans. It leverages company data and other internal sources to provide specific and detailed responses.

As an AI assistant, Copilot’s main advantage is improving work productivity and overall efficiency. A large part of Microsoft's marketing strategy highlights the time saved in performing numerous tasks and workflows.

Copilot boosts productivity by automating repetitive tasks, such as drafting standard emails or summarizing documents, allowing users to focus on more important work. Beyond productivity benefits, Copilot can suggest new ideas, formats, and content based on context and user preferences. It also enhances communication by quickly generating critical emails or Teams messages and streamlining workflows within Microsoft 365 applications.

Additionally, various versions of Copilot are designed for specific Microsoft tools. For example, there are Copilot solutions integrated into Microsoft Dynamics for sales and customer service teams, as well as security-focused Copilot solutions within Microsoft Purview.

A key distinguishing feature of Copilot is the high number of integrations and the overall connectivity it offers within Microsoft’s enterprise technologies. Users can also develop familiarity with Copilot through its various integrations, applying their acquired skills across different technologies.

Recently, Microsoft has started launching and updating a series of industry-specific “Agents”, designed for sectors such as finance, customer service, and marketing, with specialized training and functionalities tailored to these domains.

In October 2024, Microsoft also announced several new features for Copilot. For example:

• Copilot Voice allows users to input commands by speaking to a device, with responses provided in audio format rather than just text.
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• Copilot Vision tracks web browsing activities on Microsoft Edge, providing suggestions, answering questions, and conducting searches based on user actions and contextual content. Users can enable or disable Copilot Vision as needed.

Microsoft offers users the opportunity to test Copilot Vision and other new features still in development through the new Copilot Labs. This platform serves as a hub for Copilot's experimental features and allows users to provide feedback.

Although many Windows 11 users were initially skeptical when Microsoft started focusing on Copilot, the service has grown significantly since its preview release. Today, it is considered one of the best productivity tools in the era of artificial intelligence.

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft's cloud-based portfolio of business applications designed to help organizations improve operational efficiency, reduce business complexity, and control costs. The Dynamics 365 portfolio includes applications for sales, marketing, customer service management, finance, and supply chain management.

Dynamics 365 is a suite of interconnected business applications designed to meet a wide range of business needs. Each application is modular and can be integrated with existing tools and systems to extend capabilities and build a comprehensive business technology stack.

The cloud applications of Dynamics 365 are designed to be intelligent and data-driven, allowing them to work together and connect various business functions. Dynamics 365 enables all activities across these different business functions to communicate and share relevant data. This hyperconnectivity helps organizations eliminate operational data silos, improve overall business efficiency, enhance productivity, optimize outcomes, and reduce costs.

Dynamics 365 includes modules for the following sectors:

• ‍Sales and Marketing: provides a comprehensive view of the customer base, enabling businesses to better understand their target market and implement tactics to improve sales and engagement. Companies can also use the module to predict customer intent, enhance lead generation and qualification, and strengthen customer relationships. It includes collaboration and productivity tools that allow different teams to work together, access connected data, and improve business results.

• ‍Customer Support: designed for businesses looking to optimize their customer service operations and deliver personalized experiences to each customer. This is one of the modules that heavily leverages integration with Copilot, which will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

• ‍Finance: aims to drive agility in financial and business operations. Its features allow companies to gain greater financial visibility and leverage real-time reporting, embedded analytics, and AI-driven insights to make better decisions. A single application brings together various business teams, simplifying the management of cross-functional projects and ensuring their timely and budget-compliant delivery. Finance professionals can also use this module to create connected financial analysis models that help organizations prepare for the future, prevent disruptions, and increase efficiencies.

• ‍Supply Chain Management: focuses on production operations and digital commerce needs. It helps create a digital supply chain that allows managers to anticipate disruptions and make quick adjustments so the business can adapt to evolving demand and remain profitable.

Additionally, Dynamics 365 includes applications such as Dynamics 365 Commerce and Dynamics 365 Human Resources. Commerce is designed to seamlessly unify back-office, in-store, call center, and digital experiences. Human Resources helps automate many record-keeping and personnel management tasks for HR departments.

Copilot in Dynamics 365: features and use cases

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot is a specific version of the generative AI tool Copilot, developed by Microsoft for use within the Dynamics 365 ecosystem. When Microsoft introduced this new solution in March 2023, it became the first AI-powered copilot natively integrated into CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.

Fundamentally, Copilot is an add-on for Microsoft's existing tools. To access the generative AI bot, users must have a compatible subscription to Microsoft Dynamics 365 and any additional applications they intend to use. Some Copilot features are already included in specific Dynamics subscriptions.

This offering provides businesses with the opportunity to equip their employees with AI-powered tools for roles related to sales, customer service, marketing, operations, and supply chain management. According to Microsoft, Copilot's capabilities allow staff to focus more on achieving results while reducing time spent on repetitive tasks.

To use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot, in addition to the appropriate license, administrators must enable and configure Copilot for their team. Once activated for Dynamics 365 applications, users can access the solution by clicking on the Copilot icon located on the right side of most applications. After launching Copilot, they can access the sparkle icon for a list of suggestions or interact with Copilot using conversational commands.

Microsoft’s Copilot solution for Dynamics 365 integrates with all applications within the Dynamics ecosystem, offering unique advantages across various workflows. Here are some of the tasks that can be performed using Copilot in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite.

Dynamics 365 Copilot for Customer Service

Copilot is an exceptional tool for customer service agents looking to enhance productivity and efficiency. In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, agents can open the Copilot tab in any app to ask questions and quickly generate responses to customer inquiries.

Agents can copy/paste emails and customer messages into the Copilot chat box and ask it to create personalized replies in seconds. They can also build virtual agents in just minutes using conversation boosters in Power Virtual Agents. Additionally, Copilot can summarize cases and conversations or provide insights into customer data.

With the Microsoft Copilot for Service add-on, businesses can connect their AI agent to an existing CRM or contact center through preconfigured integrations. This add-on brings the power of Copilot into the tools agents use daily, such as Microsoft Teams and Outlook. For example, it can summarize email conversations or meetings, offering intelligent recaps and highlighted discussion points.

It is even possible to train Copilot using articles from the company's knowledge base, trusted websites, files, and other data sources to ensure it provides personalized responses to customer inquiries.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central

In the Dynamics 365 Business Central environment, small and medium-sized businesses can equip their teams with numerous innovative features offered by Copilot. Teams looking for support in bringing products to market faster can upload product images to Copilot, which will generate descriptions based on attributes such as color, material, size, and more.

Users can customize responses to match their specific tone of voice and branding. Copilot can also assist with bank statement reconciliation and financial reporting. After uploading bank statements to the dashboard, Copilot can automatically match known transactions in the Business Central account and suggest the appropriate ledger accounts for recording transactions.

There is also a dedicated Copilot solution for Dynamics 365 Finance, which allows businesses to automatically generate customer account summaries, track invoices and payment histories, and even receive recommendations for improving cash flow.

Additionally, Dynamics 365 Business Central users can customize Copilot with unique features using developer tools. It is possible to create powerful AI experiences for any industry or role and deploy them internally or at scale via Microsoft AppSource.

Copilot for Supply Chain Management

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot for Dynamics Supply Chain Management is another excellent tool for enhancing team productivity and performance. Companies can leverage Copilot to generate accurate responses to supply chain management-related questions within this ERP solution, utilizing access to existing documents and files. Users can also interact with Copilot throughout the entire supply chain management process.

It is possible to ask the assistant for information about the supply chain, summarize complex conversations, and even assess the impact and risk of changes to procurement decisions. In the future, Microsoft plans for Copilot to be able to guide users to specific pages within the application and suggest relevant actions to help them complete their tasks.

In Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Copilot assists project managers in quickly creating new project plans. Simply tell the assistant what needs to be done, and Copilot will take care of the rest. It can streamline the creation of project status reports, integrating summaries of planning and financial data into each report.

Copilot also excels in continuous risk mitigation and identification. For instance, it can be used to analyze active projects and detect common risk factors, such as budget overruns.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Copilot helps businesses gain a better understanding of their target audience and adapt to their needs. Sales representatives can use the Copilot solution to instantly generate profile summaries, incorporating behavioral, transactional, and demographic data.

Marketers can qualify leads using metrics such as engagement scores, ensuring that sales and marketing teams access the best opportunities available in the pipeline. At the end of 2023, Microsoft announced a partnership with Optimizely, introducing new features.

Thanks to this integration, organizations can leverage segments and journey insights created with Copilot directly within Optimizely. The result is the ability to develop personalized campaigns in real time without the need for coding. Additionally, Copilot also supports businesses using Dynamics 365 Marketing.

Marketers can describe customer segments in their own words to create target segments using the “query assist” feature. Copilot can also provide inspiration and guidance for new promotional campaigns, including live chats, emails, and other marketing activities.

Dynamics 365 Copilot for Sales

As part of the comprehensive update to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot experience in November 2023, Microsoft announced the arrival of Copilot for Sales. This solution, integrated with Dynamics 365, represents an evolution of Microsoft’s previous “Sales Copilot.”

With this solution, businesses can streamline sales workflows by connecting customer data and knowledge base information with AI-powered guided support. Microsoft Copilot for Sales also offers a fully integrated experience with Microsoft Teams and Word.

Copilot can generate brief preparation documents for meetings in Word, enriched with customer insights, which can then be used during conversations on Teams. Additionally, meeting summaries in Microsoft Teams help sales professionals easily identify key actions and follow-up tasks that emerge from conversations.

Beyond Microsoft Copilot for Sales, the company offers Copilot experiences within the Dynamics 365 Sales ecosystem. Here, Copilot can summarize records and help users prepare for meetings. It can also assist in writing emails and contact messages, providing real-time suggestions.

Copilot for Frontline Workers and Sales Staff

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot offers tailored solutions for different teams within your workforce. For instance, during Microsoft Ignite 2023, the company introduced Copilot for Dynamics 365 Guides, a solution designed to support and guide frontline workers. The latest version of Guides combines the power of generative AI with mixed reality to provide hands-on assistance to staff during their workflow.

With Copilot, workers can access step-by-step guides and real-time support on the job, reducing the risk of errors and accelerating onboarding processes. Copilot can instantly provide relevant information about a task, pulling data from corporate knowledge bases, training materials, and service records.

The assistant can also automate tasks such as filling out documents and sharing process updates with team members. Moreover, Copilot features a human-like interface enhanced with voice commands and mixed reality holograms.

In the retail sector, Copilot for Dynamics 365 Commerce can generate content for product pages, descriptions, and landing pages. It is capable of optimizing content for search engines, adapting pages to match your brand’s specific tone of voice, and much more. You can even use Copilot to create personalized messages for specific customer segments.

Additionally, the content generated can be enriched with data-driven insights, collected and shared by your Copilot assistant.

Conclusions

Dynamics 365 was already an impressive software portfolio, packed with features and functionalities that made it an invaluable tool for businesses across various industries. However, with the arrival of Copilot, its usefulness may have taken a leap forward that few would have expected from an already powerful product.

Few other applications have showcased the same level of versatility as Microsoft Copilot, proving to be an incredibly valuable support tool for professionals working in vastly different business sectors. It has demonstrated the immense potential of Redmond’s AI-powered digital assistant in helping organizations of all types and sizes streamline their daily operations, ultimately boosting productivity and efficiency.

And this might just be the beginning. 2024 was the year Copilot "earned its stripes" in the market, strengthening its integrations with other productivity software. We can only imagine what the future holds for its users.

FAQ on Copilot in Dynamics 365

What is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot is a generative AI assistant developed by Microsoft to support businesses in automating repetitive tasks and optimizing processes. Integrated into Dynamics 365 modules, it helps sales, customer service, supply chain, finance, and marketing teams improve productivity and efficiency by providing smart suggestions, document summaries, and workflow management assistance.

How does Copilot in Dynamics 365 work?

Copilot leverages artificial intelligence to assist users in daily tasks. Through a conversational interface, it enables personalized customer responses, email and document summarization, product description generation, financial data analysis, and supply chain management optimization. Its integration with Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft applications allows for a more seamless and structured workflow.

Is Copilot included in Dynamics 365, or does it require an additional subscription?

Some Copilot features are included in Microsoft Dynamics 365 subscription plans, while others require additional components. Feature availability depends on the user's license and the IT administrator's configuration.

What are the main benefits of Copilot for businesses?

Using Copilot helps automate repetitive tasks, improving productivity and efficiency across business teams. AI-powered tools provide intelligent summaries, contextual suggestions, and enhanced management for sales and customer service. Its integration with Microsoft Teams and Outlook facilitates communication and workflow, while in supply chain management, it offers analytical support that helps make better-informed decisions.

Does Copilot integrate with other Microsoft applications?

Yes, Copilot is designed to work seamlessly with Outlook, Teams, and the Power Platform. This integration allows users to leverage AI to simplify communication management, automate business processes, and enhance the overall experience with Microsoft 365 solutions.

Can Copilot be customized for specific industries?

Microsoft has developed Copilot Agents, specialized AI versions tailored for industries such as finance, marketing, and customer service. Beyond these predefined solutions, businesses can customize Copilot by integrating it with their own data and workflows, ensuring more relevant responses and adapted functionalities for their operational needs.

Is Copilot available in all languages?

Microsoft is continuously expanding Copilot's language support, making it available in multiple languages depending on the region and the Dynamics 365 application in use.

Which Dynamics 365 modules support Copilot?

Copilot is currently integrated into several Dynamics 365 modules, including Customer Service for managing client interactions, Sales for optimizing sales pipelines, Business Central for financial management, Supply Chain Management for overseeing logistics, and Project Operations for supporting project management. It is also available in Customer Insights for data analysis and Marketing for creating more effective campaigns.

How can Copilot be activated in Dynamics 365?

The company's IT administrator must enable and configure Copilot within Dynamics 365 applications. Once activated, users can access its features by clicking the icon located in the sidebar of compatible applications.

Is Copilot secure? How does it handle business data?

Security is a priority for Microsoft, and Copilot has been developed in compliance with corporate data protection policies. The AI model Prometheus, used by Copilot, does not autonomously generate content but focuses on optimizing efficiency while ensuring that all searches and responses adhere to privacy policies. Business data is not used to train external models, and sensitive information remains protected within Microsoft’s infrastructure.