Microsoft to simplify AI, blockchain usage in Power platform tools

Microsoft will introduce AI Builder to offer new ways for Power platform users to add artificial intelligence and machine learning to applications built with PowerApps and Flow.  New methods for accessing a blockchain from Flow are also coming.

Microsoft corporate vice president for Business Applications James Phillips made the announcements today in conjunction with the start of this year's Microsoft Business Applications Summit.

AI Builder to put more AI tools in hands of Microsoft biz apps users

AI Builder will give customers a new way to apply common AI and ML models in the context of their businesses through PowerApps and Flow. The service offers guided, point-and-click experiences, Phillips explained, writing that it will "solve everyday tasks like forms processing, object detection, and text and binary classification." He explained that the service will play a role in both apps and process design:

AI Builder now provides a way for app makers—professional and citizen developers alike—to add AI capabilities to those apps. Flow provides a powerful visual experience for automating tasks at work, and AI Builder now provides a way to infuse AI into those automations.

Microsoft expects to see AI Builder applied across industries, Phillips wrote. But based on early screenshots, the approach appears to aim to simplify some of the more complex elements of a typical machine learning model setup like the setup of historical data and model training, which are done from within the PowerApps interface rather than in a more advanced interface like Azure Machine Learning.

Typical scenarios include sentiment analysis in customer service to improve routing and response and product tracking via object recognition in photos. Philips noted ...