Power Virtual Agents Tutorial for Complete Beginners

[@smitty7326]

A couple years later, this is still relevant, useful, and extremely well done.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much 😊

[@ricksegalCanada]

Lisa, this is a textbook case of how to professionally give somebody enough knowledge to a) get excited and b) get productive. 30 minutes of pure knowledge. Well done! P.S. The goof who pressed the dislike button still has a rotary phone, an AOL account, and a black -n- white TV. Ignore em.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Rick, thank you so much, you totally made my day - this is everything I'm hoping to achieve with this style of tutorial, plus you made me laugh as well. Awesome, appreciate all that so much.

[@heyrob-net]

Excellent content, Lisa. I'm impressed by the number of comments from people who actually went out and built something.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Honestly that’s the most rewarding thing ever. Plus people who said it helped them pass an exam. It’s inspiring me to do more. Thanks!

[@idaelrey26]

Thanks!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much, really appreciate that!

[@BlazingBulletNZ]

This was the first video in my search results for Power Virtual Agents - it didn't disappoint. Thank you!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Awesome, thanks so much Paul

[@waqasahmed7873]

I must say you presented it so well, I watched several MS VA videos but this is one is the best. Really appreciate your efforts

[@LisaCrosbie]

Wow, thank you, really appreciate that feedback. I'm planning to do more tutorial videos like this.

[@ryanpatel9307]

@@LisaCrosbie I completely agree with Waqas' comment! Such a good video, thank you!

[@anurtj]

Crystal clear explanations. Thanks a lot Lisa👍

[@LisaCrosbie]

You're very welcome!

[@lucas_efraim]

What an AMAZING content. I love it. Thank you for the tutorial.

[@LisaCrosbie]

You are awesome, thank you so much for that!

[@ernestbruce1911]

Amazing tutorial. Lisa, your materials are just awesome!

[@naveensetty4002]

Excellent excellent excellent 👌👌👌👌. I have gained some confidence now 😀. 👍

[@LisaCrosbie]

Perfect, love hearing that. Go for it and keep learning now, good luck!

[@allornothing4097]

Great demo and a superb delivery. You made it nice and simple to understand, well done!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much!

[@mketkee]

Many thanks, Lisa! I understood everything. Keep it up

[@TheKuruamparambatta]

Superb.. This video gave me a jump start with VA. Thank you!

[@ferresferres]

Really helpful content as always Lisa!

[@sirmacred]

Thanks for this tutorial, Lisa! Clear and simple instructions that a beginner like me can follow easily.

[@Glenn.J]

Absolutely loved the video, followed through completely, and enjoyed every bit of it! Keep up the fabulous work.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much, plenty more coming.

[@sasimelbourne2009]

Microsoft should place this video on their website. Good job lisa.

[@LisaCrosbie]

That's very kind of you, thank you. I've had a lot of support and shares from people at Microsoft (even if community content doesn't make the official website) 🙂

[@gopalpotharaju7422]

You have a great skill other than PVA. And that is your teaching skill. Thank you🙏

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much Gopal, that’s very kind of you, and thanks for watching.

[@sheosanjaykumarsingh7440]

This is excellent . I started learning so quickly watching your tutorial

[@samvithb]

You were amazing. I created a bot after watching ur video

[@LisaCrosbie]

Awesome. You are amazing too for doing that, well done!!

[@alfredmuzindemcclevers5279]

You nailed this madam. Keep up the standard. Well explained and easy to follow

[@denwo1982]

Very well done Lisa

[@brenny-1]

Thank you for the great video! I like how you matched your outfit with the Power Virtual Agents theme 😊

[@LisaCrosbie]

Haha, well spotted, indeed I did!

[@shanthababu]

Excellent! Thanks! Much Appreciated!

[@SeanKearney]

Brilliant! Thanks, Lisa.

[@TheSandeep20285]

Thank you. Very clear

[@LisaCrosbie]

You are welcome!

[@nabilahhanafi3182]

Hi!! I just wanna say that yr video is sooo simple yet easily to understand.. I really like it and thank you for making this video.. bye take care!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much, really appreciate that. 🙂

[@enarent1]

Superb content and demo! thanks

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much Narendra

[@ericvandenbeldt4939]

Thanks for this great starter tutorial Lisa!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks for watching Eric, glad you liked it

[@levialmeida6387]

Brilliant, Lisa! Thank you very much!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

[@kristinaklofskar2018]

Excellent work and instructions Lisa. Now I have managed to do my first Virtual Agent :-) It was really fun. If you have more vidoes like this for the next step to learn, please add a link here. Once again, excellent work!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Kristina Klöfskär wow, thank you so much for that lovely feedback, and so glad to hear you have built your first virtual agent.

[@MrScottlusted]

Thanks for a great video Lisa. At 31:58 you mention you can get the Bot to initiate the greeting. How do I do this?

[@LisaCrosbie]

Hi Scott, at this stage it take a little bit of code- you'll find the instructions here. docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/configure-bot-greeting. However on the roadmap (listed for May 2021 at this stage) you will be able to do this without code, so I'll get a video tutorial up when that becomes available. docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2021wave1/power-virtual-agents/automatically-start-bot-conversation-welcome-topic

[@rinretgamaliel5961]

I need a follow up for this tutorial, just got started with power VA and I really enjoyed it. Well-done!

[@LisaCrosbie]

I haven't done an intermediate tutorial on this yet - on my very long list! Glad you found this one helpful.

[@rinretgamaliel5961]

@@LisaCrosbie oh yes, looking forward to the next video. Thank you for the response.

[@sankhachakraborty5801]

Great video Lisa and it made building bots so easy for me. Thank you!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks and so glad it was helpful!

[@EdHjorth]

Well done, exactly how a training video should be done 👍

[@adriennekuatse583]

The best demo ever.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Very kind of you, thank you.

[@joeMsessions]

Yes, perfectly done vid! Thanks so much.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Awesome, thank you!

[@vanheiss]

an fresh and amazing presentation, I love it

[@LisaCrosbie]

I appreciate that, thanks so much Peter.

[@sdollin1]

Really good tutorial.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks!

[@therealzippyuk]

Fantastic demo... Thank you very much! 🙂

[@LisaCrosbie]

You're very welcome, thank you!

[@PrashantGijare]

What an amazing presentation, Lisa!! Thanks for the tutorial.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Awesome, thanks so much.

[@lstgeorge7370]

Lisa I cant thank you enough for this awesome tanning video, I now know how to create a bot from scratch , you are the best :)>

[@LisaCrosbie]

Glad it was helpful, thank you so much Louie.

[@asimzafar8296]

Excellent tutorial.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Many thanks!

[@fr3t]

Awesome video thank you :)

[@LisaCrosbie]

Glad you liked it, thanks.

[@jugadusakshi3211]

You explained very well, Thanks:)

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much

[@JenoneC]

Great demo Lisa

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks Jenone. 🙂

[@thanhbeenthere2780]

great demo, thanks

[@mohiuddinadamali7315]

thank you so much for this beautiful tutorial

[@lenaoseiappiah9314]

Thank you Lisa. i enjoyed your lesson

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you Lena, you're so welcome!

[@StephanOnisick]

Nice Intro--Thanks!

[@kiranpreetchadda1968]

This was very helpful tutorial

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much for watching, glad you found it helpful

[@nurdtertle]

Great tutorial! Thanks!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much, glad it was helpful!

[@sabarinathb840]

Excellent Content

[@LisaCrosbie]

Much appreciated

[@krishnacreator]

Thanks for the demo

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks Rama

[@RickHurt]

Great video! thanks for this :)

[@prosenjitbiswas7738]

Amazing!! thanks, keep it up. Its very useful.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much Prosenjit, will do!

[@JoseRicardoXavier]

Excelent presentation !

[@LisaCrosbie]

Many thanks!

[@DavidMcArthur-d6s]

Hi Lisa, you mention changing the colour and look of the BOT. Do you have a video that covers this?

[@LisaCrosbie]

Hi, no, I never made a video on that, but here's the documentation which should help learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/customize-default-canvas?tabs=web

[@remipetit]

thank you very much for this video!

[@MoreToSan]

Thanks for sharing

[@mansimakwana868]

Simply amazing Great content Thanks a lot!!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much Mansi

[@bhavyatheone]

Thank You Lisa, I just watched the video and its a full 30 mins of pure value addition. I am glad you made this video . Many thanks. Liked and Subscribed :) I have a query too, Is there any functionality from which I can use to fetch specific data for the bot. For example if I have 20 employees and 20 mobile no's in a table format, I want the bot to fetch the mobile no. for the employee user asked for. Is it possible in PVA, its a big blocker for me.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much, what wonderful feedback, really appreciate that. Yes, you can do that with the bot - fetch data from a table - using Power Automate. The skill there is knowing how to use flow with your data source. The bot passes the parameter (e.g the employee ID or unique name) to the flow. Might be a good idea for another video?

[@mgarod3]

How can we extract optional entities from a trigger phrase. You say that the system avoids asking for an information that it already has, but what about an info that you want to extract if the user mention something about it but you don't want to ask if he/she doesn't mention it since it's an optional info?

[@gajindersharma1873]

Great Video Lisa! Is there any way to handle interruption in power virtual agent work flow like if we type cancel in between our chats than i am not able to found that how to handle this. If we put any unwanted text in power virtual agent chats then flow continues. Please help me to handle this.

[@ajaysharma2061]

Excellent video. However, in the last demo, it doesn't ask whether you want to go for a swimming lesson or not? After taking details it should pop up a question "Are you interested in swimming lessons"?

[@chriscameron2125]

Thank you!

[@sagarmakhija2526]

Amazing session Lisa...very helpful... I would like to understand if a Bot can help to pull data from some spreadsheet...is that possible?

[@LisaCrosbie]

Yes, it can. The bot uses Power Automate so you can use Power Automate to connect to Excel Online to get information from a spreadsheet.

[@sohayounus9575]

great lesson.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thank you so much

[@AndrewBragutsa]

Hello Lisa! Thanks for the great video, i really liked it! I have two questions: is it possible to make such thing as "personalizing" greetings inside Microsoft Teams? For example, person named Adam (and he is logged under his name and surname in Company Teams) says "hi" to bot and he responds like this: Hello, Adam. How can I help you? And also greetings depends on time of the day, for example from 06:00 to 12:00 bot will say good morning, from 12 to 18:00 good day and etc. I hope u understood what i meant :)

[@LisaCrosbie]

Hi Andrew, the first one is easy, when you’re using Power Virtual Agents in Teams it knows the logged in user and there is a ready made variable to bring that into the conversation. It’s called a claim variable. The second one I reckon you can do but I will have to try it. Most likely using Power Automate to retrieve the current time and passing that to the bot.

[@AndrewBragutsa]

@@LisaCrosbie thanks a lot! I have figured it out how to make names :) If you could somehow to solve second question i would be so happy! im just a bit far from IT-Things, im more from business side haha. thanks for your videos!

[@manikantaroyal777]

Wow.. Thanks alot

[@crmdeveloper6509]

Hi Lisa, Thanks for the video! Suggested actions/hero card/adaptive card do not work on WhatsApp. Is there any way where I can show a menu with clickable options on Whatsapp using Power Virtual Agent? Little background - . I configured account and channel on customer service admin app and added the callback url from the channel on to Twilio webhooks. Then I published my virtual agent and configured agent transfer. Then added the bot to the workstream queue.

[@lakomentisto5750]

How come the star symbols (at star rating) don't get highlighted when any of them is clicked? I wonder if it is a new feature that other bot apps haven't come up with yet...

[@sumaiyatazeem]

Hi, Thank you so much for the amazing content. While trying the same I do not see DYNAMIC CONTENT and EXPRESSION options which is shown at 26:30 time. Can someone please help me with this.

[@LisaCrosbie]

The interface has changed quite a lot (and the product has been renamed) since I made this video, I’d suggest having a look now at videos on Microsoft Copilot Studio and asking in the community forum for that if you need help troubleshooting

[@sumaiyatazeem]

@@LisaCrosbie Sure, will do that. ThankYou

[@googleaccount4578]

Would it be possible to create a VA that is running on a enterprise environment in a small window on the desktop. Im exploring possibilities to provide users a VA to receive IT support and be able to make service requests or report issues. Any information on this is much appreciated.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Do you use Teams? Publishing it as a chatbot in Teams would be the easiest way to do that, then users can interact with it there and you don’t need to install anything extra on any machines. Otherwise there are some options through Azure services - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/publication-fundamentals-publish-channels?tabs=web

[@redmystic1968]

I wonder could you provide a guide on why resolution rates are blank on the dashboard even after the 6 hours wait time for update as passed

[@jugadusakshi3211]

hey I've created two bots, can I transfer conversations from one bot to another

[@enidcrystal7349]

Can we have the bot launch automatically when a user goes to the TeamSite? If not, what is the best practice to get users to begin to interact with the bot? They are business, not tech. Thanks for the great tutorial!

[@LisaCrosbie]

Yes, you can have the bot start the conversation, that's a good idea for another video! If you're using Power Virtual Agents in Teams then the bot will start the conversation by default.

[@enidcrystal7349]

@@LisaCrosbie thatnk you - can’t wait to try it

[@iurisilva94]

Great Video! thanks :)

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much for watching.

[@iurisilva94]

@@LisaCrosbie This video helped me pass the Microsoft PL-900 exam. Thank you!

[@LisaCrosbie]

@@iurisilva94 that is the best, thank you so much for telling me that!

[@jensheesch1856]

that was cool - thanks

[@LisaCrosbie]

Awesome Jens, thank you.

[@oscar2799]

I've read some articles about the engagement rate but it's not clear yet. For example from 9 session, 7 were engaged and 2 unengaged. Also my chat bot says that the engaged rate is at 83%. What does that mean? Any explanation will be appreciated

[@LisaCrosbie]

An engaged session is a session in which a user-created topic is triggered or the session ends in escalation. So an unengaged session is where no topic is triggered, perhaps they just typed "hello" and then logged off, or asked an irrelevant question that isn't in the bot topics.

[@oscar2799]

@@LisaCrosbie thank you! I've been learning about this chatbots a lot by watching videos like this one. And you have helped me a lot!!

[@TeazaneOwlong]

Thank you for that video, it was very clear! Also, do you have some details about the needed licenses to get a bot like this? Do you need to purchase for a Power Virtual Agent only, or does the MS Teams flow adding imply a Power Automate license too?

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much Lucile. To make a bot like this you need the full Power Virtual Agents licence, but Power Automate usage rights are included with a Power Virtual Agents subscription. Flows created from the Power Virtual Agents authoring canvas have the following limits:. Make sure when you build it you create your flows using the call an action - starting from inside PVA authoring canvas - if you do that you get 15K calls per flow every 24 hours. docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-virtual-agents/requirements-quotas#power-automate-request-limits If you build the flows in Power Automate outside PVA they are not included.

[@TeazaneOwlong]

@@LisaCrosbie Thank you so much for your precisions! :)

[@briggsasher5478]

instaBlaster.

[@paulmiller591]

Great stuff well explained. I wish Microsoft priced this at a more reasonable rate $1k per month is a lot for an SMB

[@LisaCrosbie]

Yes, I’ve heard that from other SMB customers and it’s feedback I’ve passed on to Microsoft.

[@revanasiddappakalshetty4058]

Hi I've doubt how to give someone access to edit the bot I created??

[@alokinsights]

this is very helpful. I have query though, we can collect new enquiry related information using adaptive card but I am stuck in how to send auto email to customer service team once information is collected.. pls help

[@LisaCrosbie]

You use “create an action” to trigger a Power Automate flow to send the email.

[@perttirytinki2363]

Hey, Power virtual agent, when it needs to transfer to agent if automated answers dont help so is this only bot "stand alone" resolution or is it possible to embedded customer service or sales hub ? where is in live agent taking customers issues/cases in and resolving those and is it possible to take light customer service lisence if dont want to purchase whole CS or sales hub , maybe question is is it possible to take without D365 CS, Sales,Marketin hub and if yes, is it possible to manage which place/platform to serve those customers if only want to take power virtual agent- license and customers want to ask real agent who is in live chat opportunity take care case if cant resolve it in automated version.

[@LisaCrosbie]

If you want to be able to transfer to a live (human) agent then you need a connected system that enables that - from the Dynamics stack that is Customer Service (including omnichannel). If you want to work with D365 CS light (just cases) the virtual agent can create a case with the details and then you can pick it up from there. Without d365 at all the virtual agent can send an email for someone to pick up and respond to.

[@MoniReshu]

Amazing

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks!

[@sachinv9923]

Is it possible to connect a power virtual agent with SQL server and return value from SQL server ?

[@LisaCrosbie]

Yes there is a SQL connector in Power Automate so you can use that.

[@VeronicaBilandi]

amazing presentation, do you have any with intermediate or expert level. Thanks in advance

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks so much Veronica, is there anything in particular you’d like to learn about at that level? I’m working on some on entities and variables.

[@VeronicaBilandi]

@@LisaCrosbie Hello Lisa, first of all thanks for your response. I am looking for more detailed content so that I can create my own app independently.

[@HolgerKPedersen]

Interesting and well made topic. I just don't get the answer to the email address is skipped. The bot didn't ask for the email. It could be a wrong email, given by mistake out of context. I don't buy the assumption that this is the correct email by default. To illustrate this idea: So, if it asks for the email and a random small number is given, then the age will be pre-filled??? I don't see the power of this. It's a wrong handling of answers.

[@ashishchauhan5628]

We can add a search filter in at chat bot

[@LisaCrosbie]

Sorry, I don't understand the question

[@eliabems]

Good morning, Lisa Crosbie, how are you? I'm Eliabe Manoel and I speak from Brazil, more precisely from Recife. I have a doubt... help! How to register Power Virtual Agents records in the Dataverse? My goal: when the user uses the bot, some specific details are recorded in the Dataverse. My challenge: is to measure these recorded details and present them in the BI with some metrics. Structure: Power Virtual Agents > Power Automate > Dataverse > Excel > Power BI My idea will it work?? Can you help me in this challenge ?? Sorry for my English, I'm using google translator.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Yes that will work but you don’t need Excel. Power Virtual Agents can use Power Automate to write to Dataverse. Then connect Dataverse directly to PowerBI.

[@eliabems]

@@LisaCrosbie How wonderful to know that! Do you have a video showing the step-by-step assembly of this infrastructure? If not, can you show me a video? I am very grateful for having responded to my message and shared some of your knowledge with me. Stay with God and have a blessed week! A hug.

[@yacahumax1431]

if someone login to my web application, How can I tell the agent the user id? how can I connect to my database so I can retrieve the user information like name and email? Thank you

[@LisaCrosbie]

You will need to set up authentication - I haven't done a video on that but hopefully this helps. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/configuration-end-user-authentication

[@slavd.4450]

Nice video, wish the quality was higher. Very hard to see screen.

[@LisaCrosbie]

Thanks, I did this one quite a while ago, I’m getting better screen quality now than I did then. Thanks for watching g.

[@starblocketp]

Thanks

[@roronce]

Very helpful thank you, I can't help but feel sad for Bob that he got to 60 years old without learning to swim :)

[@LisaCrosbie]

LOL, well, better late than never!

[@titahaver6290]

Great Lisa🤩