Microsoft announced public preview capabilities for Microsoft Dataverse and Work IQ on October 23 that bring business context from Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform to Copilot Studio and Cowork. The release came ahead of the Power Platform Community Conference (PPCC), held in Las Vegas October 25–29.
James Oleinik, partner director of product management for Microsoft Dataverse, wrote that the business context agents need already sits in the records, rules, and processes customers built over many years. The opportunity, he wrote, is to make that knowledge available to Copilot and agents instead of starting over.
How the Preview Capabilities Work
Microsoft describes business applications in Work IQ, now in public preview, as a combination of a shared semantic model, reusable business skills, and governed actions. The semantic model gives every agent the same reading of an organization’s data, record relationships, and terms. Business skills capture procedures, such as which criteria matter and when approval is required, so any agent can follow them. Agent 365 lets agents update systems of record within each user’s permissions while IT stays in control. Dataverse holds the models and skills.
The new previews place the semantic model, business skills, and governed actions in more of the tools where agents get built. Business Skills in the Power Apps Maker portal adds an agentic experience for building and editing skills, with version history and simpler security controls. The Work IQ MCP Server in Copilot Studio can now draw on business context, and a Business Apps plugin in Cowork provides that context and governed actions across existing Dynamics 365 and Power Apps applications. The Dataverse Ask API lets developers define semantic models for specific scenarios and query them in natural language, through a Web API or the Dataverse Connector.
Where the Additions Fit
Work IQ for business applications opened in public preview on September 30, building its semantic model from existing Dynamics 365 and Power Apps configuration. Microsoft’s rollout schedule placed Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps in late October. The October 23 additions extend the rollout into skill authoring, developer access, and the Cowork plugin for business applications.
Microsoft also lists Dataverse extensibility across Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and GitHub Copilot. A Dataverse plugin in Cowork lets low-code makers query and manage Dataverse data, an n8n node automates work in Dataverse, and the Dataverse MCP Server now supports invoking Custom APIs. A PPCC session on October 28 covers using Work IQ, connectors, MCP, and reusable business skills so agents can act on third-party and custom systems.
The PPCC agenda also addresses the path from pilot to production. Nirav Shah’s innovation session on October 28 covers how agents, data, Work IQ, and Agent 365 come together, and a session the same day, with Oleinik among its speakers, addresses moving enterprise agents from pilots to production. On October 29, a session covers right-sizing storage and securing Dataverse and Dynamics 365 as agents scale.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Customers’ existing configuration becomes agent knowledge. Work IQ builds its semantic model from Dynamics 365 and Power Apps configuration and keeps the models and skills in Dataverse. The work customers put into views, forms, and relationships is the business context that Copilot Studio and Cowork now draw on.
Dataverse extensibility now spans coding agents from several vendors. Microsoft lists Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and GitHub Copilot, and the Dataverse MCP Server now supports invoking Custom APIs. Microsoft describes Dataverse as the data layer for Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Copilot Studio, and the list adds coding agents to that set.
Existing permissions and approval rules limit what agents can do. Governed actions update records within each user’s permissions, and skills carry the approval requirements. Customers who run Dynamics 365 therefore set agent scope through the controls they already administer.
