By Dave Godschalx, Solution Consultant, Dynamics4Business, June 26, 2025
Last week, we attended the European Power Platform Conference (EPPC) in Vienna with Process4People for three days. EPPC is the leading European event for everything related to the Microsoft Power Platform. Together with thousands of other professionals from across Europe, we immersed ourselves in the very latest developments. Microsoft itself was, of course, strongly represented, with a clear message: AI is no longer something for the future — it is here now.
In the spirit of AI
The conference was entirely centered around AI. And although we all saw this coming, the level of maturity and real-world applicability was nothing short of impressive. Every session was supported by live demos and working solutions — from automation to document processing, and from deep search to agents that independently carry out tasks.
From 10% to a 10x
The conference kicked off with Ryan Cunningham, Corporate Vice President of Power Platform Intelligent Applications at Microsoft. He set the tone with a powerful message: where we previously had to be satisfied with annual progress of 10%, AI now enables us to make leaps by a factor of 10.
This is made possible through the use of teams of AI agents — virtual specialists that collaborate on processes and tasks, each with their own area of focus. And the user? They take on the role of Agent Boss, the person who directs these digital teams. Microsoft predicts that by 2028, more than 1.3 billion AI agents will be in use worldwide. An enormous number — but the technology is already within reach today.
AI agents: built on what we already have
How can so many agents be created so quickly? The answer is surprisingly simple. There is no building from scratch. Microsoft is leveraging existing, proven components such as APIs, Custom Connectors and all the other standard Power Platform tools we've known for years. What changes is how we communicate with them.
Where before we had to write logic and queries, now we can ask questions in plain human language. A Large Language Model (LLM) such as GPT-4o, Grok or DeepSeek translates those instructions into actions on existing APIs. If those APIs are well described and documented, connecting an agent becomes almost plug-and-play. Custom Connectors play a key role in this.
Standard agents in action
The applications are enormously practical and versatile. In many sessions, we learned how to build agents ourselves, but Microsoft itself is also in the midst of developing standard agents. Some of the most impressive examples:
Data Entry Agent:
automatically fills out forms by analyzing files such as PDFs, photos, emails or text snippets.
Researcher Agent:
Analyzes complex documents, tracks references and answers in-depth questions. During a demo, a difficult-to-read research paper with complex mathematical formulas and many references was fully analyzed within minutes. This agent can be used directly in Microsoft Teams.
Document Processor & Generator Agents:
Read, understand and generate documents with full formatting. They work right out-of-the-box, but can also be trained for specific situations.
Plan Designer: agents build solutions
One of the most powerful innovations presented was the Plan Designer. This is a collaborative team of (currently) four agents: the Requirements Agent, Process Agent, Data Agent, and Solution Agent, who together design a complete solution based on provided requirements.
For example, upload a document with screen designs, flow charts or process descriptions, and the agents get to work. They translate the content into concrete requirements, build a data model, describe process steps ánd immediately generate components such as apps, flows and other agents. This approach can drastically reduce development time and fundamentally change the way we build software.
Transparency, governance and security
Of course, the rapid rise of AI agents also raises questions about governance, security and cost control. Microsoft shows that these are absolute top priorities. At the conference, their experts engaged in a conversation with the community. The message was clear: transparency and responsible scaling are key.
This was further confirmed by Copilot Governance's product manager, who let us know personally via LinkedIn:
“Transparency, cost control, and responsible scale are top priorities.”
The Agent Feed: your cockpit as Agent Boss
To gain insight into what agents are doing and where your input is needed, Microsoft introduced the Agent Feed. This is a kind of timeline in which all agent actions are clearly displayed. From this timeline, you can easily click through to relevant records, make decisions and see where your guidance as Agent Boss is needed. An essential tool to keep control over the work of your virtual team members.
Security and privacy in Copilot
There are many questions from customers about the security and privacy of Microsoft Copilot, and there was a lot of attention to this during the EPPC. Microsoft has established clear guidelines for this: Copilot respects existing policy settings within Microsoft 365, such as information security, compliance and privacy. The data used, both prompts and generated content, remains within the customer's Microsoft 365 tenant and is not used to train the underlying AI models.
In addition, access to data is governed by the same permission structures as in other Microsoft 365 apps, meaning that Copilot does not gain access to information that a user does not normally have rights to either. All this ensures that Copilot can be safely integrated within an existing Microsoft environment without compromising the confidentiality of corporate data.
Ready for the future
EPPC 2025 was for us a source of inspiration, concrete insights ánd confirmation: it is time to really think differently about how we develop digital solutions. We have a completely new toolbox at our disposal. AI is not hype or nice-to-have, but an essential step for organizations that want to remain agile and innovative.
We are at a tipping point, similar to the moment 30 years ago when the computer entered the workplace. Employees with access to AI will soon make as big a difference as back then employees with computers compared to colleagues without.
And the best part? Everything we learned there can be applied immediately by us at Dynamics4Business to support our customers even better with the power of the Power Platform.
Want to know more?
Wondering what these developments can mean for your organization? Feel free to contact us - we'd love to think along!
Send an email to: info@d4b.nl or call us at +31 (0)85 303 86 60.