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Expert Talk: Unpacking Dynamics 365 Role-based Copilot
21 Plays1 month ago
In this first part of a two-part podcast series on role-based Copilots, Tony Stewart sits down with Sergio Schaefer, Senior Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft, to explore how Dynamics 365 Role-Based Copilots for service and sales transform business operations. They discuss how these AI-driven assistants streamline sales activities by delivering actionable insights, generating real-time recommendations, and optimizing tasks such as sales chat, email summarization, and follow-ups. On the service side, they examine how Copilots accelerate case resolution times and enhance customer interactions, helping teams work more efficiently while delivering superior experiences.
Tony and Sergio break down real-world applications, share best practices for implementing role-based Copilots, and offer strategies to navigate adoption challenges. They also discuss the ROI of AI-powered copilots, how businesses can prepare for AI integration, and highlight industry-specific use cases that showcase the transformative potential of these intelligent assistants.
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Introduction
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to AI Insights, the podcast where we dive into the game-changing world of artificial intelligence. I'm your host, Tony Stewart, Director of Information Technology at Alithia. Today, I'm excited
Special Guest Introduction
00:00:18
Speaker
to have a special guest with us Sergio Schaefer, Senior Partner Solution Architect at Microsoft.
00:00:23
Speaker
We're kicking off an exciting two-part series
Overview of Dynamics 365 Role-Based Copilot
00:00:25
Speaker
all about Dynamics 365 Role-Based Copilot for Service and how they're shaking up service organizations. These AI-powered assistants are helping businesses work smarter, serve customers better, and make data-driven decisions that keep them ahead in today's AI-driven world.
Tech Skill Mastery Question
00:00:45
Speaker
But before we get into that, we're going to try a quick little icebreaker. um So Sergio, if you could instantly master one tech skill, what would it be and why? Yeah, that's a good question. I think and in this a and age, I would ah would instantly want to have a skill around AI machine learning.
00:01:04
Speaker
I think it's a skill that is in the field of forefront of technology, like the innovation and really, you know, the AI capabilities and the products like Microsoft has really realized the industry.
00:01:18
Speaker
So that if if I were to choose one, that would be kind of my my my top one. Yeah, I love that one. i I've recently been getting into Power Platform, which is strangely a new space for me. If you give me an admin interface or an IDE, I can jump right in.
00:01:35
Speaker
um and kind of specific to this conversation, I've been doing more with Power Platform. So I think I would love to just kind of skip over that weird learning curve that happens where you know just enough how to like, it should be able to do this, but not enough where you're really able to like quickly troubleshoot it and kind of go from there.
00:01:51
Speaker
And agreed on the the machine learning part. I think that's such an interesting new technology we get to use. And especially ah based on the kind of you know tools we're talking about today, it's really interesting to see what we'll be able to do going forward.
Exploring Role-Based Copilot Agents
00:02:05
Speaker
ah So, I mean, jumping into Dynamics 365 co-pilots, um could you explain some of the role-based co-pilots and how they support sales and service teams respectively?
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah, of course, definitely can speak to that. So role-based co-pilot agents are products that have been developed to sit on top of the Microsoft productivity tools, like team outlooks and and the Office suite. and then bring the generative AI into the products, right? So the idea is that agents and salespeople don't actually have to go outside of their usual line of work and the business products that they use.
00:02:43
Speaker
It brings the generative AI into their productivity tools Regardless if it's first party or third party, regardless if it's dynamic or other third party CRM systems, it's really bringing that generative AI capabilities into where the agents and sales people really work on a dayto day to day.
00:03:02
Speaker
I mean, do you see ah anything specific on and how they become relevant to those ah business users day to day?
Enhancing Sales Productivity with Copilot
00:03:10
Speaker
Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, if you think about it, Coupon for Sales, that AI assistant that grows you faster, right? They talk about Monday routines, we're talking about data entry, we're talking about follow-ups. So build even building relationships, right? All that translating to closing deals faster. And then if the sellers have more productivity within the tools that they work, then much better. right So the aim from Microsoft is to really, regardless, as I mentioned, if you're using Dynamics or not the third party CRM, it's bringing that productivity into the the way they work.
00:03:43
Speaker
For Copilot for Sales, and again, you kind of hear me talk about role-based Copilot agents or Copilot for Sales or Copilot for Service, but for Service really is, you know, we understand sometimes companies don't want to invest in a large system for customer service. They maybe already use the productivity tools they have within within their corporation. So maybe they want to bring, a you know, other CRM systems that they have over customer service system into their productivity tools. So kind adding that human touch without going out of the the systems they use day to day.
Long-term AI Transformation in Organizations
00:04:14
Speaker
Amazing. So ah could you speak a little bit about what that transformation looks like in a longer timeframe, say like six months or a year for these organizations that are starting to leverage these tools?
00:04:25
Speaker
Think about ah and a transformation is teams will actually experience increased productivity, right? Increased efficiency. They can automate routine tasks and really focus on strategic activities that the customer has actually improving satisfaction, their more accurate responses, or even the close deals faster, right?
00:04:46
Speaker
that's within, let's say, six months. But within a year, you know, the sales and service processes will be more refined. And actually, as co-pilot and they generate AI, actually learns as the data comes in, right? So if you were talking about within a year, within six months, you know, all this data driven. and So teams in in those organizations will have a deep insights of how their customers behave, right?
00:05:10
Speaker
So they can change, they can learn, make they can make decisions faster, and overall the performance of their team will grow, right? They'll be better suited to respond to customers or close deals faster.
00:05:21
Speaker
yeah And you kind of touched on this just even in that answer, but are there any other like organization-wide benefits that you see when companies start to leverage these tools? Definitely. I mean, just like these tools, when we talk about generative AI in general, right? But when we focus about role-based, co-pilot data, you can think about a couple of key items. So, for example, any decision-making would actually want to understand what are the benefits of the organization, right? What is it that why I'm invested in this?
00:05:48
Speaker
So first of all, is obviously increased efficiency, right? With automation, you know, routine tasks and activities can be leveraged, can be faster and can really red reduce the operational times.
00:06:02
Speaker
It also can help, um you know, improve decision making, right? So if I am ah if i am a CFO CEO and i want to make a decision on well how do I invest in an organization, it's really that data driven in how how I am preparing for the future. Also like enhanced customer satisfaction, right? At the end of the day, if you're a company that focuses on services, you know, you want to have your customers happy, right?
00:06:26
Speaker
So regardless of that, you have to have quick
Improving Customer Satisfaction with AI
00:06:29
Speaker
responses, knowledge of your hand. And then be, because again, at the end of the day, we'll create loyal, you know, customers, right? And nobody hates, everybody hates calling and not, you know, getting a response the first time. So having the tools at your hand is really really how how you can close deals and you know have satisfaction. Obviously cost savings, right? If um if you have a related processes with role-based compliance agents and you have the data within the product with tools and your sellers and service people don't actually have to go around and look for it, it really comes down to lower operation costs, right? So they don't need to do manual work. They all have it in their fingertips.
00:07:10
Speaker
And lastly, would say scalability. I mean, as as organizations grow, AI systems can grow with them, right? they They help increase and download the workload without really compromising the quality. And I'll say gaining more quality. So it's really essential for companies today to have some sort of sales and service organization focus, and but to be more efficient and you can use role-based copilot agents for that.
00:07:34
Speaker
Kind of to the the points you just made, um obviously important would be reducing operational costs, the efficiency there. And I think you touched on that. Could you kind of speak a little bit more on how Copilot for Service supports business scalability and specifically aligns to an organization's long-term goals?
AI and Business Scalability
00:07:51
Speaker
I've alluded a little bit to that as I saw previous conversations and our previous questions. But I mean, i would just say like overall, this AI assistance, like role-based Copilot agents really help business grow smoothly in an organic way. Because it tends to remove the repetitive tasks and making processes more effective, making your sellers and your service people, you know, be more confident and be able to kind of close those deals or even, you know, help a customer.
00:08:22
Speaker
So at the end of the day, if I were a company and companies are looking, then it's really about saving costs, right? Because again, they're like giving the extra time for their people to do more with doing less, right? So if I, as I mentioned in the beginning, have that productivity tool feeling in the work where I do and where I work, not better, right?
00:08:44
Speaker
And it really helps the long-term alignment to the goals of the company. Plus, you know, Companies really can track success, right? I think that's one of the big deals in how they actually track the success.
00:08:56
Speaker
So long term with these tools can really help them kind of stay focused on the success of their business.
Starting an AI Pilot Program
00:09:03
Speaker
So looking at organizations that are kind of ready to start on this path and the best practices around implementation, what would you say the key steps for an organization to start a pilot program for these would be?
00:09:16
Speaker
I think this is a great question. And I think this is a lot of ah companies really struggle with that, especially because they they want to see a return of investment, right? They want to understand what is,
00:09:28
Speaker
ah well, how much they're going to invest in, how much they're going to get out of it. So and an important part is really that pilot, as you mentioned. like But really, i would say there's about six topics that i would I would say that are important. If I were to define this, the t the steps would be like really the final objectives. What is clearly outlined you as a company, what you want to achieve with a pilot? right What are your metrics? How do you want to improve productivity? What do you have?
00:09:54
Speaker
how do you want to enhance that to your customer satisfaction or even how do you want to close deals faster, right? A second point would be is select a team, right? I mean, it is you cannot just deploy this to multiple people. You have to have a set of selected pilot people because, you know, you'll be strategically on what they do. So I choose just like a small amount of teams and a group member from, let's say, body departments, even ah you know, see levels so they can understand how that works, right?
00:10:24
Speaker
they So that way they can enhance and embrace the new technology technology technology, but also be stewards of the technology. If people don't believe in the technology because it considers them a change, it'll be hard, right?
00:10:36
Speaker
According to training, obviously this is something very important, right? I mean, it's not just about letting the tool out there and just say, hey, use it and see how you feel. It's really have them train and understand how they can leverage the tool and how that brings into the work that they do.
00:10:50
Speaker
um Encourage communication, right? Anything that you know that they want to share with you around the pilot, what is is working, what is not, really fosters that they're getting you know what their voice heard, right?
00:11:03
Speaker
and And at the end of the day, it's really about monitoring the usage, right? If you define as small people, but they're not using it and you're not noticing, then you're going have a problem because you're not going to be able to identify if it's really working for your organization or is it really just because people didn't use it, right?
00:11:17
Speaker
And then at the end of the day, company, you need to analyze the pilot results, right? Did that work for you as an organization? Is it really meeting your goals as an organization? And then you can roll out different insights and adjust based on that, right?
00:11:38
Speaker
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Integrating AI in Service Operations
00:11:43
Speaker
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00:11:51
Speaker
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00:12:11
Speaker
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00:12:22
Speaker
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00:12:41
Speaker
I think there's a lot of a lot of work to be done and time spent from when you first say the licenses are assigned to when you could say this is successful. And I think you've touched on a lot of great points in in that space. I mean, establishing who the team is going to be.
00:12:56
Speaker
And then just you know from day one, when you get access to it, using it is a lot different or using any of these copo systems is a lot different than how you would be using it, say, six months down. Yeah, and I think that roadmap is important, right? And again, we've seen this with with partners and customers where they don't have a strategy and at the end of the day, they end up failing because they you know people don't see the benefits. So a a strategy, a roadmap, and as again as I mentioned, some of those points is really important because it will help you drive success.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah. So ah businesses that are in that space, either about to start or maybe they've started already and they are kind of in the, you know, we've assigned the licenses, but we're not seeing users start to really embrace the technology.
00:13:38
Speaker
Do you have any strategies on how businesses can measure that success or kind of come in and continuously improve the user experience of them? ah Metrics are important, right? You have to define what are your KPIs or your productivity. is Identify what you as a company identify as productivity gains, right?
00:13:56
Speaker
So there's if you don't have clear KPIs, it's really hard to measure performance and then really get the business clear-ish that you want, right? As I mentioned, regular feedback, if you're considering the feedback that your resources are giving you, you know really helps do the performance, and enhance the performance, and can you know can't be adjusted, um let's say with direct feedback, or if you have surveys, but at the end of the day, you want to improve based on that feedback. And it's nothing worse than even providing feedback, and your feedback is not
00:14:30
Speaker
ah you know, take into consideration, right? So it's a continuous, it's successful, continuous improvement of the program. Again, as I mentioned, like, you know, moderate the usage of the data. If you analyze if they're using it, how often often that they're using it, is it really helping them drive gains?
00:14:48
Speaker
Then it's really how you kind of do that productivity and really benchmarking, compare performance with before and after, right? See how your gains are and you see if ah if it's this is a product for you as a company because it really will show you if it adds like the benefit.
00:15:05
Speaker
and And at the end, you know, interact yeah interactive improvements, right? So don't stick to the way you are you work, right? Challenge your people to say, hey, you work this way, have you tried this way and the tool will help you this.
00:15:18
Speaker
It really helps you kind of, you know, measure those organizational successes, right? Absolutely agree. And we've really seen that the the pilot phase, especially when it's a guided version of that, ah you know not every organization is going to go through the same path.
00:15:33
Speaker
Not every user is going to adopt it the same way. So, you know, I think the iterative approach that you said was is probably the best thing to highlight there as far as this is something you have to keep coming back to to improve ah to actually see those benefits realized.
00:15:48
Speaker
um And, you know, you kind of
Measuring AI Implementation Success
00:15:50
Speaker
touched on it, but from the organization level um outside of just the usage of it, how do organizations look at measuring their ROI or seeing if these programs are successful?
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, so so definitely I would say metrics, role-based copilot world-based compil agents come with metrics that really can help an organization ah figure out and you know what gains have they had, right?
00:16:12
Speaker
So it is part of one thing is the tools and the KPIs and the metrics that the tool will give you, but really it's that feedback. your your resources will tell you if this is working, right? so that's why it's kind of things you point about that iterative.
00:16:27
Speaker
Even the the the importance of giving some training at the beginning, and right? Again, if if you don't do that, your people are not going to be backing it up. They won't be excited about it. And really excitement kind of is like a fire. It'll go through your organization.
00:16:45
Speaker
So those are really what some of the the the things that I would highlight just on on that. Sergio,
Podcast Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
00:16:50
Speaker
thank you so much for our conversation today. This was incredibly helpful. Listeners, don't leave us yet and remember to follow up and catch part two of this podcast series.
00:16:58
Speaker
Stay tuned by following us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. Also, don't forget to check out Alithia.com for more information about Alithia Dynamics field service practice and how you can optimize Copilot for Service to elevate your customer service operations.