An Introduction to Dynamics 365 Copilot

In March 2023, Microsoft announced the arrival of the world’s first AI companion for ERM and CRM systems. Since then, thousands of businesses have successfully integrated Dynamics 365 Copilot into their customer service, marketing, and sales operations.

This versatile tool works with different Dynamics 365 apps, and its capabilities range from data entry automation in Business Central to project planning in Project Operations. Moreover, it’s embedded in Microsoft 365 apps so organisations can integrate it with Teams or Outlook.

Copilot is bundled with select Dynamics 365 licences, but businesses can also obtain some Copilot variants as add-ons to their current subscription plans. We’ll introduce you to Dynamics 365 Copilot variants and show you how they can help your business.

Dynamics 365 Copilot – The Essentials

Over 100,000 businesses have already implemented Dynamics 365 Copilot into their operations and this number is likely to increase in 2024.

Beneath the surface, Dynamics 365 Copilot isn’t different from the variants of the AI companion designed to work with Microsoft’s productivity apps, like Copilot for 365. The generative AI uses LLMs, machine learning and natural language processing to create content.

Within a Dynamics environment, the AI companion assists users by automating various tasks, suggesting ideas, drafting emails, or creating content based on internal and external sources.

Copilots for Dynamics 365 can analyse a company’s sales data using the client’s sales history or suggest a solution to a problem a customer is experiencing by drawing information from a website or other external knowledge bases.

A company’s marketing, customer service, sales or finance teams can rely on this tool to increase their productivity and improve customer satisfaction.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Apps

The vast range of applications in the Dynamics 365 ecosystem makes Copilot helpful to companies across industries, proving equally invaluable to marketing agencies, food manufacturers, financial institutions and others that want to improve their efficiency.

Let’s look at what you can expect from Copilot in different Dynamics 365 apps.

Copilot in Business Central

Streamlining repetitive tasks and freeing up time for more important ones is arguably the greatest benefit of Copilot in Business Central for small and medium-sized businesses.

For instance, Copilot can facilitate the bank statement reconciliation process by automatically interpreting transaction descriptions, dates, patterns and amounts and matching them to appropriate fields.

Copilot integrates with Shopify and matches product pictures to appropriate categories helping eCommerce businesses release new products faster. In addition, Copilot can generate product descriptions that reflect the company’s tone of voice and highlight properties such as colour, material or size.

Developer tools are available to companies that want to customise Copilot in Business Central and distribute them to customers. What’s more, businesses can get Late Payment Prediction and Sales and Inventory Forecast Copilot extensions to minimise risks of stock shortages and overdue receivables.

Copilot in Customer Insights and Marketing

Coming up with innovative ideas for email marketing campaigns no longer requires endless brainstorming sessions. Copilot in Customer Insights helps generate campaign ideas through user prompts containing the essential topics, previous marketing emails and other internal and online sources.

It can assist marketers with customer segmentation, enabling them to identify ideal target audiences for the products they’re promoting. In Customer Insights, marketers can use Copilot to get customer segment suggestions based on intricate calculations that ensure a high compatibility match.

Copilot in Field Service

Dispatchers and service managers can improve their understanding of work orders by generating work order summaries with Copilot.

These recaps contain all the vital information such as the scheduled arrival time, necessary parts or the next steps to bring the members of a company’s field service team up to speed with a specific project and help them manage that project more efficiently.

Installing the Outlook add-on expands Copilot’s capabilities to scheduling and automatic work order creation.

Microsoft Sales Copilot & Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales

Sales reps spend a considerable amount of time checking and replying to emails, which prevents them from dedicating more time to sales calls and pursuing leads.

Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales addresses this issue by drafting emails automatically or generating summaries of meetings in Teams. Its capabilities extend beyond generating email suggestions as the AI companion assists sales departments with the following tasks:

• Summarising client records to help reps keep up to date with the latest account updates.
• Creating notes to prepare for a meeting with a current client or a potential lead.
• Helping sales reps to get the latest news about their client’s company.

Besides Dynamics 365 Sales, businesses can use Copilot for Sales with Salesforce Sales Cloud to identify new leads and sales opportunities, review meeting notes and pinpoint potential issues, get tips on how to answer a client’s questions during Teams meetings or send contextual emails to customers using data from the CRM system and Outlook.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Commerce

Running a successful online store involves producing a constant stream of fresh and relevant content. Copilot eliminates the need to go through this process manually because it generates content based on information like the product’s name, size or main characteristics.

Copilot in Commerce is an integral part of the product enrichment workflow within the site builder. Aside from content ideation and creation the AI tool can also:

• Optimise content for search engines to improve its ranking and organic reach.
• Help online store owners find the tone of voice to deliver messages that resonate with their target audience.
• Highlight a product’s key features with text snippets.
• Choose the primary target audience for their content.
• Quickly edit the first draft of the generated content.
• Copilot in Dynamics 365 Finance

Collection managers often struggle to navigate through vast account portfolios and determine which one needs immediate attention. The AI companion in Finance simplifies this process by summarising a client’s payment history and generating lists of unpaid invoices in the Collections Coordinator workspace.

Collection departments can boost their collection rates with personalised AI-generated emails that provide clients with relevant information about their accounts.

Optionally, companies that use one of SAP’s ERP systems can apply for the Copilot for Finance preview to test the AI companion’s features and learn how to generate account reports or analyse account trends.

Copilot in Project Operations

Copilot capabilities also allow project managers to quickly generate project plans in Project Operations. Copilot creates the first draft of the project plan based on a prompt containing essential project parameters. Managers can then edit the draft to adjust it to the project’s goals.

The tool creates project status reports covering financial performance, project progress and any scheduling issues, saving managers substantial time on research and writing. In addition, the AI assistant efficiently identifies risks that could delay a project or cause it to go over budget and provides solutions to these problems.

Microsoft Copilot for Service & Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Implementing Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service into your company’s workflow will empower the customer care team by giving them faster access to the knowledge base and saving time on composing emails.

The AI assistant can create a recap of a conversation a customer care agent had with a client and generate a case summary to help an agent provide a better service to the customer.

Copilot for Service offers a wider range of options than the variant available in the Customer Service app, as it supports integrations with Zendesk, ServiceNow and Salesforce, allows agents to access case information from the company’s CRM system and generates recaps of meetings in Teams.

Copilot in Supply Chain Management

Copilot in Supply Chain Management predicts issues that could potentially disrupt a company’s supply chain and cause delays.

The tool identifies external factors such as weather, road conditions or financial issues and automatically displays them on affected orders. It also generates an automatic email a company can send to their clients or partners to inform them of the disruption and help avoid it.

The AI companion allows chain supply planners to check a product’s stock level with a simple prompt and determine the right moment to restock. Copilot in Supply Chain Management streamlines the procure-to-pay process and helps procurement professionals make informed decisions.

Empowering Your Company with Dynamics 365 Copilot

Joining the early Dynamics 365 Copilot adopters can give your business an instant boost in productivity and set it up for long-term success.

The AI companion can do much more than automate routine tasks since it can help you launch new products in your online store faster, generate advertising materials or improve the efficiency of the organisation’s supply chain.

Ensuring a secure implementation and investing in staff training will help you make the most of Copilot’s capabilities.