Microsoft offers developers new framework to build their own copilots via plugins

Microsoft’s “era of copilots” will grow to cover development tools and services like GitHub, Power Apps, and Power Automate, productivity tools like Viva and Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 business applications, and more. At Build 2023, the company is announcing more areas where Copilot will play a role: Power Pages, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and Windows.

And the company is announcing new features that will help developers build their own copilots and AI applications. Plugins will allow Microsoft’s copilots (the company is using the small ‘c’ here) to interact with other software and services.  The company now uses the term “copilot” not just as a brand name but to refer to “an application that uses modern AI and large language models to assist you with a complex cognitive task.”

Microsoft is highlighting development tools and guidance at Build for third parties that appear to share many of the same capabilities Microsoft’s R&D teams have used for upcoming tools like the Dynamics 365 Copilot modules as described by Microsoft VP Walter Sun recently.

In a statement for Build, Microsoft wrote:

Microsoft is adopting the same open plugin standard that OpenAI introduced for ChatGPT, guaranteeing interoperability across ChatGPT and the breadth of Microsoft’s copilot offerings. That means developers can now use one platform to build plugins that work across both business and consumer surfaces, including ChatGPT, Bing, Dynamics 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot.

Microsoft’s AI development framework will help developers “build their own copilot” by supporting plugins that “augment the capabilities ...