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The Evolution Copilot

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
Reading time: 10 minutes

Microsoft Copilot for Sales is Microsoft’s AI play within Dynamics 365 Sales and Microsoft 365, and has started to transform the way sales teams operate, by integrating seamlessly with those products to help enhance productivity and streamline processes. As Copilot for Sales continues to evolve, it will continue to bring even more advanced features and opportunities for businesses and partners.

What is Copilot for Sales?

Copilot for Sales is an AI-driven tool designed to assist sales teams by automating administrative tasks, providing actionable insights, and enhancing customer interactions. It leverages data from Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and other Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, to offer personalized support and recommendations.

Benefits of Dynamics 365 Copilot for Sales

Dynamics 365 Copilot for Sales offers many benefits, including:
  • Time-saving automation: Reduce the burden of manual data entry and administrative tasks.
  • Enhanced productivity: Provide AI-guided next steps and sentiment analysis to help salespeople focus on high-value activities.
  • Contextual information: Integrate seamlessly with tools like Microsoft Teams, bringing relevant data directly into conversations.

Evolution from Viva Sales

The journey from Viva Sales to Copilot for Sales began with the announcement at Microsoft Inspire in July 2021, where Satya Nadella highlighted the integration of Dynamics 365 data within Teams at no extra cost. Initially delivered via Collaborative Apps, Viva Sales was officially launched in June 2022, building on Microsoft Viva’s employee experience suite. It brought automatic logging, tracking, and contextual information into Microsoft 365, reducing data silos.

In July 2023, Microsoft announced Sales Copilot, which amalgamated the Enterprise version of Viva Sales into the updated branding and then, in February 2024, Sales Copilot was updated to become Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, combining the power of Microsoft 365 Copilot with role-specific insights and actions, whilst also incorporating specific Microsoft 365 only features in a Premium version known as Copilot for Sales.

Licensing and External CRM Integrations

Copilot for Sales is designed to integrate with any CRM solution, not just Dynamics. For example, it also works with Salesforce.com Professional (with API access enabled,) Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions.

It can be installed by Microsoft 365 administrators and needs to be assigned to users/security groups for access. It’s a cloud only offering and therefore does not work with on-premises installations of Dynamics 365 nor Exchange and is included in Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise/Premium. It is not included in Microsoft 365 but can be attached with an additional step-up licence. It is not available for Dynamics 365 Sales Professional nor any Dataverse/Power Platform SKUs.

Commercial Opportunities for Partners

Copilot for Sales presents significant commercial opportunities for partners. By enabling advanced functionality and integration, partners can offer professional services to help customers leverage these tools effectively. For customers with qualifying SKUs, partners can facilitate the activation of Copilot for Sales features, driving value and adoption.

Continued Evolution with Additional Agents

Microsoft are continually adding more and more AI agent capabilities into Dynamics 365 Sales such as the Research and Qualification Agents:
  • Research Agent: Provides sales teams with rich answers to complex, cross-domain business problems using AI-powered deep reasoning over enterprise data allowing users to interact with the agent using natural language and add data from external sources. The agent can create research plans, by gathering, analysing, and transforming data into meaningful outputs tailored to a required business context
  • Qualification Agent: Autonomously researches information about leads using CRM data and public web sources to make recommendations on whether a lead should be qualified and can pre-generate an email with personalized talking points. The agent also surfaces important actions to take on leads, allowing salespeople to free up selling time by reducing actions needed to triage leads.

Conclusion

The evolution from Viva Sales to Copilot for Sales marked a significant advancement in sales technology through generative AI, offering enhanced productivity, automation, and personalized support. For partners, it brings new commercial opportunities to drive enhanced customer success. As Copilot for Sales continues to develop, it promises to transform the sales data landscape, enabling teams to collect less and connect more.

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Chris Parkes
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