Accelerate innovation
Build and scale intelligent apps, agents, and automation with an AI platform that maintains enterprise-grade control, security, and trust.
Turn business intent into impact
Bring apps, agents, data, and automation together to build smarter, secure solutions.
Empower teams to move from idea to impact with clarity, speed, and control. Describe the outcome, and Power Platform uses AI to guide the development of apps and workflows, connect to your data, and stay governed and secure.
When data is unified and governed, apps lead with relevance, agents act with awareness, and automation runs reliably. Microsoft Dataverse delivers the secure, shared foundation that makes this possible.
Build the way you want—from low-code to pro-code—with AI-assistance and code-first extensibility. Over 1,500 connectors work across the services and systems where your business already runs, providing a foundation that lets solutions grow without costly rebuilds. You’ll unify data and processes across apps, use agents to recommend next best actions, and automate end-to-end workflows to remove friction.
What can you do with Power Platform?
Move faster with better results by unifying apps, agents, and Microsoft Copilot to coordinate tasks and automate work—across daily tasks to core business processes.
Streamline onboarding
Replace scattered onboarding steps with one secure hub where Power Apps organizes tasks and data, and Copilot agents guide users, automate actions, and keep work moving.
Move content from draft to publish
A workspace built in Power Apps keeps every post visible from idea to approval, with Copilot drafting and agents flagging gaps before reviews stall.
Orchestrate service cases across channels
Consolidate and track inquiries in a single app built in Power Apps. Agents monitor and triage requests across channels, and Copilot drafts responses to speed resolution.
Speed up finance approvals
Approvers track every request in a hub built in Power Apps, with agents flagging anomalies and Copilot adding policy context at the point of decision.
Stay ahead of inventory disruptions
Power Apps brings all inventory data into one view. From there, agents forecast shortages early, and Copilot turns signals into clear next steps.
Coordinate field service in real time
Dispatchers run a live command center in Power Apps, while agents predict issues early and Copilot guides technicians in the field.
Powerful alone, better together
When teams build apps, agents, and automations on a shared foundation, they can streamline work, accelerate outcomes, and scale with confidence.
Create apps and workflows across your organization with low-code tools.
Build intelligent, custom business apps fast with enterprise-ready controls.
Boost productivity by automating repetitive work and workflows across your organization.
Create data-driven websites fast, using trusted data and governance to keep experiences secure.
Unify and govern enterprise data so your apps, automation, and AI run securely at scale.
Build and manage agents at scale with built-in security, compliance, and administrative oversight.
Create custom apps with Power Apps and automate the work behind them with Power Automate.
Create agents with Copilot Studio that guide users and answer questions directly in apps built in Power Apps.
Connect structured workflows to your intelligent agents in a composable system. They work together to modernize automation.
Extend Power Platform solutions across Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365—and to other systems—using prebuilt connectors.
Which licenses cover users in a managed environment?
Managed environments arrive as an entitlement in a fixed set of standalone licenses. Switch them on in an environment and all active usage there needs one of those licenses or a qualifying pay-as-you-go meter. Worth settling before you flip the switch, since it decides your seat mix.
Licenses that carry the entitlement
Where the rights narrow
Not every Dynamics 365 license behaves the same way here. A Dynamics 365 Enterprise license counts when it gives premium Power Apps usage rights. Power Apps capabilities included with Dynamics 365 Pro licenses are narrower: Microsoft limits their use to the context of the licensed Dynamics 365 application. Power Automate capabilities included with Pro licenses carry the same limit.
One user does not need two premium licenses. Running an app plus a cloud flow in a managed environment is satisfied by either a Power Apps Premium or a Power Automate Premium license. Capacity licensing is where it splits: the Power Apps per app pay-as-you-go meter covers Power Apps usage only, so flow usage still needs standalone Power Automate licenses or per flow plans. Copilot Studio itself is priced on credits, which we cover on Microsoft 365 Copilot plans and pricing.
What does not cover it
Not sure which side of that line your tenant sits on? Ask for a quote with your environment count plus seat mix.
When do managed environment licensing notifications start?
Admins get a three-month head start on end users. The underlying requirement is not new. What changed is that Microsoft now tells both sides when a license is missing.
| March 2026 | Administrator advance notifications begin, through the Microsoft 365 Message center plus the Power Platform admin center. |
|---|---|
| After April 2026 | Power Platform admin center notifications plus recommendations add a second channel. |
| June 2026 | End users in Power Apps without an appropriate license start seeing an in-app notification. |
Only environments you enable as managed environments are in scope.
What the user sees
The in-app notice escalates on a 7-day clock: informational first, then warning, then error. It stays at the error state until the user gets an appropriate license. Users can request a license straight from the notice. Requests go to the tenant administrator, who acts on them in the Power Platform admin center under Actions > Recommendations or in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Billing > Licenses > Requests.
How admins get ahead of it
One catch on that report. It counts app launches, so a user who was assigned a license but has not launched an app since keeps showing up until they do.
What changed for makers in the July and August 2026 update?
Modern controls, mostly. The icon library reached parity with the classic set, the card control picked up text styling properties, plus there is a new rating control. Modern controls are the forward path for canvas and custom-page authoring. Classic controls remain supported for organizations with their own design systems.
| Modern icon library | Expanded from about 56 to about 180 icons |
|---|---|
| Icon parity | Reaching parity with the classic icon set |
| Existing icon usage | Classic icon.* values are automatically mapped to their fluent equivalents |
| Card text properties | fill, plus TitleColor / SubtitleColor / DescriptionColor and TitleSize / SubtitleSize / DescriptionSize |
Microsoft writes the icon counts as approximate. The 180 figure is the one its headline uses.
New rating control
Fewer blank screens
New fluent 2-based templates give a ready-to-use starting point for canvas apps instead of a blank screen: a hub landing page, a feature landing page, a list page. The existing modern gallery templates were refreshed to use modern controls throughout.
The modern form control got the same attention. Improved data cards are now enabled, with fixes to data-card binding, formula behavior, ResetForm plus date picker reset.
Moving off the hero controls
Makers who built with the earlier fluent UI (hero) controls in custom pages and Teams apps now have a documented upgrade path to the modern controls. Some hero properties do not have a one-to-one equivalent, certain color and theming settings among them, so check those after upgrading. Where all of this is heading is the 2026 release wave 1 plan.
Can several cloud flows share one process license?
Yes. Flow groups are now available in Power Automate. They let you share the capacity of one process license across up to 25 solution-aware cloud flows, which is the answer to a process license sitting mostly idle on a low-volume flow.
| Shared capacity | The capacity of one process license |
|---|---|
| Daily action ceiling | 250,000 actions per day |
| Flows per group | Up to 25 solution-aware cloud flows |
| Licenses consumed | A flow group uses one process license |
| Best fit | Flows with moderate, predictable usage |
Create one in Power Automate under more > flow groups. From there you add flows plus monitor shared capacity.
When one flow needs more than the shared pool gives it, assign process licenses directly to that flow for dedicated capacity. The group keeps covering the predictable work while the busy flow gets its own headroom.
Can AI review my Power Pages site security?
In public preview, yes. Security agent (preview) lives in the Power Pages security workspace, so the review happens where the settings already are. Public preview is Microsoft’s own label for it, which is worth knowing before you point it at a production site.
How Microsoft describes it
Security agent (preview) is a new AI-powered assistant built into the Power Pages security workspace that helps makers review, configure, and strengthen site security using natural language.
What you can take to it
How much it does on its own
Guidance is site-specific, based on your current configuration. The agent explains findings in plain language, recommends remediation steps, plus it always requests your approval before making configuration changes. Nothing moves without you saying yes, which is the part that makes it usable on a site with real traffic.
Licensing side: Power Pages is on the list of licenses that carry the managed environment entitlement, which the licensing section above works through.
Microsoft’s wording on what comes next for Power Pages in the 2026 release wave 1: enhanced security agent features will further support low code makers, pro developers, and admins with actionable insights and abilities for securing their websites.
What is in the Power Platform 2026 release wave 1?
Hundreds of features across Power Apps, Power Pages, Power Automate, Dataverse plus the governance and administration surface. Production deployment began April 1, 2026, with regional deployments starting the same day.
| Coverage window | April 2026 through September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Release plans available | March 18, 2026 |
| General availability | April 1, 2026 |
Microsoft updates the online plan weekly plus republishes the PDF on every publish.
Power Apps
Power Automate
Microsoft Dataverse
Governance and administration
The agent-side items are the ones with a licensing tail. Credit consumption caps land on Copilot Credits. The agent programmability work is what our AI agents page picks up.
Microsoft’s wording on its release plans: these release plans describe functionality that may not have been released yet. Delivery timelines and projected functionality may change or may not ship.
Analyst recognition for Microsoft Power Platform
Learn why Microsoft is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms.1
Discover why Microsoft was named a Leader in the 2025 Forrester Wave™ for Low-Code Platforms for Professional Developers.2
Learn how AI-driven Frontier Firms achieve greater business impact in this global IDC study commissioned by Microsoft.3
1. Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms, Olkesandr Matvitskyy, Akash Jain, Kyle Davis, and Adrian Leow, 28 July 2025. Gartner, Magic Quadrant, Peer Insights are trademarks of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
2. Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Platforms for Professional Developers, Q2 2025. Forrester does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology buyers to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designations.
3. International Data Corporation (IDC), Bridging the AI divide: How Frontier Firms are transforming business, a global study commissioned by Microsoft. The study reflects the aggregated findings of surveyed organizations and does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service.
Frequently asked questions
On users, apps and usage scenarios. Advanced scenarios such as premium connectors, Dataverse access or enterprise scale apps and automation need standalone licenses, so premium licensing is the recommendation for enterprise adoption. Managed environments are where that requirement gets enforced: see which licenses cover users in a managed environment.
No. Power Platform runs on its own or alongside Microsoft 365, though it integrates deeply with it. Used together, teams take advantage of the existing identity, data and collaboration services while security and governance stay centralized.
No. For a user running an app plus a cloud flow in a managed environment, either license satisfies the premium requirement. Capacity licensing is the exception: the Power Apps per app pay-as-you-go meter covers Power Apps usage only, so flow usage still needs standalone Power Automate licenses or per flow plans. Full breakdown here.
No. A managed environment is not included as an entitlement in the Developer Plan when users run their assets. Trial licenses do license users in managed environments, with the trial restrictions still applying, so 30 days per user.
Yes, since the June 2026 update. Advanced connector policies (ACP) move governance past which connectors are allowed, down to which actions plus MCP servers inside them AI tools reach. Power Platform inventory went to public preview alongside it, showing the connectors plus connector operations used by every app, flow and agent in the tenant, so you can see which resources a policy change hits before you make it.
Through closed-loop learning, starting with the data entry tool. Every correction a user makes through the agent feed persists as structured memory, which the agent retrieves plus applies on future runs. Over time those corrections consolidate into organization-wide patterns the agent applies across tasks. The loop runs automatically in production with nothing to configure. Our AI agents page covers the Work IQ MCP surface separately.
No. Public preview is Microsoft’s label for it. Nothing on the site changes without you agreeing to it first, since the agent always requests your approval before making configuration changes. What it covers.
Yes. Classic controls remain supported for organizations with their own design systems, so classic rating keeps working unchanged alongside the new rating modern control. Modern controls are the forward path for canvas and custom-page authoring. The earlier fluent UI (hero) controls in custom pages and Teams apps are the exception: those are deprecating, with a documented upgrade path to the modern controls.
No. Classic icon.* values are automatically mapped to their fluent equivalents, so existing usage lights up with the broader set. The library went from about 56 icons to about 180, reaching parity with the classic icon set. Rest of the maker updates.
What we do alongside the licence
SoftSolutionWorks.com is backed by BlueAlly, an authorized Microsoft reseller. As well as supplying the licences, we can help you choose the plan, deploy it, and finance it.