Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform Release Wave 1 2024 Enhancements

The 2024 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform were published on January 25, 2024. The release wave covers new capabilities that will be released between April 2024 and September 2024. The release wave focuses on improving user experiences, productivity, app development and automation, and AI capabilities across various business applications.

Some of the highlights of the release wave include:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: enhancing customer understanding and boosting sales through data, intelligence, and user-friendly experiences; delivering and enhancing generative AI capabilities for sellers through Microsoft Copilot for Sales.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service:

empowering agents to work more efficiently through Copilot, filtering response verification, diagnostic tools for admins and agents, usability improvements to multi-session apps, enhancements to the voice channel, and improved unified routing assignment accuracy and prioritization.

Microsoft Power Platform

This summary highlights the key updates and improvements in each component of the Power Platform:

Power BI:

- Unified Data Model Enhancements: The release brings significant improvements to the unified data model, enabling users to seamlessly integrate data from various sources and accelerate insights generation.?

- Enhanced AI Capabilities: Power BI now boasts enhanced AI capabilities, empowering users to leverage advanced analytics and predictive modeling to uncover actionable insights from their data.?

- Improved Data Visualization: Users can now create more compelling and interactive data visualizations with enhanced formatting options, custom visuals, and improved accessibility features.?

- Integration with Azure Synapse Analytics: Power BI now offers seamless integration with Azure Synapse Analytics, enabling users to leverage the power of big data analytics and advanced analytics capabilities within their Power BI reports and dashboards.

Power Apps:

- Low-Code Development Enhancements: The release introduces several enhancements to the low-code development experience, including improved app building capabilities, enhanced data integration options, and expanded AI Builder functionalities.?

- Enhanced UI Controls: Power Apps now offers a range of enhanced UI controls and customization options, enabling users to create more intuitive and visually appealing apps with minimal effort.?

- Deeper Integration with Microsoft Teams: Power Apps now offers deeper integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing users to seamlessly embed Power Apps within Teams channels and chat conversations for enhanced collaboration and productivity.?

- Improved Performance and Reliability: The release focuses on improving the performance and reliability of Power Apps, ensuring smoother app experiences and faster load times for end-users.

Power Automate:

- Process Automation Enhancements: Power Automate introduces several enhancements to process automation capabilities, including improved connectors, enhanced robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities, and expanded workflow automation options.?

- Integration with Azure Services: Power Automate now offers deeper integration with Azure services, enabling users to leverage Azure functions, Azure Logic Apps, and other Azure services within their workflows for enhanced automation and scalability.?

- Enhanced AI Builder Integration: The release enhances the integration of AI Builder with Power Automate, allowing users to easily incorporate AI capabilities such as text analytics, sentiment analysis, and object detection into their automated workflows.?

- Improved Governance and Compliance: Power Automate introduces several features focused on improving governance and compliance, including enhanced audit logging, improved data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities, and expanded role-based access control (RBAC) options.

Power Virtual Agents:

- Natural Language Understanding (NLU) Enhancements: Power Virtual Agents now offers improved natural language understanding capabilities, enabling bots to better understand user queries and provide more accurate responses.?

- Enhanced Bot Authoring Experience: The release introduces several enhancements to the bot authoring experience, including improved conversation flow design tools, expanded language support, and enhanced integration with external systems.?

- Deeper Integration with Power Automate: Power Virtual Agents now offers deeper integration with Power Automate, allowing users to seamlessly incorporate automated workflows and backend processes into their virtual agent conversations for enhanced automation and efficiency.?

- Improved Analytics and Insights: Power Virtual Agents now provides enhanced analytics and insights capabilities, enabling users to gain deeper insights into bot performance, user interactions, and conversation trends to optimize bot effectiveness and user satisfaction.

Overall, Release Wave 1 for 2024 brings a host of exciting new features and enhancements across Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents, empowering organizations to drive innovation, streamline processes, and unlock new opportunities for growth and productivity.

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