Copilot Extensibility: Your options to extend Microsoft 365 Copilot

Learn how to plan for AI adoption in your business. Sign up FREE for Nick's new on demand course, "Fly into the Age of Copilots" here: brightideasagency.com/fly-course
Need an AI plan for your business? Check out Nick's new book, "Who's in the Copilot's Seat?" - brightideasagency.com/book - And if you need more personalized help or advice, check out new engagement options that are available too - brightideasagency.com/engage
If all your data is inside Microsoft 365, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a wonder. But for most businesses, not all your data is inside Microsoft 365. You have a 3rd-party system, an on-premises database, and suddenly you realize that Microsoft 365 Copilot is missing data you really want it to see.
But that's ok, because Microsoft designed it with that reality in mind. Copilot is extensible. And there isn't just one option for extending it, but many. In this video let's dive into what those options are and learn about Copilot Plugins.
Sign up to receive Digital Spotlight, the Bright Ideas Agency monthly mailing mailchi.mp/7f5ac2e809a5/brigh...
Check out our website at www.brightideasagency.com
Connect with Nick on LinkedIn at / nickdc or the Bright Ideas Agency page at / brightideasagency
Links:
Copilot extensibility - aka.ms/extend-copilot
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:13 What is Copilot for Microsoft 365 Extensibility?
4:03 Extending knowledge and skills of Copilot
6:28 The types of extension possible for Copilot
6:51 Graph Connectors
8:45 Teams Message Extensions
11:07 Copilot Plugins Preview
12:38 Power Platform based plugins
16:15 Copilot Studio
19:06 The long-term view of Copilot extensibility
Apart from publicly accessible information, all user data or other related information shared in this video is created for demonstration purposes only. User accounts, passwords, or other data used as part of any demonstrations shown in this video have been created specifically for that purpose and are not any individual or company's private information or data.
Bright Ideas Agency is an Ohio Limited Liability Company. The content of this video is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No guarantees are given in connection with the information shared and you should seek independent technical or business advice before implementing anything you see in this video. If you want to hire us for your project, visit www.brightideasagency.com and get in touch.

[@georgewashington3012]

Good vid. The fact that you had to create a flowchart to explain which deployment method to use (Power, Graph, etc.) shows how confusing Microsoft has made this. Microsoft should use ordinary language to explain when to use which option based on what the company is trying to accomplish.
Question - it looks like these plugins/extensions (like ServiceNow) would require someone to enter prompts into an entirely separate Teams channel for the particular service instead of entering it into the generic Copilot chat channel in Teams (or in the Copilot window in Edge/Windows). This seems kludgy as companies will eventually have a dozen or more such integrations and they’ll have to scroll through a laundry list of Copilot plugin channels in Teams just to find the right one into which to type a prompt. It seems like a sloppy approach when most people want one single AI window into which they can enter a prompt regarding ANY Copilot integrated service. Did I confuse something here? This will get unwieldy fast.

[@brightideasagency]

Thanks for watching. The infographic is from Microsoft. I don’t think the way they have approached this is unreasonable, Copilot exists as an interface for M365, and Microsoft has exposed the existing tools for M365 enhancement to Copilot. This seems like the most reasonable path. On your question: No, all “dialog” with Copilot is through M365 chat/Copilot in Teams, you cannot use Copilot plugins in Teams channels.

[@Abrekme]

Thanks for the video, Nick! I didn't catch the last part: can something developed in Copilot Studio be deployed as an extension for M365 Copilot or as an independent custom chatbot for a specific task?

[@Abrekme]

Ok, got it, so you can extend the exsisting M365 Copilot.

[@brightideasagency]

Yes, the long term intent seems to be both with Copilot able to orchestrate responses between Copilot for Microsoft 365 and individual Copilots.