Dynamics 365 Copilot in Action – Features and Strategic Guidance

Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Copilot is changing how businesses work with their data. This AI assistant automates tasks and changes how teams handle customer engagement, sales processes, and service delivery.

But throwing AI at your business problems without a plan rarely works. Organizations reporting the biggest wins from Dynamics 365 Copilot share one common trait: they approached implementation strategically.

We’ll show you exactly how Copilot works, what features matter most, and why having the right strategy makes the difference between AI success and expensive disappointment.

Quick Note: Coffee + Dunn helps companies build custom agents through Copilot Studio and get Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement set up correctly. The features Microsoft is building are good, but you still need the right plan and team to make it work. Talk to our experts about your connected experience strategy.

What Is Dynamics 365 Copilot?

Dynamics 365 Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant built directly into their business applications. It’s your knowledgeable colleague who never sleeps, knows your entire customer database, and can draft emails, summarize meetings, and spot trends in seconds.

The timing makes sense. Nearly 9 out of 10 workers want to use AI to reduce repetitive tasks in their jobs, according to recent business trend surveys. Copilot addresses this need by handling routine work so people can focus on strategy and relationships.

Unlike general AI tools, Copilot for Dynamics 365 understands your business context.

It knows:

• • Your customers,
  • Your sales pipeline,
  • Your service cases, and
  • Your company’s way of working.

When you ask it to summarize a customer account, it pulls relevant information from across your entire Microsoft ecosystem.

Microsoft calls it “the world’s first copilot in both CRM and ERP,” and that integration matters. Your sales data connects to your service history, which connects to your financial records. Copilot sees these connections and helps you make better decisions.

The Evolution of Generative AI in Business

The path to Dynamics 365 Copilot started with Microsoft’s massive bet on artificial intelligence. Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and shifted its entire strategy around AI-first thinking.

2023 became the breakthrough year. Microsoft launched Bing Chat in February, followed by Microsoft 365 Copilot and Dynamics 365 Copilot in March. By November, these tools reached general availability for enterprise customers.

The speed wasn’t accidental. Nadella recognized that businesses needed practical AI solutions, not just impressive demos. His vision focused on AI that does the routine work so humans can focus on creative, strategic tasks.

The results speak for themselves. Nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies now use Microsoft 365 Copilot. Over 230,000 organizations have adopted Copilot Studio for building custom AI agents. This rapid adoption shows businesses see real value when AI solves actual problems.

But success requires more than just turning on AI features. Organizations that thrive with AI invest in proper planning, training, and ongoing optimization.

How Copilot Is Integrated in Dynamics 365 Today

Dynamics 365 Copilot uses advances in generative AI to automate tedious tasks and free up your workforce’s creativity.

The AI works across CRM and ERP systems to help you move faster and get better results in every part of your business:

• • Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales: The AI handles email writing and meeting summaries, giving sellers more time with customers instead of administrative tasks.
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Agents get AI assistance for drafting responses and accessing knowledge bases instantly. You can also build virtual agents in minutes using conversation boosters.
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Insights: Marketers create customer segments using natural language instead of complex technical queries.
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central: Product attributes automatically become compelling descriptions for online stores in seconds.
  • Microsoft Supply Chain Center: The system flags external risks and helps you draft communications to partners before disruptions happen.
  • Dynamics 365 Finance: Collections managers get AI summaries of customer accounts and payment history to prioritize their work.
  • Dynamics 365 Field Service: Service teams get instant work order summaries and can create schedules directly in Outlook.

This is the next era of business applications being changed by generative AI.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot Features

Let’s break down the specific AI capabilities you’ll get across different Dynamics 365 applications and how they work in your daily operations:

1. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights comes in two parts that work together to help you understand and reach your customers better: Customer Insights – Data for analyzing customer information, and Customer Insights – Journeys for creating marketing campaigns.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys

When you’re working on marketing campaigns, you can describe your target customer segment in your own words using the query assist feature.

Need fresh email content ideas? Just make a simple request, and Copilot for Dynamics 365 CI – Journeys generates suggestions based on your key topics, your organization’s existing marketing emails, and relevant internet sources.

Here’s what you can do:

• • Kickstart email creation from scratch
  • Style your emails with AI-assisted themes
  • Refresh and perfect your existing messages
  • Create customer journeys automatically
  • Target the right customers using natural language queries

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data

Copilot for Customer Insights – Data takes segment creation to the next level by letting you describe what you want using everyday language; no need to understand complex data schemas.

You can create segments with simple descriptions like “All customers that live in Seattle, Washington,” or more complex ones like “All customers that have a lifetime value of at least 500 and also purchased an item within the past 30 days.”

The system provides personalized, suggested prompts based on your environment’s data to help you get started.

When you enter your segment description, Copilot translates it into the technical rules needed and applies them automatically. If your segment involves multiple relationship paths, the system uses the shortest path by default, but you can edit this if needed.

2. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales

You’ll dramatically cut down the time you spend on administrative work. The AI writes email responses to customers and creates email summaries of Teams meetings right in Outlook.

These summaries pull details from your CRM like product and pricing information, plus insights from recorded calls.

Since sellers spend up to 60% of their working week on email activities, this gives you significantly more time with customers.

Core Copilot capabilities in Dynamics 365 Sales:

• • Record Summarization: Get quick summaries of your opportunity, lead, and account records from predefined fields
  • Recent Changes: Stay updated on any modifications made to your lead, opportunity, and account records
  • Meeting Preparation: Get relevant information from the opportunity or lead records associated with your upcoming meetings
  • Email Assistance: Compose professional emails, summarize email conversations, and get follow-up reminders
  • News Updates: Stay current with the latest news about your accounts through Bing-curated articles
  • Information Assistance: Get product-related documents and answers from SharePoint without switching apps

Copilot works beyond Dynamics 365, too. You can use it as an add-in in Outlook and as an integrated app in Teams.

These integrations let you capture, view, and update customer account data right where you work.

You get the same AI capabilities for record summaries and email content generation.

3. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Finance

Your collections managers get AI-generated summaries of customer accounts, overdue invoices, and payment history to prioritize which customers need attention.

You can create personalized customer communications without navigating multiple screens, which saves time and increases efficiency. This helps improve collection rates and keeps customers in good standing.

The Collections coordinator workspace displays these AI summaries, powered by Azure OpenAI. You’ll spend less time reviewing collection details and help your organization improve cash flow through more timely payments.

4. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central

If you run a small or medium-sized business, Copilot in Business Central gives you intuitive AI tools that boost creativity and save time:

• • Bringing Products to Market Faster: You can upload a product picture that automatically matches to a product category and attributes, cutting down data entry. When you’re stuck on product descriptions, Copilot drafts compelling copy based on attributes like color, material, and size. With just a few clicks, your products are published to your online store through Business Central’s Shopify integration.
  • Reducing Tedious Accounting: Copilot helps with the recurring task of reconciling bank statements that typically takes hours. After you upload a bank statement file or pull the latest statement digitally from your bank, Copilot automatically matches transactions known to Business Central and suggests appropriate ledger accounts for any remaining transactions.
  • Extending Copilot with Custom Capabilities: Developer tools let you build powerful, generative AI experiences for any role or industry. You can deploy them to customers or distribute them as add-on apps through Microsoft AppSource.

5. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service

You get AI-generated work order recaps that summarize work orders and related data. Whether you’re a service manager, dispatcher, or frontline worker, you’ll quickly understand the state of any work order and what steps to take next.

The recap covers work history, future actions, arrival times, criticality, required parts, and other important context. The Outlook add-on also helps with work order creation and scheduling directly in Outlook.

6. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Your customer service agents can deliver better support with AI assistance. Copilot provides real-time help that automates time-consuming tasks so agents can handle cases efficiently and resolve issues faster.

When you enable Copilot features, representatives can respond to questions, compose emails, draft chat responses, and summarize cases and conversations. The AI expertise is available around the clock to answer questions.

Key features you’ll use:

• • Case and Conversation Summaries: Get instant summaries of cases and conversations to quickly understand context
  • Email Composition: Compose professional emails with proper context and relevant information
  • Question Response: Respond to customer questions with relevant answers from your knowledge base
  • Chat Response Drafting: Draft chat responses that maintain your service standards and tone
  • Knowledge Base Integration: Ask questions about your knowledge base sources and trusted domains
  • Ask A Question: Get answers to service-related questions using AI assistance

Copilot works in the Customer Service workspace by default. For agents to use these features in Customer Service Hub and custom apps, administrators need to enable the features and assign proper security roles.

The system also lets you build virtual agents quickly using conversation boosters that tap into Azure OpenAI and Bing to pull answers from your company websites and knowledge bases.

7. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Copilot in Supply Chain Management proactively flags external issues like weather, financial changes, and geography that might impact your key processes.

Predictive insights show affected orders across materials, inventory, carriers, and distribution networks.

You can automatically draft emails through Copilot to alert impacted partners and prevent disruptions before they happen.

8. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Project Operations Copilot helps you create project plans for new engagements in seconds.

By describing project details in natural language, you save hours that would otherwise be spent on detailed planning.

You can easily customize these plans to align with specific project requirements.

• • Simplified Status Reporting: Copilot reduces time spent on research and writing for project status reports. These reports integrate scheduling and financial data summaries, giving you insights into project progress, financial performance, and schedule adherence. You can generate comprehensive status reports quickly and efficiently.
  • Risk Identification and Mitigation: Copilot helps you identify and address potential risks that could impact project timelines and budgets. You can instruct Copilot to scan across your active projects to pinpoint common risk factors like significant delays or budget overruns.

The AI Advantage for Customer Engagement Teams

Real-world data shows significant productivity improvements when teams use Copilot effectively.

Microsoft’s analysis of 11,500+ customer service agents revealed some impressive numbers:

• • Case Resolution Efficiency: You’ll see a 12-16% reduction in time spent resolving cases, allowing agents to handle more customer issues without sacrificing quality. This translates to faster customer service and improved satisfaction rates.
  • Reduced Dependency on Colleagues: Teams experience a 13% decrease in cases requiring peer assistance, enabling more independent problem-solving and reducing bottlenecks when senior agents are unavailable.
  • Increased Case Management Capacity: Organizations report a 9-12% increase in managed cases and chats, meaning your team can handle higher volumes without additional staffing or overtime costs.
  • Streamlined Administrative Tasks: Agents complete routine administrative work in 15 minutes or less, compared to the previous 30-40 minutes, freeing up significant time for actual customer interaction and problem-solving.
  • Enhanced Agent Confidence: 75% of surveyed customer service professionals believe AI helps them find the information they need, while 70% say it intelligently routes issues to appropriate agents, creating more confident and effective service delivery.
  • Workflow Optimization: 68% of agents report that AI helps them stay in a productive workflow, create document drafts, and detect trends across customer interactions, leading to more strategic service improvements over time.

To learn more about maximizing these benefits, explore our six secrets to Copilot success in customer engagement.

How to Use Copilot in Dynamics 365

Getting Copilot to work well means understanding how it fits into your daily tasks.

Here’s how to use these features in real workflows:

• • Start Your Day with AI-Curated Insights: Sales representatives begin each morning with a list of priority actions, accounts that need attention, and upcoming meetings that require preparation. The system automatically highlights opportunities advancing through the pipeline and customers who haven’t been contacted recently.
    Prepare for Meetings with
  • Comprehensive Context: Before customer calls, access account summaries that combine CRM data with recent interactions. Email exchanges, previous meeting notes, and opportunity details create complete context for productive conversations without manual research.
  • Draft Emails Using Conversational Prompts: Describe your message intent in natural language, and Copilot generates appropriate communications that maintain a professional tone and customer context. Sales reps simply explain what they want to say rather than starting from a blank page.
  • Get Instant Case Summaries for Faster Resolution: Customer service agents start each case with automated summaries, eliminating manual history review.
  • Query Knowledge Bases in Plain English: Ask questions as you would to a colleague and get relevant articles and solutions instantly. Agents no longer need to remember specific keywords or navigation paths to find the information they need.
  • Generate Professional Responses with Context: Describe your intended response, and Copilot creates professional communications appropriate for the situation.
  • Maintain Brand Consistency While Scaling Content: Provide content guidelines and tone requirements, and Copilot generates materials following your brand standards. Teams can produce more content without losing quality or brand voice. Just keep in mind that content quality can hurt or help your bottom line when you’re scaling up production.
  • Design Customer Journeys Collaboratively: Journey descriptions translate into automated workflows, bridging the gap between business strategy and technical implementation. Marketing stakeholders can communicate their vision without technical expertise.

The Role of Strategy in Making Copilot Effective

Organizations that treat AI as just another software deployment often struggle with adoption and ROI.

Here’s what strategic implementation looks like:

• • Assess Your Organization’s Readiness: You need to check if your data is clean and organized, your permissions are set up correctly, and your team is ready for change. Good data helps Copilot give better answers, while proper security settings keep your information safe.
  • Start with Pilot Programs: You can reduce risk by testing Copilot with a small group first on specific tasks. Smart organizations expand slowly based on what works rather than launching everything at once.
  • Plan Your Change Management Strategy: You must get leadership support, train your people, communicate clearly, and track how well adoption is going. People who resist AI can kill even the best technical setup, so managing the human side matters as much as the tech side.
  • Establish Strong Data Governance: You need rules to make sure people only see data they should when AI is involved. Tracking who uses AI and how helps you stay compliant and improve over time.
  • Monitor Performance Continuously: You can keep improving by watching usage numbers, tracking adoption rates, and asking users how satisfied they are. Organizations should measure daily active users, how often AI generates responses, and quality ratings to keep getting better.

Where Coffee + Dunn Fits in Your Dynamics 365 Copilot Journey

Coffee + Dunn specializes in customer engagement services, including Dynamics 365 implementations. When you’re ready to deploy Copilot, we help you do it right.

Here’s how we support your marketing automation journey:

• • Assessment and Planning: Check your data quality, permissions, and team readiness before launch
  • Technical Implementation: Configure Copilot across Sales, Customer Service, Customer Insights, and other modules
  • Custom Agent Development: Build tailored AI experiences through Copilot Studio that connect your unique business processes
  • Connected Experience Strategy: Design seamless customer journeys that leverage AI across all touchpoints
  • Training and Support: Get your teams comfortable using new AI features effectively
  • Ongoing Optimization: Monitor performance, track adoption, and improve results over time

As a 2X Microsoft Partner of the Year finalist, our team brings proven experience with Dynamics 365 and customer engagement best practices.

Ready to get started? Contact us to discuss your Copilot strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Let’s address the most common questions organizations have about Dynamics 365 Copilot:

What Are the Risks of Using Dynamics 365 Copilot without a Strategy?

The biggest risks include data security breaches from misconfigured permissions and poor ROI from low adoption rates. Without proper planning, you might face compliance violations with fines up to €35 million (or 7 % of your annual turnover) under EU regulations. Uncontrolled licensing costs can also escalate quickly.

How Do I Enable Copilot Features in Dynamics 365?

You need valid Dynamics 365 licensing and System Administrator roles for configuration.

• • For Sales, go to Change area > App Settings > General Settings > Copilot within Sales Hub.
  • For Customer Service, go to Copilot Service admin center > Support Experience > Productivity > Copilot for questions and emails.
  • For Customer Insights – Data, go to Settings > System > Consent tab to enable Copilot features.
  • For Customer Insights – Journeys, configure consent settings in Settings > Feature switches > Copilot.

Additional requirements may include regional data movement consent in the Power Platform admin center if your organization is outside regions with Azure OpenAI Service endpoints.

Do I Need Microsoft 365 Copilot to Use Dynamics 365 Copilot?

No, basic Copilot features are included in your Dynamics 365 licenses at no extra cost. However, enhanced integration with Outlook and Teams requires Copilot for Sales at $50 per user/month (which includes Microsoft 365 Copilot) or $20 per user/month if you already have Microsoft 365 Copilot.

How Much Does Dynamics 365 Copilot Cost?

Most Dynamics 365 Copilot features are included at no additional cost within existing Dynamics 365 licenses. However, for Dynamics 365 Sales, some advanced features depend on your specific licensing tier and may require extra costs.

Conclusion

The companies seeing the biggest wins from Dynamics 365 Copilot share one thing: they approached it strategically. Technology alone doesn’t drive results—you need the right plan, proper implementation, and ongoing optimization.

Coffee + Dunn helps organizations turn AI potential into real business value.

As a two-time Microsoft Partner of the Year finalist with 100% Microsoft-certified consultants, we’ve helped companies across manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and education implement Dynamics 365 solutions that actually work.

Ready to make AI work for your business? Get started with Coffee + Dunn today.