Transforming Low-Code with AI: An Introduction to Copilot in Power Apps

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered assistant integrated across Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform, designed to help users work smarter and faster. By leveraging large language models and your organizational data, Copilot enables natural language interactions to generate content, automate tasks, analyze data, and build solutions—directly within familiar tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Power Apps, and more.

Microsoft Power Apps has redefined how business applications are built; now, with the addition of Copilot, that experience is more powerful and intuitive than ever. Copilot introduces AI-driven assistance directly into the app creation process, enabling makers to build robust apps simply by describing their business needs in natural language. From generating data models to designing user interfaces, Copilot eliminates the complexity of traditional development and makes it easier for anyone to create intelligent, responsive apps. In this article, we explore how to harness Copilot within Power Apps to streamline development, boost productivity, and deliver smarter solutions with less effort.

The following table summarizes core Microsoft Copilot capabilities across the Power Platform:

Capability	Description
Natural Language to App	Describe what you need and Copilot will generate a data model, create tables, and scaffold the app UI.
Copilot in Power Apps Studio	Embedded in the app studio, Copilot helps you build and modify apps by suggesting screens, formulas, and components.
Copilot in Power Automate	Generates entire flows from a natural language prompt, and helps troubleshoot or edit existing flows.
Copilot in Power BI	Explains visuals, suggests measures, writes DAX, and answers questions about your data.
Platform Agents	Persistent, reusable AI agents that can perform actions, answer questions, and automate tasks across apps and data sources.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Solution with Copilot

1. Open Power Apps Studio

   1. Navigate to https://make.powerapps.com

   2. Select Start with Copilot from the landing page.

   3. Describe the solution that you want to create.

2.   Copilot will automatically create a business plan, which serves as a blueprint for addressing the business problem described above, outlining the user requirements, data model, and technology that will be used to get things done.

Start off by reviewing the proposed User Requirements, including the proposed User Roles and associated User Needs. You can either accept the proposed user requirements or make edits. Within the Edit view, you can make inline changes to the proposed user roles and user needs. Additionally, you have the ability to add new user roles and user needs:

Once you have confirmed the User Requirements and made any necessary edits, click the Looks good icon at the bottom of the screen.

3.      The Copilot “data agent” will generate a Data Model based on the User Requirements, automatically creating recommend tables that have pre-built relationships and joins:

You can make changes to the data model by clicking the Edit button on the Data Model Agent prompt, or move forward to the next step by clicking Looks good.

Note: Click on the Show details link to view the data model schema, where you can view all tables, columns, relationships, and joins. Within each table, you can view data, row level permissions, and table properties.

4.     Next, the Copilot "technology agent" will automatically generate the apps, flows, and other objects used to solve the business problem:

Once you have reviewed this information, you can move forward with creating the solution. Copilot will prompt you to save the tables, which are stored within Dataverse. Once the tables are stored, you can create the apps and other objects within the solution.

Note: Copilot can now generate Power Apps (Canvas apps and Model-Driven apps), Power Pages sites, Power Automate-based flows, and Copilot Studio Agents through this process.

Then you can open and edit Power Apps applications (both Canvas and Model Driven Apps) to further customize:

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