Microsoft Copilot Cowork Turns Excel Into a REAL App 🤯 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hello everyone, Resza here. What if an
2. 0:03Excel file that your team uses can be
3. 0:06transformed into a business app within
4. 0:09minutes? We will put this to the test
5. 0:12today by using the new app builder skill
6. 0:16in Microsoft Copilot Cowwork. So let's
7. 0:19begin.
8. 0:28I have a very simple Excel file tracking
9. 0:31team spend.
10. 0:33Let's see if Quark equipped with the new
11. 0:37app skill can turn this into a real
12. 0:40application that my team can actually
13. 0:43use.
14. 0:44The app skill in co-work as of recording
15. 0:47of this video is available as part of
16. 0:51the Frontier program. So if your tenant
17. 0:53is signed up for that, this you can turn
18. 0:56on for your users
19. 0:59in Microsoft Copilot Co-work.
20. 1:03I'll first attach my Excel file.
21. 1:07Note here you can bring in information
22. 1:10from your work context, the files you
23. 1:13work with on a day-to-day basis.
24. 1:16In my case,
25. 1:18I have that team budget Excel tracker. I
26. 1:22will go ahead and upload that.
27. 1:25Next, I'll invoke the app skill by
28. 1:30simply typing / app and I'll select the
29. 1:33app skill.
30. 1:35Now, in natural language, build me a
31. 1:38team budget and spend command center
32. 1:40using the attached Excel file as the
33. 1:43starting point.
34. 1:46I'll send this request to coworker.
35. 1:49one Excel file, one prompt. Co-work will
36. 1:53now start building out a full stack
37. 1:56application.
38. 1:58It's using my attached Excel file as a
39. 2:01reference, the skills and plugins. It's
40. 2:04using the app builder skill so it can
41. 2:07create a full stack app.
42. 2:10We can explore the thought process of
43. 2:13how co-work is planning to build this
44. 2:15application based on the details that I
45. 2:18have provided.
46. 2:20It's starting to build the app, compile
47. 2:22the app.
48. 2:24Here's the output that it's produced.
49. 2:26Let's select this.
50. 2:28This will open a live preview of the
51. 2:31app.
52. 2:33The annual commitment, monthly run rate,
53. 2:36renewals coming within 90 days, charts
54. 2:39to show my renewal runway,
55. 2:42a monthly breakdown of the team spend,
56. 2:45and then the line items, which is all
57. 2:47those data points that was provided from
58. 2:50my Excel file.
59. 2:53Now, this is a full stack app. There is
60. 2:56code involved here. And if we switch to
61. 3:00the code view experience, you can see
62. 3:02how the app builder skill builds me this
63. 3:06full stack React application. And the
64. 3:09entire code is written by the skill.
65. 3:13If I look at data
66. 3:16under budget,
67. 3:17all that data that was there in my Excel
68. 3:20file, it's actually seeding that,
69. 3:22hardcoding that in the app.
70. 3:25I would want to store this in a scalable
71. 3:28data source of choice.
72. 3:31My app currently just has the main
73. 3:33homepage.
74. 3:35So this is the entire code that renders
75. 3:38the home screen experience for my app.
76. 3:43Done. The app's built. It says the team
77. 3:46budget command center is built and
78. 3:49published. What's in it? one screen
79. 3:51built from the 15 line items that were
80. 3:54in my Excel workbook.
81. 3:56Note the data is seeded locally from my
82. 3:59uploaded file. So edits live in the app
83. 4:02session and don't write back to the
84. 4:03spreadsheet.
85. 4:06Natural next steps are saving your
86. 4:08changes to a data source of choice. It's
87. 4:11recommending SharePoint, but we have the
88. 4:14entire connector ecosystem available. So
89. 4:18you can have any data source of your
90. 4:20choice. SQL, Datavas, SharePoint, and
91. 4:23more. For the purpose of the demo, I'll
92. 4:27pick SharePoint as a data source.
93. 4:30My team has a SharePoint site.
94. 4:33I'll ask Cowwork to create this budget
95. 4:36list in my SharePoint site.
96. 4:40It will use the tools and skills
97. 4:42including Microsoft Graph to go and
98. 4:46create that SharePoint list in the site
99. 4:48that I specified.
100. 4:51This is the list schema that it is
101. 4:53recommending.
102. 4:55There is a show full details option. If
103. 4:57I select that, it will show you the
104. 4:59exact type of columns that it would
105. 5:01potentially be creating. So, category
106. 5:04will be text, vendor will be text. The
107. 5:07cost, it will make it number and so and
108. 5:10so forth.
109. 5:12Category and status I would like to make
110. 5:15them choice columns. I have a set
111. 5:17defined list of categories and a set
112. 5:20defined list of statuses.
113. 5:24So I'll call that out make category and
114. 5:26status as choice columns.
115. 5:29Once again it brings out the schema that
116. 5:33it would use. This time if I go to show
117. 5:35full details observe category is choices
118. 5:39and these choice values are coming from
119. 5:41that Excel files data.
120. 5:43Same thing for status.
121. 5:47owner. I will make this a person type
122. 5:50column in SharePoint.
123. 5:53What I'm trying to show here is with
124. 5:56co-work and with this app builder skill,
125. 5:58you and the agent work together.
126. 6:03And notice here owner is a person or
127. 6:05group type column.
128. 6:08Once I'm good with this,
129. 6:10I can approve. So I'll go ahead and
130. 6:13approve this.
131. 6:16co-work will try and create that list
132. 6:19for me. Now this depending upon what
133. 6:22permissions are allowed for co-work can
134. 6:25it use browser actions to create the
135. 6:27list. In my case you can see what it's
136. 6:30attempting on my behalf.
137. 6:33It's creating the budget list. It's
138. 6:35starting to create all the columns
139. 6:38depending upon the data types that I
140. 6:41defined with co-work.
141. 6:43So, it's gone ahead and built out the
142. 6:46list for me. Here's a link to the list.
143. 6:50This list created in my SharePoint site.
144. 6:53And here are all the columns that it has
145. 6:55set up for me exactly depending upon the
146. 6:58schema that we locked down on.
147. 7:02It can load the data also for me. One
148. 7:06thing it wants to flag out is that the
149. 7:07owners are stored as plain text names in
150. 7:10the spreadsheet. So to match that to a
151. 7:13person column that will not resolve. So
152. 7:16I'll say
153. 7:18go ahead and add the data and ignore the
154. 7:22person column when adding.
155. 7:26Co-work has added all the rows of data.
156. 7:32Now I can define my respective owners.
157. 7:38Now that it's added all the data,
158. 7:41make sure the app is loading all of its
159. 7:43data from the budget list in SharePoint.
160. 7:47No hard-coded data.
161. 7:49It's loading the connectors
162. 7:52and there is the SharePoint connection
163. 7:55that it's asking me to approve. I have
164. 7:58approved the SharePoint connection.
165. 8:01The list is bound. That means the
166. 8:03connection is made. To confirm that, if
167. 8:06I head over to settings and connections,
168. 8:09you can see I have the SharePoint
169. 8:12connection in the app. And if I head
170. 8:15over to data storage, it shows me the
171. 8:17connected list, which is the budget
172. 8:19list.
173. 8:21The app builder skill is working on
174. 8:23removing the sample data that was
175. 8:26hardcoded in the app and will now
176. 8:28connect to the live data in SharePoint.
177. 8:33one of the items on SharePoint.
178. 8:35Let's update the monthly cost and the
179. 8:39annual cost.
180. 8:42Once the app rewires itself to point to
181. 8:45the real SharePoint list, you will see
182. 8:47the numbers getting updated.
183. 8:50Check this out. The annual commitment
184. 8:53changed because one of the items I
185. 8:55updated live in my SharePoint list.
186. 9:00Also, if I go to the code view now,
187. 9:03notice that data tab is gone. So,
188. 9:05there's no hardcoded data.
189. 9:08There is this generated folder that
190. 9:10includes models and services.
191. 9:13The file budget model,
192. 9:16that's the data model of my SharePoint
193. 9:18list.
194. 9:19And budget service includes the
195. 9:22functions needed to create, update,
196. 9:24delete, and get information from the
197. 9:26SharePoint list.
198. 9:28That's exactly what this app is now
199. 9:31leveraging to load all this data live
200. 9:34coming from my SharePoint list.
201. 9:38Now let's try and add a new line item.
202. 9:47I'll add this line item that will create
203. 9:50a new record.
204. 9:53Now this line item is being created in
205. 9:56my SharePoint list as well. Here it is.
206. 9:59Now observe the data came in but the
207. 10:02status column which was of type choice
208. 10:04didn't get saved. Category didn't get
209. 10:07saved. Plus it never even asked me for
210. 10:10the owner.
211. 10:12Now this is where we need to learn to
212. 10:14work with AI. So I'll say category and
213. 10:19status are choice columns their values
214. 10:23are typically saved as I'll give it a
215. 10:26format. So anyone who comes from the
216. 10:29power apps background would know that
217. 10:31when we actually saved data to a choice
218. 10:33column in SharePoint that's the format
219. 10:35it expects.
220. 10:36Owner is a person type column and there
221. 10:39is a particular syntax that the owner
222. 10:42column expects.
223. 10:44owner column allowed to pick users from
224. 10:46Entra using Office 365 users connector.
225. 10:50I'm giving all that context to co-work.
226. 10:54Now the app builder skill will use all
227. 10:56this information to update the
228. 10:58application.
229. 11:00Let's try it out. This was the item that
230. 11:03I added earlier. Let's edit this. Now
231. 11:06observe there's an owner option. This
232. 11:09will fetch users from Entra.
233. 11:13how I asked it to add the Office 365
234. 11:15users connector. So now if I search
235. 11:20for my account there it is.
236. 11:23So I can pick any user from Entra. In
237. 11:27this case I'll pick a user from my team.
238. 11:30The status I'll put in review category
239. 11:33software save.
240. 11:35This time all the column values are
241. 11:37being respected.
242. 11:40I can ask it to do a lot more by simply
243. 11:42prompting. Update the app look and feel.
244. 11:45Add a dashboard showing total annual
245. 11:47spend, monthly spend, upcoming renewals.
246. 11:50Add views for upcoming renewals, items
247. 11:53needing attention, categorized by owner,
248. 11:56by category, and the app builder skill
249. 12:00will weave its magic.
250. 12:02And there's the update. Check this out.
251. 12:10Can look at upcoming renewals. Renewals
252. 12:13that need my attention as they are
253. 12:14coming up very soon. Categorized by
254. 12:17owner. They are monthly spend.
255. 12:20This one categorized by the different
256. 12:22categories.
257. 12:24That simple Excel dashboard that I had
258. 12:26is now transformed into this
259. 12:28multi-screen application.
260. 12:31Once done, I publish the app.
261. 12:35Once published, I simply share this app
262. 12:38with my team.
263. 12:41I'll share this. Done.
264. 12:45And now my team can run this full stack
265. 12:49application that I was able to build
266. 12:52within minutes by working with the app
267. 12:55builder skill. I'm signing in as Resa.
268. 12:58So, it's going to use my connections to
269. 13:01connect to Office 365 users and
270. 13:03SharePoint.
271. 13:05When other users from my team will
272. 13:06access this, it will utilize their
273. 13:09connection to connect to SharePoint.
274. 13:13And here is all that information right
275. 13:16here.
276. 13:21This is a fully responsive application.
277. 13:28If you enjoyed this video then do like,
278. 13:30comment and subscribe to my YouTube
279. 13:32channel and thank you so much for
280. 13:34watching.