Not so recently, Microsoft launched its Copilot, which can help you with day to day office tasks. Copilot can be used with all Microsoft Office 365 and other applications by Microsoft. One of such important applications is Power Apps.
However, the problem is that most users don’t have enough information about Microsoft Copilot in Power Apps and whether Microsoft Copilot can be integrated with Power Apps.
To answer this question, we are going to make a comprehensive introduction to Microsoft Copilot power apps and how to download and use it.
Part 1. Microsoft Copilot Introduction
What is Microsoft Copilot?
Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered software tool designed to enhance the functionality and productivity of Microsoft Office. It is an innovative feature that provides intelligent recommendations and suggestions while you work in Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Power Apps.
With Microsoft Copilot, users can improve their workflow by automatically analyzing their work and providing helpful suggestions. These suggestions can range from grammar and spelling corrections to formatting suggestions and even content recommendations.
For example, Copilot can provide guidance on grammar and sentence structure, ensuring that your documents, emails, and business chats are professional and error-free. Also, it can analyze your data and provide suggestions on how to present it more effectively.
Features of Microsoft Copilot for Power Apps
Just like with other Office applications, Microsoft Copilot within Power Apps offers a range of powerful features to enhance your app development experience. With Copilot, Microsoft aims to simplify the app creation process and provide users with intelligent assistance and guidance throughout their development journey.
Below are some of the notable features of Microsoft Copilot Power Apps:
1. Generating Formulas in App Development
Based on your app requirements, Microsoft Copilot helps you in generating formulas that can save you valuable time and effort. It goes on to provide suggestions for formulas and expressions as you build your app. While doing this, it accounts for common patterns and best practices and ensures that the generated formulas are efficient and reliable.
2. Offering Intelligent Suggestions
As you work with data in your app, Copilot will analyze the data structure and recommend appropriate fields, tables, and relationships to use. This feature streamlines the data integration process and helps you make informed decisions when designing your app.
3. Offering help with Documentation
Copilot provides contextual help and documentation right within the Power Apps studio. When you encounter a challenge or need guidance on a specific feature, Copilot will present relevant help articles, documentation, and examples to assist you.
4. Allowing for Collaboration
Copilot allows multiple developers to work simultaneously on an app, which promotes teamwork and productivity. It has a feature of real-time co-authoring, with which you can see changes made by your teammates in real time.
In order to leverage these features of Copilot, you will need to have a Microsoft 365 subscription and access to the latest version of Power Apps. With these tools, you can take full advantage of Copilot's assistance and enhance your app development process.
Part 2. Microsoft Copilot in Power Apps
#1. Prerequisites for the AI Features in Power Apps
Before starting Microsoft Copilot in Power Apps, you will first have to qualify to get access to the preview version of the Microsoft Copilot for Power Apps. To meet this criterion, there are some prerequisites you will have to meet. Find them below:
Your computer and Power Apps login must be from the United States.
The browser language of your Microsoft Power Apps and Copilot should be English (United States).
Your environment must have a Microsoft Dataverse database.
Customers with licensed Microsoft Office on their devices will be prioritized.
You must first enable AI Builder in your environment to use AI models. To enable this, follow the steps mentioned below:
a. Open the Power Platform admin center and sign in to your account.
b. Inside the admin center, you will see “Environment”.
c. Choose your preferred environment and then go to “Settings”.
d. In the settings tab, click on “Products”. > “Features”.
e. On the Features page, you will find AI Builder. You can turn it on and off from here.
#2. How to Add Copilot to Power Apps
To add Copilot to your Power Apps, you will have to follow these below-mentioned steps:
Step 1: First of all, go to the Power Apps on your PC and open any app you are working on. When inside the app, click on the “New Screen” button on the extreme left of the screen and opt for “Blank Screen” to add a new screen to your app for Copilot.
Step 2: Once the new blank screen has been added to your app, click on “Insert” on the upper menu of the app to add copilot.
Step 3: In the search box, search for Copilot (Preview), and when it appears in the search, click on it to add it to your blank screen.
Step 4: Now, Copilot has been added to your new blank screen. After adding the Copilot, the app will prompt you to provide a data source on which basis the Copilot will work. In this scenario, we will select the app we have been working with and add it to your screen.
Step 5: Once it has been added to your screen, a Copilot preview will be available on your screen. Drag it to expand to fit the screen.
Step 6: Once you have fitted the Copilot (Preview) on your screen, click the “Play” button on the upper right corner of the application to start Copilot.
Step 7: You can then ask the Copilot any questions related to the data source you have provided it with. In this case, we will ask it a couple of questions about our inventory and see how it answers based on the data available to it.
Step 8: Once you are done with it, you can click the “Play” button to restart the app and do anything more you want to do.
Part 3. Best Alternative to Microsoft Office - WPS Office
Microsoft Copilot Power Apps have to pay a monthly subscription fee for using Microsoft Copilot. This fee is something between $19 to $56. If you want to access the same features but don’t want to pay any monthly or one-time fee, WPS Office is the best alternative.
WPS is a complete Office toolkit where you can find a Word, Spreadsheet, and PowerPoint editor. Recently, WPS has also launched its AI solution named WPS AI. This AI-powered software tool can help you with every application WPS has to offer. You can get writing suggestions as well as valuable feedback for managing your Excel and PowerPoint data.
Here are the key features of WPS Office in a simple list:
Word Processing (WPS Writer)
Spreadsheet Management (WPS Spreadsheets)
Presentation Creation (WPS Presentation)
Cloud Support and Sync
PDF Editing and Conversion
Cross-platform Compatibility
Collaboration and Sharing
Free Version with No Subscription Fees
User-friendly Interface
Extensive File Format Support
Please download WPS Office today and take your analytical pursuits to new heights!
FAQs
1. How do you get the Copilot in Power Automate?
To get the Copilot in Power Automate, you will need a power platform environment within the United States for Copilot in Power Automate. It will be automatically added to your environment once your apps are updated after the release of Microsoft Copilot.
2. What are the Benefits of using Microsoft Copilot for Power Apps?
Improved productivity by automating repetitive coding tasks
Learning and growth by acquiring new coding techniques
Suggestions and code snippets lead to faster coding
Increased consistency throughout your app’s codebase
Efficient collaboration by reducing the time spent on discussing implementation details
3. What is the price for Microsoft Copilot for PowerApps?
The price for Microsoft Copilot for PowerApps will be somewhere between $36 and $57. The pricing plan you choose will depend on your needs (individual or enterprise level).
4. How can Microsoft Copilot help you in Power Apps?
Microsoft Copilot will provide you with code snippets and suggestions based on the previous flow of your application. It will help you complete your code blocks and formulas, thereby making the development of applications easy.
Microsoft Copilot Power Apps and WPS AI
Microsoft Copilot has been helpful in the development of low-code, no-code applications. While Power Apps itself is a strong enough development platform, Copilot will further increase your productivity and help you develop applications faster and more efficiently. However, Microsoft Copilot Power Apps will have a monthly subscription fee that you will have to pay based on the type of your pricing plan.
WPS AI, on the other hand, is a similar application platform that can aid you in writing and data analysis in Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. The best part about WPS AI is that you will have to pay no additional fee like Microsoft Copilot. It is completely free and can be your partner when you are writing, managing information in Excel, or creating presentations.
