> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ryotokuro.gitbook.io/microsoft/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ryotokuro.gitbook.io/microsoft/power-platform/power-platform-fundamentals/introduction/what-is-the-power-platform.md).

# What is the Power Platform?

## **Power Platform = Four Products**

The Power Platform essentially is the home to **four products** under the 'Microsoft Power' branding. These four products each cover their own specialisations, utilising data to serve different purposes. So under the Power Platform umbrella you have:

1. Power **Apps**
2. Power **Automate**
3. Power **BI**
4. Power **Virtual Agents**

## **1. Power Apps**

![](https://681604449-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M7jTbah9cZ_Vj6Y5Rjj%2F-MAPh2ctyZEjyqlhG5T9%2F-MAPjOr7hwyEuNx1a-5j%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=abb0daca-a623-4dc2-b931-b281f33da128)

Power Apps is Microsoft's solution for **rapid application prototyping** that allows users to quickly spin up a custom application for their specific purpose. It features an interface that requires little to no code to get started, and allows creation of web applications (**web apps**) that can be used across **all desktop and mobile** devices.

It's this simple and friendly process that allows Power Apps to be so **accessible to business personnel** as now it **doesn't require years of technical experience to build a simple app**. This provides various benefits attributed to the nature of rapid prototyping, allowing businesses to deliver and present a subset of a solution in a very practical way. As such, Power Apps is extremely useful for businesses **to experiment and customise solutions before investing time and resources into a final product**.

Moreover, what makes Power Apps so desired is because of the immense needs of businesses now to have their own applications or processes that meet their internal needs to operate effectively. **We all use apps everyday** **for not only our personal lives, but also for work**. From Facebook to Microsoft Excel, this integration of apps into our lifestyle has made it **essential that businesses speedtrack their application development process** and e**mpower all their employees with the ability to improve their workflow**.

## **2. Power Automate**

![](https://681604449-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M7jTbah9cZ_Vj6Y5Rjj%2F-MAPunILMYUxImwfLhUT%2F-MAPvAAakT2skV24O6kf%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=4dc62558-5ea4-4fdb-8652-ffbe4813af05)

If you find yourself at work frequently having to do the same thing again and again, repeating the same menial tasks then there's definitely a better solution. **Power Automate exists to fill in and help remove the need to waste resources on repetitive tasks**. There's a reason why **machines** have become so common in place of human operators because of their **ability to perform consistently and quickly especially when doing simple repeated processes**.

In the workplace things like **scraping through spam**, **sending identical follow up emails**, **setting up calendar events** are examples of these extremely common tasks that become tedious and boring really quickly. Additionally, it'll take more time for a person to read through and delete those emails, conjure up a brand new one and change the date or set up another calendar invite than it will for a script to execute those instructions in mere milliseconds.

As such, Power Automate provides such means to simplify the automation process - **taking away the requirement for users to learn complex macros or scripting syntax** and provides a very simple **flow interface** for beginners and developers to set up automated events with. Having this ability definitely helps businesses thrive as **individuals can push the grunt work to Power Automate and instead focus their attention to more interesting and impactful work for the business.**

## **3. Power BI**

![](https://681604449-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M7jTbah9cZ_Vj6Y5Rjj%2F-MAPunILMYUxImwfLhUT%2F-MAPvEwbIT_uU8IdJBc2%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=f27699a7-707f-4120-8611-bf5d817eb667)

Power BI's name has become almost synonymous with **data analytics** as a Microsoft product that serves to **create insights from analysing data**. The important value that Power BI brings is its ability to take the data it is given, create meaningful insights from that data and then be able to create great **data visualisations** in the form of **graphs and dashboards**.

Having a solution that can **transform giant sets of numbers** into **something visual and easy to digest** is obviously extremely useful, but even more so for businesses to help them easily identify areas where they can improve on easily. By **taking care of the complexity in the management and tranformation of data**, again businesses can be free to focus their attention on making well-informed decisions.

In short, Power BI is essentially the **data analytics and insights product** of the Power Platform. And due to it being able to take business data and display it in a more logical sense, it has a strong place in many modern business operations. In fact, in the future with more advancements in data processing and transformation, **Power BI could remove the need for in-person reporting on metrics** such as company sales, customer retension and employee utilisation - some of which is already being automatically served on dashboards today.

## **4. Power Virtual Agents**

![](https://681604449-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-M7jTbah9cZ_Vj6Y5Rjj%2F-MAPunILMYUxImwfLhUT%2F-MAPvGZr_6e70i6tvYmq%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=bc8e5ee8-f1c3-484b-a9e8-33b62706f8ea)

Finally, Power Virtual Agents tackles a more focused specialisation in delivering a product that **allows anyone to be able to create chatbots** without requiring any data scientists or seasoned developers. Just like Power Apps, **Power Virtual Agents provides a no-code graphical interface (GUI)** that strips away the complexity of writing obscure lines of code and provides a **visual centre to build and train your chatbot**.

Again we find another example of Microsoft **taking a technology that is quite advanced and making it accessible to users**, removing a need for years of experience or study. In doing so, Microsoft has triumphed over many of the issues with other methods of building chatbots - simplifying the process for all individuals involved (for those who build, manage and use the solution).