If you use Power Apps and want an easier way to build complete business solutions, then the Plan Designer is a great tool to try.
With the help of Copilot (AI), the Plan Designer understands what you want to build. It then creates: User roles, Data tables, Apps, Flows, websites, AI agents, and reports.
In the Plan Designer tutorial, I will provide a real-world example of an Employee Onboarding System, allowing you to see how to use Plan Designer from start to finish.
In this step-by-step tutorial, I will cover:
- What is Plan Designer in Power Apps
- Prerequisites to use Plan Designer
- Understanding Plan Agents
- Create a Plan using Power Apps Plan Designer
- Generating User Requirements
- Building a Data Model
- Getting a Technology Proposal
- Saving Your Tables and Solution
- Creating Apps, Flows, Sites, and Agents
- Exporting the Plan to PDF
- Copresence Support
Plan Designer in Power Apps
The Plan Designer is a Copilot-first AI tool in Power Apps that helps you build comprehensive business solutions in minutes, simply by describing your business needs in natural language (and optionally adding images, such as diagrams or screenshots).
It then automatically outlines user roles, data models, apps, flows, websites, BI reports, and AI agents based on your description.
Prerequisites to Use Plan Designer in Power Apps
Before you can start using the Plan Designer, make sure you meet the following requirements:
- You need a Power Platform environment with Dataverse: Plan Designer only works in environments that have Microsoft Dataverse enabled. When creating a new environment, select one that includes a Dataverse database.
- To use Plan Designer, your user account must have permission to create and manage solutions. You must have a System Administrator, a System Customizer, or a custom security role that has solution privileges.
Check out Model Driven Apps in Power Apps
Plan Agents in the Plan Designer
When you describe your business scenario (like “Onboarding new employees”), three AI agents spring into action:
- Requirements Agent: Reads your description and lists out user roles and their needs (e.g., HR staff, Managers, Employees).
- Data Agent: Designs the data schema, suggesting tables, fields, and relationships in Dataverse.
- Solution Agent: Recommends the full technology solution, apps, flows, Copilot agents, BI reports, etc., mapped to the roles and data.
Create a Plan Using Power Apps Plan Designer
Here, I will show how to build a solution plan using the Plan Designer. In this example, we’ll continue using the scenario of an Employee Onboarding Management System.
This is a real-world scenario where HR needs to manage onboarding tasks, managers need to stay updated, and new employees need access to helpful resources.
Follow the Steps Below:
- Go to the Power Apps site -> From the left navigation menu, click on Plans. Click + New plan to start building plans.