Tools to perform actions in Custom Copilots | Copilot Studio

If you are new to modifying existing Copilots and creating some of your own, here’s how you can use Actions in Copilots to ‘perform an operation’ rather that using AI to only ‘query’ information

Tools in Custom Copilots

Given that you are building a Custom Copilot (or even editing an existing one), here’s where you can add Tools from –

  1. You can see that Tools is also a section in your custom copilot.

  2. When you click on Add Tool, you’ll be able to select from a variety of readymade connectors available and you can even select from a Connector to an MCP server.
    For simplicity of this example, let’s select a readymade Microsoft Dataverse tool

  3. Just like in Power Automate, this tool will let you select one of the operations supported by Tool in Copilots.
    We’ll select a simple one – Add a row

  4. And it’ll ask you for permission to connect to your environment.

  5. Once you click on Add and configure, it’ll simply give you the configuration page to go ahead and configure the tool.
    I’ll select the parameters as I don’t want to leave it to AI yet.

  6. And then, you can test this once you Save the tool. You’ll see that with the right query, the Tool is hitting the connector as you test.

  7. It’ll ask you for some required fields and finally permission as you are running it for the first time.

  8. Once it successfully creates the record, it’ll respond based on the preferences set in the tool.


  9. This will then create an Account in your environment.

Usage

While interacting with the tool, your Custom Copilot will detect that you are attempting to create a record and it’ll invoke the right tool to do so – which will perform the said operations on your behalf.

Now, this is a simple example but it can extrapolate to larger use cases where you can build meaningful tools for your use cases.

Hope this was useful!

Thank you!

Time and Expense Agent [Production Ready Preview] – Part 1

In between all the AI conversations, you wouldn’t want to be kept wondering what Agents in Power Platform/Dynamics 365 Applications are capable of.

So, the name of the Agent itself suggests their capability and one such agent is Time and Expense Agent.

Enable Time and Expense Agent

Just like any other Project Operations features, you can enable the Time and Expense Entry Agent from the Settings area as shown below –

  1. Navigate to Settings and then to Parameters.


  2. Then, drop down from the Feature control menu and then look for the Enable Time and Expense Entry agent option.

  3. You’ll be asked to confirm and you can first read through the instructions.

  4. Once you click enable, it takes a few moments to complete loading and then you get to Download the policy document for Time and Expense entries.


  5. Once you click on Download, a Microsoft Doc it just opens in a new tab. Link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/project-operations/approvals/approvals-agent-policy#policy-document-examplesnt-policy?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

    Scroll down in this document, you’ll find Policy Document for each type of Entry.
    Click on the same and then you’ll be able to save a Doc file.


    Download what is exported when you click the above link.
    Here’s what the document looks like, it looks like an SOP designed for internal processes.

  6. While you are reviewing the document, also note that the Time Entry agent is now a new area in My Work in Projects in your Project Operations SiteMap.

Setup Approvals Agents as an Admin

Now, you need to first set the Approvals Agent up so that it can be used –

  1. Open Power Apps App Builder (https://make.powerapps.com/) and make sure to open the right environment.
    Then look for the solution Project Service Agent

  2. Then, open Objects and then Connection References. Look for the ones marked as Add to Solution as shown.

  3. Then select CDS solution (If you can remember it from a while ago 😊). Then click Save.

  4. Then open the CDS Default Solution as shown below –

  5. In the solution, go to Connection References and you should see the ones which you added in earlier steps. Edit the added connection and then on the right hand pane, select New Connection.

  6. Once you click on New Connection, it’ll open a New Tab and you’ll need to search Copilot Studio.

  7. Click on it, and it’ll ask you to create a new connection. Click Create.

  8. Then, you’ll be asked to login (most likely, you’ll want to use the logged in user)

  9. Then, the Connection will appear once logged in. After this, go back to the Connection in the CDS solution.

  10. You’ll now be able to select this connection.
    You’ll be asked to Save Changes.

  11. Then, once this is done, go back to Project Service Agent solution and go to Cloud Flows. Look for Approvals Agent trigger (Production-ready preview) and turn it on.

Watch out for Part 2 on this series to use the Approvals Agent! Coming Early Sep 2025.

Thank you!

Deploy Copilot for Sales in your organization – Part 1 | Provisioning

Here’s how you can setup Copilot for Sales in your organization given that you have the correct privileges –

  1. Make sure Copilot for Sales license is assigned to the User who will be using it.

  2. Then, in the Admin Center, go to Integrated Apps under Settings and look for Get Apps.


  3. Search for Copilot for Search in the box on the top right and Copilot For Sales will show up as follows.

  4. Once you click Get it now, you’ll need to confirm the same.

  5. It’ll then continue to setup and show the App that is getting deployed which is part of the Apps setup in M365 itself.

  6. It’ll also let you either select the Entire Organization or select the Users whom you want to deploy this to.

  7. Finally, Accept the permissions listed in case of no objections based on your orgs’ policies.

  8. You’ll need to re-authenticate with the Admin User you are using to set this up with.

  9. Once done, you’ll see that the permissions are accepted.


  10. And finally you can Finish the deployment.

  11. This is when the Deployment is completed.

  12. And you can confirm that the App is now enabled for the said user.

In the next post [Releasing on 8th May 2025], we’ll see how you can setup Copilot for Sales under it’s own Settings through a Tenant Administrator!

Hope this was useful!

Thank you!

Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales environment

Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales is in Preview at the point of writing this post. Hence, I’ll start by showing how you can turn Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales on for your environment.

It is recommended to do this in your Sandbox instances first.

Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales

Given that you have the correct licenses setup and you are a System Administrator, you can follow the below steps in order to enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales –

  1. Make sure you are in the Sales Hub app.

  2. And then go to the App Settings

  3. Here, you’ll see the Copilot as an option on the Sitemap, select that.

  4. Note that all the Settings are turned off by default.

  5. First thing you can do is, turn Auditing On. It’ll take a while to Save the changes in the background.

  6. Then, you can turn on other features which are in Preview On and enable the Copilot App based on your Published apps in your environment.

  7. Here are the Preview features which are listed under the See what’s in preview link in the above screenshot – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/dynamics365/sales/view-copy-email-summary
  8. Once the changes are saved, it’ll look like this in the Published state. the selections will remain the Publish button will be disabled.

  9. At this stage, the Copilot has been enabled for the selected Apps in your environment.
    Now, you can move to other options like Opportunities and Leads tabs on the settings page.
    The Summary section in the entities will show which fields should be included in Summary information that Copilot will generate.
    The Recent Changes in the entities will show which fields should be included to keep track of the changes which happen on these fields.


At this point, you are all set in configuring Copilot in your Dynamics 365 Sales environment. Next, I’ll write about how we can use the features which we enabled in this post and I’ll share link of the upcoming post here.

Hope this helps!

Thank you!