Microsoft introduces Power Apps: AI-powered assistance to create apps using natural language

Microsoft in its developer’s conference came up with a plethora of updates. One among them was the steer toward low code environment with Power Apps. Microsoft has fine tuned OpenAI GPT-3, to generate Power Fx formulas based on natural language input.

Satya Nadella announced in the Microsoft Build keynote about adding GPT-3 and other Microsoft AI technology directly into Power Apps Studio in a way that will help every maker quickly build the apps they need and more easily learn advanced concepts in the process.

For instance, as Microsoft describes in its blog: Now you’ll be able to simply tell Power Apps what you’d like to see—for example, “show me customers from the US whose subscription expired”—and a set of formulas will be presented along with an explanation of how they work. Simply select one to apply the logic to your app.

This is aided by Power Fx—the open-source programming language for low code introduced earlier this year—makes it possible for hundreds of millions of people with Excel skills to add advanced logic to their apps. With AI-powered Ideas built directly into Power Apps Studio you can be rid of the hassle of creating complex codes.

Natural language to Power Fx

Microsoft states in its blog: Trained with 175 billion parameters, GPT-3 is an advanced natural language AI model that implements deep learning to be able to both understand and produce human-like text based on a prompt in natural language. Microsoft has a strategic collaboration with OpenAI, the developers of GPT-3, to be able to apply the model in products like Power Apps.

By fine-tuning GPT-3 to understand how Power Fx formulas are constructed, we can leverage the model’s existing strengths in natural language input to give Power Apps makers the ability to describe logic just like they would to a friend or co-worker, and end up with the right formula for their app.

Programming by example

Programming by examples (PBE) is a new frontier in AI that enables users to create scripts from input-output examples. AI powered PBE empowers users to easily manage and manipulate data within galleries and data tables, by applying patterns or formula on the original value. Instead of applying a complex formula, users can program the model by showing it examples. If data is well formatted, one example may be enough to program it. If not, users can program the model with more examples.