Power Platform Weekly - Issue #243
Welcome to Power Platform Weekly!
Last week GPT-5.2 in Copilot Studio was announced, and Process Maps in Power Apps became General Available.
There’s a new way to explore community tools, and it’s through the XrmToolBox Plugin Catalog. Read more in the announcement from Jukka Niiranen.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!
📰 Articles
Building a Multi-Hierarchy Ticket Classification System
🦸🏻♀️ Luise Freese describes how you go from a simple keyword classification system to a multi-tiered smart classification system.
The spirit of the licensing.guide
🧭🦸🏻♀️ In the past, Jukka Niiranen has written a lot of posts on his blog under the Licensing category. Now, there’s a dedicated place for that, the Licensing Guide website.
We thought our Power Platform was governed. Then Agents changed the rules
🚀🦸🏻♀️ Carsten Groth describes how an organization took their robust governance framework and adapted it to be ready for AI-driven automation.
Other articles
🦸🏻♀️ Handing Over to Live Agents Without Losing Control by Mateusz Wasilewski
🦸🏻♀️ Extending Copilot for Sales with Copilot Studio — A Practical Guide to Custom Extensions by Allan De Castro
👩💻 From Dad Jokes to A2A: Building Python Agents That Talk to Copilot Studio by Roel Schenk
🧭🦸🏻♀️ Comprehensive Copilot Studio Licensing Guide by Untethered 365
🦸🏻♀️ Visualize Complex Relationships with New Hierarchy Control by Dian Taylor
🦸🏻♀️ Boost Engagement: Configure Your Own Gamification by Jeroen Scheper
🦸🏻♀️ Connect to a Microsoft Foundry agent by Arild Aarnes
👩💻 Extending Copilot with Dataverse grounded declarative agents by Lewis Baybutt
🦸🏻♀️ Make Fields Required In Your Custom Pages To Prevent Issues by Megan V. Walker
🦸🏻♀️ Deleting Records In The msdymkt_segmentexecution Table by Megan V. Walker
🦸🏻♀️ Copilot Studio: Connect An Azure SQL Database As Knowledge by Matthew Devaney
🦸🏻♀️ Power Platform Pipelines oAuth Configuration App by Matt Collins-Jones
🦸🏻♀️ What is Power Automate and what is it used for? by Malin Martnes
🦸🏻♀️ Installation guide: D365 HR Power Apps Recruitment add-on within D365 Finance and PPAC by Ana Inés Urrutia
🛠️ Alias, Foundry and Impatience Release 1.2025.12.1 by Jonas Rapp
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Enhancing Power Pages interactivity with htmx by Oleksandr Olashyn
📺 Videos
🎙️ Podcasts
Awkward Silence Podcast
🚀 Join us for an exciting episode as we welcome our very first guest, Ali Nelson, to the podcast! Together, we dive into the complicated world of CRM security and discuss strategies for managing security roles and business units effectively. Ali, who just started a new job managing a system with over 11,000 users, grapples with the headaches of security and shares insights and challenges. We explore solutions ranging from automating processes with Power Apps and Power Automate to leveraging dynamic security roles and advanced visualizations. Whether you’re an admin or a CRM enthusiast, this episode has valuable takeaways for improving your system’s security and efficiency.
Microsoft Mechanics Podcast
🧭 Power Platform Adjacent - Bring AI agents directly into your daily workflows with Microsoft Agent 365. Agents have their own identity, email, OneDrive and Teams presence, and collaborate just like coworkers. Onboard agents, give them the policies and knowledge they need, and let them work in parallel with you to handle procurement, approvals, research, and updates using the same Microsoft 365 tools you already rely on.
Jeremy Chapman, Microsoft 365 Director, shares how you can adopt autonomous agents at scale with confidence, security, and clarity across your business.
Cloud Realities Podcast
👩💻 AI is transforming software development—redefining roles, creativity, and community, while challenging developers to embrace ambiguity, orchestrate specialized agents, and stay human through empathy and curiosity. Will AI make developers more creative, or will we forget how the machine really works under the hood?98
This week Dave, Esmee , Rob sit down with Scott Hanselman, VP Developer Community at Microsoft for a wildly energetic, deeply human, and brilliantly practical conversation about how AI is reshaping software development and what that means for creativity, careers, and all industries.
📅 Events & Webinars
Cloud Technology Townhall Tallinn 2026
(📅 January 29-30, 2026)
Cloud Technology Townhall Tallinn is a two-day event dedicated to deepening your expertise in the Microsoft Cloud, with sessions on AI, data, infrastructure, and collaboration to accelerate innovation and growth. It is also a unique community gathering at Tallinn’s Creative Hub, combining world-class learning with networking in the heart of Estonia’s capital.
Update Days Power Platform 2026
(📅 February 12-13, 2026)
Update Days Power Platform is a conference that goes beyond the basics, offering practical insights into enterprise-level challenges like governance, professional development, and scalable solutions. Come learn from experts who work in the field every day, and connect with peers who, just like you, want to use Power Platform efficiently and strategically.
Canadian Power Platform Summit 2026
(📅 March 21-22, 2026)
Canadian Power Platform Summit 2026 is a two-day gathering of Power Platform enthusiasts, designed to elevate your skills through sessions ranging from beginner (100-level) to advanced (300-level), hands-on workshops, and expert-led insights.
💙 Out of the Blue
Available today: GPT-5.2 in Microsoft 365 Copilot
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Jared Spataro announced that GPT‑5.2 is now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio, bringing advanced AI capabilities to early release environments. Users can explore Copilot Chat and Copilot Studio to customize and enhance productivity across Microsoft 365 apps.
Process Maps as Part of Your Plan: Now Generally Available
🤵🏻🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 In this blog by Dami Alajogun, Microsoft announced that Process Maps are now generally available as part of Power Platform planning tools, enabling users to visualize and optimize workflows more effectively. This feature helps organizations streamline processes and improve efficiency by integrating mapping into their planning experience.
Drillthrough in Excel now supported for Direct Lake and DirectQuery Models
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Kay Unkroth announces that Power BI now supports drillthrough in Excel for Direct Lake and DirectQuery semantic models, removing the previous limitation that only allowed this feature for Import models. This update enables users to double‑click PivotTable cells to view underlying detail rows while maintaining filters and security roles, delivering a consistent and seamless analysis experience across all model types.
💡 Suggest content
Do you have a blog, YouTube channel or podcast that you want us to track, or do you know someone creating great content or community tools you think we should be aware of? Let us know about it!
We usually include links to content or tools updates announcements from the past week. If you see a great blog post or video, let us know one way or another!
You can find us on X and LinkedIn.
🕺 About the “Persona icons”
🤵🏻 Business User
🦸🏻♀️ Maker
🧭 Decision Maker
👩💻 Developer / Architect
🚀 Admin / Center of Excellence
🛠️ Tools
📅 Events & Webinars