Hey ChatGPT, build me an new Customer Invoice Tool!

Microsoft announces Next Gen AI Copilot

Let AI write your Business Application — the next Step in Low Code Development

Now it goes blow by blow, Microsoft integrates its AI, especially ChatGPT in more and more of its services.

After Microsoft had launched ChatGPT in Azure and also integrated it into it’s office products, they now make the next step. They have just announced a next-generation AI Copilot in Microsoft Power Apps that will transform low-code development.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the new AI for all Microsoft Office products and is intended to take over boring and time-consuming tasks in the future so that people have more room for creative activities. The artificial intelligence is used in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams and Outlook, for example, and can be controlled by using natural language [1].

Now Microsoft wants to offer a service that allows companies to create software themselves in which employees describe it to the tool. Here is the official statement [2]:

Today, we’re announcing a next-generation AI copilot in Microsoft Power Apps that will transform how we build and interact with software applications. With the power of large language models, we are advancing to the next step in the evolution of code abstraction — moving from custom code, to low-code, to natural language authoring where human and machine work side by side to build applications together.

We’re bringing the power of Copilot in Power Apps to both application makers and their end users. Now you can build an app, including the data behind it, just by describing what you need through multiple steps of conversation. What’s more, the apps you create now can have copilot-powered experiences built in from the very first screen — so your users can discover insights in conversation instead of clicks.

So in the near future, you just ask to build an application to automate the manual process of creating and approving customer invoices within Power Apps. The service then provides you code for the front and backend as well as table logic.

The trend of low code and office automation has been around for a while, but now Microsoft is reducing the barriers to entry even further, so that even employees with little code and technology skills can build apps on their own. This also fits with the news that Microsoft and OpenAI want to increase the programming skills of its AI services anyway.

Sources and Further Readings

[1] NotebookCheck, Microsoft enthüllt neue KI: Copilot soll langweilige Office-Arbeit übernehmen (2023)

[2]Microsoft, Announcing a next-generation AI Copilot in Microsoft Power Apps that will transform low-code development (2023)