Turn D365 Data into a Custom Agent using Copilot Studio and Dataverse

I had so many ideas today, and then none of them made sense. So I decided to keep it simple. Today I will show you how to create an Agent using Copilot Studio and connecting it with some entities that are available in Dataverse. These will act a source for the agent coming from Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

I was thinking on some specific companies that do not follow standard roles or standard distributions of tasks, so a pre-built agent may not be of use, therefore a custom agent is the answer. Potentially. Hopefully.

Follow the guide on how do it - and remember this is just an example. You can select any entity you like, anything that makes sense to you.

The way we start is by creating a new agent. Go to: https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com. And from there either prompt your agent, meaning prompt the idea so Copilot Studio converts it into an Agent, or just do the manual config. Sometimes manual config is also a good option. I won't abuse AI functionality just because. I'll try to keep using my brain :D

Once you create the agent, regardless of how, the following page will appear, this is sort of the cockpit of your agent, where all the relevant things are. Use it as your resource page, as your bible.

When it comes to agent creation, one of the most relevant pieces relies on knowledge sources. It is basically what will differentiate your agent from a generic and open GPT. Knowledge sources and context. So here we will dump all of the things we want the custom agent to pick.

Once you select + Add knowledge, pick a category if applicable.

I selected Dynamics 365, and selected also those entities that I want the agent to retrieve information from. As you see below I selected Purchase Orders. You can search for the entity and then select Add to agent.

I decided to add a couple of these entities, that are exposed to Dataverse and I can retrieve from there. Easy.

I also wanted to add some knowledge on a text file. That can be done as I'm showing below. Go to + Add knowledge and select Upload file.

Then select your knowledge source, it can be an existing internal policy, or some knowledge sources you may need for the purpose of the custom agent. Could be also a process specific to the company or area you are working with.

All knowledge sources are added, as you can see below.

Under settings I went through some of the things I wanted to tweak. First of is Generative AI settings.

Then I decided to add some Agent details.

Some connection settings

We have everything and voila! Let's test the agent. Have a look at some examples below :)