Low-code and no-code development changed the business applications market by enabling organisations to build apps more quickly, efficiently, and with reduced reliance on traditional coding methods. However, now generative AI is giving business applications tools a whole new dimension. 

Charoo Singh, country head – business applications (India & South Asia) at Microsoft, believes next-generation AI capabilities are fundamentally changing the business applications market for the first time in over 20 years. 

This integration of AI and low code is transforming the way solutions are built and the way people work, collaborate, and create. Notably, Power Apps, a part of the Microsoft Power Platform, was among the early products to integrate GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) into commercial applications.

“While Microsoft Power Platform already provides everyone regardless of their technical ability, the opportunity to build their own solutions, the integration of generative AI has dramatically increased the accessibility of low-code development,” Singh said in this exclusive interaction with AIM.

Microsoft Power Platform is a comprehensive suite of low-code tools and services that enables organisations to build customised business solutions, automate processes, analyse data, and create virtual agents, consisting of several product areas such as Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages.

Bringing Generative AI to Power Platform

In March 2023, Microsoft announced additional Copilot capabilities to Power Virtual Agents, which is another component of the Power Platform. With Copilot, Microsoft Power Platform has brought AI-powered assistance into Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate.

“These include streamlining the user experience with embedded GPT-enabled chatbots in Power Apps that provide an in-app assistant, and GPT-enabled data exploration in Power Apps which enables end users to intelligently query their data for immediate and actionable insights,” Singh said.

With Copilot capabilities in Power Platform, Microsoft is providing new ways for all developers — citizen developers and professional developers — to solve business problems, gain a more seamless, intuitive experience as well as accelerate development.

“To build an app, flow, or bot, all you need to do is describe it using natural language and a Copilot can build it in seconds. Users of the Power Platform now have a live in-studio Copilot that helps them build solutions and provides suggestions for improvement,” she added.

AI is changing the landscape of software development and helping supercharge developer productivity, Singh adds. Microsoft is using AI to help more people access technology through low and no-code solutions with Power Platform and equipping professional developers with AI tools like GitHub Copilot.

In fact, in the last few months, we have seen Microsoft integrate Copilot into every line of its business across Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Moreover, it is natively integrated into all Microsoft cloud offerings as part of a single extensibility platform across productivity apps and Microsoft Teams, Business Applications (Dynamics 365), and Azure. 

Empowering Customers in India 

According to Microsoft, its Power Platform has 33 million active users globally. In India, many customers are leveraging the Power Platform to their advantage. For instance, Power Platform is also leveraged by Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Limited (PCHFL), a non-deposit-taking housing finance company, headquartered in Mumbai. 

Singh said that PCHFL was looking to set up a centralised loan origination and management system to serve as a single source of data across risk, asset monitoring, compliance, investment and operations, and it turned to Microsoft. 

The housing finance company used Microsoft Power Platform in several ways. For instance, Power Automate was used to create an end-to-end approval process for various pre-sanction and post-sanction activities with complex orchestration of credit-policy-driven approvals.

“The Microsoft solution also helps execute routine tasks like setting up access control, periodic clean-up of data repositories and event-based email intimations. Power Apps was deployed to build a mobile app to allow users to click pictures and store them directly in the loan origination system application repository (OneDrive).”

Moreover, leveraging Power BI, PCHFL built dashboards on data-centric information pertaining to financials, budgets and sales data of sanctioned loans. These dashboards are tightly integrated with the company’s application allowing users to seamlessly get a personalised view on a single click.

Similarly, the State Bank of India (SBI), which is India’s largest bank, is leveraging Microsoft Power Apps to develop several solutions across their offices around the country, Singh revealed. “From capturing attendance to conducting quizzes at staff training centres to ensuring ATMs are accessible for people with disabilities, there are Power Apps in place.

“Additionally, customers such as Aditya Birla Capital and Magicrete are leveraging Power BI to access data, create interactive dashboards and gain real-time actionable insight. This, in turn, helps them make strategic decisions that positively impact their value chain and business outcomes,” Singh concluded.