Exploring AI, Power Virtual Agents, and the Power Platform: A Journey with Sarah Critchley, Microsoft's Principal Program Manager

FULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/505 How would you feel if you could make your interactions with technology more human-like, more interactive, and more efficient? Hop on as we journey with Sarah Critchley, an accomplished principal program manager at Microsoft, into the fascinating world of Power Virtual Agents (PVA). This episode is a treasure trove as Sarah Critchley narrates her inspiring life journey, from her relocation to Canada to her rewarding career at Microsoft, and her labour of love – writing tech books in an era of rapid technological change.  What if there is a playbook that could guide you from start to finish for a successful PVA implementation? As we dig deeper, we uncover the secrets of PVA with the PowerCat PVA playbook, discovering the PVA in a Day feature and Microsoft's Conversational UX Guide. Sarah enlightens us on the game-changing Generative Actions feature which makes the user experience more natural by inferring context from user queries. We also delve into the very foundation of PVA – the large language models and generative AI. Now, imagine integrating Azure Open AI service with PVA – the possibilities seem endless! We dissect this integration process and shed light on the deployment of adaptive cards in PVA. We also have Mark Smith, the nz365guy, who shares his valuable insights on creating with the Power Platform. He sparks a conversation on the potential role of voice technology in PVA in the near future. So tune in and join us in this exploration of AI, PVA, and the Power Platform – you'll be amazed by the things you'll learn! Microsoft 365 Copilot Adoption is a Microsoft Press book for leaders and consultants. It shows how to identify high-value use cases, set guardrails, enable champions, and measure impact, so Copilot sticks. Practical frameworks, checklists, and metrics you can use this month. Get the book: https://bit.ly/CopilotAdoptionSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith