Microsoft Copilot for Sales is reimagining sales. Integrated seamlessly into your daily tools across Microsoft 365 and Teams, Copilot for Sales harnesses the power of generative AI and customer data to keep sellers in their flow of work so they can spend more time with customers.
This month we’re bringing exciting capabilities to Outlook by unifying the sidecar for Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot for Sales, adding global entity search, and adding inline editing for from suggested CRM updates! We’re also excited to announce the preview of Copilot for Sales extensibility using Microsoft Copilot Studio! You can enrich out-of-the-box skills and bring your own skills to Copilot for Sales!
Capabilities highlighted in this post are included in the May 2024 release of Copilot for Sales. It may take time for specific capabilities to reach every tenant in each market.
Outlook
Unified Sidecar in Outlook*
We’re pleased to announce that Copilot for Sales and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now live in harmony in a shared sidecar! To help avoid confusion when launching and interacting with Copilot, we now have one Copilot experience across all Microsoft Surfaces.
You’ll see sales-specific value as experiences will be called out using the keyword “sales” with the Copilot for Sales icon displayed as needed.
* Available in Outlook for Web and New Outlook desktop.
Screenshots showing sidecar unification in Outlook
Global entity search in Outlook
Until now, sellers have been limited to viewing records automatically identified and suggested by Sales Copilot through certain relationships. With this month’s update, we’re excited to unlock the ability to search for entities directly from the Outlook sidecar!
Now sellers can search CRM data based on their own needs and requirements, using their knowledge and familiarity with their CRM data.
Screenshots showing user experience when searching for records in the CRM
Suggested CRM updates now feature inline editing
In our March blog, we highlighted the release of suggested CRM updates within the Copilot for Sales Outlook experience. This month, we’re excited to announce you can now take action directly inline – without having to leave the Outlook side car!
The screenshot below shows these two new capabilities in action.
- Linked record details will be shown immediately so that opportunity timelines and budget can be updated directly in the sidecar. Linked contact record inline updates coming soon!Opportunity stages will still take end-users to the CRM, in accordance with business processes.
- Select the “Update Opportunity” button in the sidecar to easily edit Opportunity information in the CRM inline—without ever leaving the sidecar!
Learn more aboutsuggested CRM updates
Screenshot showing the inline editing experience for (1) a linked opportunity and (2) a linked contact (coming soon)
Copilot Studio
This month we're pleased to announce the public preview of Copilot for Sales extensibility experiences using Copilot Studio!You can try out extending Copilot for Sales with Microsoft Copilot Studio using our product documentation at https://aka.ms/CopilotforSalesExtensibility.
Bring data and insights into chat and non-chat experiences (preview)
In preview now, you can enrich out-of-box skills in Copilot for Sales andbring your own skill to the chat experience.Sellers can now get insights from any sales application contextually in the flow of work in Microsoft 365 Copilot – from your CRM and other sales applications.
Enrich out-of-box skills like Email summary and Key sales info (shown in figure 1) and Opportunity (CRM record) summary and CRM record details (shown in figure 2). You can also bring your own skills to Sales chat (shown in figure 3).
Figure 1: Screenshot showing enriched (1) Email summary and (2) Key Sales info
Figure 2: Screenshot showing enriched (3) Opportunity/CRM record summary and (4) CRM record details
Figure 3: Screenshot showing (5) an example of bringing your own skills to Sales chat
Author Power Platform Connector plugins to extend Copilot for Sales (preview)
Now in preview, you can extend chat and non-chat experiences in Copilot for Sales using power platform connector plugins authored in Microsoft Copilot Studio!
Copilot for Sales integrates with CRM out-of-box (OOB). However, sales teams need data and insights from non-CRM sales applications in the copilot experiences. Using Copilot Studio, customers can now build power platform connector plugins to bring data and insights from any sales application into the copilot experience!
- Use Copilot Studio to author power platform connector plugins to extend Copilot for Sales.
- Enrich OOB skills, including Email summary, Key sales info, Opportunity / Account summary, and CRM record details
- Bring new skills to Copilot for Sales chat
The screenshots below show the application flow from getting started (figure 4) to configuring (figure 5) to publishing (figure 6).
Figure 4: Screenshot showing the initial configuration pane.
Figure 5: screenshot showing the “configure your plugin action” dialog
Figure 6: screenshot showing the “review, test, and publish plugin” dialog
Get started
Ready to join us and other top-performing sales organizations worldwide? Reach out to your Microsoft sales team or visit our product web page.
Ready to install Copilot for Sales? Have a look at our deployment guide for Dynamics 365 Sales users or our deployment guide for Salesforce users.
Learn more
Ready for all the details? Check out the Copilot for Sales product documentation.
Ready for the latest tips...and more? Copilot for Sales Tip Time can serve as a foundation for your training of Copilot for Sales users, customers, or partners! This content includes use cases and demonstrates how each feature will benefit sellers, administrators, and sales managers.
Looking for the latest adoption resources? Visit the Copilot for Sales Adoption Center and find the latest information about how to go from inspiration to adoption.
Stay connected
Want to stay connected? Learn about the latest improvements before everyone else at https://aka.ms/salescopilotupdates. Join our community in the community discussion forum and we always welcome your feedback and ideas in our product feedback portal.
