How Microsoft 365 Copilot can work with your external data
Bring external data into your Microsoft 365 Copilot experience to ground generative AI results using connectors and plugins. Use Microsoft Graph connectors to integrate the data sources you want with Semantic Index for Copilot. This option pre-indexes defined read-only information used for retrieval with your prompts to drive the most relevant AI-generated responses. Use managed and trusted plugins, such as OpenAI plugins, Microsoft Teams message extensions, and Power Platform connectors. Instead of pre-indexing information, plugins optimize for real-time API based data retrieval, and they can optionally write-back data.
Mary David Pasch, Microsoft 365 Copilot Principal Product Manager, shares how both options follow Microsoft’s comprehensive security, compliance, and privacy approach, while respecting defined boundaries within your organization’s data services and can work together when responding to a single prompt.
► QUICK LINKS:
00:00 - Bring in external data with Copilot
01:08 - Use a connector and plugin simultaneously
02:45 - See how it works 03:56 - Semantic Index demo
04:55 - Data retrieval with Copilot using connectors
06:19 - Data retrieval with Copilot using plugins
07:23 - Plugins code and how they work
08:45 - Wrap up
► Link References
For more information, check out https://aka.ms/CopilotExtensibility
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