The AI opportunity
The conversation has moved on fast in the last 18 months.
Power Platform started life as an automation tool. Now it’ s becoming a route into AI.
That matters if your board is asking how AI delivers real business value, not just headlines and pilots.
Power Platform gets you into AI without a major investment. Providers are already using it to:
• Pull information automatically from certificates, invoices and tenancy documents
• Route and categorise service requests
• Clean up data quality
• Give colleagues answers through natural language, not a search box
• Handle routine enquiries from staff and customers through conversational agents.
The appeal is simple: you bolt this onto what you already have. You don’ t rip anything out.
In a sector watching every pound, that matters.
The challenge IT leaders can’ t ignore
The same ease of use that makes Power Platform attractive brings a new problem.
Building an app or automation has never been simpler. Good news for innovation.
Less good news for governance. Across the sector, IT teams keep finding apps, workflows and integrations built with no oversight at all, some of them running critical processes.
We’ ve seen automations owned by one person, undocumented, unsupported. We’ ve seen sensitive data moving between systems with no governance or visibility over where it’ s going.
It’ s a familiar story. Housing providers spent years wrestling with rogue spreadsheets and local databases. There’ s a real risk of building the same problem again, just with smarter technology.
Blocking innovation isn’ t the answer. It just pushes people back to manual work and workarounds nobody can see.
What’ s needed is a governance model that backs innovation and keeps control.
Getting the balance right
The providers doing best with Power Platform aren’ t the ones spending the most. They’ re the ones who set clear foundations early.
That means:
• Deciding who can build what, and where
• Putting proper data protection and security controls in place
• Keeping visibility of everything that’ s been built
• Giving successful solutions a path to become properly supported business applications
• Training and backing the enthusiastic users already out there in operational teams.
Technology on its own won’ t do it. Success comes down to adoption, ownership and accountability, same as any digital initiative.
Where to start
For IT leaders working out their next move:
• Know what Microsoft capability you already own.
• Find out where Power Platform is already being used across the organisation.
• Put governance in place before you promote wider use.
• Focus on a handful of high value operational problems.
• Treat Power Platform as a strategic platform, not a productivity extra.
Every technology pound is under scrutiny. There’ s a real opportunity here to get more value from what you already own.
The providers that move fastest won’ t be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ ll be the ones making better use of what’ s already on their doorstep.
Want more information? Get in touch at andrew. buckels @ waterstons. com Andrew Buckels, Sector Principal for Housing and Head of Advisory Services
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