What is Connectors and what is it used for?

This blog is part of the series: What is <this tech> and what is it used for?
I know is should be “What are Connectors and what are they used for?”, I’m sorry, trust me, it annoys me as well, but this is how the sentence is on all the blog posts.
In this post I had to add some information for Copilot for it to understand which connectors I was talking about. With just the normal prompt, it gave me an answer starting like this: “Connectors are hardware components that join electrical conductors or electronic components to establish a reliable electrical or data connection.” Although it’s technically correct, it’s not what I was after.

The prompt this time was; “Answer this in three sentences. What is connectors in Power Platform and what is it used for?” Not a huge difference, but for Copilot it made all the difference!

Copilot answer

Connectors in the Power Platform are prebuilt interfaces that allow apps, flows, and bots to connect to external data sources and services.

They provide a standardized way to read, write, and trigger actions in systems like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, SQL, SharePoint, and third‑party services.

Connectors are used to integrate data and automate processes across different applications without requiring custom code.

Explain it to me like I’m 10 years old

Imagine connectors as magic plugs that let different apps talk to each other.

They help Power Platform apps grab information or send messages to things like email, calendars, or websites.

So instead of doing everything by hand, connectors help computers work together automatically for you.

Specialist answer

Matt Beard, Chief AI Officer at Data8.

Connectors are the bridge between API’s and low code.

Think of a connector like a building block; you don’t need to know what’s inside the block – you just need to what it can do.

Combine the blocks and you can build some cool stuff.

Carina Claesson, founder at TALE

In the Microsoft world, a connector is a technology used to link apps, flows or agents with external systems.

A connector is often described as a wrapper around an API, defining how to talk to an external system including authentication, endpoints and all the configuration magic (plus code, if you want).

There are out-of-the-box connectors and custom ones, and your custom connector can even go from “just a hobby” to an official Microsoft puzzle piece if you go through the connector certification process.

Explain it like it’s my first day on the job

You know the magic that happens when you put something in one system, Power Automate takes that data, and puts it in another system? That wouldn’t work without connectors. Connectors are what makes different systems able to talk together, and even exchange information. Microsoft and their partners have built a lot of connectors and you can even build your own connector!

These connectors can be used in Copilot Studio, Power Apps (Canvas and Model-driven), Power Automate and Azure Logic Apps (Which is the workflow engine behind Power Automate). There are over 1500 ready connectors and more are being created (and approved) every day.

For example connectors to Dataverse gives you the opportunity to trigger a flow in Power Automate to get some information through another connector and then update that data back to Dataverse. There are connectors to SharePoint and Outlook and all the Microsoft 365 tools you use every day.

Every time data is changed in Dataverse, you want to update another system, that Power Automate triggers with the Dataverse trigger. The agent that helps you update your document in SharePoint, that uses a connector. Communicating between different systems all uses a connector to translate the communication so they speak the same language.

If you cannot find the connector you need, then you can create your own custom connector. The best thing is you don’t even have to know code to get a connector working. Will it always magically just work, no. It will be easier if you know code, or can read code. But you can get it working, if you have the right documentation on what you’re connecting to. I’ve created my own custom connector and all I did was copy things and pasting them in different places. No writing code, just seeing how things are built. To get the result I wanted, I had to understand some of the code, and do some edits.

You can create a custom connector six different ways, depending on your skills and what you have access to. Some might find a connector on Github they want to use, others mights want to create their own from blank.

How you create your own connector depends on the information you have available. Do you know how the data looks, is it structured, you have an example in JSON format, do you need authentication or not.

Use cases with large customers

There are no large customers who are not using connectors in some way. Every company needs to connect to some other systems, and connectors is the easiest way of doing that.

Use cases with small customers

Just about all small customers use connectors. I’ve created two custom connectors which I use in a Power Automate and an agent.

Training material

Learn documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/overview

Here’s a list of all the connectors in the Power Platform; https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/connector-reference/

Tutorials on custom connectors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/custom-connectors/learn-with-a-tutorial

Learning path for custom connectors for makers: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/build-custom-connectors/

Learning path for custom connectors for devs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/get-started-custom-connectors-microsoft-power-platform

Good post about Power Automate connectors: https://samtech365.com/power-automate-connectors/

Podcast about connectors: https://www.m365.fm/future-of-enterprise-connectivity/

Using the Dataverse connector in Copilot Studio: https://d365goddess.com/how-to-populate-lookup-columns-using-copilot-studios-dataverse-connector/

Summary

Connectors is the easiest way of connecting with other systems. There are a lot of connectors that have been built and are ready to use, and you can create your own connectors that will work on your specific systems. The connectors work with Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Model-driven Power Apps, Canvas Apps and Logic Apps.

Original Post https://malinmartnes.no/2026/03/03/what-is-connectors-and-what-is-it-used-for/