Use ChatGPT to Talk to Your Dynamics 365 Data via CData Connect AI

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ChatGPT to securely answer questions and take actions on your Dynamics 365 data for you.

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2022. Based on large language models (LLMs), it enables users to refine and steer conversations through natural language processing. ChatGPT's developer mode, available to Plus and Pro subscribers, provides full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for connecting to external data sources and tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Dynamics 365 data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between ChatGPT and Dynamics 365. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Dynamics 365 data using ChatGPT, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Dynamics 365. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Dynamics 365 data.

About Dynamics 365 Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
Use SQL stored procedures to manage their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dynamics 365 connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources) or analyze live Dynamics 365 data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).

Getting Started

Step 1: Configure Dynamics 365 Connectivity for ChatGPT

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 from ChatGPT is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Dynamics 365 data from ChatGPT, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 connection in CData Connect AI.

Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

Select "Dynamics 365" from the Add Connection panel

Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365.
Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com
Click Save & Test

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 data from ChatGPT.

Step 2: Connect ChatGPT to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connector in ChatGPT:

Sign in to ChatGPT with a Plus or Pro subscription.
Navigate to Settings > Connectors.
Under the "Advanced settings" section, toggle on Developer mode.
Once developer mode is enabled, return to the Connectors page and click Create.
Enter a name for the connector (such as Connect AI MCP).
In the Remote MCP server URL field, enter:
```
https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
```
Set Authentication to "OAuth."
Check I trust this application and click Create
You will be redirected to CData Connect AI's OAuth authorization page. Sign in with your Connect AI credentials.
Review the permissions requested and click Authorize to grant ChatGPT access to your Connect AI resources.
After successful authorization, you will be redirected back to ChatGPT.
The Connect AI MCP Server will now appear in your available connectors list where you can manage the connector and enable/disable actions (tools).

Step 3: Explore Live Dynamics 365 Data with ChatGPT

Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
In the tool picker, enable "Developer Mode."
Enable your Connect AI MCP Sever.
You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. ChatGPT will use the Connect AI MCP server to query your live Dynamics 365 data. Example prompts:
- "Show me all customers from the last 30 days"
- "What are my top performing products?"
- "Analyze sales trends for this quarter"
- "List all active projects and their current status"
Refer to CData's prompt library for more prompt ideas.
ChatGPT will translate your natural language queries into SQL and execute them against your Dynamics 365 data through the Connect AI MCP server.

IMPORTANT: ChatGPT's developer mode provides full read/write MCP access. Be cautious when allowing write operations to your Dynamics 365 data. Always review and confirm any data modifications before allowing them to proceed.

NOTE: Developer mode is in beta and only available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers. Refer to OpenAI's documentation for the latest setup information.

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to 300+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!

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