AMPLIFY · Week 3 Power Hour · Foundations
Power Platform 101: Your Superpower
Why it exists, where it’s going, and how it can reshape the career you already have.
Welcome
Here’s the hour
- 0:00 – 0:05WelcomeHousekeeping, wins of the week, intros, a quick poll
- 0:05 – 0:30Deep DivePower Platform 101: why, what, where it’s going, and your career
- 0:30 – 0:45Q&AOpen floor, live or in chat
- 0:45 – 1:00Connect RoundBreakouts: name your superpower
Drop a win in chat
Big or small. A thing you shipped, a conversation you finally had, a course you finished. We’ll read a few out.
Housekeeping
This session is recorded and posted within 24 hours. Watching within 48 counts as being here. Chat is open the whole time, and cameras are optional.
Who’s talking
Sravani Seethi
Forward Deployed AI Architect · CAT, Microsoft · 5 years at Microsoft
I work on enterprise agents and AI strategy, side by side with customers, from the first idea to something running in production.
Co-building enterprise agents with customers’ teams, and driving Industry Templates: reusable agent assets by industry.
Helping Microsoft’s customers build their AI strategy: where to start, what to scale, and how to run it.
Executive briefings, conference stages, and sharing what I learn with the community.
Executive Director, Women in Power. Mentoring, skilling and networking.
Quick poll · in Teams
Where are you on the Power Platform map?
Today’s deep dive
Power Platform 101, in five questions
Why does Power Platform exist?
The gap it closes, and the woman who saw it coming in the 1950s.
What is it, really?
Five tools, one foundation, and how they fit together.
Where is it going?
Ten years of evolution and the 2026 product vision.
What does it mean for my career?
Doors in, next steps, and certifications.
Where do I start?
Free resources, people to follow, a 30-day plan.
01 · Why does Power Platform exist?
I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.
Grace Hopper, on the road to COBOL
Her idea, 1950s
Let people write programs in words, not machine code. The people who knew the problem should be able to tell the computer what to do.
Same idea, today
That’s still the idea behind the Power Platform. This week’s read, Broad Band by Claire L. Evans, tells her story.
01 · The gap Power Platform closes
The people who know the problem can’t always build
Every team has a wish list
A tracker. An approval. A report that doesn’t take three days of copy-paste. Most of it never gets built.
IT can’t get to it
Developers are busy with the big systems. The small, important stuff waits in a backlog.
So you close the gap
Low-code puts building in the hands of the person who understands the work, with guardrails IT can trust.
Gartner’s forecast for this year. Most people building on these platforms aren’t professional developers. They’re people like us.
02 · What is Power Platform?
Power Platform: five tools, one foundation
Power Apps
“I need a screen for this.”
Apps for phones, tablets and browsers, built on your data.
Power Automate
“I keep doing this by hand.”
Flows that move data, chase approvals and click through old systems for you.
Power BI
“I need to see what’s going on.”
Reports and dashboards that turn data into a story people act on.
Copilot Studio
“I want something that can reason and act.”
Agents that answer, decide and take action across your systems.
Power Pages
“People outside need in.”
Secure websites for customers, partners and communities.
02 · Make it real
If we built AMPLIFY on Power Platform
You don’t pick a tool first. You pick the problem. Here’s this program, one tool per job.
Sign-up
A public intake page that asks what you want this quarter.
Matching
An app for the committee to place members into Circuits and Power Pairs.
Reminders
Invites, nudges, and the recording posted inside 24 hours.
Pulse
Attendance and the Week 6 pulse check on one page.
Ask AMPLIFY
An agent that answers “which track am I in?” at 11 PM.
All five share one set of data. That’s the bit that makes it a platform, not five separate products.
03 · Where is Power Platform going?
Power Platform, from forms to agents
03 · Where Power Platform is heading
Three shifts worth betting on
Shift 1
Drag and drop → describe it
You explain what you need in plain language. Copilot builds the first draft. Your job moves from building every screen to knowing what good looks like.
Shift 2
Apps → agents
Software that doesn’t wait to be clicked. Agents read, decide and act, and hand off to a person when they should.
Shift 3
Makers vs devs → one team
Low-code makers and pro developers now work on the same platform, with the same source control and the same AI tools.
And governance is the thing that makes it scale
Admins can see every app, flow and agent, set the guardrails, and still let people build. That’s why big companies say yes to it.
03 · Power Platform product vision, 2026
What’s being built right now
Agents, your way
Copilot Studio builds agents, workflows and agent flows. Pick the runtime: instructions-first, classic topics, or an extension of Copilot Chat.
Apps by describing them
Plan designer and a team of agents draft the app for you. App building is now arriving inside Copilot Cowork and Copilot Studio.
Pro code, same platform
Code apps in React or Vue, Dataverse MCP servers, a Python SDK, and deploy from Git.
Governance for agents
Agent 365 as the control plane. Agent security controls and real-time risk checks in Copilot Studio.
No more release waves. Since September Microsoft ships continuously on one roadmap: aka.ms/AIatWorkRoadmap
03 · Hold on to this
The tools change every six months. These don’t.
Understanding the problem
Who’s stuck, what it costs, and what “done” looks like.
Process thinking
Steps, owners, exceptions. Agents need this more than apps did.
Data sense
Where the data lives, who owns it, and whether you can trust it.
Security and trust
Who should see what. The question that gets a project approved.
Getting people to use it
Adoption, training and telling the story. Most projects live or die here.
If AI writes more of the build, these are what you’re paid for.
04 · What does Power Platform mean for my career?
You don’t need to become a developer.
You need to become the person who can turn a problem into something that works.
04 · Power Platform career map
Eight doors in. Most don’t say “developer”.
Maker in your role
Stay where you are and fix how your team works. The fastest start.
Functional consultant
Translate what the business needs into what gets built.
Data analyst
Turn messy data into decisions with Power BI.
Developer
Extend with code, components, APIs and pipelines.
Solution architect
Design across apps, data, security and integration.
Platform and CoE lead
Run governance, adoption and the maker community.
Agent builder
Design, test and run AI agents people trust.
Advocate and educator
Teach, speak, build community. Visibility is the job.
Careers here zigzag. Pick the next door, not the last one. Most people walk through two or three of these.
04 · Back to the poll
Your next step, wherever you are
Get your hands on it
Free developer environment. Build one thing you’d use this week. Start the fundamentals path.
Build for someone else
Finish something one other person uses. Their feedback teaches more than a tutorial.
Make it real
Learn solutions, environments and Dataverse. Add your first agent. Start showing your work.
Go wide
Architecture, governance, ALM. Mentor someone. Put a talk on a stage.
Go deep on trust
Evaluations, responsible AI, multi-agent design. Write up what you learned.
Find the answer you picked in the poll. That column is your next move.
04 · Proof that travels
Power Platform certifications that open doors
Retired this year: PL-200 (Functional Consultant) and PL-600 (Solution Architect). If a blog tells you to take them, it’s out of date. PL-400 registration closes 16 Oct; if you’re registered by then, you can sit it until 30 Oct.
04 · The point of today
Your superpower isn’t Power Platform. It’s you plus Power Platform.
Your domain
The thing about your work no tool knows. Finance close. Patient intake. Store ops. That’s your edge.
Your build skill
Enough of the platform to turn that knowledge into something that works.
Being seen
People knowing you did it. That’s Week 4, Your Story, Your Brand, and the Week 9 Showcase.
Multiply, don’t add. Zero in any one and the whole thing stays invisible.
05 · Where do I start?
Free Power Platform resources I’d actually use
Developer Plan
A free environment of your own to practise in. Sign up with a work or school email.
Get the Developer Plan ↗Microsoft Learn
Free, self-paced paths from fundamentals to agents, with sandboxes built in.
Power Platform on Learn ↗Community forums
Ask anything, find a local user group, answer someone else’s question.
Power Platform Community ↗Copilot Agent Kit
Power CAT’s free kit to test and manage agents like a pro.
Copilot Agent Kit on Learn ↗05 · Your feed is your classroom
Power Platform voices to follow
April Dunnam
Power Apps · Copilot Studio
Friendly, fast tutorials. The best first follow.
YouTube @AprilDunnam ↗Elaiza Benitez
Copilot Studio
Clear agent walkthroughs and big community energy.
YouTube @ElaizaBenitez ↗Megan V. Walker
Dynamics 365 · Customer Insights
Deep, practical how-tos for customer apps.
meganvwalker.com ↗05 · Before Showcase Night
Your 30-day plan
This week
Get in
Sign up for a free developer environment. Write down one task that annoys you every week.
Week two
Build it ugly
Build version one. Ugly is fine. Finished beats pretty.
Week three
Give it away
Put it in front of one real person. Fix the one thing they trip on.
Week four
Show it
Post it, demo it to your Circuit, or take a slot at Showcase Night on 19 Nov.
Then do it again
One small, finished, shown thing a month beats a certificate you never use. In a year you’ve got twelve stories for your next interview.
0:30 – 0:45 · Open floor
Ask me anything
Unmute or type it in chat. No question is too basic. Somebody else is wondering the same thing.
Stuck? Start with one of these
Will AI replace low-code?
Which certification first?
How do I practise if work blocks it?
How do I make this my actual job?
0:45 – 1:00 · Breakouts
Connect Round: name your superpower
4 minutes
Say it out loud
“I know ___, and I’d build ___.” One sentence each.
4 minutes
Pick one thing
One resource or one person from today you’ll follow this week.
4 minutes
Make one ask
What help do you need? Who in this room could give it? Swap names.
Groups of four or five
Pick the person with the next birthday to go first. We’ll call you back at 0:57 to close.
Thank you
When women innovate, the future follows.
Next week · Week 4
Your Story, Your Brand
Thu 15 Oct · 11:00 AM–12:00 PM CT. Read: Stand Out by Dorie Clark.
This week’s read
Broad Band
Claire L. Evans. The women who made the internet, Grace Hopper included.
See you there
PPCC 2026
Women in Power is at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, all three days. 27–29 Oct.