2023’s Release Wave 2 has rolled out, showcasing all the new and coming features for Dynamics 365, the Dataverse and the Power Platform.

As normal, when it comes to Microsoft, the list of new features is so long, we couldn’t possibly list them all here but as always, we’ve got the highlights for you… the bits you’ll want to look out for.

“New capabilities empower new ways to make informed decisions with AI-guided insights and suggested actions, easier ways to automate tasks and processes, and collaboration seamlessly integrated into the flow of work, plus, new low-code ways for anyone to build solutions.”

Mo Osborne, CVP and Business Applications COO, Microsoft

If you do want the full list, you can take a look at the Release Planner here or just read on for the bits we thought were most exciting!

• We’ve already discussed Copilot in depth here, but it’s also been announced that D365 Customer Insights will have the ability to analyse customer data quality, be able to predict contact preferences and build out market segmentation at the click of a button. You’ll be able to describe a marketing goal, in natural language, and a customer journey will be created for you, with suggested content to engage people along the way.
• D365 Customer Insights and D365 Marketing are being rolled up into one product, known as Dynamics 365 Customer Insights as of 1st September this year. D365 Customer Insights will be known as Customer Insights – Data, whilst D365 Marketing will be Customer Insights – Journeys.
• Microsoft announced at Inspire that they’d be introducing Microsoft Sales Copilot, aimed at salespeople looking to personalise interactions and increase productivity. However, it’s also been announced that Viva Sales will be rebranded as Microsoft Sales Copilot, as of now. This rebrand will keep all of Viva’s existing functionality whilst adding all of Copilots new features.
• Azure AD will now be known as Microsoft Entra ID to help simplify experiences across the ecosystem, with the name change rolling out in the later part of this year. Customers however wont need to do anything as there’s no change to capabilities, licensing or pricing.

As we already mentioned, Copilot is coming to Sales, accessed through Outlook, Teams or D365 Sales, plus other CRMs. There’s a lot more functionality being added around that though, such as:

• AI generated account summaries will be available, summarising key customer data that will include buying behaviours, possible opportunities and more.
• AI generated meeting prep notes, available at the click of a button, will now let sales people be better prepared with a list of recent client/customer interactions, including notes and emails, search news sites for relevant information about particular accounts and summarise important documents.
• An interesting new feature for Sales Copilot will be that during Teams calls, Copilot will be able to open a private window and offer sales coaching advice, live.
• It’s not just Sales getting all the love though. D365 Customer Service, using Copliot, will, from October this year, be able to summarise key points and conversations in natural language, saving Customer Services agents hours of reading through lengthy files and notes on clients.
• Although general availability is still to be confirmed, screen layout templates in Power Apps will soon come with pre-configured sizes to allow users to quickly create apps aimed at particular devices, with previews available in the creation phase.
• Model-Driven Power Apps will, from October this year, come with an updated user interface, to bring them inline with Microsoft’s Fluent Design System.
• Power Pages are getting a boost to collaboration as well, with new commenting capabilities, as before now, makers would have to rely on external or third-party tools to provide feedback.
• Oh, and speaking of Power Pages – you’ll also be able to use Copilot to create an entire website by just describing it in natural language.
• Moving on to the Dataverse, from Aug this year Microsoft will deprecate all their legacy connectors and replace them with a single connector, replacing Dynamics 365, Dataverse Legacy and F&O apps, to provide a unified experience across Power Apps and Power Automate.

As always though, if you’ve any more questions, feel free to get in touch so we can chat them over with you.