Introducing: Chat with Copilot ( 2024 release wave 1)

Overview

The video introduces Chat with Copilot, announced to enter public preview in 2024 release wave 1 and available from major update 24.0. It demos finding records through filters on the relevant page, follow-up questions that refine results, sharing found records to Teams, documentation search with links, and field-level help from a single click on a field.

It also covers the limits that matter for planning. Chat is for Business Central online only, is English only in early rollout, is not available to Canadian customers, and cannot be extended. It is included with Business Central licenses at no additional cost. The video explains permissions, data protection, responsible AI, the admin Copilot capabilities page, regional Azure OpenAI consent, feedback buttons, and setting up a demo tenant through CDX.

Key points

• Chat is available only on Business Central online (major update 24.0 or later), not on-premises or private cloud. Rollout starts with US customers and continues over weeks and months.
• During preview, chat is English only, is not available to Canadian customers for compliance reasons, and is not aware of the current page context unless you mention it.
• Record finding works by looking up the relevant page and building a filter. Naming the record type explicitly gives better results. Follow-up questions refine earlier results.
• Documentation search is limited to Business Central docs. If the answer is not there, Copilot says so instead of making one up. It cannot answer about custom fields or company-specific processes.
• Chat cannot be extended, modified or overridden in preview. It can still find records in custom objects, tables and list pages without extra partner work.
• Chat respects user permission sets, and customer data is not used to train foundation models. Some environments need admin consent for Azure OpenAI in another region. The Copilot capabilities page for admins shows whether chat is available and active.
• Chat and Copilot come with Business Central licenses at no additional cost and with no minimum seats. For demos, partners can spin up a tenant with CDX (aka.ms/CDX).

Features

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

• page “posted sales invoices list” at 6:57
• page 48 “Sales Orders” at 8:50
• page “vehicles list page” at 14:35
• page “general ledger” at 20:19

Not found in BC28-30: page “posted sales invoices list”, page “vehicles list page”, page “general ledger”.

Quotes

• 0:37 “we’re excited to announce uh the ability to chat with Microsoft co-pilot within Dynamics 365 business Central uh will enter public preview in 2024”
• 0:37 “co-pilot is the the AI powered assistant that empowers people to express themselves in their own words uh to find records as well as”
• 9:10 “essentially it looks up uh the relevant page uh for your ask and then tries to construct a filter on this page uh to”
• 12:13 “rather than trying to fabricate some answer it will say that there’s no information in the documentation on how to do this”
• 12:53 “co-pilot in business Central in general is available exclusively for business Central online which means you won’t find it on business Central deployed to”
• 13:13 “roll out starts with our us customers uh and then throughout the release wave over a number of weeks and months we’ll make that”
• 13:13 “um that means you’ll find it with major update 24.0 or later uh roll out starts with our us customers uh and then throughout”
• 13:13 “with the exception of Canada where chat will not be available to Canadian customers uh due to compliance reasons”
• 13:34 “chat and in fact co-pilot in business Central in general is available with business Central licenses at no additional cost”
• 13:34 “finally chat is available in English only while in preview”
• 13:54 “you cannot extend modify override or add new capabilities to chat um we certainly aspire to unlock this in the future but for now”
• 14:35 “chat can find records in your custom objects your tables and your list Pages uh so if you for example have added the the”
• 16:17 “your data is not used to train the foundation AI models and your data is protected by the most comprehensive Enterprise compliance and security”
• 16:17 “the queries you type in co-pilot chat uh will uh respect the users permission uh sets that have been assigned”
• 17:39 “we always recommend for demos that you use CDX uh customer digital experiences um just go to aka.ms CDX uh sign in with your”
• 20:40 “we’ve made it really easy with a single click to be able to get more information from co-pilot when the Tool tip just doesn’t”

Disclaimers in the video

• 0:37 preview: ability to chat with Microsoft co-pilot within Dynamics 365 business Central uh will enter public preview in 2024 release Wave 1
• 10:11 preview: while copal is in preview uh it’s not aware of the the context of your current page
• 12:53 preview: because this is in preview there’s a few key points we really want you to understand
• 13:13 subject-to-change: chat will not be available to Canadian customers uh due to compliance reasons
• 13:13 other: uh due to compliance reasons chat will not be available to Canadian customers
• 13:34 preview: chat is available in English only while in preview
• 13:54 preview: you cannot extend modify override or add new capabilities to chat um we certainly aspire to unlock this in the future but for now in preview um this is not possible

Presenters (as heard): Sam van lout, Mike borch cardana.