Power Platform Weekly - Issue #269
Welcome to Power Platform Weekly!
Last week the general availability of Copilot Cowork was announced.
The winners of the Agent Academy Hackathon were also revealed. Be sure to check out the winning projects and the scenarios participants covered.
Have you explored the Power Platform ToolBox yet? Whether you're looking for useful tools or interested in contributing your own, check out the latest version announcement.
Have a great week and thanks for reading!
📰 Articles
A Formula That Respects Your Time Zone and Your Lunch
🦸🏻♀️ There’s a question that comes up more often than you’d expect in our projects: “Is this person, or this system, actually available right now?” Albert-Jan Schot gives his Power Fx formula for answering that.
Vibe Coding My Own Power Platform Admin Center
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 David Wyatt decided to use his free tokens on his own Power Platform Admin Center. It solved his main issues in the first hour, but beware of the urge to scope creep. Read his story here.
New bulk delete options come to Dataverse
🚀 Mark Carrington gives his take on what relevant news comes from the bulk-deletion improvements.
Other articles
🦸🏻♀️ Automating Copilot Studio Evaluations by Craig White
🦸🏻♀️ Create A Segment Using Unmapped Fields On Marketing Forms in Customer Insights Journeys by Megan V. Walker
🦸🏻♀️ AI Agent Johan’s revenge: Netherlands vs. Sweden by Jeroen Scheper
🦸🏻♀️ Your Copilot, Your Rules: Customizing Chat For Model-Driven Apps by Allan De Castro
🦸🏻♀️ How To Fuzzy Search Dataverse Tables In Copilot Studio by Matthew Devaney
🦸🏻♀️ How We Successfully Removed the Resco Woodford Managed Solution from Dynamics 365 Field Service by Nishant Rana
🦸🏻♀️ Invite Leads to Your Customer Insights Journeys Events by Martin P Lopez
🛠️🦸🏻♀️ PPTB - Bulk Data Studio by Carl Cookson
📺 Videos
🎙️ Podcasts
MSDW Podcast
🧭 Steve Mordue joins us to talk about the AI landscape that SMBs are facing today and how that led to his team’s launch of a new AI offering, RapidClaw, an OpenClaw-based agent framework that made it to market before the reveal of Microsoft’s latest autonomous offering category, Autopilot, and the first of its agents, called Scout. Steve explains how he has made sense of some of the big choices today in the enterprise IT space like pre-built services from hyperscalers, the rise of AI agents, different user interface options, and a variety of billing models. He also explains how his team made some of their decisions, like the use of OpenClaw as an agent harness that each organization can host with full control.
MS Cloud IT Pro Podcast
👩💻 Scott and Ben dig into Microsoft Scout, the new desktop AI application announced at Microsoft Build. They walk through the real onboarding experience on both Mac and Windows, the licensing maze and admin controls needed to activate it, and how Scout’s architecture ties together models, automations, and integrations like MCP, GitHub Copilot, and Work IQ. Along the way they cover the model selector and personality options (everything from professional to sarcastic teenager), the automations and heartbeats that run on schedules to update you on industry news, monitor workflows, and manage meetings, and the limitations and workarounds around skills, session management, and local file access. They also sort out where Scout overlaps with and differs from Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot, how to rationalize all three for ROI, and what token-based, consumption-based pricing means for enterprise AI strategy.
Power Platform Boost Podcast
🦸🏻♀️ This episode starts with a recap of the biggest 📣 news and announcements for the Power Platform ecosystem from Microsoft BUILD last week. We are still buzzing from learning about Microsoft IQ, the new Autopilot from Microsoft called Scout🦞, the new Closed Loop Learning 👩🎓 for Power Apps MCP Server, and the Connector Inventory 🗃️ for governance.
Our friends from The Cloud Advocacy 🥑 team at Microsoft published some great resources again this week, including a guide by April Dunnam to help us understand when to use Scout, Copilot Cowork, M365 Copilot, or Copilot Studio. Scott Durow posted a great visual walkthrough about the completely new ✨️ experience for building with Copilot Studio! It’s not just a facelift - it has been rebuilt from scratch, and the whole mental model has changed!
📅 Events & Webinars
European Power Platform Conference
(📅 June 29-July 2, 2026)
The European Power Platform Conference 2026 in Copenhagen serves as a meeting point for the Power Platform community to learn, connect, and share real-world experiences. Through expert-led sessions and customer stories, attendees will explore how to build impactful solutions with Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot in a strong, collaborative community setting.
HELish Summit
(📅 September 17, 2026)
HELish Summit is a Microsoft technology focused conference offering ideas, insights, cases and lessons learned for every IT enthusiast. Whether you’re a consultant or working in internal IT, communications or other technology role - there is something special for you!
Nordic Summit
(📅 September 21-22, 2026)
Nordic Summit 2026 takes place at LEGOLAND Hotel and Conference in Billund, Denmark, with a strong focus on connecting the Nordic Microsoft community around Power Platform and Dynamics 365. As the largest in-person event in the Nordics for these technologies, it offers focused sessions, community connection, and practical insights for makers, consultants, and architects.
Directions for Enterprise
(📅 September 23-25, 2026)
Directions for Enterprise 2026 is a focal point for the global Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management partner ecosystem in Copenhagen, with focused strategic and technical content. Across three days, partners connect with Microsoft, SIs, ISVs, and industry leaders to explore Agentic ERP, real-world AI, and practical approaches for enterprise solution delivery.
Scottish Summit
(📅 October 2-3, 2026)
Scottish Summit 2026 heads to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh for two days centered on AI, Copilot, and practical learning across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Azure. Attendees connect with experts, MVPs, and peers through sessions and workshops designed to share real-world approaches and community-driven innovation.
Community Summit North America
(📅 October 11-15, 2026)
Community Summit North America 2026 gives the Microsoft AI and Business Applications community five days in Nashville for learning, training, and connection. With hundreds of sessions, academy workshops, and a broad partner ecosystem, attendees gain practical guidance across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Copilot.
Directions EMEA
(📅 October 27-29, 2026)
Directions EMEA 2026 hosts the Dynamics 365 Business Central community in Paris for three days of technical sessions, strategy, and ecosystem networking. Resellers, ISVs, Microsoft representatives, MVPs, developers, and consultants explore the latest innovations and practical approaches shaping Business Central across EMEA.
Power Platform Community Conference
(📅 October 27-29, 2026)
Power Platform Community Conference 2026 welcomes the global maker and solution builder community to Las Vegas for three days of practical learning and collaboration around AI apps and agents. Attendees explore sessions, workshops, and certifications across Copilot, Copilot Studio, and the full Microsoft Power Platform to build end-to-end solutions they can apply right away.
💙 Out of the Blue
Copilot Cowork is now generally available
🧭👩💻🚀 Charles Lamanna explains that Copilot Cowork is now generally available after becoming one of the fastest-growing experiences in the Frontier program. The post shows how the feature supports more action-oriented collaboration across Copilot and agent experiences.
Meet the Agent Academy Hackathon winners
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 April Dunnam highlights the winning agents from the Agent Academy Hackathon and the scenarios they addressed. The post gives builders a clear view of the ideas and patterns that stood out in the competition.
Power BI May 2026 feature summary
👩💻🚀🧭 Katie Murray summarizes the May 2026 Power BI updates across Copilot, sematic modeling, reporting, and data experiences. Readers get a concise view of the release and the practical improvements it brings to daily analytics work.
Org apps with audiences for Power BI and Fabric (Generally Available)
👩💻🚀🧭🤵🏻 Dustin Askins announces that org apps in Power BI and Fabric are now generally available with audiences. The update helps teams tailor app content for different audiences without duplicating content.
Migrating from embedded ODBC drivers to ADBC in Power BI and Fabric
👩💻🚀🧭 Michaela Isaacs explains that Microsoft is moving connectors such as Databricks, Snowflake, and BigQuery from embedded ODBC drivers to ADBC in Power BI and Fabric. The post outlines the impact on existing connections and what teams should plan for before the change lands.
Workspace outbound access protection for Power BI reports (Preview)
👩💻🚀🧭 Kay Unkroth introduces preview support for workspace outbound access protection on Power BI reports. The update gives admins a stronger way to limit where data can flow and reduce exposure in reporting environments.
Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on for the Starburst connector in Power BI (Preview)
👩💻🚀🧭 Kay Unkroth explains that Power BI now supports Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on for the Starburst connector in preview. The update lets report viewers authenticate with their own identity and apply data access policies in DirectQuery scenarios.
Simplified Oracle connectivity in Power BI (Preview)
👩💻🚀 Kay Unkroth explains how the preview simplifies Oracle data connections in Power BI by bundling the Oracle ODP.NET provider and supporting direct service connections. The update reduces setup overhead for report authors and admins working with Oracle data.
💡 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!
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🕺 About the “Persona icons”
🤵🏻 Business User
🦸🏻♀️ Maker
🧭 Decision Maker
👩💻 Developer / Architect
🚀 Admin / Center of Excellence
🛠️ Tools
📅 Events & Webinars