Businesses
askpolly Integrates With Microsoft Copilot Cowork to Bring Real-Time Customer Intelligence Into Business Workflows
12 Oct 2026
The integration lets companies combine askpolly’s social research with internal sales data across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI and Copilot, as businesses look for faster ways to connect customer sentiment with commercial decision-making.
1 October 2026 — Ottawa — AI-powered market research platform askpolly has integrated its technology with Microsoft Copilot Cowork, allowing businesses to combine social intelligence with their own sales and operational data inside Microsoft’s enterprise software environment.
The company says the integration is designed to help organisations move from periodic market research toward continuously refreshed customer intelligence, giving teams access to changing consumer sentiment alongside internal business performance.
Through askpolly’s API, customers can use the platform within Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI and Copilot to compare social signals with sales data, identify trends and generate reports without creating a separate research workflow.
The launch comes as customer intelligence is receiving renewed attention across the technology industry, with businesses increasingly looking for ways to use AI to bring external market signals and proprietary company data together.
From annual research cycles to continuously updated insight
Traditional market research can be expensive and slow.
According to figures cited by askpolly, companies globally spend approximately $97 billion annually on market research, while some traditional studies can take weeks or months to complete.
That delay can be problematic in markets where consumer opinion changes quickly in response to product launches, economic developments, news or cultural trends.
askpolly positions its platform as an alternative approach. The company says it can deliver statistically structured research from public social conversations in as little as two minutes, with its underlying data refreshed every 24 hours.
Rather than relying on AI-generated or synthetic respondents, the platform analyses organic public conversations and attempts to construct representative research samples.
Erin Kelly, co-founder and CEO of askpolly, said:
Data insights professionals want real opinions, not synthetic data, and they need their information kept secure.
She added that integrating the platform with Microsoft’s existing business tools is intended to make research easier to use within companies’ normal working environments.
Connecting customer sentiment with sales performance
One of the most important parts of the integration is the ability to place external customer signals alongside internal commercial data.
A marketing team, for example, could compare changes in public reaction to a campaign with actual sales performance. Business leaders could examine whether changing consumer sentiment appears alongside changes in demand, while sales teams could use social signals as another input when forecasting.
According to askpolly, companies can also build custom dashboards that connect to its API and combine current social intelligence with existing enterprise information.
The aim is to reduce the separation between market research and operational business data.
Historically, customer research has often existed in reports produced independently from sales, finance or operational systems. AI assistants increasingly make it possible to query those different sources from one interface.
Copilot becomes an interface for research
The integration also allows users to interact with askpolly findings through Microsoft Copilot Cowork.
Customers can ask questions about the research, identify patterns and create reports that can then be exported into tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Excel.
For marketing teams, this could mean testing messaging before launch, tracking public response after a campaign goes live and comparing those reactions with commercial results.
For executives, it could provide a faster route from a business question to a structured research output without requiring a separate specialist research project each time.
That reflects a wider shift in enterprise AI.
AI assistants are increasingly moving beyond generating documents or answering standalone questions and toward coordinating information held across different business applications.
Data security remains central to enterprise AI adoption
The question of how companies use proprietary information with AI systems remains one of the biggest barriers to enterprise adoption.
Kelly described internal business data as a company’s “competitive moat”, arguing that organisations are understandably cautious about where sensitive information is sent and processed.
askpolly says the Microsoft integration has been designed so companies can work with their internal information within their existing technology environment rather than creating an additional external data silo.
The company states that sensitive business information does not need to be uploaded to askpolly for the system to combine internal datasets with its external research.
This distinction is becoming increasingly important as companies try to capture the productivity benefits of generative AI while maintaining control over commercially sensitive information.
askpolly focuses on organic conversations
The company also differentiates itself from AI research tools that create simulated respondents.
askpolly says its technology analyses conversations from real social media users while filtering out bots, influencers and paid content before constructing samples matched against census demographics.
The platform currently supports research including audience analysis, message testing, campaign measurement and sales forecasting.
It also maintains continuity across follow-up questions, allowing researchers to investigate the same audience cohort further rather than beginning a new sample every time.
According to the company, more than 200 businesses currently use the platform.
A deeper relationship with Microsoft
The Copilot Cowork launch extends askpolly’s existing relationship with Microsoft.
The company is already a Microsoft partner and is Microsoft Azure IP co-sell eligible, meaning qualifying customers can purchase the product against an existing Azure commitment.
askpolly is also available through Microsoft Marketplace for organisations with an existing Copilot subscription.
This distribution model could help the company reach businesses that already use Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem rather than requiring customers to adopt a completely separate workflow.
Customer intelligence becomes part of everyday business systems
The broader significance of the integration lies in where market research is moving.
Instead of commissioning a major study, waiting for results and then distributing a report across departments, businesses increasingly want customer intelligence embedded directly into the systems where decisions are made.
Sales teams want to know what customers are saying while reviewing revenue. Marketing teams want sentiment alongside campaign performance. Executives want outside signals alongside internal forecasts.
AI assistants provide an increasingly natural interface for combining those sources.
The challenge will be maintaining research quality as speed increases. Faster answers are commercially useful only if the underlying samples, methodology and interpretation remain reliable.
askpolly’s proposition is that businesses no longer need to choose between speed and structured research. Its Microsoft integration will test whether continuously updated social intelligence can become a practical part of everyday enterprise decision-making.
About askpolly
askpolly is an AI-powered market research platform developed by Advanced Symbolics Inc. in Ottawa, Canada.
The platform analyses organic public social media conversations and converts them into structured market research. askpolly says it filters bots, influencers and paid content before creating representative samples matched to census demographics.
The company is a Microsoft partner and says its platform is used by more than 200 businesses.
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Sara Srifi
Sara is a Software Engineering and Business student with a passion for astronomy, cultural studies, and human-centered storytelling. She explores the quiet intersections between science, identity, and imagination, reflecting on how space, art, and society shape the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Her writing draws on curiosity and lived experience to bridge disciplines and spark dialogue across cultures.
