In July 2024, Microsoft announced the 2024 release of wave 2 plans for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. These updates, set to roll out from October 2024 to March 2025, are focused on integrating advanced AI capabilities and Microsoft Copilot to enhance productivity and streamline business operations.
Key Updates in Dynamics 365
Sales
The Sales module features significant enhancements designed to boost sales efficiency. AI-driven capabilities improve lead generation and insights, allowing sales teams to identify and prioritise potential customers more effectively. The introduction of Copilot Home offers a tailored experience with role-specific actions and insights, facilitating more personalised and efficient sales processes.
Customer Service
Customer Service will benefit from proactive prompting and AI-infused routing capabilities to improve service delivery speed and accuracy. These enhancements guide agents through optimal responses and route queries to the most suitable agents. Additionally, secure access to external data is enhanced, allowing for more comprehensive support solutions.
Finance
In the Finance module, in-app Copilot capabilities will streamline financial operations, providing real-time assistance and insights. Expanded electronic invoicing features simplify the invoicing process, while autonomous reconciliation capabilities reduce manual intervention, ensuring faster and more accurate financial reporting.
Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management benefits from improved order-promising and demand-planning functionalities powered by AI. These enhancements help businesses better anticipate demand fluctuations and optimise inventory levels, reducing costs and improving customer satisfaction.
Commerce
The Commerce module leverages AI-powered insights to understand customer preferences and store performance better. These insights enable retailers to tailor their offerings more effectively, enhance customer engagement, and drive sales growth.
Business Central
Business Central sees various productivity enhancements and core process improvements. These updates aim to streamline daily operations and provide more robust reporting capabilities, helping businesses make data-driven decisions more easily and accurately.
Key Updates in Power Platform
Power Apps
Power Apps will incorporate AI-infused development tools to enable richer, more functional application creation. These tools simplify the development process, making it more accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
Power Automate
Power Automate introduces natural language capabilities for creating automated workflows. This feature allows users to design complex automation flows using simple, intuitive language, significantly reducing the learning curve and increasing productivity.
AI Builder
AI Builder sees enhancements in Intelligent Document Processing, providing more accurate data extraction and processing capabilities. Additionally, improved governance features ensure better control and oversight of AI applications within organisations.
Dataverse
Dataverse receives updates aimed at boosting app-building productivity through AI integration. These enhancements streamline the app development process, making creating and deploying custom applications faster and more efficient.
Early Access and Additional Resources
Starting 29 July 2024, early access features will be available in a non-production environment. This allows customers and partners to test the latest updates and provide feedback before the general release. For comprehensive details on the updates, refer to the Dynamics 365 2024 release wave 2 plan and the Microsoft Power Platform 2024 release wave 2 plan. Joining community discussions is encouraged to share feedback and gain deeper insights into the new features.
Conclusion
The 2024 release wave 2 highlights Microsoft's commitment to leveraging AI and advanced technologies to enhance business processes across its suite of applications. These updates promise substantial improvements, from sales and customer service to finance, supply chain management, commerce, and beyond. By incorporating AI-driven insights and automations, businesses can look forward to a more efficient, responsive, and data-driven operational environment.
If you need any assistance navigating these new updates or implementing them effectively in your business, ARP Ideas is here to support you every step of the way.
