Configure handoff to Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Prerequisites

• Sign in with an account that has at least OC_Admin and Copilot Author roles.
• Have a product license for Microsoft Copilot Studio and a product license for the Chat Add-in for Dynamics 365 Customer service.
• Your copilot and Omnichannel for Customer Service must be in the same environment.
• For end-to-end capabilities to work as expected, you must publish your copilot.

Connect your copilot to Omnichannel for Customer Service

1. In Microsoft Copilot Studio, edit your copilot. In the navigation menu, select Settings, Customer engagement hub, and then select the Omnichannel tile.

   

2. Select Connect.

   • Note that the OmniChannel installation must be in the same environment as the copilot.
   • If you're using Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), you may see a message that we can't determine if Omnichannel for Customer Service integration is enabled for the environment. For more information, see Bots with ALM.

3. Click View in Omnichannel to continue configuring the bot connection in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

Copilots with Application Lifecycle Management

Suppose you've set up Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for your bots, and are exporting and importing copilots between development (unmanaged) and test or production (managed) environments. In that case, you might see a message that we can't determine if Omnichannel for Customer Service integration is enabled for the environment.

If the copilot you exported has omnichannel capabilities enabled, you can ignore this message. The bot will still work properly. The message will disappear after you export the latest version of your bot from your development environment and then import it into a targeted test or production environment with managed bots.

If you continue to see the message after you export and import the latest version of your managed copilot, make sure to remove any unmanaged layers:

1. Sign in to Power Apps and select the managed copilot's environment.

2. In the navigation menu, select Solutions, and then select the solution that contains the copilot with the unmanaged layer.

3. Next to the copilot component in the solution, select More commands (⋮), and then select See solution layers.

   

4. Select the unmanaged layer, and then select Remove unmanaged layer.

   

If your copilot doesn't have omnichannel capabilities enabled, the message will always show.

Configure inactivity timeout to close conversation

Dynamics 365 Customer Service expects a conversation to end after a period of inactivity. This feature is important to ensure the supervisor view displays the correct ongoing conversations and manages agent loads and metrics correctly. When you create a copilot from Dynamics 365 Customer Service, the default bot content includes two topics: Session Timeout Reminder and Session Timeout. These topics use the Inactivity trigger to first remind the user, and then close the conversation after a set inactivity timeout value, which can be configured in the topic. But if you create the copilot from the Microsoft Copilot Studio portal, those topics aren't included in the copilot. To create them, follow the steps below:

Create a Session Timeout topic

1. From the left navigation, select Topics.

2. From the top bar, select New topic and From blank.

3. Hover the trigger Phrases and select the Change trigger icon.

   

4. Select Inactivity from the list.

5. Select Edit in the Trigger node to configure the inactivity duration.

   

6. Select a Value from the dropdown, or enter an arbitrary value (in seconds) using a Formula entry. This value is the amount of inactive time it takes for the topic to trigger.

7. Select which channel it applies to by using the Condition option. For OmniChannel, click on Select a variable under the Condition block, select the System tab, and Activity.Channel.

   

8. Select Omnichannel from the dropdown.

9. Finally, add a message, and at the end, add an End Conversation node so the conversation ends. Click on the (+) sign, select Topic management, and then select End conversation.

Finally, save and publish your copilot.

Manage your copilot's omnichannel capabilities

Select Settings, Agent transfers, and then select the Omnichannel tile. Here you can disconnect your copilot and find the link to go to the Omnichannel for Customer Service admin center to view the connection details.

Disconnect your copilot from Omnichannel for Customer Service or disable the connection

If you select Disconnect, the application user that represents the copilot in your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance is disabled. Your copilot effectively disconnects from the Omnichannel for Customer Service environment and stops receiving any traffic from your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance.

To add your copilot back, you need to connect it again, starting at Step 2.

Known limitations

See limitations when using Microsoft Copilot Studio with the Chat Add-in for Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Recommended extensions

The following extensions aren't required to hand off to Omnichannel for Customer Service, but they provide copilot authors with a better experience by providing extra variables and actions.

Install Omnichannel Power Virtual Agent extension.

Prerequisites

• Sign in with an account that has the System Administrator role.
• Have a product license for Microsoft Copilot Studio and a product license for the Chat Add-in for Dynamics 365 Customer service.
• Environments:
  • Your bot environment and Omnichannel for Customer Service environment must be in the same geographical region.
  • To use voice capabilities, your tenant and environment must be in these geographies:
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • India
    • Switzerland
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
• Register an application with Microsoft Entra ID.
• For end-to-end capabilities to work as expected, your bot must be published.

Connect your bot to Omnichannel for Customer Service

1. In Microsoft Copilot Studio, edit your bot. In the navigation menu, select Settings, Agent transfers, and then select the Omnichannel tile.

   

2. Select Enable.

   • If the required extensions aren't installed, you'll see a message that your bot doesn't have access to the variables, or actions it needs.

     

   • If you're using Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), you may see a message that we can't determine if Omnichannel for Customer Service integration is enabled for the environment. For more information, see Bots with ALM.

3. Under See the environment this bot is connected to, select the environment where you have Omnichannel for Customer Service integration turned on. If your bot and Omnichannel for Customer Service are in different environments, Analytics for Omnichannel for Customer Service won't work for your bot.

   If you haven't set up Omnichannel for Customer Service in that environment, you'll see a message that invites you to begin a trial.

   

4. Select See how to register a new Application ID and follow the steps to find or create the app registration for Microsoft Copilot Studio.

   

5. On the Azure portal go to App registrations, then select Overview. Copy the Application (client) ID.

6. Return to the Omnichannel pane in Microsoft Copilot Studio and paste the Application ID in the Application ID box.

   Important

   Omnichannel for Customer Service models bots as "application users." As a result, the Application ID that you use must be unique to your Microsoft Copilot Studio bot. Reusing an Application ID across bots will cause error code 1004 (DuplicateBotAppId).

7. Select Add your bot.

   Microsoft Copilot Studio uses a Teams channel to communicate with Omnichannel for Customer Service. If one isn't turned on, a Teams channel is enabled when you select Add your bot.

8. Select the View details in Omnichannel link to continue configuring the bot connection in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

To add voice capabilities after you've connected your bot to Omnichannel for Customer Service, you must disconnect the bot from your Omnichannel for Customer Service and reconnect it.

Bots with Application Lifecycle Management

If you've set up Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for your bots, and are exporting and importing bots between development (unmanaged) and test or production (managed) environments, you might see a message that we can't determine if Omnichannel for Customer Service integration is enabled for the environment.

If the bot you exported has omnichannel capabilities enabled, you can ignore this message. The bot will still work properly. The message will disappear after you export the latest version of your bot from your development environment, and then import it into a targeted test or production environment with managed bots.

If you continue to see the message after you export and import the latest version of your managed bot, make sure to remove any unmanaged layers:

1. Sign in to Power Apps and select the managed bot's environment.

2. In the navigation menu, select Solutions, and then select the solution that contains the bot with the unmanaged layer.

3. Next to the chatbot component in the solution, select More commands (⋮), and then select See solution layers.

   

4. Select the unmanaged layer, and then select Remove unmanaged layer.

   

If your bot doesn't have omnichannel capabilities enabled, the message will always show.

Manage your bot's omnichannel capabilities

Select Settings, Agent transfers, and then select the Omnichannel tile. Here you can disconnect or disable your bot, refresh the connection, or open the Omnichannel for Customer Service admin center to view the connection details.

Disconnect your bot from Omnichannel for Customer Service or disable the connection

If you select Disconnect bot, the application user that represents the bot in your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance is disabled. Your bot is effectively disconnected from the Omnichannel for Customer Service environment.

To add your bot back, you need to connect it again, starting at Step 3.

If you select Disable, the connection between your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance and Microsoft Copilot Studio is disabled. Your bot stops receiving any traffic from your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance.

Refresh the connection

If you select Refresh, the connection between your bot and the Omnichannel for Customer Service instance is tested and verified.

It's a good idea to refresh the connection after you add your bot to an Omnichannel for Customer Service workstream to make sure that the connection was successful.

Voice-based capabilities

The Microsoft Copilot Studio telephony extension adds several actions and variables to Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Select Enable voice to turn voice capabilities on or off for the entire bot, not for individual bot sessions or connections. When voice is enabled, any connection with the bot can use voice, text, or both voice and text.

Set survey consent

Use this action to ask callers if they're willing to take a survey at the end of their call.

1. Add the action.

2. Select Add input for destination topic, and then select surveyConsent (boolean).

   

3. Select Yes or No, or enter a custom response.

   

Set customer locale and handoff to Omnichannel for Customer Service

Use this action to ask callers for their preferred language.

1. Add the action.

2. Select Add input for destination topic, and then select customerLocale (string).

   

3. Select a variable that defines the locale code, or enter a locale code.

   Refer to the list of languages supported in Omnichannel for Customer Service for valid locale codes. Only a subset of these languages is supported in Microsoft Copilot Studio. For more information, see Supported languages.

   

Send uninterruptible voice message

Use this action to send a voice message that the caller can't interrupt.

1. Add the action.

2. Select Add input for destination topic, and then select UninterruptibleMessage (string).

   

3. Select a variable that defines the message content, or enter a message.

   

Transfer the call to a different phone number

Use this action to transfer the call to a different phone number.

1. Add the action.

2. Select Add input for destination topic, and then select TargetPhoneNumber (string).

   

3. Select a variable that defines the phone number to transfer the call to, or enter a phone number.

   

   Warning

   Don't add a plus symbol, "+", before the phone number.

   The phone number you enter must have the "Make calls" privilege. Without it, transfers to the number will fail.

Hang up

Use this action to end the call.

1. Add the action.

   

bot.CustomerPhoneNumber

This variable contains the customer's phone number. It's also known as CallerID.

You can use the "Is Empty" condition with bot.CustomerPhoneNumber to find out the customer's communication channel. If the conversation is from a call, "Is Empty" always returns False. If it's from messaging, "Is Empty" always returns True.

bot.OrganizationPhoneNumber

This variable contains the phone number the customer dialed.

Dynamics 365 variables

Dynamics 365 Customer Service provides more context variables for Microsoft Copilot Studio bots.

Authoring considerations

Authentication isn't supported for voice-based handoff to Omnichannel for Customer Service instances. If you've set up authentication for your bot, the authentication variables don't include authentication information when they're sent to your Omnichannel for Customer Service instance.

If your bot incorporates adaptive cards, make sure you use Bot Framework Composer so that the voice bot correctly reads their "speak" property.

If your topics include Markdown content, the voice bot reads the asterisk (*). Adjust your Markdown content accordingly, and always test your bot using voice to make sure you get the desired result.

Known limitations

See limitations when using Microsoft Copilot Studio with the Chat Add-in for Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

For limits on the size of variables that are shared with Omnichannel when Microsoft Copilot Studio tranfers the conversation, please see Microsoft Copilot Studio maximum channel data message size limits

Recommended extensions

The following extensions aren't required to hand off to Omnichannel for Customer Service, but they provide bot authors with a better experience by providing extra variables and actions.

Typically, the extensions are automatically installed in your Omnichannel for Customer Service environment. However, if the environment that you connected Omnichannel for Customer Service to isn't the same environment your bot is in, you need to manually install the extensions.

Text and voice handoff

For both text and voice handoff, install the following extensions in this order:

1. Power Virtual Agents telephony extension
2. Omnichannel Power Virtual Agent extension
3. Omnichannel Voice Power Virtual Agent extension

Text (messaging) handoff

For only Text (messaging) handoff, install Omnichannel Power Virtual Agent extension.

If you still see the following warning after installing the Omnichannel Power Virtual Agent extension, and you don't need voice capabilities, you can safely ignore it.