Visual Studio 2022 enhances extension management with new automation features

Microsoft has announced a major update to the Extension Manager in Visual Studio 2022, aimed at improving usability and streamlining the developer workflow. This update reflects ongoing efforts to make extension management more intuitive and responsive in future Visual Studio releases.

Here are the updates:

• Seamless Auto-Updates: Stay up to date effortlessly—extensions now update automatically when you open the Extension Manager window.

• Integrated Auto-Update Settings: Manage auto-update preferences directly on each extension’s page—no more digging through menus.

• New “Pending” Filter: Quickly spot updates or modifications that need your attention with the new "Pending" category.

• Centralized Update Settings: Prefer a global view? Auto-update controls are also available under Tools > Options for centralized management.

• Other Enhancements: A simplified settings interface, restart reminders via InfoBar, and an excluded extensions list make managing updates even easier.

Microsoft introduces AI-powered intent-based routing to enhance customer support in Dynamics 365

Microsoft has unveiled a groundbreaking AI-driven feature called intent-based routing within Dynamics 365 Customer Service, aiming to revolutionize customer support by intelligently directing inquiries based on real-time intent analysis. This innovation leverages generative AI to enhance customer interactions and streamline contact center operations, ensuring that customers are connected with the most appropriate support agents promptly.

By analyzing customer queries in real-time, intent-based routing identifies the purpose behind each interaction and matches it with the best-suited agent, considering factors like agent expertise and customer history. This approach not only improves response times but also enhances the overall customer experience by providing more personalized and efficient support.

The introduction of intent-based routing is part of Microsoft's broader strategy to integrate advanced AI capabilities across its Dynamics 365 suite, reflecting the company's commitment to driving digital transformation and improving user productivity across various business functions.

Intent-based routing in a nutshell:

What is intent-based routing? It leverages a Customer Intent Agent to autonomously identify and manage customer intents by analyzing past interactions—building a continuously evolving intent library.

Key benefits: Intent-based routing delivers greater precision and personalization, dynamic intent discovery, smarter routing configuration, improved workforce efficiency, and a scalable, future-ready framework.

Real-world example: In retail banking, queries related to account management, card services, and loan inquiries can be automatically routed to the right user groups—enhancing speed and service quality.

New Visual Studio update enhances NuGet feed connectivity

Microsoft has announced improvements in Visual Studio that make it easier to connect to private NuGet feeds. Developers can now manage authentication with less friction, streamlining package access and boosting productivity.

Here’s what you need to know:

• What does it mean? Visual Studio now proactively detects when authentication is required during package restore and presents a new dialog with helpful context, making it easy to choose the most suitable account.

• What can you expect? Clearer sign-in guidance, better multi-factor authentication support, and a more consistent sign-in experience.

• Send feedback: Have ideas for improvement or issues to report? Don’t forget to share your feedback and help shape future updates.

Enhancing AI development: Microsoft's New .NET extensions now available

Microsoft has announced the general availability of its AI and Vector Data Extensions for .NET, marking a significant step in simplifying the development of AI-powered applications. These libraries provide standardized abstractions for AI models and vector stores, promoting interoperability and extensibility across the .NET ecosystem. Developers can now build scalable and maintainable applications with greater ease, leveraging these foundational tools to integrate various AI services and vector databases seamlessly.

Here’s what you need to know about these extensions:

• What is it? A set of .NET libraries that provide shared abstractions and utilities to streamline working with AI models and vector stores.

• What’s included?

  Available as NuGet packages:

  • Microsoft.Extensions.AI.Abstractions – Common types and abstractions for AI models

  • Microsoft.Extensions.AI – Utilities for working with AI extensions

  • Microsoft.Extensions.VectorData.Abstractions – Types and abstractions for vector store integration

• Why use them? They promote interoperability, extensibility, and consistency, making it easier to scale and maintain your AI solutions.

• Use case: Write portable code that works across different AI models and vector store providers. Easily switch providers based on your environment—while keeping your codebase clean and adaptable.

Improved editor classification and prompting experience in Visual Studio extensibility

Microsoft has introduced enhancements to the Visual Studio extensibility model, focusing on improved editor classification and refined user prompts. These updates aim to provide extension developers with more consistent behavior and clearer guidance when working with classification types and user input requests.

Here’s what’s new:

• Text Classification Support: Enable custom text coloring within open files — enhancing both semantic and syntactic colorization.

• ShowPromptAsync API Enhancements: The ShowPromptAsync API now supports icons and includes a new capability to capture user input directly within the prompt.

• Share Your Feedback: Help shape the future of Visual Studio by reporting bugs and suggesting new features or improvements.

Microsoft enhances Power Apps with human-agent collaboration features

Microsoft is charting a bold new course for enterprise app development with the latest evolution of Power Apps. By focusing on seamless collaboration between humans and AI agents, the platform aims to make building apps more intuitive, efficient, and accessible. This marks a significant step toward transforming how organizations approach digital innovation.

Discover how the latest Power Apps updates — Plans, the new Agent Feed, and Managed Platform Expansion — empower you to build intelligent, agent-centric apps like never before.

• Start with a plan: Collaborate with agents to define requirements, map processes, and design solutions that work together seamlessly.

• Turn business needs into agentic solutions: Transform requirements into process maps that guide development and align with user personas.

• AI-powered app creation: Describe what you want — Power Apps generates tailored React code to bring your vision to life.

• Human + agent = next-gen collaboration: Get real-time guidance, see agent actions, and automate work with intelligent actions.

• Bring your code-first apps to the Power Platform: Take apps from Visual Studio Code or Cursor and run them on a fully managed, enterprise-grade platform.

Streamlining .NET modernization: GitHub Copilot's new agent mode enhances developer efficiency

Microsoft has launched a public preview of the "GitHub Copilot app modernization – Upgrade for .NET," an AI-driven tool designed to simplify and expedite the process of updating .NET applications. This new feature leverages GitHub Copilot's Agent Mode to intelligently assess existing codebases, determine optimal upgrade paths, and implement necessary changes with minimal manual intervention. Developers can access this capability through Visual Studio 17.14 by installing the dedicated extension and enabling Agent Mode within the Copilot Chat interface.

By automating complex upgrade tasks, this integration aims to reduce the time and risks associated with manual code modernization, allowing developers to focus more on innovation and less on routine maintenance.

Here’s how you can start your modernization:

• Getting Started: Install the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace: GitHub Copilot app modernization – Upgrade for .NET.

• Enable Copilot Agent Mode: Install Visual Studio 17.14, sign in with your GitHub Copilot subscription, enable Agent Mode via Tools > Options, then open Copilot Chat → Click “Ask” > “Agent” → Select the “Upgrade” tool.

• Running the Upgrade: Right-click your project or solution in Solution Explorer and choose “Upgrade with GitHub Copilot”, or simply ask Copilot in the chat: “Upgrade my solution to .NET 8.”

• What’s Included: Automated code transformations, customizable workflows, learning from your changes, Git integration, test validation, and full Agent Mode support.

• Share Your Feedback: Help improve the experience—click the “Leave Feedback” button to share your thoughts.

Microsoft rolls out .NET Aspire 9.3 with enhanced developer tools

Microsoft has released .NET Aspire 9.3, introducing several enhancements aimed at improving the developer experience. The update includes quality improvements, integration enhancements, and API updates, reflecting Microsoft's commitment to refining its cloud-native development tools.

Here are some of the updates:

• AI Debugging Assistant: Review hundreds of log messages with a single click, trace root causes across multiple apps, spot performance issues, and decode obscure error codes using GitHub Copilot's AI smarts—all without leaving your dashboard.

• Context Menu in Resource Graph View: A new context menu gives you quick access to a resource’s telemetry, commands, and URLs directly from the graph view.

• Enhanced Tracing: Visualize outgoing calls to resources that don’t emit telemetry—like databases, caches, and infrastructure components—ensuring nothing is missed.

• Integration Updates: New capabilities include self-hosting a YARP instance, MySQL support, and enhanced Azure integration to boost your app connectivity.

• App Model Enhancements: The updated Custom URLs feature lets you control whether URLs are shown on the resource page or the dashboard’s resource details page.

Microsoft improves supervisor oversight in Dynamics 365 Contact Center and Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Microsoft has introduced new capabilities in Dynamics 365 Contact Center aimed at improving supervisors' ability to monitor customer service interactions. These enhancements provide supervisors with greater visibility into ongoing conversations, allowing for more effective management of customer engagements.

The update is designed to help supervisors identify potential issues in real-time, enabling timely interventions to maintain high service standards. By offering deeper insights into chat activities, the enhancements support better decision-making and resource allocation within customer service teams.

Here’s what you need to know:

• How it works: Navigate to Ongoing Conversations in the Copilot Service admin center, select a conversation, and click Monitor to view the full transcript, current status, and elapsed time.

• Why it matters: Instantly assess whether a conversation is progressing as expected, whether the customer needs more support, or if the conversation should be escalated or transferred.

• Key benefits: Ensure service quality, improve response monitoring, speed up customer replies, and streamline supervisor workflows in async channels.

Power BI May 2025 enhancements continue to elevate the data experience

Microsoft has rolled out its latest monthly update for Power BI, bringing a fresh wave of improvements that continue to push the boundaries of data visualization and reporting. With a strong focus on user experience and performance, the May 2025 update sets the stage for even more impactful data storytelling.

Here are some of the enhancements:

• Events & Announcements: Stay informed with the all-new Power BI Roadmap page — your go-to for upcoming feature release dates.

• Copilot and AI: Introducing the standalone Copilot experience in Power BI! Effortlessly find and analyze reports, semantic models, apps, and data agents you have access to — all in one place.

• Reporting: New visual calculations like LOOKUP and LOOKUPWITHTOTALS let you focus on one visual at a time — enabling easier creation and validation of complex calculations.

• Modeling: Drag and drop your way to faster data modeling! Create relationships between Direct Lake tables with a simple UI based on row counts.

• Visualizations: Meet the Dandelion chart — a fresh way to visualize column data with dynamic breakdowns as floating flowers above each bar.

See the full list here.