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Following in the footsteps of OpenAI, Microsoft has empowered its users to create custom Copilot experiences or integrate a personalized ChatGPT AI chatbot through its latest no-code solution, Copilot Studio. This is another leap by Microsoft after introducing Generative AI capabilities in Dynamics 365 with the release wave 2. Primarily designed to extend the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot, this tool enables businesses to fully leverage Generative AI.
This blog introduces Microsoft Copilot Studio, highlights its capabilities, and guides you in building your own Copilot experiences.
What is Microsoft Copilot Studio?
Microsoft Copilot Studio is an innovative low-code conversational AI solution designed to empower you with the full range of Copilot’s capabilities. This includes seamless connections to your data through custom or pre-built plugins and GPTs, efficient workflow creation and orchestration, and managing your Copilots in a centralized location.
Microsoft Copilot Studio empowers users to:
- Build and publish custom plugins: Develop plugins that enhance Copilot’s functionality and integrate with your existing data sources, processes, and systems. You can create plugins for everything from answering complex questions based on your own datasets to automating workflows triggered by user interactions.
- Extend Copilot’s conversational AI capabilities: Create custom GPT models and refine existing ones to tailor Copilot’s responses to your specific needs and domain knowledge. Train Copilot on your enterprise data and internal documents to generate personalized and contextually relevant responses.
- Build standalone conversational AI bots: Go beyond customizing Copilot for Microsoft 365 and build entirely new chatbots from scratch within Copilot Studio. Design the conversational flow, define prompts and responses, and connect to various channels like websites or messaging apps.
- Manage and secure your customizations: Control access to your custom plugins and bots, monitor their performance and get insights into their usage. Copilot Studio provides a central hub for managing all your Copilot customizations and ensuring data security and compliance.
Microsoft Power Virtual Agents is now a part of the Copilot Studio
As of November 15th, Microsoft announced that the robust capabilities of Power Virtual Agents will be a part of Microsoft Copilot Studio and so Power Virtual Agents will not be used.
Wondering how this impacts you? For existing Power Virtual Agents customers, there will be no disruption. Your current licenses will grant you access to the same capabilities, now seamlessly integrated into Microsoft Copilot Studio. No action is required on your part, and your existing conversational solutions will continue to function seamlessly.
Features and capabilities of Copilot Studio
MS Copilot Studio stands as a robust SaaS platform, elevating your ability to build, design, and customize conversational AI experiences. With a graphical development environment, this platform offers an array of capabilities that streamline processes and enhance user engagement. Let’s explore some of the key features that make Copilot Studio a game-changer for businesses:
Choose from 1,000 built-in connectors
With a collection of over 1,000 built-in connectors, Copilot Studio excels in seamlessly integrating copilots with a variety of business applications. The connectors include widely used platforms, including Office 365, Salesforce, SharePoint, SQL Server, Power BI, and more. This extensive library not only simplifies the integration process but also empowers copilots to tackle specialized tasks effectively. By doing so, Copilot Studio becomes a versatile tool, unlocking valuable business data and enabling advanced functionalities that contribute to the platform’s overall efficacy in enhancing business operations.
Build your own bots
At the heart of Copilot Studio lies its powerful feature, the advanced visual dialog editor, which serves as the cornerstone for building bots. This editor provides users with an easy-to-use graphical canvas, facilitating the seamless design of conversations within the platform. Creating dialog flows is made effortless through intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, eliminating the complexities associated with coding or scripting.
The editor goes beyond basic functionalities, offering support for rich controls such as images, cards, and carousels, aimed at enhancing user engagement. Additionally, it seamlessly connects to data sources, allowing access to customer information and further expanding the capabilities of Copilot Studio in crafting dynamic and interactive conversational experiences.
Leverage GenAI to automate workflows
Copilot Studio streamlines complex business processes with its powerful capability to automate workflows. You can use Generative AI and your own copilots to handle complex tasks like expense submissions, employee onboarding, and benefits updates, allowing for more efficient and error-free execution of these processes
Build your own Copilot
Another prominent feature of the Copilot Studio is building your own Copilot, empowering you to customize AI assistants for specific enterprise scenarios or departments within your business.
Imagine an HR Copilot adept at navigating policies, a Sales Copilot brimming with product knowledge, or a Project Management Copilot keeping tasks and deadlines laser-sharp.
Create custom GPTs and plugins
Copilot Studio empowers users to create custom Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) and plugins. This feature lets you build and publish custom plugins, GPTs, and prompts, strategically placing your business data where it is needed the most. Through the seamless integration of Microsoft Power Platform connectors, Power Automate flows, custom topics, and AI prompts, users can craft, test, and chain these elements to enhance the capabilities of their copilots.
Furthermore, Copilot Studio facilitates the easy distribution of your copilot across a diverse array of channels, ranging from websites to social media, ensuring broad engagement across platforms
Analyze and monitor Copilot performance
In Copilot Studio, it’s not just about building copilots; it extends to actively monitoring and analyzing their performance to ensure they meet your business objectives.
Leveraging its built-in analytics tools, users can meticulously track copilot performance, gaining valuable insights into user interactions. By focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as engagement rates, issue resolution times, and user satisfaction, businesses can make informed decisions to enhance the effectiveness of their copilots.
The optimization journey doesn’t end there – Copilot Studio empowers users to fine-tune copilot performance based on the wealth of insights derived from the analytics, ensuring that responses are not only efficient but also aligned with the evolving needs and expectations of users.
Secure, compliance and responsible use of AI
Copilot Studio prioritizes robust governance, monitoring, and adherence to Responsible AI principles. Equipped with extensive governance controls, the platform guarantees reliability, safety, privacy, security, transparency, explainability, fairness, and inclusiveness in all copilot operations. IT administrators benefit from a centralized dashboard, offering the capability to track analytics and adjust policies effectively, instilling trust and confidence in implementing AI.
Versions of Microsoft Copilot Studio
Copilot Studio comes in two versions: a standalone web app and an integrated app within Teams. While both versions share most functionalities, your choice between them may depend on how you intend to utilize Copilot Studio.
Copilot Studio Web app
Copilot Studio’s web app provides comprehensive access to all features, allowing users to build custom plugins, bots, GPT models, and efficiently manage AI resources. A separate login is required to use the web version, and it can be accessed directly from any web browser.
This version is particularly well-suited for:
- IT administrators aiming to create Copilots for customer interactions.
- Individuals familiar with chatbot services who wish to experiment or test the capabilities of Copilot Studio.
- Copilot users seeking to explore advanced concepts such as entities and variables, enabling the creation of intricate and sophisticated Copilots.
Copilot Studio in Teams
Copilot Studio, integrated within Microsoft Teams, offers a streamlined platform dedicated to developing and deploying conversational bots tailored for use within the Teams environment. True to its name, it maximizes the Teams environment for convenient access and collaborative efforts.
This version is particularly suitable for:
- Employees or members within an organization who want to use Copilots to address common employee queries.
- Individuals seeking to employ advanced concepts like entities and variables and have an internally-accessible Copilot within Teams.
- Those looking to expedite creating and distributing a Copilot, prioritizing efficiency in the process.
How much does Microsoft Copilot Studio cost?
If you are ready to develop and deploy your own Copilots across your website or various channels to serve your customers and employees, you can either purchase Copilot Studio directly or explore its functionalities with a free trial.
As for the details of Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing, it costs $200 per month per tenant, allowing up to 25,000 messages.
Leverage Copilot’s capabilities with Confiz
Microsoft Copilot Studio stands as a powerful ally in revolutionizing your AI-driven initiatives, and with Confiz, the possibilities are limitless. The platform’s rich features, from building standalone copilots and automating workflows to creating custom GPTs and plugins, provide a robust foundation for businesses seeking to enhance efficiency and engagement. The analytics tools offer insightful performance analysis, ensuring copilots not only meet but exceed business objectives.
Embark on this transformative journey and discover how Microsoft Copilot Studio can elevate your business operations, automate mundane tasks, and boost productivity. Contact Confiz at marketing@confiz.com to explore the boundless possibilities of shaping the future of AI together!
