Microsoft Adds AI Assistant To English-Language Partner Center

“Seamlessly integrated into your experience, the AI assistant continues your conversation as you navigate through Partner Center,” according to Microsoft.

Microsoft is previewing an artificial intelligence-powered assistant in its Partner Center with capabilities ranging from support ticket creation to quick answers.

The Partner Center AI assistant – notably not called a “copilot,” Microsoft’s typical name for its current brand of AI tools – is available in English versions of the portal with plans for more languages by the end of the year, according to an online post by the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant.

“Seamlessly integrated into your experience, the AI assistant continues your conversation as you navigate through Partner Center,” according to the posting.

Partner Center AI Assistant

CRN has reached out to Microsoft for additional comment.

Luis Alvarez, CEO of Salinas, Calif.-based Alvarez Technology Group, a Microsoft partner and member of CRN’s 2024 MSP 500, in an interview with CRN called the new assistant a cool extension of capabilities he’s seen in the vendor’s copilot offerings.

“It will be very helpful for partners who don’t spend a lot of time in the portal,” said Alvarez. After playing with the tool, he found it “easy to ask questions in natural language and get where you want to go.”

Microsoft does warn about the accuracy of the Partner Center assistant. “AI assistant is designed to generate the best possible responses with the context it has access to,” according to the company. “However, like any AI system, its responses won't always be perfect. All AI assistant responses should be carefully checked.”

Although Microsoft has used its AI principles and Responsible AI Standard, plus prioritized mitigating offensive content, “you might still see unexpected results,” according to the vendor. “We're constantly working to improve our technology in preventing harmful content. If you encounter harmful or inappropriate content in the system, provide feedback or report a concern by selecting the downvote button on the response.”

When users create a support ticket through the generative AI assistant’s panel, it pulls responses from Microsoft product documentation, partner program guides and Partner Center data, according to the company. The assistant is also constantly enhanced for deeper dives across workspaces.

Partners can use the assistant by selecting a sparkle icon in the upper-right corner of Partner Center and then selecting a topic from the drop-down menu, using the prompt guide or asking a question.

The assistant can help with payment breakdowns, Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) questions, Microsoft commerce incentives (MCI), program and workload earning insights, and more.

Example prompts include asking the assistant:

Which customers are over budget?
Show me the customers who are close to spending 80% of their budgets.
What products are eligible for CSP incentives?
Where can I download my invoice for membership purchases?
What's my net customer add scoring in Data & AI?
Why isn’t X customer added in net customer add in Data & AI?

Users can leverage a thumbs up and down control and comment box for feedback to help Microsoft improve the tool.

Conversations with the assistant can continue even as partners go to different workspaces, according to Microsoft. If the assistant can’t answer a question or address a prompt, the user can still contact support.

Different verbs can cause different results and adding a partner organization’s goals and why the user is doing a task can help with a more precise answer, according to Microsoft. For complex issues, breaking down the request into smaller parts can aid the assistant.

And the assistant’s feedback loop means users can leverage a previous response to refine prompts.

As for copilot, rollouts expected to start in November include Copilot in Excel with Python and Chat with Copilot in Outlook for Mac, according to Microsoft.