AI in Dynamics 365 CE Applications: Transforming Solution Architecting

August 31, 2026August 31, 2026 priyeshwagh777 AI Thought Leadership agentic development, ai in business applications, Claude, Dynamics 365, microsoft copilot

Given my 12.5 years in the industry at this point – where I started my journey from Dynamics CRM 2013 online (and having dealt with some D365 CRM 4.0 on-prem along the way too) – I’ve come a long way from changing XML for SiteMaps to make sure the Calendar is set right for new orgs – features in D365 CRM got added and many features kept getting deprecated [Although the later is less than the former].

The only help I get and also which I offered was treacherous hours and hours spent in making sure the. ‘customer experience’ is top notch as much as the quality of my solutioning.
Now, sitting in later half of 2026 and putting even the Solution Architecting years behind me – I look back in time and gauge what has changed really?

Well, fundamentally things remain the same –

Set up new environments
Implement C# plugins and JS for custom logic
Configure roles, System Settings
Configure behind the scenes for applications like Project Operations, Field Service, Customer Service etc.
Migrate and deploy solutions between environments

…and so on.

But, the medium of doing all the above has changed. That definitely has!

With advent of AI tools – Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, disparate configuration pieces are more connected to each other and to the Developer / Solution Architect sitting in front of the screen on a random Tuesday midnight.

So from a bird’s eye view of things – here’s what is more cohesive, AI-powered and in control which I plan to write further in this series and connect it all together as we sunset 2026 in these relatively newer Agentic development years.

Metadata, Configuration: Dataverse MCP on your AI tools like Claude.
CI/CD: Power Platform Pipelines, Azure DevOps
C# Plugins and Code: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot
End User Guides / Documentation: Claude Design, Figma, Copilot in Office Apps

So in the new few weeks and month, as AI continues to ever-evolve, I’ll share with my audience a framework of bringing together all the applications together with AI to deliver the same high-quality CE applications in an agentic-way.

And it doesn’t stop there – probably years after, there would be something else to replace it. But till then, this areas continue to evolve and take shape bringing from my experience and feedback from the teams and customers I work with in this remaining decade.

Hope this was helpful!

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AI in Business: Starting Your Automation Journey [A Preface]

August 24, 2026August 24, 2026 priyeshwagh777 AI Thought Leadership, microsoft copilot ai, ai in business applications, artificial intelligence, microsoft copilot

So in 2026 as I write this, AI is intrusive to the point that everyone in Management want it because it is believe to work 10x and reduce costs or because everyone is implementing so must we.

And the predicament doesn’t stop there – it continues expand to a point where plans are chalked out to run a department entirely. And organizers scramble to solve the problem directly by introducing AI as a form of “automation” rather than “augmentation”. I pondered on this a lot and this is what I think of it as it stands today.

Although most organizations are way ahead with working AI solutions already and are monitoring for production performance and tuning. But this blog is focussed on someone who’s just arrived to AI conversations and have burnt their fingers in some POCs maybe. Here are my two cents –

Foundation of AI for Business Applications

Here’s how you start – and it’s not building your first agent directly. But are the systems hygienic for your first AI agent to not struggle? Here’s what I mean by that –

Clean your data – Make sure missing Sales or Operations data isn’t cluttering your system, giving unclean and unreliable reporting. Does management completely trust the reports you run today? Get the data right.
Connect your systems – Integrate systems together for not everything – but enough to make sure you don’t duplicate, miss data or rely on manual labor prone to making mistakes. If integrated, make sure integrations work well.

Now extrapolate this at the Org level and you already are starting on a high-trust metadata and data at your org for any AI agents to make sense on.

How to introduce it?

Now that data is clean and systems are connected –

Start small – introduce AI in micro-tasks of your workflows. Use it to generate what your team does obviously. The routine, mundane updates. Repeating tasks which can draw patterns.
With those patterns – form the knowledge base of the AI. Improve AI to feed off of the knowledge base itself. It could be a structured prompt engine or a library that the model has to traverse, process the documents and make sense.
Don’t use it for decision making – use it yourself so you can make a decision – just quicker.

Why do we feel it is not what it is meant to be?

I started off by thinking in a straight line –

I want to get to point B from point A – so, let me implement it and give it to the tech team to do it with some instructions.
Well, it does work – most times. But I’m still not happy with it. And here is the reason –
1. No matter how perfect the answer is.
2. Your judgement in that moment will override always — a confirmation bias or a change in situation suitable at that point in time will make more sense.
3. You tend to take your decision overriding what AI has to offer for you (or rather recommend).
And you dismiss it saying – “It doesn’t work”.

Well, it does work – but it’s giving you an opinion so you could extend yours. It’s not meant to give you your answer, yet. And this is true for most cases if not all.

It’ll be interesting to see how this blog either ages like milk or like wine in coming years. 😊

With this, I kick-start my AI Thought Leadership as a new section and running commentary as I work to get our customers and partners ready and thriving on AI in coming years.

Hope this was helpful!

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

August 31, 2025August 31, 2025 priyeshwagh777 Project Operations approvals agents, d365 project operations, microsoft ai, microsoft copilot, Project Operations

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 –

Navigate to Settings and then to Parameters.
Then, drop down from the Feature control menu and then look for the Enable Time and Expense Entry agent option.
You’ll be asked to confirm and you can first read through the instructions.
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.
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.
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 –

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
Then, open Objects and then Connection References. Look for the ones marked as Add to Solution as shown.
Then select CDS solution (If you can remember it from a while ago 😊). Then click Save.
Then open the CDS Default Solution as shown below –
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.
Once you click on New Connection, it’ll open a New Tab and you’ll need to search Copilot Studio.
Click on it, and it’ll ask you to create a new connection. Click Create.
Then, you’ll be asked to login (most likely, you’ll want to use the logged in user)
Then, the Connection will appear once logged in. After this, go back to the Connection in the CDS solution.
You’ll now be able to select this connection.
You’ll be asked to Save Changes.
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.

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

May 6, 2025May 18, 2025 priyeshwagh777 microsoft copilot copilot, copilot for sales setup, microsoft ai, microsoft copilot

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

Make sure Copilot for Sales license is assigned to the User who will be using it.
Then, in the Admin Center, go to Integrated Apps under Settings and look for Get Apps.
Search for Copilot for Search in the box on the top right and Copilot For Sales will show up as follows.
Once you click Get it now, you’ll need to confirm the same.
It’ll then continue to setup and show the App that is getting deployed which is part of the Apps setup in M365 itself.
It’ll also let you either select the Entire Organization or select the Users whom you want to deploy this to.
Finally, Accept the permissions listed in case of no objections based on your orgs’ policies.
You’ll need to re-authenticate with the Admin User you are using to set this up with.
Once done, you’ll see that the permissions are accepted.
And finally you can Finish the deployment.
This is when the Deployment is completed.
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!

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Create your first custom Copilot for Customer Service Hub – Part 2 | Authentication

July 10, 2024 priyeshwagh777 microsoft copilot ai, copilot, custom copilot, customer service, Dynamics 365, microsoft, microsoft copilot, Power Platform

Now, you must have created your own Copilot to be deployed for the Customer Service Hub. If not, here’s the link to Part 1 of this blog – Create your first custom Copilot for Customer Service Hub – Part 1

Configure User Authentication with Microsoft Entra ID

Here’s how you can configure the User Authentication with Microsoft’s Entra ID for your Copilot to be authenticated with –

Go to the Azure Portal [https://portal.azure.com/], then given the appropriate permissions your might have, you should be able to create an App Registration
Now, create on New Registration –
Now, give it a suitable name so that you can identify that the purpose of this App Registration is for Copilot. Select multi-tenant, leave Redirect URI blank and click on Register.
Once ready, go to Authentication and then click to add Platform.
In the platform selection, click on Web.
Now, enter the URIs – First, enter the first URI, make sure to select Access tokens and ID tokens in Implicit grant and hybrid flows section and then click Configure.

https://token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect https://europe.token.botframework.com/.auth/web/redirect
Then, go ahead and add the Second URI from the main screen itself. Then, click Save and refresh the page once.
Now that both the URIs are added, click on the configuration link to consider both the links for configuration.
Now, you’ll be taken to this pane where you can click
Now, both the URIs will appear here.
Next, generate Client ID and Client Secret as you’ll need these details too –

Set Copilot Authentication to use Custom Authentication

Going back to the Copilot itself, set the Authentication you just created in the Azure Portal –

Go to Settings on the Copilot to use the Custom Authentication.
Go to Security section and then select Authentication.
Select Authenticate manually and then enter the details as shown below. Enter the Client ID and Secret which you must’ve saved before.
Next, come back to Copilot Settings and in Security, go to Settings and then look for Web channel security.
Once you open it, you’ll find that the Secured Access is disabled. Go ahead and enable it.
It takes up to 2 hours for it to take effect. Till then, old settings apply.
Finally, in Channels, select Customer Service Hub so that you can connect to the Customer Service Hub.
On the right hand side pane which opens up, you’ll see that this is not connected. Click the Connect button.
It connects to Customer Service Omnichannel in a few moments.

Part 1: Create your first custom Copilot for Customer Service Hub – Part 1

Hope this was useful!

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Start your Copilot Studio Trial

June 15, 2024 priyeshwagh777 microsoft copilot ai, artificial-intelligence, copilot, Copilot Studio, Micorsoft Copilot Studio, microsoft, microsoft copilot, Power Platform

Here’s how you can try out Copilot Studio for free first. Along with that, here’s the Copilot Studio Pricing – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio#Pricing

Copilot Studio Trial

Here’s how you can start your own Copilot Studio Trial.

Navigate to the Copilot Studio homepage – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/microsoft-copilot-studio
You’ll see this Homepage and you can see a button to Try free
Then, just like any other Sign up process for Microsoft products, you can start by the entering the Email of the org which you want to provision this on.
Once you click Next, you’ll be asked to Sign In once everything looks good to be provisioned.
Once you Sign In, you’ll be asked for Region and Phone.
Once you click on Get Started, you’ll be asked for final confirmation and then it’ll start provisioning.
Once you click on Get Started, it’ll take a few minutes to get provisioned.
Then, you’ll finally see Copilot Studio show up. Select your region and Get Started.
Finally, switch to the right environment which you wish to work on.
It’ll start with a Welcome Wizard and you are ready to go and start your Copilot Journey!

And this is where you can start exploring within the Copilot Studio!

Hope this was useful!

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Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales environment

January 16, 2024 priyeshwagh777 CRM with .NET Web Applications copilot, Dataverse, Dynamics 365, dynamics 365 sales copilot, microsoft ai, microsoft copilot, open ai, power apps, Power Automate, Power Platform

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 –

Make sure you are in the Sales Hub app.
And then go to the App Settings
Here, you’ll see the Copilot as an option on the Sitemap, select that.
Note that all the Settings are turned off by default.
First thing you can do is, turn Auditing On. It’ll take a while to Save the changes in the background.
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.
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
Once the changes are saved, it’ll look like this in the Published state. the selections will remain the Publish button will be disabled.
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!

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Power Automate Cloud Flows designer using Copilot | Now in GA

November 21, 2023 priyeshwagh777 Power Automate copilot, copilot in power automate, microsoft copilot, power automate flow

As Microsoft rolled out using Power Automate Cloud Flows designer using Copilot on 8th Nov 2023, here’s a look at how you can use it in your scenarios while designing Cloud Flows!

Copilot in Power Automate

As you might have noticed by now (based on the currently supported region you are in), Copilot is enabled in Power Automate Flow Designer directly!

You’ll notice that the Designer’s look and feel is new and refined than the previous UI. Of course, I’ll need time to get familiar with this in coming days. 😊
But I’ll share with you what I learnt so far.
Next, when you click on the Step, the Properties are on a left hand side pane so you don’t see a menu dropping down in your screen as before which needed you to scroll that used to make your Action go above the screen from the top
Once the Property pane appears, you can select the different types of Triggers available from the Runtime menu which was previously a Tab within the Action selection dialog box.
On the right hand side, you can see the Copilot button to show and hide the Copilot pane where you can type in your Commands.
Example, I can type in a query in natural language to retrieve records from Dataverse, for example. Here’s how it looks.
My request is then turned into an appropriate trigger retrieving the correct information I was looking for.
And if I check what was retrieved, I can click on this trigger to reveal the Properties and verify/change if I need to.
In case there’s something that isn’t clear to understand. You won’t be returned with any action taken on the Flow itself – probably you
Then, you can simply click on the thumbs down icon and submit your feedback.
I faced an issue while submitting Feedback but I think I might be missing something or this is being fixed still.
Further, here’s how the Add an action works – it simply reveals the pane on the right hand side which was previously a flyout menu.

Overall, the visual improvement helps in identifying with the structural flow of logic better and I’m looking forward for more updates on this is coming days/weeks and months!

For now, you can always go back to the classic designer by clicking on the ellipses and then selecting

Here’s a link to the Microsoft post on the announcement of this feature – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-platform/release-plan/2023wave2/power-automate/use-power-automate-cloud-flows-designer-copilot?WT.mc_id=DX-MVP-5003911

Hope this helps!

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D365 Demystified

A closer look at Microsoft Dynamics 365.

microsoft copilot

AI in Dynamics 365 CE Applications: Transforming Solution Architecting

Like this:

AI in Business: Starting Your Automation Journey [A Preface]

Foundation of AI for Business Applications

How to introduce it?

Why do we feel it is not what it is meant to be?

Like this:

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

Enable Time and Expense Agent

Setup Approvals Agents as an Admin

Like this:

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

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Create your first custom Copilot for Customer Service Hub – Part 2 | Authentication

Configure User Authentication with Microsoft Entra ID

Set Copilot Authentication to use Custom Authentication

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Start your Copilot Studio Trial

Copilot Studio Trial

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Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales environment

Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales

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Enable Time and Expense Agent

Setup Approvals Agents as an Admin

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Configure User Authentication with Microsoft Entra ID

Set Copilot Authentication to use Custom Authentication

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Enable Copilot for Dynamics 365 Sales

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