We’re expanding our ambition to bring AI-first business process to organizations. First, we’re announcing that the ability to create autonomous agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio will be available in public preview in November 2024. Learn more on the Copilot Studio blog. 

Second, we’re introducing 10 new autonomous agents in Microsoft Dynamics 365 to build capacity for sales, service, finance, and supply chain teams. These agents are designed to help you accelerate your time to value and are configured to scale operational efficiency and elevate customer experiences across roles and functions. 

Scale your team with new autonomous agents

Discover more ways to drive impact with autonomous agents and Copilot Studio.

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Rapidly drive impact with autonomous agents 

Microsoft Copilot is your AI assistant—it works for you—and Copilot Studio enables you to easily create, manage, and connect agents to Copilot. Think of agents as the new apps for an AI-powered world. We envision organizations will have a constellation of agents—ranging from simple prompt-and-response to fully autonomous. They will work on behalf of an individual, team, or function to execute and orchestrate business process ranging from lead generation, to sales order processing, to confirming order deliveries. Copilot is how you’ll interact with these agents.

Introducing autonomous agents for Dynamics 365 

New autonomous agents enable customers to move from legacy line of business applications to AI-first business process. AI is today’s return on investment (ROI) and tomorrow’s competitive edge. These new agents are designed to help sales, service, finance, and supply chain teams drive business value—and are just the start. We will create many more agents in the coming year that give customers the competitive advantage they need to help future-proof their organization. Today, we’re introducing ten of these autonomous agents which will start to become available in public preview later in 2024 and continue into early 2025. 

Sales: Help sellers focus time on building customer relationships to close deals faster

Agents will help sellers focus time on engaging customers to move through the sales cycle faster. The Sales Qualification Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales can free up time for the seller to spend on higher value activities by researching and prioritizing inbound leads in the pipe and developing personalized sales emails to initiate a sales conversation.

For small to medium-sized businesses, the Sales Order Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central will automate the order intake process from entry to confirmation by interacting with customers, capturing their preferences. See Sales Order Agent in action.

Operations: Empower teams to grow the business, optimize process, and meet customer demand

To maintain smooth business operations, it’s crucial that process in key areas such as finance, procurement, and supply chain are optimized to minimize cost, mitigate risks, and accelerate decisions. Autonomous agents operate around the clock to execute a range of process, helping professionals spend less time on manual work and more time on strategic tasks like planning and decision making.   

The Supplier Communications Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management autonomously manages collaboration with suppliers to confirm order delivery, while helping to preempt potential delays. With agents performing all the tasks related to confirming purchase orders, procurement specialists can focus on managing supplier relationships and improving overall supply chain resiliency.

Additional agents:  

• Financial Reconciliation Agent for Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance helps teams prepare and cleanse data sets to simplify and reduce time spent on the most labor-intensive part of the financial period close process that leads to financial reporting. Learn more in this brief video.
• Account Reconciliation Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, designed for accountants and controllers, automates the matching and clearing of transactions between subledgers and the general ledger, helping them speed up the financial close process. This enhances cash flow visibility and can result in faster decisions to drive business performance. Watch this video to learn more. 
• Time and Expense Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations autonomously manages time entry, expense tracking, and approval workflows. It helps get invoices to customers promptly, preventing revenue leakage and helps ensure projects stay on track and within budget. See Time and Expense Agent in action.

Service: Transform customer experiences across self- and human-assisted service  

Contact centers face interconnected, compounding challenges to successfully and efficiently serve customers. For example, keeping vital knowledge base articles current relies on manual process. Valuable insights from seasoned customer service representatives are often locked away in chat logs, call recordings, case notes, and other data silos. And self-service tools rely on inflexible, hard-coded dialog with embedded knowledge that must be predefined for potential customer issues.  

The Customer Intent and Customer Knowledge Management Agents, available for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, help contact centers transform customer experiences across self-service and human-assisted service. The Customer Intent Agent enables evergreen self-service by continuously discovering new intents from past and current customer conversations across all channels, mapping issues and corresponding resolutions maintained by the agent in a library. The Customer Knowledge Management Agent helps ensure knowledge articles are kept perpetually up to date by analyzing case notes, transcripts, summaries, and other artifacts from human-assisted cases to uncover insights. 

Additional agents:

• Case Management Agent for Customer Service automates key tasks throughout the case lifecycle—creation, resolution, follow up, closure—to reduce handle time and alleviate the burden on service representatives. See Case Management Agent in action.
• Scheduling Operations Agent for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service enables dispatchers to provide optimized schedules for technicians, even as conditions change throughout the workday—for example, accounting for issues such as traffic delays, double bookings, or last-minute cancellations that often result in conflicts or gaps. 

Collectively, these agents are trained to autonomously learn to address new and emerging issues via self-service, improve the quality of issue resolution across channels and help drive time and cost savings.

As agents become more prevalent in the enterprise, customers want to be confident that they have robust data governance and security. The agents coming to Dynamics 365 follow our core security, privacy, and responsible AI commitments. Agents built in Copilot Studio include guardrails and controls established by maker-defined instructions, knowledge, and actions. The data sources linked to the agent adhere to stringent security measures and controls—all managed in Copilot Studio. This includes data loss prevention, robust authentication protocols, and more. Once these agents are created, IT administrators can apply a comprehensive set of features to govern their use. 

Transform your business with agents 

Start your journey with agents by reading more about the full set of capabilities announced today, as well as a closer look at new ways to build autonomous agents with Copilot Studio.  

The post Transform work with autonomous agents across your business processes appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Combining SCM Pricing Management with Commerce and Retail Discounts

In today’s competitive market, businesses need to leverage every possible advantage to stay ahead. Pricing is one of the most powerful tools at their disposal. Enter Unified Pricing Management, an innovative solution that merges attribute-based pricing with advanced Supply Chain Management (SCM) pricing management and comprehensive commerce and retail discount solutions. 

The Need for Unified Pricing Management 

Companies across industries face numerous challenges when it comes to pricing management. Traditional pricing methods often fall short in addressing the complexities of modern commerce, where factors such as customer segmentation, product attributes, market demand, and competitive actions all influence pricing decisions. The Unified Pricing Management solution addresses these challenges by providing a holistic and integrated framework that empowers businesses to make informed and strategic pricing decisions. 

What is Unified Pricing Management? 

Unified Pricing Management is a sophisticated attribute-based pricing solution designed to transform the way businesses approach pricing strategies. By considering a myriad of attributes and integrating data from SCM and other sources, this solution allows businesses to set more accurate, competitive prices that enhance profitability and customer satisfaction.  

The Power of Attribute-Based Pricing 

At the heart of Unified Pricing Management lies attribute-based pricing. This approach takes into account various attributes, such as product characteristics, customer demographics, and purchasing behaviors, to tailor pricing strategies that resonate better with the market. The ability to customize prices based on specific attributes ensures that businesses can meet diverse customer needs while maximizing revenue. 

Converging SCM Pricing Management with Commerce and Retail Discounts 

Unified Pricing Management supports SCM pricing management, enabling businesses to harness the full potential of their supply chain data. This convergence allows for more informed pricing decisions, ensuring that prices reflect real-time supply chain dynamics. The result is a more responsive and agile pricing strategy that can adapt to changing market conditions. 

In addition to SCM pricing management, Unified Pricing Management also incorporates commerce and retail discount capabilities. This means that businesses can manage discounts more efficiently, ensuring consistency across all promotional efforts. The unified platform streamlines discount management, making it easier to implement and track various discount strategies. 

Unified Pricing data model 

Unified Pricing Management introduces the concept of price trees, which are essential for structuring pricing models. These price trees support multiple versions, allowing businesses to maintain and compare different pricing strategies over time. This capability ensures that businesses can continuously optimize their pricing approaches to achieve the best possible outcomes. 

Activating and Utilizing Price Groups for Pricing Calculations 

A crucial element of Unified Pricing Management is the concept of price groups. This common concept exists in both SCM pricing management and commerce and retail solutions. In Finance and Operations, as well as POS machines, price groups can be associated with channels, loyalty programs, affiliations, and attributes from sales order headers. They can also be defined as an attribute within the header attribute group, providing even greater flexibility in pricing strategies. 

• Set Up Price Groups: Define price groups based on relevant criteria such as customer segments, or geographical regions. This initial setup is critical as it lays the foundation for your pricing strategy. 

• Assign Price Rules: Assign specific pricing rules to each price group. These rules can include base prices, margin components, and discounts. This ensures that each segment is priced according to its unique characteristics and market conditions. 

• Apply Price Groups to Sales Orders and POS: When creating or modifying sales orders, apply the relevant price group to ensure that the correct pricing rules are used. This step is essential for maintaining consistency and accuracy in your pricing. 

• Monitor and Adjust: Use the unified pricing management system to monitor the performance of your pricing strategy. Make adjustments as needed based on real-time data and analytics to ensure that your pricing remains competitive and profitable. 

Conclusion 

Unified Pricing Management represents a significant advancement in the field of pricing management. By combining attribute-based pricing, convergent SCM pricing management, and comprehensive commerce and retail discount capabilities, it provides businesses with a powerful tool to navigate the complexities of modern pricing. The enablement of price groups and the flexibility to use single and multiple price trees further enhance its adaptability and effectiveness. 

In an era where pricing can make or break a business, Unified Pricing Management offers a strategic advantage that can drive profitability, customer satisfaction, and long-term success. Embrace this innovative solution and unlock the full potential of your pricing strategies. 

The post Introducing Unified Pricing Management: A Revolutionary Approach to Attribute-Based Pricing  appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In email marketing, tracking metrics has been the key to understanding and improving campaign effectiveness. For years, one of the most reliable metrics has been the open rate, but as the digital landscape evolves, so do the challenges of accurately measuring this essential statistic. In this article, we’ll explore why open rates are becoming less reliable and how you can adapt. 

The open rate and the challenges of modern email clients

Traditionally, the open rate—the percentage of recipients who open an email—has been a fundamental metric in email marketing. This metric has been invaluable for marketers, helping them gauge the success of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions. 

Email opens are tracked using tracking pixels, tiny 1×1-pixel images embedded in the email content. When the recipient opens the email, the pixel loads from a remote server, sending data back to the sender. However, the reliability of open rates is increasingly under threat due to privacy concerns and changes in how email clients handle images. Here’s why open rates are becoming less dependable: 

• Image blocking: Many email clients now block image loading by default. Recipients can open the email and consume its content without loading images. Such opens aren’t counted, resulting in a lower-than-actual open rate being reported. Image blocking is even more prevalent now because of mobile devices that automatically block image loading for privacy, speed, and conserving data usage. This means that a significant portion of your audience might be missed in the open rate calculation. 

• Preview panes: Some email clients allow users to preview an email without actually opening it. In these cases, the open rate may register false positives, counting emails as opened when they were merely previewed. 

• Privacy concerns: To protect user privacy, email clients and webmail services are increasingly blocking tracking pixels, making it harder to track open rates accurately. 

• Apple privacy changes: Apple devices that run iOS 15 automatically open all emails, which can result in an inflated open rate.  

The future of email metrics is a dual approach

So, what’s the way forward for email marketers like you who rely on open rates to measure engagement and success? It’s essential to employ a dual approach: improving how to measure engagement and applying strategies to improve engagement itself. Here’s how you can adapt.

Measure engagement more effectively

1. Diversify engagement metrics: Instead of relying solely on open rates, evaluate other indicators such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI. These metrics offer a more comprehensive view of your email marketing performance.

2. Implement email authentication: Email authentication protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM improve email deliverability and enhance your sender reputation, indirectly affecting engagement rates. 

3. Use alternative metrics: Consider using alternative metrics like measuring conversion attribution through unique coupon codes or UTM parameters. These tools can help track the direct impact of your emails beyond the open rate. 

Strategies for improving engagement

1. Personalization and segmentation: Tailoring your email content to individual recipients’ preferences and behaviors can drive higher engagement. By segmenting your audience and sending personalized content, you can increase the chances of your emails being opened and acted on. 

2. Expand your messaging channels: SMS has a 98% open rate. Start taking advantage of the SMS channel today!  

3. Test your content: Testing and refining content allows you to continuously improve email performance by identifying what resonates best with your audience using real data. Evaluating device data analytics, such as OS, browser, and device type, along with click heatmap analytics provides deeper insights into how recipients interact with your emails. Using this information, you can optimize design and content for the best user experience across all devices, boosting overall effectiveness and engagement. 

4. Use your own data: Rely on first-party data such as transactions and in-store visits that can be collected using a customer data platform like Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data. 

While email opens as a metric is not going away, it’s certainly less reliable. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights already provides an entire suite of capabilities for you to easily tackle challenges like this, and continues to invest in finding solutions that align with the evolving privacy landscape. Together, we’ll navigate these changes and continue to deliver successful email marketing campaigns, maintaining your connection with your audience while respecting their privacy in this new era of digital marketing. 

Next steps

Not yet a Dynamics 365 Customer Insights customer? Start your free trial today.

The post Beyond open rate: Rethinking email marketing metrics appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As Microsoft Copilot features continue to roll out across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and lose track of critical new capabilities. Thankfully, the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event is just around the corner.  

Register today for the virtual launch event on Tuesday, October 29, 2024—a showcase of new and enhanced capabilities releasing between October 2024 and March 2025. Packed with demos and a live Q&A chat with Microsoft experts, you’ll get a sneak peek at innovation that can empower your workforce, optimize business processes, and enhance customer engagement.   

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event

Explore the future of your business.

Register here

Explore the future of business with Copilot

Microsoft product leaders and engineers will be live at the event to give you an in-depth look at the latest Copilot capabilities for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, including new ways to automate business process across your organization and scale your team. Our team will also showcase organizations across industries using new Copilot and Dynamics 365 features to drive transformation.

Top 4 reasons to attend the launch event

Twice a year, the Business Applications Launch Event gives you a sneak peek at product news, demos and insights into upcoming features and capabilities across Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot. Here are four top reasons to attend the October 2024 event:  

1. Get a sneak peek at highlights from the 2024 release wave 2. Discover what’s new and improved in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. Hear from Charles Lamanna, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Business and Industry Copilot, and other leaders as they guide you through dozens of new Copilot and core platform capabilities releasing over the next six months.  
2. Personalize sales and service experiences. Learn how to elevate customer experiences with demonstrations of new capabilities across Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales. You’ll also discover how Sweden-based automotive company, Lynk & Co, is using Dynamics 365 to drive highly personalized experiences.
3. Transform business operations with AI-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes. Get a sneak peek at the enhancements that improve both core functionality and autonomous capabilities across ERP applications like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central through the lens of our customer Lifetime Products, as well as the latest features for Business Central.  
4. Exploring the future of Microsoft Power Platform. Learn how Copilot is transforming how you build, what you build, how you automate, and get a first-hand look at how Applied Information Sciences is innovating business solutions using the newest capabilities for Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate, and Microsoft Copilot Studio.

That’s not all. You’ll also hear from other Microsoft leaders about their roadmap for the future of AI, customer service, and operations and how to use these new technologies to take on your organization’s most time-consuming tasks.  

The Business Applications Launch Event streams live on Tuesday, October 29, 2024 starting at 9:00 AM Pacific Time and then available on-demand. Be sure to register for updates and reminders as the event day approaches. We’ll see you there!    

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event 

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 
9:00 AM-10:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7)  

The post Explore what’s new for Copilot and Dynamics 365 at the Business Applications Launch Event appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Boost visibility, streamline role management, and enhance compliance  

In today’s digital landscape, managing security, roles, and licensing within ERP systems is increasingly complex. As organizations scale, the need for robust governance, efficient user management, and cost-effective licensing strategies becomes paramount. To address these challenges, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is introducing a set of new capabilities in our ERP portfolio. These new capabilities enhance security and governance, offering significant benefits to IT professionals and business leaders alike. 

A critical aspect of the upcoming security features is how they will help prepare for compliance certifications, including Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). With regulatory standards becoming more stringent, achieving compliance is essential. More than ever, companies need to mitigate risks associated with fraud, reporting errors, and security breaches. As new AI technologies are adopted, security becomes even more top of mind. Robust governance frameworks safeguard sensitive data and ensure ethical AI deployment. The enhanced governance features will ensure that you can maintain rigorous control over financial processes, role management, and security protocols. These features provide visibility and a transparent audit trail, significantly easing the certification process. Additionally, they reduce the likelihood of non-compliance, protecting your organization from financial and reputational risks. 

“Bringing additional transparency and simplicity to our ERP customers for managing security, licensing and roles is a critical step in helping organizations meet their compliance and governance goals while saving costs.” – George Glantsching, VP, Microsoft Dynamics

Bringing new features to customers faster

Microsoft is delivering advanced security and role management features which will empower organizations to apply precise role management, advanced audit capabilities, and comprehensive license optimization tools, while maintaining a seamless user experience in Microsoft Dynamics 365. This ensures that you can access these critical features faster, enhancing security and operational efficiency. 

Simplify role management while reducing costs

We’ve listened to our customers and are introducing advanced features to the Dynamics 365 ERP portfolio, focusing on security management and licensing. This capability will simplify role management, providing you with tools to create, manage, and optimize roles within the ERP environment. The precise role and duty management feature, powered by tailored automations, allows organizations to define duties based on specific processes or tasks. This ensures role access aligns accurately with each team’s operational needs, leading to more accurate control over access permissions. Cost savings are driven by ensuring that licenses are scoped to each user’s specific needs. By refining role management in this way, these advanced features ensure organizations can scale with confidence while optimizing both governance and cost efficiency. 

Ensure compliance with role-based access control

Another critical feature is the segregation of duties (SoD) validation. This control mechanism ensures no single system user controls all aspects of any critical business process, reducing fraud and error risks. System administrators will be able to easily define incompatible tasks, ensuring that critical operations are not compromised. This feature is essential for leaders aiming to meet stringent regulatory requirements and maintain high levels of internal security. With integrated SoD validation, your business can minimize exposure to risk and better prepare for audits or regulatory reviews. 

Gain greater control with advanced security features

The new features coming to Dynamics 365 will include several advanced security controls giving system administrators greater visibility and control over their environments. The role audit trail will provide a non-removable history of permission changes, making it easier to track and audit role modifications over time. Security versioning and snapshot capabilities will allow security snapshots at specific points, enabling easy comparison or restoration if needed. The temporary role assignment feature will be invaluable for managing employee absences, allowing roles to be reassigned while maintaining strict control over access. These capabilities will provide peace of mind for business leaders that require agile, yet secure, role management. 

Control elevated privileges and secure sensitive data

A critical addition to the upcoming security features is the Elevated privilege management. (This is often referred to as super user privilege management (SPM) or ‘FireFighter’ in ERP world.) It provides the ability to manage and monitor elevated privileges for super users or administrators requiring temporary critical system access. Significantly reduce the risk of misuse or security breaches by restricting elevated access to specific, time-limited periods and tracking all super-user activities. This advanced control ensures only authorized personnel have access to sensitive systems, when necessary, further enhancing compliance and internal governance. 

Optimize costs with detailed licensing insights

The upcoming license report based on the new licensing model allows organizations to see exactly what license levels are applied to each user, calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO), and validate license accuracy. This report, alongside others like role components with license indicators and duty components with license indicators, provides a comprehensive view of license usage, helping optimize license costs effectively. These tools empower better licensing management, ensuring customers only pay for what they need and maximizing the value of their ERP investments. 

Looking ahead: the future of ERP security

As Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP portfolio evolves, these new features mark a significant step forward in ERP security and governance. For system administrators, these tools will provide enhanced control, reduced risk, and greater efficiency in managing complex ERP environments. Integrating these features into daily operations ensures ERP systems are secure and aligned with latest industry standards and best practices. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate, enhancing the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP portfolio. We look forward to delivering tools that empower you to excel in today’s dynamic business landscape. 

The post Optimizing ERP Security Configuration and Licensing within Microsoft Dynamics 365 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As the business landscape rapidly evolves, integrating AI solutions into field service operations isn’t just a trend—it’s a necessity. Previously, we shared “5 steps for helping you become AI-ready in field service”. Today, we want to talk about how you can transform your field service organizations by using AI capabilities to drive efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, and ultimately boost the bottom line.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service

Transform your service operations, deliver exceptional service, and improve customer experiences.

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The power of predictive maintenance

One of the most significant benefits of AI in field service is predictive maintenance. By using AI algorithms and machine learning models combined with Internet of Things (IoT) data, you can predict your customers’ equipment issues before they occur through continuous monitoring. But, predictive maintenance can also provide data-driven insights that can help you identify other patterns, trends, and potential areas for improvement—for example, energy expenditure—that help your customers see your field service organization as a partner.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service customers can use Connected Field Service to seamlessly connect their IoT devices to diagnose problems and identify potential issues even before customers become aware of them. Work orders are automatically generated based on IoT data and displayed in Field Service, where field service managers and dispatchers can then use the generative AI capabilities in Microsoft Copilot for Dynamics 365 to automate and streamline work order and resource management. This proactive approach also minimizes downtime, reduces repair costs, and can ensure uninterrupted service delivery to enhance customer experience and increase customer loyalty.

Optimizing frontline workforce management

Today’s enterprise companies can no longer rely on the old paper-based processes for scheduling and performing maintenance and repairs. While many organizations have made the switch to digital in the past several years, their processes remain in a half-digital, half-paper-based limbo that can end up making things more confusing than ever. Field service managers spend hours managing customer information—customer requirements, work orders, resources, schedules, and more. Having to switch between different applications—or between digital and paper—means mistakes are more likely to happen. The bottom line is somebody entering the wrong customer data can make insights and next steps less reliable—which can cost you money in the long run.

AI-powered workforce management tools can help you optimize scheduling and dispatching, helping to ensure that the right technician is assigned to the right job at the right time. This not only improves your operational efficiency, but also enhances customer satisfaction by reducing wait times and increasing first-time fix rates. Dynamics 365 Field Service Plugin for Microsoft Copilot in Outlook or Microsoft Teams enables your field service managers, dispatchers, and technicians to take advantage of generative AI capabilities that make them more efficient and responsive in servicing customers. With Microsoft Copilot, field service managers can simplify work order management by auto-summarizing work orders, assets, resources, bookings, and more. And more importantly, they can manage work orders inside the tool they use the most.

Maybe your field service managers spend a lot of time managing customer emails. Now, without leaving Outlook, they can use the Field Service Copilot pane to help them streamline work order creation with relevant details pre-populated from emails and provide key work order information. The scheduling suggestions in the Field Service Copilot pane also helps service managers schedule field technicians based on travel time, availability, skill set, and more. Your field service managers can also easily schedule work orders using Copilot for Field Service in Teams. As it does in Outlook, the app suggests scheduling options based on factors including availability, skill set, distance to the customer site, preferred time slots, and more. They can also use natural language search in Teams to locate information including guides and manuals, work orders, customer history, and more.

Field technicians can struggle with tightly packed schedules, especially when appointments and routes need to be updated during the day. Now, AI-powered work order updates (in preview) in Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app enable your field technicians to update work orders on the fly by describing work performed in natural language, using either text or speech-to-text capabilities. Based on their input, Copilot recommends updates to work order fields and updates them after confirmation from the field technician. Field technicians can also view AI-generated work order recaps on the go without having to navigate through customer records to view pertinent information.

Enhancing customer experience

Using Microsoft Copilot Studio, customers can create AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants to provide instant support to their end users, answering queries, and resolving issues in real-time. This 24/7 availability enhances customer experience, helping lead to higher satisfaction and loyalty. You can automate routine customer conversations with field service technicians, such as calls about regularly scheduled maintenance or warranty calls. This enables your technicians to focus on more high value conversations. A benefit of AI-powered chatbots created using Microsoft Copilot Studio is that customers can interact with them using natural language to describe their questions or issues. Any information collected from the chatbot can also be used to pre-populate work orders, helping technicians resolve issues or schedule service appointments faster. You can also use AI-powered chatbots to help keep your customers informed with automated service reminders and notifications via email and text messaging or enable them to reschedule appointments.

Driving data-driven decision making

By analyzing vast amounts of data, AI can uncover patterns and insights more efficiently than human analysts, providing you with better data to help you make more informed decisions. When it comes to your field service organization, using AI to discover trends and patterns can help with strategic planning and drive continuous improvement.

Dynamics 365 Field Service provides a resource and utilization report, a work order summary report, an optimization summary, and an admin report to help you drill down into how your field service operations are performing. You can also connect to Microsoft Dataverse, the intelligent data platform that powers Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps and the Microsoft Power Platform, to access your Field Service data and other relevant customer or operational data to create custom reports. For customers using the Microsoft Power BI Premium service, Dynamics 365 offers various ways to visualize your data using Microsoft Copilot in Power BI to get the most from your data. You can use natural language to get quick and easy summaries, or you can refine or guide the summary by customizing prompts, such as “summarize this page using bullet points” or “provide a summary of work orders on this page”. You can also ask specific questions about the visualized data on a report page and receive a tailored response. This response includes references to specific visuals, aiding you in understanding the specific data sources contributing to each part of the answer or summary within a report.

G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers: Transformative AI in action

G&J Pepsi-Cola Bottlers has successfully implemented AI in their field service operations, leading to significant improvements. By integrating Dynamics 365 Field Service with AI capabilities, they have streamlined their work order management, reduced manual tasks, and improved scheduling efficiency. The introduction of Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service has further enhanced their operations by providing technicians with real-time assistance and insight.

The future of field service

The integration of AI into field service is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s a present-day reality. Business decision makers who embrace this technology can expect to see significant improvements in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance. Now is the time to harness the power of transformative AI and lead your field service operations into the future.

The post Harnessing transformative AI for field service excellence appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.