AI Power Apps Builder by Microsoft - Short Review

Product Overview: AI Builder in Microsoft Power Apps

Introduction

AI Builder, a component of Microsoft’s Power Platform, is a powerful tool designed to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into business applications built using Power Apps. This feature enables users to leverage AI capabilities to automate processes, gain insights from data, and enhance overall business productivity, all without the need for coding or advanced data science skills.

Key Features and Functionality

Integration with Power Apps and Power Automate

AI Builder seamlessly integrates with Power Apps and Power Automate, allowing users to incorporate AI models into their custom business applications. This integration enables the automation of various business tasks and workflows, making it easier to extract insights from data and optimize business processes.

Prebuilt and Custom AI Models

AI Builder offers a range of prebuilt AI models that are ready to use for common business scenarios, as well as the ability to build and train custom models tailored to specific business needs. The prebuilt models include:

• Binary Classification: Makes yes/no predictions based on historical data patterns.
• Text Classification: Classifies text into predefined categories.
• Object Detection: Identifies objects within images.
• Business Card Reader: Extracts information from business cards.
• Form Processing: Extracts data from forms and documents.

No-Code Development

One of the standout features of AI Builder is its no-code or low-code approach. Users can build and integrate AI models into their applications using a drag-and-drop interface, pre-built templates, and connectors for data integration. This makes it accessible to users without programming skills, democratizing the development of intelligent business applications.

Power Fx Expressions

AI Builder supports the use of Power Fx, a low-code formula language similar to Excel, to consume AI models in Power Apps. This feature allows users to build expressions for AI models, supporting both prebuilt and custom models, as well as those built on the Microsoft Azure Machine Learning platform.

Specific Components

AI Builder provides various components that can be added to Power Apps, including:

• Business Card Reader: Available for both canvas and model-driven apps.
• Receipt Processor: For canvas apps.
• Text Recognizer: For canvas apps.
• Form Processor: For extracting data from forms and documents.

Automation and Workflow Integration

Users can automate tasks such as extracting data from emails, processing forms, and recognizing objects, and integrate these tasks into workflows using Power Automate. For example, emails can be sent to an AI training model, and alerts can be generated based on the extracted data.

Benefits

• Enhanced Productivity: Automates repetitive tasks and workflows, freeing up time for more strategic activities.
• Improved Decision-Making: Provides predictive analytics and insights from data to inform business decisions.
• Enhanced User Experience: Makes applications more interactive and dynamic through features like natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and image recognition.

Getting Started

To begin using AI Builder, users can navigate to the AI Builder section in Power Apps, select a prebuilt model or create a custom one, feed it with business data to train the model, and then integrate the trained model into their Power Apps application.

AI Builder in Microsoft Power Apps is a robust tool that brings the power of AI to business applications, enabling organizations to automate, analyze, and innovate without the need for extensive coding or data science expertise.