If you were in our hands-on lab sessions, we promised links. Here you go:
Get Started With Copilot in Cloud Flows (Microsoft Documentation)
Copilots.
Large language models.
GPT this.
Open AI that.
The world is full of excitement for AI.
And the world is full of doom-and-gloom for AI.
While there are many over-the-top scenarios we’ve seen, the most effective uses of AI for everyday business is in small pieces. Add some AI here. Streamline some work over there. Surgical. Specific. Purposeful.
The best uses of AI happen when combined with critical thinking directly from humans.
At 365.Training we’re using AI both directly for the benefit of the users while they are training, but also behind the scenes. I guess that ultimately benefits the user, but less directly.
365Ai is your training copilot- While in a course, you can ask contextual questions of the copilot. The models are of course powered by the large language models, but also grounded with our own information. We make sure that the copilot in a specific course can answer topic-specific questions and not get sidetracked on other topics. The copilot is relevant and there when you need it.
mydigest- We’ve got a few different places where we’ve inserted AI.
TL;DR- We’ve manually curated sources (more than 150 of them so far), and we have AI generated summaries of the items in your feed.
Categories- We use AI to help identify content topics and the job roles that are relevant for the items.
Your filters- you select topics, roles and importance and we calculate a score and combine that with our scoring of items and apply that to make your custom feed.
Your digest email- we apply similar logic as above and curate a custom email on the schedule you define.
We’ve also used some of the Copilot capabilities of GitHub to help accelerate some of the more tedious parts of development to get us to market faster.
How do you AI in your everyday world?
I've just released another course in the Zero to series for 365.Training. It's to help you quickly get hands on experience building Power Virtual Agents. The focus is the hands on DOING of making bots. There's a little bit of foundational info, but we go right into the business of making a bot for our friends at Happy Tails doggie daycare.
New course is here: Power Platform - Zero to PVA | 365.Training
Other Zero to courses here: Course Catalog | Zero to Courses | 365 Training
This course features 365Ai so you can interactively ask additional questions and learn more about Power Virtual Agents.
We all knew it was coming. Finally, it was announced that the classic designers for app, forms and views are deprecated. So, what does that mean, from a practical perspective?
Microsoft feels that all essential tasks can be completed in the new designers. The new designers are all accessible by default (yea accessibility!), and generally easier and more intuitive to use. They load up with previews that include your own data.
There is no need to panic. It is possible that something you do all of the time is not available in the new designers. You just know you have to revert to classic to do just this one thing. That is still available but must be enabled by admin on a specific environment. The setting is found in the Power Platform admin center with other Behavior settings.
Users/makers will still see the new experiences by default. This will simply offer them the option to switch to classic as needed.
If you find yourself reverting back to classic, tell Microsoft about it.
PS. That one thing you think you have to do in the classic designer? Chances are it’s in the new designer too, you just haven’t located it yet.
A few weeks ago, Dave came into my office and starts scribbling on the whiteboard. Has a great idea. And we all agreed. And so, we jumped into the deep end and a few weeks later, we launched my digest by 365.Training.
What is my digest? It’s your one-stop place for news, updates, blogs, events, podcasts, videos; all things current about Power Platform. You build your interests in your saved filters and the feed only gives you things you are interested in. You can save items with notes, organized in your own folders. You can snooze and item to read later. You can do ad hoc views to narrow the scope of what you’re viewing right now, without changing your saved filters.
We’ve curated over 100 sources and add more pretty much every day.
We just launched this crazy idea last week. So, we’re in our beta phase while we work through any minor bugs and improvements. During this beta, every logged in user has access at no cost. We’ll sort out how we monetize it later.
Let me know if you have sources we should add or other ideas to make it better.
Go to my digest
I made a quick tutorial of how to get the most of my digest.
This is starting to feel like the good old days 😊
Power Platform Conference Las Vegas NV October 3-5. I’m not attending or presenting, but plan to be in town for a short time that week. Feel free to grab some time to catch up. https://365l.ink/MeetMeInVegas
365CommunityDays Knoxville TN- October 13th. I’m giving two talks at this free community event. Come join us! https://www.communitydays.org/event/2023-10-13/knoxville-m365-community-day#schedule
Community Summit- October 15-20 Charlotte NC- I’m on a few panels and helping deliver a session for CRM/D365 Sales users. Details here https://connect.summitna.com/8_0/sessions/speaker-details.cfm?speakerid=724
Denver Dev Day October 27 Denver CO- Not currently planning to deliver a session, but that might change. It’s free, join us anyway. https://denverdevday.github.io/oct-2023/
I’m always thinking about what new courses the community needs. I recently went through my library of courses at 365.Training and keep coming back to the fundamentals. But curated fundamentals. Courses specifically targeting practical skills. So, instead of making new courses, I’ve re-paved my most popular (and I feel most valuable) courses.
What does that mean? First all the labs have been updated and fully retested. Second, I’ve streamlined the talking parts, reduced it to what you need to know to understand what you are building in the labs. And third, I’ve added summary videos of the labs, and made this video available as a preview. You don’t have to subscribe, or purchase the course before you know more about what you are doing in these courses.
You’ll see that nearly all of these include something called 365Ai. That’s our training copilot that is there with you while you train. You can ask 365Ai topical questions without having to leave your training dashboard. Give it a try, I think it’s pretty swanky.
Experience Power Platform- This course takes you through a series of hands-on exercises all designed to give you practical experience building with the tools of Power Platform. This course includes 365Ai.
Zero to model-driven- This is a hands-on labs-based course to build a model-driven Power App. In this course you'll learn how to build a functionally complete model-driven app for Happy Tails doggie daycare. You do not need any prior Power Apps experience. This course includes 365Ai.
Zero to canvas- This is a hands-on labs-based course to build a canvas Power App. In this course you'll learn how to build a functionally complete canvas app for Happy Tails doggie daycare. You do not need any prior Power Apps experience.
Zero to Power Pages- This is a hands-on lab-based course to build Power Pages. In this course you'll learn how to build a functionally complete site for Happy Tails doggie daycare. You do not need any prior Power Apps experience. This course includes 365Ai.
You can buy any of these courses ala carte…or subscribe and get all of these and more included. Use my link for a 30% discount on your annual subscription. https://365l.ink/365Julie
Some people learn best on their own. But many prefer to learn with a group. We’re launching training cohorts to give our subscribers access to a training community to help them on their professional journey.
You will be assigned learning each week to help you complete the courses in an order we’ve determined is logical to gain the skills of the particular cohort. You’ll be free to take any of our courses at the same time, or before, or after. You can join additional cohorts also.
You will be part of a community. Each cohort has a private Teams available with dedicated channels for each course in the cohort. Our instructors will be available for questions and discussions throughout the cohort. We’ll also have office hours for interactive conversations along the way.
Our goal is for quarterly cohorts, but will schedule more often if we need to.
First up is our cohort for beginners in October, then one for developers in January.
Keep an eye on this page for other cohorts as they get scheduled.
What does it cost?
Joining a cohort is free to our paid subscribers.
How big are the cohorts?
To be honest we’re not exactly sure. We need enough students to encourage great conversations, but not so many that you’ll get lost. We’ll keep an eye on enrollment and do our best to keep the numbers right.
Interested in subscribing? Have a look here.
Got a group? Want a private cohort? Have a look here.
Когорта навчання "Професіонал з біснес-додатків". Версія для українців.
Після вдалого старту нашого пілотного проекту, ми із задоволенням розширюємо реєстрацію. Якщо ви чи хтось з вашого оточення шукає підтримку при зміні професії, приєднуйтеся. Наші фахівці працюють з передовими технологіями та знанням мов, щоб ваше навчання було максимально комфортним. Цей курс є адаптованим варіантом англомовних груп і містить матеріали на двох мовах: англійській та українській. Навчання самостійне з контрольними етапами. І, до речі, це абсолютно безкоштовно. Якщо ви бажаєте вчитися, але не готові зобов'язатися на 6 тижнів відразу, немає проблем. Матеріали основані на ресурсах Microsoft Learn, https://aka.ms/BAPskilling. Можете розпочати з цього сайту, а потім приєднатися до нас.
Щоб дізнатися більше про курс, перейдіть за цим посиланням.
Для реєстрації в групі, клікніть сюди.
Biz App professional skilling cohorts-Ukrainian edition
After our successful pilot we are happy to open registration more broadly. If you or someone you know is looking for help transitioning to a new career, join us. Our team of professionals includes native speakers and some good technology to make this experience as smooth as possible.
This cohort is a modified version of the English-language cohorts. Content is presented in both English and Ukrainian. Learning is self-directed with checkpoints. It is free.
If you’d like to learn but can’t commit to a 6-week cohort at this time, not to worry. The program is based on the official collection from Microsoft Learn, https://aka.ms/BAPskilling . You can start there, and join a cohort later.
For more information about the training, visit here
To apply for a cohort, visit here
You’re trained.
You’re eager to work.
You’re not getting hired because you have zero experience.
We’ve heard this story over and over again. And it’s tough. It’s hard to go through all the training, get excited about new tech and new beginnings. And not be able to get the job because you lack “real-world” experience.
We’ve launched a new initiative at The Pivot Program to help address this.
Our volunteers will be accepting applications for new candidates to be project resources, specifically targeting people new to Power Platform and Dynamics 365.
We know that everyone deserves to be paid for their work, and we will continue to seek paid apprenticeships for those new to the industry. But we are hopeful this program can help you keep that forward momentum you’ve gotten from your training.
You’re excited and ready to work, let’s keep you moving forward.
To learn more about our efforts, visit our Projects page.
If you want to support us with paid opportunities, reach out to me directly and let's make it happen.