Form assist (Copilot)
A Copilot side pane on the form that answers questions about the current row and helps fill in fields.
What it is
Copilot features on a form appear as a side pane or toolbar. In the pane you ask about the row you have open, for example for a summary, recent changes or fields that are still empty. The answer is based on the row's data and refers to it.
A related feature, form fill assistance, suggests values for fields from text you paste or from files. Suggestions are optional and only saved when you accept them.
When to use it
Use it to speed up reading and entering data on rows with many fields and long histories, such as cases and accounts.
It does not replace validation. For rules that must always hold, use Business rules and Field validation.
Licensing and configuration
Availability depends on region and language, and on the environment and app settings. Chat with Copilot in model-driven apps is turned on in the Power Platform admin center (setting Allow users to analyze data using an AI-powered chat experience in canvas and model-driven apps: Default, On or Off), and makers can switch it per app under Settings > Features. For form fill assistance, at least one AI form fill assistance environment feature must be on, the app must use the modern, refreshed look, and the column property Allow form fill assistance must be on.
Pitfalls
- Form fill assistance covers text, numeric, choice and date fields on main and quick create forms, and not columns with column security.
- Copilot only sees data the user may read, so answers differ between users.
- Environments with customer-managed keys or Customer Lockbox do not use Dataverse data for chat answers.
- Answers are generated, so users should check them before acting.
Try it in the demo
- Open the first accelerator and open the Copilot pane.
- Select Summarize this record, then What changed recently? and What is still missing?
- Compare each answer with the form.
- The demo uses no AI: the answers are built from the row's own data.