Yep. Is it related at all to AI Builder or is that a separate thing?

Dona Sarkar (08:29):

So AI Builder is separate, AI Builder actually is all over the Power Platform. It
works in very mysterious ways.

Dona Sarkar (08:36):

AI Builder is actually just built on top of Azure AI. So power plat is built on
Azure and it uses a bunch of Azure functionality in a way where we don’t
actually go and need to learn Azure to use it. Because some people love
Azure and can learn it and install the Azure portal and discover all the
services. Many people are like, I am intimidated and that is very, very
terrifying for me to even wrap my head around. Right. So AI Builder actually is
this thing that runs I would say under the covers and does a bunch of magic
for us. So anytime something is happening kind of automatically, that is AI
Builder at work. So some examples, one is of course this FAQ to bot
generation. That is really the power of AI builder. The second one that a lot of
people don’t know is when you do the very basic Power App generation, you
take an Excel spreadsheet and it generates you a Power App. That canvas
app building that is AI builder.

Dona Sarkar (09:37):

That’s how it looks at the column headers and says, Oh, it makes sense for
these columns to be on this page and that column to be over here and this to
be into, you know, a gallery layout view or whatever. So all of that slightly
intelligent thinking, is done by AI Builder. So it’s kind of driving intelligence.
That said, it’s also a separate thing that you can use. So if you want to do
some actual AI work, like I’m sure in your business somewhere, Mary Jo,
you’ve got some sort of handwritten process that’s so annoying. Like scanning
receipts.

Mary Jo Foley (10:15):

Yep.

Dona Sarkar (10:17):

Like we all have expense reports, yay. AI Builder is super good at this where
it’ll scan the receipts and identify what’s the numerical value and put them all
into a table so you can see them all in one place.

Mary Jo Foley (10:29):

Hmm. Nice. Okay, cool. When I first talked to you about doing this chat, I
asked you how you wanted to focus it and you said definitely for people who
are new to the Power Platform, but you also threw HoloLens in and you said,
and for HoloLens users. Why did you add HoloLens into this mix and how do
they, how does HoloLens, specifically fit in with Power Platform?

Dona Sarkar (10:52):

Yeah, I mean it’s me. So of course we’re always going to talk about mixed
reality, but there’s actually a relevant use case here. Recently, maybe a
month ago, not even, we released private preview of mixed reality in Power
Apps. So what that means is now you can build a Power App that has mixed
reality embedded into it. So you don’t need to go get a HoloLens device, put it
on your head to do a lot of those mixed reality scenarios that you said that are
really important.

Dona Sarkar (11:22):

So imagine you want to, you’re an interior designer. You want to figure out if
this 3D model chair fits in your living room. You can do that with your iOS or
Android phone. You go, get the 3D model and you know, look at it through just
the phone screen and figure out where should it go. Does it fit? So it takes
holograms, I guess, you know, virtual objects and puts them into the real
world just like mixed media does. My favorite though is all of these measuring
tools. So one huge, huge use case for HoloLens and every architect has
always told us this is being able to measure with a virtual ruler how tall
something is. So imagine if I’m building a shelf here in my studio room, I want
to be able to figure out how high do I want the shelf before I go place an order
at home Depot to get plywood or whatever.

Dona Sarkar (12:19):

So I would, I could just invoke a measuring tool or build a measuring tool into
Power Apps that’ll say, okay, start at zero on the ground. And as I’m raising
the phone, it raises up to, you know, eye level and how high is that? It’s like
six feet or whatever. So it is so fun to see mixed reality and Power Platform
come together. It makes me really happy, but the best thing is we are still so
early in the product that we’re incredibly open to feedback. So all of you who
have not tried it, go try it. Look up Power Platform or Power Apps, mixed
reality. You’ll come to a blog post, the very bottom of the blog post, there’s an
email address, email that email address, get on the private preview, you’ll join
this Team’s group. I’m in it, a whole bunch of people are in it and try out the
bits, right?
Dona Sarkar (13:09):
Just install the bits, try them out. And the product team is actively looking for
scenarios from customers that they should be building samples and tools and
capabilities for. So really do come cocreate with us. It’s in private preview for a
reason because we’re not ready to go release it to everyone without some
more feedback to people. So.

Mary Jo Foley (13:30):

That’s great. Cool.

Dona Sarkar (13:32):

This is going places. It’s going to be huge this year. So get in, give us your
feedback.

Mary Jo Foley (13:37):