Dataverse and model-driven apps are my first true love in the MS BizApps space, given my background as a CRM admin, consultant, architect and so on. In my opinion, the core of model-driven Power Apps is not data entry or individual record management. Rather it’s all about viewing a set of records, based on specific filter criteria, and presenting this to the app user in the most relevant and insightful way.

When Microsoft launched the Data Exploration Agent preview in February 2025, this addressed very critical parts of the Power Apps experience. Number one: how do you narrow down the list of rows shown to you from a Dataverse table? Number two: how do you describe the data in a visual way, through charts that group and measure those rows? If you change the UX of these features, that can have a major impact on the application.

The interesting thing here is: the basic capability launched with Data Exploration Agent is nothing new. In fact, what the first preview version offers is far less than the traditional Power Apps tools have allowed the user to do. And still, it is possible to imagine the reasons why building something like this makes sense down the line, on the path that Microsoft is pursuing. So, it’s a fitting topic for a “making sense of” article.

Agentification in action

First, about the naming. Looking at the release plans, there was no “Data Exploration Agent” mentioned there. The most accurate match is the feature called “Find records and filter views using natural language”. This highlights the contrast between the neutral (though often exaggerated) release plan descriptions and the more polished marketing language in Microsoft’s promotional blog posts.

When going to enable the preview in Power Platform Admin Center, the terminology isn’t exactly harmonized there either. Yet you can figure out what the features are about and connect the dots.

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