Plan and prepare for Microsoft Dataverse in 2025 release wave 2

Overview

Microsoft Dataverse is a trusted low-code data platform that simplifies building scalable, interconnected agents, Copilot applications, and automations. In the 2025 release wave 2, we focus on enhancing the following generally available capabilities:

• Dataverse for agents: Use Dataverse as the foundational data platform to build, manage, and scale teams of autonomous agents with human-in-the-loop capabilities. This capability enhancement especially applies to Microsoft Copilot Studio and the broader Power Platform ecosystem.
• Dataverse search: Use out-of-the-box smarter, faster, AI-ready access to business data by indexing both structured and unstructured content for use in Copilot, agents, and model-driven apps.

The following features are in development for 2025 release wave 2:

• Dataverse model context protocol (MCP) server: Seamlessly integrate Dataverse data tools with large language models (LLMs) using the MCP server. With the server, apps and agents dynamically retrieve, reason over, and act on enterprise data.
• AI for business and operational data: Use prompt columns and AI-powered functions to create intelligent business logic for agents and applications.

Updates to Microsoft Dataverse 2025 release wave 2

Investment areas

Extend your copilots with knowledge and actions
Dataverse lets you extend Copilot for Microsoft 365 and custom agents you create in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Use Copilot plugins to add tools (formerly known as actions) and connect to enterprise knowledge sources. These plugins help improve the reliability and quality of responses.

Adding tools and specific knowledge is the best way to extend your copilot. You can connect to external systems, write specific instructions, or set up specific references. Plugins are the most popular version of an action. Use existing plugins in Copilot Studio or create your own. Set specific descriptions for your plugins to help Copilot call them. To change how you or your users interact with Copilot, create prompts. Prompts give specific instructions and can ground Dataverse data into Copilot.

In Microsoft Copilot Studio, the knowledge center uses Dataverse as the central place where you add and manage all your data sources and knowledge sources across all three clouds with your copilot:

• Operational data (Dataverse)
• Productivity data (Microsoft 365)
• Analytical insights (Microsoft Fabric)

Copilot Studio includes built-in Dataverse. Dataverse connectors and plug-ins work as APIs or as an MCP server. These options offer two distinct plugin systems. Each system has different architecture and purpose. Copilot plugins use APIs to extend the conversational abilities of AI copilots and agents. In contrast, Dataverse plug-ins are C# components that run in a sandboxed process within Dataverse. Use these plug-ins to enforce business logic directly within Dataverse.

With simple configurations and natural language, you can use the knowledge center to connect all your Copilot experiences to the knowledge sources you choose. This connection helps customers get more value from their enterprise data. Besides Microsoft data sources, you can also provide other knowledge sources, such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, to the custom Copilot through this knowledge experience.

Improve Copilot Studio ecosystem for enterprise scale
Microsoft Dataverse is the backend engine that powers Copilot Studio. It gives every agent and agentic offering a reliable and scalable ecosystem for onboarding, customizing, and managing agents. The Dataverse ecosystem brings these capabilities to Copilot Studio through catalog, security, solutions, and virtualization features. When customers start their agent journey with Copilot Studio, they benefit from this ecosystem.

With catalog features, you can discover and install all publicly hosted and locally hosted agents into Copilot Studio. You can easily move catalogs between environments in the same tenant. You can also manage prebuilt vertical solutions or agent add-ons within a catalog.

With security features, you secure and control all agents you install in Copilot Studio. Administrators decide who can see what data and what privileges each user gets.

When you use solutions, you manage all assets for Copilot Studio within solutions. You can easily handle continuous updates, upgrades, installs, uninstalls, and transport.

When you use virtualization, you connect to external data sources. You enable this external data as knowledge for your agents and agentic offerings.

Improved enterprise experiences in Power Platform
When you improve the experiences for building apps, flows, and solutions by using templates and standard components, and by enhancing how you connect, map, and use data, enterprise organizations find more engaging experiences across Power Platform and Microsoft Dataverse.

To learn more about the entire set of capabilities being delivered during this release wave, check out the release plan for Microsoft Dataverse below:

For application administrators

User-impacting features to the user experience enabled automatically
User-impacting features should be reviewed by application administrators. This facilitates release change management and enables successful onboarding of new capabilities released to market. For the complete list, look for all features tagged "Users, automatically" in the release plan.

Features that must be enabled by application administrators
This release wave contains features that must be enabled or configured by administrators, makers, or business analysts to be available for their users. For the complete list, look for all features tagged "Users by admins, makers, or analysts" in the release plan.