How to Build Bots in Microsoft Teams with Power Virtual Agents?
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to rethink how communication tools are created and deployed for helping employees and customers to address their remote work requirements. Several organizations have started implementing bots within their preferred communication channels to support remote office setups. These bots can help in addressing common questions that would otherwise have to be answered by dedicated human operators, thereby streamlining processes, and simplifying operations. In this blog, we attempt to guide users on how to build bots in Microsoft Teams with Power Virtual Agents for answering frequently asked questions.
What Are the Uses of Bots in Microsoft Teams?
Organizations can deploy bots as digital assistants to solve business problems that can be automated. Here are some use cases for building bots on Microsoft Teams.
- Creating an automated training assistant that can help users understand specific products.
- Make the onboarding process of new employees seamless without employees having to report to the office.
- Facilitate conducting surveys, especially within the organization.
- Drive employee engagement and innovation by helping the management gain insights about the organization’s workforce and generate constructive feedback.
- Support customers, vendors, and other stakeholders with the information they need when the staffing is thin.
- Deploy social or fun bots for games.
Bots to support these use cases can be built using Power Virtual Agents in Microsoft Teams.
What Are Power Virtual Agents in Microsoft Teams?
Power Virtual Agents is an app that is available within Microsoft Teams as a no-code, guided graphical interface solution for creating rich, conversational chatbots on the Microsoft Teams platform. The content created in Power Virtual Agents is executed naturally in Microsoft Teams, and the bots created using the application engage with Teams users in the chat canvas. Power Virtual Agents allows users to design, develop and publish intelligent Microsoft Teams virtual agents without having to rely on a development environment, create a web service, or even register with the Bot Framework.
How to Use Power Virtual Agents for Deploying Microsoft Teams Bot?
Power Virtual Agents for Teams is available in Microsoft 365 and does not require additional licensing. Follow the steps below to deploy bots in Microsoft Teams with Power Virtual Agents.
- After launching Microsoft Teams, click on the App symbol at the bottom left of the screen, and search for Power Virtual Agents.
- Click on Add and select the Team in which it should be added.
- Provide a name for the bot, and the language used by the bot for answering FAQs.
- To train the bot, use the URL of an FAQ page of your website in the “Link to online” content field to feed training data.
- On clicking on Add and Start, a list of Existing and Suggested topics will appear using Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence capabilities built into Power Virtual Agents.
- After reviewing the Topics, toggle the Status for the appropriate trigger phrases, and click on Publish once you are happy with the results.
- Once the bot is published, it can be added to Microsoft Teams.
Apps4Rent Can Help with Teams Licensing and Customization
While Power Virtual Agents is available with certain Microsoft 365 plans by default, upgrading the plan to a standalone Power Virtual Agents subscription would allow organizations to run flows with premium connectors, use rights and functionality, and support many more automation scenarios.
As a Tier 1 Microsoft CSP, Apps4Rent can help organizations acquire appropriate Microsoft Teams licenses, implement, and customize the application, along with other Microsoft cloud products and services, such as Azure and Microsoft 365. Reach out to our Microsoft certified cloud experts, available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email for assistance.
