A quick guide to extending Microsoft Copilot capabilities with Plugin Actions

Remember the game Need for Speed: Nitro? When you hit the Nitro boost, the engine roars and your car speeds through the traffic, leaving your rivals in the dust. You get an adrenaline rush without actually driving a car. How about having the same fun with your intelligent AI assistants, copilots? Without writing a single line of code, you can extend the capabilities of your Microsoft Copilot or your custom copilots on Copilot Studio using plugin actions – the nitro boosts.

In this blog, let’s explore how you can create extensible copilots using Copilot Studio with minimal efforts to boost customer and employee experiences.

If you want to learn about Microsoft Copilot Studio, here’s an extremely helpful webinar by our experts: Copilot Studio | On-demand webinar | Watch for free (saxon.ai)

Goodbye Coding, Hello Creativity

Forget the days of complex programming and intricate logic flows. Copilot Studio eliminates the coding barrier, allowing you to focus on what truly matters – creativity and user experience. Microsoft Copilot Studio allows you to extend Copilot capabilities or create copilots that work exclusively on your enterprise data along with publicly available web data. Using plugin actions, you can extend the capabilities of your copilots to perform actions without requiring you to go through complex flows.
Plugin Actions seamlessly connect your Copilots with a vast ecosystem of tools, unlocking a universe of possibilities:

• Power Platform Connectors: Access and manipulate data from diverse sources like SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and more, enriching your chatbot’s responses with real-time information.
• Power Automate Flows: Trigger automated actions based on user interactions or specific events, adding dynamic workflows and personalized experiences.
• AI Prompts: Leverage pre-built AI capabilities or create custom prompts to unlock deeper functionalities, empowering your chatbot with advanced understanding and natural language processing.
• Custom Connectors: Integrate with specialized tools unique to your organization, tailoring your chatbot to address specific needs and processes.
• OpenAI Plugins: Tap into the cutting-edge potential of OpenAI models for text generation and code completion, pushing the boundaries of chatbot intelligence and creativity.

Buckle up to build plugin actions?

Building a plugin action is easier than riding a real car (and probably safer too!). Here’s a quick and easy guide to building a plugin action for AI prompts:

Craft your AI Builder Prompt

Head to https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com/ and select “Create text with GPT using a prompt.” This is where you fuel your copilot’s intelligence by writing a prompt that instructs the AI Builder how to generate future prompts. Think of it as your copilot’s secret weapon for on-the-fly conversation guidance. Save your masterpiece as a custom prompt for easy access.

Connect the Dots

Within Copilot Studio, navigate to Topics and Plugins and select “Add Plugin Action.” Find your newly created AI Builder prompt (pro tip: filter by Dataverse sources for faster searching).

Review and Finish

Select your prompt, review the details, and hit “Finish.” Your Plugin Action is ready for takeoff!

Authentication Boost

To allow your chatbot to access Dataverse-stored AI Builder prompts, authenticate it with Azure AD using Entra ID. Don’t worry, the steps are simple and explained here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/configuration-authentication-azure-ad

Plugin Power Unleashed

Now comes the fun part! Use your Plugin Action within your copilot. It’s that simple! You’ve just seamlessly integrated your copilot with an AI Builder prompt, showcasing the limitless possibilities of Plugin Actions.

Citizen Developers, Rejoice!

We believe that every application built today should embrace Intelligent Integration to enhance its capabilities and value. AI chatbots are already pervasive across diverse use cases. Now comes the time to upgrade these AI chatbots to highly capable copilots.

Copilot Studio, with its Plugin Actions superpowers, democratizes copilot development. Whether you’re a coding whiz or a complete beginner, you can now build copilots that solve real problems, enhance user experiences, and boost your organization’s efficiency. So, ditch the complex coding tools and grab your nitro.

Ready to explore the Copilot Studio cosmos?

At Saxon AI, we are offering a 4-hour scoping workshop with 4 weeks of pilot plugin development. The workshop aims to offer you a structured approach to embrace copilots and their AI capabilities for potential business use cases. If you are a business executive, IT manager, IT professional, or a Security and compliance manager, this workshop is for you.