Opening: The Problem with “Future You”Most Power Platform users still believe “AI” means Copilot writing formulas. That’s adorable—like thinking electricity is only good for lighting candles faster. The reality is Microsoft has quietly launched four tools that don’t just assist you—they redefine what “building” even means. Dataverse Prompt Columns, Form Filler, Generative Pages, and Copilot Agents—they’re less “new features” and more tectonic shifts. Ignore them, and future you becomes the office relic explaining manual flows in a world that’s already self‑automating.Here’s the nightmare: while you’re still wiring up Power Fx and writing arcane validation logic, someone else is prompting Dataverse to generate data intelligence on the fly. Their prototypes build themselves. Their bots delegate tasks like competent employees. And your “manual app” will look like a museum exhibit. Let’s dissect each of these tools before future you starts sending angry emails to present you for ignoring the warning signs.Section 1: Dataverse Prompt Columns — The Dataset That ThinksStatic columns are the rotary phones of enterprise data. They sit there, waiting for you to tell them what to do, incapable of nuance or context. In 2025, that’s not just inefficient—it’s embarrassing. Enter Dataverse Prompt Columns: the first dataset fields that can literally interpret themselves. Instead of formula logic written in Power Fx, you hand the column a natural‑language instruction, and it uses the same large language model behind Copilot to decide what the output should be. The column itself becomes the reasoning engine.Think about it. A traditional calculated column multiplies or concatenates values. A Prompt Column writes logic. You don’t code it—you explain intent. For example, you might tell it, “Generate a Teams welcome message introducing the new employee using their name, hire date, and favorite color.” Behind the scenes, the AI synthesizes that instruction, references the record data, and outputs human‑level text—or even numerical validation flags—whenever that record updates. It’s programmatically creative.Why does this matter? Because data no longer has to be static or dumb. Prompt Columns create a middle ground between automation and cognition. They interpret patterns, run context‑sensitive checks, or compose outputs that previously required entire Power Automate flows. Less infrastructure, fewer breakpoints, more intelligence at the source. You can have a table that validates record accuracy, styles notifications differently depending on a user’s role, or flags suspicious entries with a Boolean confidence score—all without writing branching logic.Compare that to the Power Fx era, where everything was brittle. One change in schema and your formula chain collapsed like bad dentistry. Prompt logic is resistant to those micro‑fractures because it’s describing intention, not procedure. You’re saying “Summarize this record like a human peer would,” and the AI handles the complexity—referencing multiple columns, pulling context from relationships, even balancing tone depending on the field content. Fewer explicit rules, but far better compliance with the outcome you actually wanted.The truth? It’s the same language interface you’ll soon see everywhere in Microsoft’s ecosystem—Power Apps, Power Automate, Copilot Studio. Learn once, deploy anywhere. That makes Dataverse Prompt Columns the best training field for mastering prompt engineering inside the Microsoft stack. You’re not just defining formulas; you’re shaping reasoning trees inside your database.Here’s a simple scenario. You manage a table of new hires. Each record contains name, department, hire date, and favorite color. Create a Prompt Column that instructs: “Draft a friendly Teams post introducing the new employee by name, mention their department, and include a fun comment related to their favorite color.” When a record is added, the column generates the entire text: “Please welcome...