Microsoft has made one of the more notable Power Platform changes of the year available in public preview. As of 2 April 2026, Power Apps model-driven apps can surface inside Microsoft 365 Copilot, so users can query, create and update records in their business applications without leaving the tool they are already working in.
This is not a minor update. It changes how Microsoft intends people to interact with business data, and it is worth understanding what it means before deciding whether it applies to your organisation.
What the problem has always been
Anyone who has spent time in a business running CRM, ERP or a custom Power Apps environment will recognise the pattern. You are drafting a proposal in Word and need the latest contact details. You are in a Teams call and someone asks for a customer's account status. You are writing a follow-up email and want to check a record before hitting send. Each of these requires you to pause, open another application, find what you need, and return to where you were. The friction is not dramatic, but it is constant, and it adds up across a working day.
Microsoft's answer to this is to bring the data to wherever the user already is, rather than requiring the user to go to the data.
How it works
The connection is made through your app's MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. This is a lightweight setup that is automatically created and configured for any model-driven app, and it registers the app as an agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Once activated, the app's data becomes available as a conversational capability, so Copilot can retrieve, display and interact with it on request.
There is no redesign of your existing app required. The data model, views and permissions you have already configured carry across intact. Grids and forms surface automatically once the MCP server is switched on.
The experience currently covers two capabilities, with a third on the way.
Interactive grids let users ask Copilot questions about their business data in plain language. "Show me the open cases escalated this week" or "Which accounts in the West region are overdue?" returns a filterable, sortable grid drawn directly from the app's data. Selecting a record opens it inline for review or editing. A deep link to the full app is always available for users who need the complete view.
Editable forms go beyond read-only access. Users can create new records, view existing ones or update fields directly in Copilot. Copilot uses the same underlying technology as the data entry agent in Power Apps model-driven apps to predict field values from the surrounding context. If a user is reviewing a supplier email and asks Copilot to create an account record from it, relevant fields are pre-populated automatically.
Custom tools are coming in the weeks ahead. For scenarios where a standard grid or form is not sufficient, makers will be able to define their own logic and interface components to meet more specific requirements.
Where it appears
The experience is not limited to the Copilot chat canvas. It is available wherever Copilot surfaces across Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook. A user drafting a contract in Word can open Copilot within the document and create a new account record with fields drawn from the document content, without switching applications. A finance analyst in Excel can pull live records from the business system into their working context on request.
Preview requirements: A Power Apps model-driven app with Dataverse, a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and a Power Apps Premium licence. Custom tools will be available in the coming weeks. Grids and forms are available now.
Getting started
For makers and administrators, activation involves three steps. First, activate the app's MCP server within Power Apps. This registers the app as an agent and makes its grids and forms available in Copilot automatically. Second, download the app package generated by the MCP server, which contains the agent definition needed for Microsoft 365. Third, deploy the package to your Microsoft 365 tenant via Teams admin or Microsoft 365 admin. Users can then start interacting with app data through Copilot immediately, with no further configuration on their end.
Microsoft's full getting-started guide for makers is available at aka.ms/appskills/maker.
What this means in practice
For organisations running Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement or custom Power Apps model-driven applications, this preview is worth reviewing now. The activation steps are quick, the impact on end users is immediate, and the capability will expand further as Microsoft brings custom tools into availability.
Microsoft is positioning Copilot as the layer through which users will access their business systems, and the MCP server framework is what makes this work across the platform. That approach will increasingly apply not just to Power Apps but to the wider Microsoft ecosystem.
For businesses that have invested in Power Platform, the practical questions are whether your apps are configured to take advantage of this, and whether your users have the licences in place to access it.
Talk to Advantage About Microsoft Power Platform
If you would like to understand how this preview applies to your existing Power Apps or Dynamics 365 environment, or if you are exploring Power Platform for the first time, our team is here to help.
Call us on 020 3004 4600, email [email protected], or request a conversation with our team.
Related Resources
Microsoft Power Platform
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Microsoft 365 & Copilot
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