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Creating Intelligent Chatbots Using Power Virtual Agents & Dataverse

Satheesh Kothakapu — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 08:54:52 +0000

Creating Intelligent Chatbots Using Power Virtual Agents & Dataverse

Over the past two years, the shift in how businesses operate worldwide has been palpable. Dynamics have transformed, ushering in an era of rapidly changing customer and employee expectations.

One of the most significant trends witnessed over the past two years has been the unprecedented and unparalleled rise in the use of conversational AI — chatbots and virtual agents — toagents—to provide quick, meaningful, and more personalized service to customers while enhancing employee efficiency levels by minimizing repetitive and redundant tasks.

A well-developed chatbot has the potential to shape a company’s brand image, playing an integral role in attracting and retaining the right market for your product and keeping employees active, engaged, and motivated throughout their journey with your organization.

Agile, resilient, and future-proof — these are three words that best describe today’s business environment. It is not enough to implement chatbots; deploying them at the right time to hasten business operations and build a competitive edge in the market is paramount.

That’s where Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents (PVA), a low-code SaaS platform that helps build and deploy bots quickly with minimum coding experience required, comes into the scene.

This blog will explore creating intelligent chatbots using Power Virtual Agents and the Dataverse.

An integral part of Microsoft’s suite of services, Power Virtual Agents helps organizations develop and implement virtual agents and chatbots leveraging the low-code approach. This means both pro and citizen developers alike can build chatbots in a short period with little or no coding knowledge needed.

Moreover, being hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud environment offers the added advantage of pre-existing infrastructure. Hence, organizations needn’t invest more resources in maintaining the chatbots and can enjoy seamless integration with other services.

In short, Power Virtual Agents capitalizes on its graphical interface and minimalistic coding requirements to make bot building a breeze for all.

PVA takes entire responsibility for the functional aspect of the chatbot, so all the user has to do is provide the logic and set the virtual agent up.

Below, we describe in brief the process of creating your first chatbot using Power Virtual Agents and the Dataverse environment —

Install Power Virtual Agents in Teams by selecting and adding it from the left navigation bar.
After installing, launch the app and choose the “Start Now” button.
Choose which team would own and manage your chatbot and then “Continue.”
Choose a name and language for your virtual assistant.
Select “Create” to complete the process of creation.
Define the topic nodes. Topics define chatbot conversations and how they take place. Types of topics include “trigger” phrases (phrases and keywords that indicate the user has asked a question) and “conversation nodes” (define how the bot responds to the user’s request).

How to create a topic?

Select + New topic. Name and Save the Topic.
Enter trigger phrases for the topic, “for example, “Who can I contact for a loan query?”
In the Message node, enter information for the trigger nodes. For example, “The contact details for a loan query are Steve Robbins, sr@xyz.com.” You can add multiple conversation nodes.
Select Redirect to another topic > End of conversation to define the end of the conversation.

Click here to know more.

7. Add inputs, variables, and conditions.

Instead of defining all trigger phrase information in the message node, you can add inputs, variables, and conditions to vary the chatbot’s response based on the user’s input.

Inputs define the user’s response when the chatbot asks a question. While variables store the inputs to be used later, conditions set forth the branching logic.

To add a node between the trigger phrases and end conversation node, select the Add node plus sign and then select the “ask a question” option.
Select “Multiple choice options” and define the options for the user to select from.
Select the variable name that will be triggered when the user configures the branching logic.
To define the next appropriate response for each of the multiple choice options, create a new condition node and add a new message node for each probable response that the user may give.

8. Pull in data from Dataverse for Teams

Dataverse for Microsoft Teams is a low-code service that offers relational data storage, editable data tables, rich data types, robust governance, and one-click deployment to Teams.

You can create a Dataverse for teams table in the same team as the chatbot using Microsoft PowerApps.
In PowerApps for Teams, select Build -> See all -> New -> Table.
Create a new table, add new rows, and columns.
Add a “call an action.”
Use Power Automate flows to pull in data from the Dataverse for Teams table, Lists, or any other data source.

To know more, click here

9. Publish the Chatbot

In the Power Virtual Agents app, open the chatbot for editing.
Choose the Publish bot menu item or button.
Choose the Publish option. Select Publish to confirm in the Publish latest content confirmation window.

10. Publish the Chatbot

Once the chatbot is complete, it must be published so that users can interact with it. You can send a link to team members or add the chatbot to the Built by your colleagues section in Teams or if the chatbot is for the organization, you’ll send it to your Teams admin for approval.

If the chatbot is only for your team members, you must instruct them on how to use and share the bot by choosing one of the following:

Copy link – Provide users with a link to the chatbot.
Add to the team – Add the bot to a specific team. With this option enabled, anyone in your team will be able to find the bot in the Teams app store in the Built by your colleagues section.
Show in Teams app store – Make your bot visible in the Teams app store, with the option of showing only to teammates and shared users or to everyone in your organization.

Click here to learn about how to publish the chatbot for the entire organization.

Subscription And Licensing:

Microsoft 365 offers two editions of PVA:

PVA for Teams: A free app that only permits the creation of internal bots.
Power Virtual Agents: Requires additional subscription & supports the development of both web-based external client bots and internal Microsoft Teams bots.

How can Acuvate help?

As a Microsoft Gold Partner and provider of next-generation AI and consulting services, Acuvate leverages Microsoft’s robust suite of services, including PowerApps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate, to create custom apps, AI bots, and workflows that enhance employee efficiency and support the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.

We have assisted clients from different industries and geographies in creating intelligent chatbots using PVA and Microsoft Dataverse.

To learn more about our chatbots, please schedule a personalized consultation with one of our experts.

The post Creating Intelligent Chatbots Using Power Virtual Agents & Dataverse appeared first on BotCore.

Low Code vs Pro Code: The right platform usage for digital transformation

Abhishek Shanbhag — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:08:00 +0000

Low Code vs Pro Code: The right platform usage for digital transformation

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation and the adoption of technologies, such as analytics, AI, mobile connectivity, cloud, etc. To adjust to the new ways of working and transform existing workflows, the business world now needs hundreds of simple and complex apps.

However, when it comes to coding such apps, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Low code app development (LCAPs) platforms are the new rage. With a visual development interface and drag-and-drop simplicity, they allow pro and citizen developers alike to build more apps in a shorter period, at lower costs, with little or no coding requirements.

The global low-code development platform market is valued at $12.85 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $65.15 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 26.1% over the forecast period.

While the speed and practicality of low-code platforms have infused agility in business operations, they can’t account for the entire range of complex enterprise apps at the modern workplace.

Instead, app developers look for platforms that drive productivity without compromising on features they need to deliver a seamless mobile or web experience.

That’s where a low-code app development platform with pro-code support comes into the picture.

Let’s explore in detail.

Low Code Platforms: Pros and Cons

As seen above, a low-code app development platform (LCAP) empowers business users to develop and deploy apps quickly and seamlessly.

Users can create business applications using point-and-click configuration instead of dealing with the source code. An LCAP includes pre-built components, graphical development tools, reusable building blocks, and business logic and workflows. Hence, users with varying levels of technical prowess can build apps using a “drag-and-drop” approach.

Low-code platforms, such as Microsoft PowerApps and Google App Maker, free up the IT teams from the constant demands for new enterprise applications. IT personnel can then focus on strategic business needs and keep the momentum going on digital transformation initiatives.

Research has estimated that low-code platforms may reduce development time by up to 90% in some cases.

However, is low-code enough?

The primary issue with low-code platforms is that sooner or later, you’ll need to do something that isn’t a part of the pre-built components. After all, the drag-and-drop functionality cannot cover every scenario.

Enterprise applications, particularly ERP and legacy apps or systems, are highly complex and manage multiple data sets. Even though LCAPs provide service integrations with ERPs, certain data sets may be outdated, or the business logic that can be captured in these apps may be limited.

Often, with a low-code platform, you may not be able to connect these systems and customize them as per your needs.

So, what is the solution?

Low-code + Pro-code

Restricting low-code functionality to front-end design or simple apps does not benefit cross-functional teams and isn’t sustainable in the long run. So, what is the right platform usage for your digital transformation needs?

Connecting low-code and pro-code platforms provides a dynamic framework of front and back-end tools that allows developers to design apps with speed and minimum time-to-market without sacrificing customization and sustainability.

Pro-code is the classic complete code programming used by software engineers and developers to build complex software.

Low-code + pro-code platforms offer rock-solid security, integrated DevOps and automated testing, and the ability to leverage advanced technologies, including AI, augmented reality, and much more easily.

Ultimately, the ability to connect the two unlocks the best of both worlds, i.e. –

A professional-grade infrastructure that can handle complex integrations and coding
Improved efficiency, higher developer productivity, and reduced costs with the low-code functionality

How can Acuvate help?

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, Acuvate helps clients build enterprise apps using Microsoft PowerApps. A low-code platform, PowerApps allows enterprises to develop low-code apps for various use cases using in-built templates, canvas, and model-driven scenarios.

They can generate extensive applications, which are customized to solve individual business needs and can run on any device.

Additionally, they may access many advanced functionalities previously available for professional developers only.

For such professionals, PowerApps offers several key advantages –

More than 200 connectors to proprietary data sources
Code plug-ins for advanced business logic
Data gateway to securely integrate with services running on-premise
Data integrator and Power Query tools for bringing data into CDS
Less coding plus automated testing.

Moreover, organizations can bring PowerApps and Microsoft Azure together to build rich functionality in a low-code platform and turn business needs into custom apps.

Learn More: Why PowerApps and Microsoft Azure are better together

To know more about our PowerApps services, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our experts.

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